【推荐2】My father sold everything we owned, took all the money and disappeared from our lives. My mother suddenly found herself     ____       to care for five boys. I worried about the situation, but my mother stayed   ______     , and told us that she would keep us together as a _____safe from harm. Although small in size, she could _____heavy horse-drawn ploughs(犁). Besides, she   _____   found time to help us with homework.

As Christmas approached, my mother didn’t seem to smile as much. I   _______ she had no money to buy us presents. Considering myself practically grown, I hid my ______   .

One day, my mother took a saw(锯) into the forest and _________ with some tree branches. She left them in the barn(畜棚) and did not tell her   ________ children what they were for. She worked on her project________ I was in school, but I looked       ______ into the barn whenever I had a chance. Several days later, I still couldn’t   ______ her purpose. When later I saw she used nails and paint, I ____ that she must be making presents for us.

By Christmas week, my mother was her   _______   happy self again. Her project was apparently__ and she obviously kept it secret because I’d looked everywhere without ______     .

On Christmas Eve, I lay awake for a long time,   _____     Christmas morning.

The next morning, my mother handed out the handmade presents happily in front of her delighted kids. Many difficult years would follow that particular Christmas, but I never again doubted my mother’s     ____   to care for us. We were never hungry, and she made sure we got a(n)   ______   in school. She taught us to have faith in our own abilities. That faith ___me still.

【推荐1】There are many kinds of friends. Some are always with you, but don’t understand you. Some say only a few words to you, but understand you. Many people will step in your life, but only _________ friends leave footprints.

I shall always recall the autumn and the girl with the _________. I know she will always be my best friend. It was the golden season. I could see the yellow leaves _________ in the cool wind. In such a season, I liked walking _________ in the leaves, listening to the sound of them. Autumn is a harvest season. However, life is uninteresting. The free days always get me _________. But one day, the sound of a violin _________ into my ears like a stream (小溪) flowing in the mountains. A young girl, standing in the wind, was _________ in playing her violin. I had _________ seen her before. The music was so nice that I listened quietly. Absorbed in the music, I didn’t know that I had been standing there for so long but my existence did not seem to _________ her.

Every day she played the violin and I was the only listener. The autumn seemed no longer lonely and life became __________. Although we didn’t know each other, I thought we were already good __________. I believe she also liked me.

One day, when I was listening carefully, the sound suddenly __________. To my surprise, the girl came over to me. “You must like violin,” she said. “Yes. And you play very well. Why did you stop?” I asked. Suddenly, a(n) __________ expression appeared on her face and I could feel something unusual. “I came here to see my grandmother, but now I must leave. I once played very badly. It was your listening every day that __________ me,” she said.

“In fact, it was your playing that gave me a meaningful autumn,” I answered, “Let’s be friends.” The girl smiled, and so did I.

I never heard her play again in my life. But I will always remember the fine figure of the girl. She is like a dream — so short, so bright, like a shooting star __________ so much light that it makes the autumn beautiful.

【推荐3】I'm a geologist. I have been researching changes in the Antarctic ice sheets to help governments plan for floods and other ________ of a changing climate.

I first met Tom on the tip of Antarctica. He is a professional mountaineer who ________ geologists with their research. We were ________ here together, hundreds of miles from anyone else, for a two-month ________. My task was simple: to collect rock ________ from as many peaks as possible. It is physically exhausting work, and not without ________，as some of the crevasse (裂缝)fields we crossed left me shaking. I relied on Tom for my ________ : my life was in his hands.

Trust quickly grew between us, and our ________ did, too. Within a week we'd ________ deep topics: the meaning of life, and what follows death.

When I got the date for my return journey, I started to feel ________ .I didn't want our time there to ________. We felt we had to make the most of the final few days to ________ memories.

Saying goodbye to each other was a(n) ________. I was heading off to start another mission, so I was ________ the man who'd been through it with me. I looked down at him as my plane took off, knowing what we had just been through together was ________ in time.