【推荐1】My 7-year-old daughter Leeny always has her nose in a book. She even _________ reading in the car on the long drive to summer camp, which was where she _________ the book. My family has always been overeducated, but we were _________ I didn’t own books. I borrowed books. However, when Leeny realized she had lost the book, she _________. “Sorry. I can’t find it,” she said. “It’s only $20, right? What’s the big deal?”

I felt the need to make her feel _________ for the book. She agreed to help me clean the chicken coop (笼子) _________ my paying the library fine. I thought this idea was very clever because cleaning the coop is some work I had been _________ for months. It was summertime and dust floated in the air. But my girl thought shoveling chicken poop (铲鸡粪) was the most _________ she’d had on a Saturday morning. In fact, she looked as if she might lose another _________ in order to clean the coop again. I stood, somewhat __________, watching her.

It took me a while to realize why my punishment had __________. The fact is that I was there, too, shoveling chicken poop, fetching the clean straw and feed. Leeny’s little sister, Vicki, was watching a cartoon while my husband paid bills. Only Leeny and I were __________. She had me all to herself for the first time __________ Vicki was born, and she was enjoying all the attention for once. I don’t know what she learned about responsibility, but I didn’t __________ the book any more. We __________ over that unpleasant job and spent quality time together: mother, daughter, and chicken poop.

【推荐2】It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out of the window at my ______ moving around mysteriously on the front lawn (草坪). My parents lived nearby, and Dad had visited us several times already. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him.

He ______ smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about _____. He was always building things out of odds and ends (零碎的东西). When I was a kid, for one of my Halloween parties, he ______ an electrical pumpkin and fixed it on a broomstick (扫帚柄). _____guests came to our door, he would light the pumpkin and have it jump out in front of them from a hiding place in the bushes.

Today, ______, Dad would say no more. I eventually ______ about his surprise in the busyness of our new life.

______ one day the following March when I ______ out of the window, some little piles of “dirty” snow still existed on the lawn in the dismality (昏暗). Would ______ ever end?

And yet...was it an illusion? I grabbed my coat and ______ outside for a closer look.

They were crocuses (番红花) throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink — little faces were swaying in the ______.

Dad! I smiled, remembering what he had ______ planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and coldness of winter always got me ______. What could have been better than these flowers to my needs? How blessed I was, not only for the flowers ______ for him.

【推荐3】Each summer in the late 1960s, my two sisters and I would ride the Greyhound bus from Arizona to Arkansas to stay with our father.

A World War Ⅱ veteran, Dad had many ______ problems, any one of which could cause many people to lose more than their sense of humor, ______ not him.

I have vivid ______ of Dad waking us up in the morning. ______ he’d put on his legs for the day (he had lost his legs after his discharge), his ______ was his mobility.

Holding his ______, which was his extended arm, he would roll ______ the house yelling, “Up, up, up! Get up and ______ the day! It’s a beautiful day! Rise and Shine!” If we didn’t get up right away, he would ______ his song in rhythm with his stick hitting the end of our ______. This was no performance put on for our benefit; every day was truly a ______ day to him.

Back in the sixties, there was no handicapped parking or wheelchair-accessible ramps ______ there are now, so even a trip to the grocery store was a(n) ______ task. Dad wanted no assistance from anyone. He would ______ stairs slowly but surely, whistling all the way. As a teenager, I found this ______, but if Dad noticed, he didn’t let me ______.

Those summers always ______ too soon. He would drive us back to Arizona every year, ______ at the checkpoint for fruit and vegetables at the New Mexico­Arizona border. When asked if he had any fruits or vegetables, he ______ reply, “Just three sweet peas.”

Our father has been gone for a long time now, but not the ______ that he taught us: You are only as handicapped as you let yourself be.

【推荐1】Several weeks ago, my grandfather was explaining his favorite expression, “Nothing is ever easy.” The following day, as I was working, I happened to _______ a large hairy bee on the skylight (天窗). The skylight was particularly _______, but I thought removing the bee would take _______ several minutes. An hour later, the bee still _______. All that had changed was that the living room was _______ and that I was dizzy from _______ for a long time. I did not _______ to waste an hour on such a tiny insect, but by doing so, I understood my grandfather’s     _______.

It is not only time that we tend to underestimate(低估) — we don’t _______ unexpected costs. In fact we seldom ________ negative things that could affect us. It is of ________, however, to remember that your ________ might not go as planned, and that is normal. It is ________ to feel challenged—even at a simple task – because that is part of life.

If you can ________ that nothing is ever easy, then life might seem slightly more manageable. I found myself with a more ________ attitude.

Of course, there should be preparations made to consider ________ or time. Doing so can help you realize your     ________ in a better way. However, there is no need to ________ ourselves when something stands in our path. Maybe we cannot see a bee appearing in our ________, but we can always give ourselves the ________ time to catch it.

【推荐2】Volunteering gives you an opportunity to change people’s lives, including your own. It gives you the _______of playing a role in someone else’s life, _______people who may not be able to help themselves. Why not_______ a little time helping others, because in the end, what goes around comes around.

I think one of the most _______values I have gained through my experience at St. Clare’s Hospital is the importance of service. Service_______making a difference in the lives of others. I believe that through volunteering at the hospital, I can _______this value. Each time I end my volunteer turn, I feel better and as if I have done something _______. This feeling has fueled me to continue volunteering. In the past years I have been _______ about my situation, and was discouraged because I felt I might not make a big_______due to my young age.

However, I am relieved of this because I feel that through the hospital volunteer ________I can try to do my part and help others. Because of my involvement at St. Clare’s Hospital, I have come to include service as a(n) ________ part of my life. I feel an obligation to do my best to help others and contribute to society in any way I can.

I know that my experience as a St. Clare’s Hospital volunteer has been a wonderful opportunity to ________ as a person, and I have made use of this to the best of my ________. Without my volunteer experience, I may have been a(n) ________ different person, lacking these skills. I have gained valuable skills, as well as learned important lessons about life, which not only________me now but my life in the future. Take action and join us on the way to serving others.

【推荐3】It happened on a rainy Saturday morning last month. My wife Catherine and I were driving along what some people called moose (麋鹿) alley. It was so ______ that there were few cars on the road. ______, something happened. A moose jumped out across our path. I had been driving for years and was good at driving. In order to ______ knocking into the moose, I made a quick turn to the other lane. If I had not done that, the moose might have been killed, and my wife and I might have got ______, too. A few seconds later, when I ______ and looked back in my rear view mirror, the moose was getting up and then ran into the bush. Shaken but ______, we both looked at each other with a surprised expression.

From then on, I often thought about the relationship between humans and ______ . We know that animal species have appeared and disappeared ______ since life began on the Earth. This is a(n) ______ phenomenon. However, animal species have been ______ at a much faster rate for about a century now ______ human factors such as pollution.

Certain philosophers and scientists keep repeating that if we don’t save animals, how we will be able to save ourselves. A better ______ of animals gives us a better understanding of our own species. The ______ to protect animals and nature in general ______ the value of a society. And all animals play roles in nature and have a right to ______. Therefore, I think we should try our best to save endangered animals, because humans cannot live on the Earth alone.