【推荐1】I had reached the age of twenty-eight. Still, I _________ whether the letter from my past would make it to me, all these years later. It sounded ridiculous, but it was a _______ writing task when I was eighteen. The teacher collected our letters to our future selves in self-addressed envelopes with stamps and promised to _______ them ten years later. But since so much time had passed, would he even _________?

Thinking back on the _______ I recalled giving my future self some advice. When you’re eighteen years old, twenty-eight seems like a   _______ age, but I wasn’t feeling as mature as I believed my younger self had _______ me to be.

When the letter finally reached me, I opened it _______ . It began, How much do you bet this letter will never get to you? It continued to greet me casually as if we were having an IM (instant messaging) chat. As a senior in high school, facing the _______important exams and college application, my eighteen-year-old self was so ________! She was apparently not quite happy and hoped I wouldn’t worry so much in the future, and that I would live in the present and __________ my life!

________ to my belief, my eighteen-year-old self did not have any demands on me, expectations I might have failed to meet. Instead, she wrote, “I’ll ________ whatever you do. Even if you are not the one I’m imagining now, I’ll support you, because maybe who I’m imagining is someone else, but you’re not someone else — you’re me.”

I was touched, and tears came to my eyes at this ________ time. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best version of myself that I could be. ________, I came to realize what I would have accomplished in ten years would pale in comparison to how feel and who I’d be.

【推荐2】A few days ago, I observed a teenager doing yardwork that his dad had told him to do. Instead of doing the task_______, he wandered around there for hours,_______ to himself and doing a bad job.

The person he hurt the most was himself. His dad was trying to teach him _______and how to do a good job. As a result of his_______attitude, he spent the whole afternoon finishing a task that should have taken one or two hours. And the yard _______ wasn't clean enough when he got through.

He_______his day because of his attitude. And his dad was _______with him, and the boy's bad mood ended up_______ the whole family that day.

A sweet lady was working in a fast-food_________. The minute I walked in, she welcomed me________. She smiled as she took my order, and then as we__________ for the food, she talked with me. As I walked off with my tray, she said with a big __________, “I hope you have a blessed day!” I think the food tasted better because of her__________. There was a delay, during which I sat there hearing her singing as she__________ her tasks behind the counter.

She wasn't making a large salary, and she didn't have a powerful__________, either. In addition, she stood on her feet for a long shift each day, often dealing with __________customers. But she chose to be joyful.

I want to__________from her. I want to do my best, even when there's no __________ or glory. Other people are watching me________ I might not realize it at the time. I want to bring joy to all those around me. A(n)________can make a great difference.

【推荐3】A few years ago I went through a period of such severe depression that life didn’t seem worth living. It was like permanent _________, so dark and cold that the sun would never shine.

Then I saw snowdrops pushing through the _________, iron-hard ground. I looked at them every day until I felt that if they could _________, then so could I.

_________ spring came, I started to put in more and more plants, until the garden was _________ with colour. Life was growing through my hands, gentle, peaceful, but, above all, _________. If I gave love, it was _________, a hundred times.

I could spend hours _________ in gardening. The form of depressive illness I have is biological. It has _________ generations of my family and follows no rhyme, reason nor circumstance. I can be __________ when the sun is shining or I am surrounded by a group of loving friends.

Of course, fresh air and exercise help to __________ depression, but for me gardening is more than that. It represents endurance as well as __________.

At the end of the first garden I made __________ a tree, huge and magnificent. It withstood freezing temperatures and strong winds. It bent but never broke.

The leaves dropped until it looked no more than a(n) __________ skeleton (骨架), but it always, always came back to life. And so I learned that we may be battled and __________, but hope is a living thing.

【推荐1】From the time when I was seven, I had a dream of becoming a member of the students’ union. I always _______ my school leaders for being responsible for all of us. So I dreamed of being a leader. Years flew by, and soon I was able to _______ the election (选举), praying I would win. But the reality struck that I hadn’t had the _______. I wasn’t pretty. Girls across the school _______ knew me. I just did not have what it _______ to win a school election. I was _______. As I cried in my room that evening, I suddenly took a deep breath and decided I wouldn’t stop _______. I decided that I would join in the election _______ in my final year at school—and I would win.

I recognized that my _______ had a lot of things in their favor. What were the ________ that would work in my favor? I had good grades, and I was friendly and helpful. And my biggest ________ was the faith I had. I would not allow my ________ appearance to hold me back from putting my best foot forward. That evening, I ________ my election plans a whole year in advance.

I realized that I should let girls get to know me and recognize that I had the ________ to represent them. I loved making friends and I liked being helpful, so I decided that perhaps I could use these qualities to work to my ________. In order to learn how to present a great election speech, I also attended a course on effective (有效的) public speaking.

The day after the election, when the principal announced I won the second highest number of votes, the students cheered. That joy on the faces of all my friends showed me that my victory was also theirs.

【推荐2】One day before Thanksgiving, I went to take some money from the bank. The line snaked twice around the lobby (大厅).It seemed that no one was _________. So I came to the self-service machine where the line was much _________. Actually, as an aged man, I don’t like self-service. I tell people it’s because I don’t approve of taking _________ away from people, but the real _________ is that I’m not good at it. The machine always asks me something I don’t know. I was _________ about this.

The woman in the front of the line was _________ at the screen slowly. Any signs of hesitation on her operation were telegraphed to the whole lobby. I felt sorry for her. The next person took a long time, too. I breathed _________.

It was my turn. Under the weight of _________ from the people in line behind me, I felt a growing duty to minimize the seconds between clicks. Finally it was time to _________ a bank card. The machine didn’t read it. “Try it in the other way,” the gentleman behind me ____________. But no luck!

“I’ve got a different card,” I said, and ____________ my bag for that one, beginning to ____________.

However, the machine did not read it, either.

“I’m sorry for my delay,” I said, looking back, ____________.

“Don’t give up,” said the nice man behind me. “Try it again. We’re all friends here, right? ” Broad smiles were ____________ all down the line. I tried again, and put my bank card into the machine as if I were presenting it to the queen. Finally, I made it! I couldn’t have been happier. Everyone cheered and ____________ for me!    16        17