【推荐2】Songs bring us through our life. Each time I listen to my favorite song Reach, I’m deeply ______ by its lyrics: “If I could reach higher, just one moment touch the sky...” When we hear this ______ song sung by Gloria Estefan, we can ______ imagine how she managed to return to the stage after her serious back injury. In 1990, this Cuban singer was ______ down in a terrible traffic accident, and the doctor ______ that she might never walk again. But Gloria did not ______ and kept on working hard toward her ______. Just one year after the disaster ______, she stood up again and ______ this encouraging song at the Atlanta Olympics.

Whenever I think of Gloria, a ______ crowds in my mind. When I entered university, naturally shy, ordinary looking, and with ______ scores in my lessons, just like an ugly duckling. I seemed to be the ______ outstanding one in my class. Continuous failures drove me into ______. “Am I to take a back seat to everyone else?” ______ to give in to such a fate I spared no effort to work on my lessons and joined in many ______, such as English speech contests and dramas. I just wanted to catch every little chance to ______ myself. My continuous efforts finally paid off. I received some ______. More importantly, I ______ courage and confidence to face any difficulty in my life.

____ is just like farming. You ______ what you sow. Once you have a dream, don’t hesitate. Keep moving!

【推荐3】Some of us regret that we no longer have parents to serve after their passing away. Then ______ not pay more attention to them when they were alive and with us?

A few days ago, when I went to a park for my evening walk, I ______ an old couple sitting on a bench and talking to each other. Feeling a bit ______ after a long way, I'm curious to know about their ______ of discussion. So I went over and ______ on the bench next to them. After a few moments, from their conversation I could ______ that their only son had moved to America. And they were ______ alone here.

Every ______ they said to each other conveyed to me their desire, their loneliness and their selfless ______ for their son. My eyes were filled with tears and I realized just how ______ we have become as children.

To achieve our goals and purposes we ______ to care little about the two most important persons of our lives: our parents, who ______ us when we were young, raised us heart and soul and guided us ______ on each step of our lives.

What has the life of these parents become now? Most of them are staying in old houses and leading a ______ life. Most of them even couldn't be taken care of when they fall ill. Why do we always ______ that we are what we are now just because of these two special people who brought us into this ______?

______, I would like to use a few words written by a wise man which say, “When you were ______ and just a little way off, I ______ you with blankets against the cool night air, but now you are tall and out of ______, I hold out my hands and cover you with my best wishes.”

【推荐1】When I was ten, my mother worked all day, so I had to take care of my younger brother. At that time, my little brother was about four years old and he _______ mum all the time.

One day, after I had given him his dinner, he started crying for mum. He was so young and really needed mum. So I dressed him, put on his _______, carried him on my back and walked out. Soon he fell asleep. About half an hour later, I found that one of his shoes was _______ while he was sleeping. I took him off my back and put him down. I knew we needed to find that shoe, for our mother couldn't _______ new shoes. I had to_______to find it, so I told my brother to wait right there. A man passing by heard what I said. He stopped me _______ I walked off. He asked me, “You are leaving your brother here to find the shoe, aren't you? What will you do if he is not here when you return?” I didn't know _______to answer that question. He continued, “It's OK if you can't find the shoe, but it is not OK to lose your _______” Then he sent us to mum’s workplace by taxi.

During my whole life, I have received the _______ from many strangers. I feel sorry that 1 can't find them and say “Thank you”. I do not even remember what their faces looked like, but they taught me a ________ - people are more important than things.

【推荐1】My carpenter is a competent, even gifted craftsman. But my old house still makes him feel ________. It was ________ well over a century ago, probably by very poor people, and it ________. My carpenter’s ________ to me: “Move out.” What he doesn’t ________ is that I like it here. It’s my home’s imperfections that make it interesting.

This very thought ________ me just the other day while I was sitting at the counter in a bar. The bar opened in 1931, and little about its ________ has changed over the years. The long countertop has been bent and worn down to its bedrock so ________. Once a visitor asked the owner ________ why he hadn’t ________ it. Not missing a beat and being a man after my own heart, the ________ remarked, “Do you know how many elbows it took to get it this way?” That’s it, then. An imperfect product, like a perfect one, is also the________ of our labor, and as such it needs to be ________ for what it is, rather than what it isn’t.

I’m ________ that, at root, my carpenter________realizes this. Recently, while making a new skylight (天窗) in my home, he ________ wood and had to take a piece from my scrap (废料) pile. The “________” was that my son, when he was little, had burned his name into the board with a magnifying glass. “I’m sorry I had to use scrap,” said the carpenter as we looked up at the burnt ________, “but I didn’t think you’d ________. Does it look OK?”

“Oh yes,” I assured him as I admired his handwork. “It’s ________.”

【推荐2】My parents and I visited our relatives in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. Everyday I enjoyed walking a circular way starting from their house. One evening I decided to be adventurous and changed from my _________ way - I was looking forward to a longer walk, _________ that I would be able to find my way back. My walk took me beyond the living area and into a beautiful place with an expanse of fields on both sides of the road. With the sun beginning to _________, it was really a wonderful sight. After about thirty minutes, I noticed that I was not _________ back in the direction I had come - in fact I seemed to be moving further away. I searched my pocket for the mobile phone to get help, but it wasn't there. I had left it at home.

However, I remained _________. Although there weren't any people about, there was some _________ and I was sure that someone would stop and point me in the right direction. As each car or truck came, I stopped and _________, but time after time each one passed me by. No one seemed to feel any sympathy for me. About forty minutes, I was beginning to feel _________. There was no one in sight and my family was completely in the dark as to my _________.

When I just gave up all hope, a black SUV __________ me and stopped. A mother and daughter wanted to know how they could help. I told them I was lost and gave them my address. The mother pointed to a turning a little further down the road and promised me I was pretty close to home. Expressing my thanks, I started off at a fast __________. I had been walking for about five minutes when I heard a car drive up behind me and stop. It was the mother and daughter again. They realized that they had not given me the correct __________ and my destination was much further away.

They offered to __________ me home, and I was so grateful for their help. During our brief conversation I got the __________ that the teenage daughter was going to a school party and would now arrive late. We didn't __________ names but I will never forget their act of kindness.

【推荐3】At the age of 60, my father was hit by a car when he walked to a nearby supermarket to buy vegetables. After ______ for two months in hospital, he finally woke up. His waking up ______ all our family. ______, he didn’t know any of us. Doctors said his brain was hurt so ______ that he had lost all his memory. And his mental age (心理年龄) was only five. We were sorry to hear about the bad news.

Since I was his only child, it was my ______ to look after him. He forgot almost everything, but he did remember he liked sweets. I used the sweets as a way of ______ bad behaviors. I would gave him one sweet if he didn’t sit on the ground, a second for stopping painting on the wall, and another for not trying to put clothes on the dog.

Dad became the ______ child in town. He climbed up the tree to catch a bird and couldn’t get down after it ______ away. He broke my window with a ball and ______ our telephone in water like washing clothes. When I told him he was doing ______ things, he would answer smilingly, “I like that!” My son, then aged five, and two eight-year-old daughters, welcomed their big playmate. He would happily make them real cigarettes, ______ his sweets with them, and carry them high in the apple tree to pick apples.

It is eight years since the accident. Dad has accepted the fact that he is the ______ of his three playmates but not a brother. He has also accepted that they grow taller but his ______ stays the same. Though it is still ______ to take care of him, he brings us a lot of fun. In some way I think it is a(n) ______ thing to look after dad like looking after a child. How many people can have the chance to care for a child-like parent?