【推荐1】Michael Todd wore the same clothes every day for the first three weeks of school. The other kids began to notice that he was wearing the________black pants and blue and gray long-sleeve shirt day after day. Then Todd became the________of teases and laughter. But there was________Todd could do. His mother simply couldn't________ to buy him new clothes.

Two of the kids________at him were Antwan Carrett and Kristopher Graham, a pair of freshman football players. But over time, they realized that their________words felt like bullying（欺凌）and seemed to be slowly breaking Todd's________. Something finally clicked.

"I felt like I needed to do something," Craham told CBS News. So he and Garrett________a plan. They went home and________through drawers and closets. The next day at school, they met Todd at their third-period class and asked him to come into the hall. Todd was understandably________about being called out by the larger boys.

"He wasn't smiling or anything but I thought this was going to make him________, " Graham said. "I told him, 'We're in the same third________, and I apologize for laughing at you, and I want to give something to you to________for it.'" He then handed Todd a big________ . Inside were clean shirts and shorts,________a brand-new pair of New Balance sneakers. And Todd got much more than the clothing. He no longer sits________at lunch. Now he eats with his new________, Garrett and Graham.

"I've been bullied my entire life," Todd told CBS News.________the day Garrett and Graham called him into the________, he added, "That was the________day of my entire life, basically."

【推荐3】Our family once got into a difficult situation. My father’s _______ came to a stop after a serious crisis (危机). All that my father was _______ with was some experience. At the same time, he had to be _______ for a family of four.

My father was a very hard­working person and he did not lose _______ even when he was facing difficulties. As he was the only person that earned money in our family, he had _______ in deciding what to do at first. He didn’t know _______ it was better to find a job or to start a new business, but he chose the latter in the end. This was because he thought he had many _______ and had nothing to fear, as he had nothing to lose. He was a person _______ to follow his dreams and was not afraid of the challenges and troubles he faced. He kept approaching (接洽) different companies and _______, the business was successful.

He used to tell me when you stop ________, it is then that you fail. From him I learnt that if you believe in yourself and ________ moving towards your goals, then there is nothing you cannot ________.

Today, our business is going well. This has had an important effect on me. I feel that by following my father’s qualities I have become a better person. I see myself ready to ________ him on the journey to success. It is from him that I have learnt that when we are facing a ________, or are not able to realise our dreams, we don’t always have to do anything ________ — we just need to try harder.

【推荐3】When most people in Shanghai, which is experiencing its ________ COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic emerged more than two years ago, are retiring for the night, others are working to keep the city ________.

Long Anhua, 51, a native of Hefei, Anhui province, became a truck driver after he arrived in Shanghai in 2008. ________ the pandemic, his main job was to ________ automotive parts.

He told us in the past he finished work at about 7 p.m., but during the pandemic, he does not return to the ________ provided by the logistics’ company until after midnight. “We all want to deliver as many supplies as quickly as possible to ________ in lockdown,” Long said.

All the drivers in his company are on call at night to ________ urgent deliveries are completed, eating and taking naps in the trucks have become their ________. And to ensure driving ________, Long and eight colleagues have been ________ by the company to take turns to work the early and late shifts, stopping for a ________ every few hours.

Long admitted he feels ________. “But I can ________—what I should do during the pandemic, and what I have done o far that embody (体现) my personal ________,” he said. He also added that he is able to persevere in the fight against COVID-19 because of his family’s understanding, support and ________.

Recalling the day he delivered supplies to his own ________, Long was a little upset: “It’s hard to ________ my feelings at that time. Although I was so close to my family members. I couldn’t ________ them. But my wife encouraged me, telling me not to worry about her and the children and also ________ me to protect myself when I made deliveries. From that moment on, there have been just two things on my mind—that the outbreak will ________ as quickly as possible and that I can soon get together with my family members again.”

【推荐1】A group of graduates, successful in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaining about stress in work and life.

Before offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and a variety of _________ — porcelain (陶瓷), plastic, glass, crystal (水晶), some plain-looking and _________, some delicate (精致的) and expensive — telling them to _________ themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you _________, all the nice-looking and expensive cups were _________, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is _________for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the _________ of your problems and stress. It is definite that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. _________ all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you all went for the _________ cups. And then you began ________________ each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and ________________ in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and ________________ life, and the type of cup we have does not change the ________________ of life we live. Sometimes, by ________________ only on the cup, we fail to ________________ the coffee.

【推荐2】Last night my husband and I were walking when we saw a man bending over on the ground, crushing (碾碎) something with a rock. He was so _______ his task that he didn’t look up at anyone passing by. We kept _______ him and wondered what he could be doing. I thought he was crushing stones to make something, but why would he do that?

Finally, we decided to go up and ask him, He was crushing pieces of leftover (剩余的) bread that he had collected to _______ food for the birds that come there early in the morning. The large pieces of bread would be difficult for the birds to eat _______ he crushed them into powder (粉末). Every afternoon, after coming home from his _______ as a tailor, he _______ the villas (乡间别墅), collecting leftover bread from all his _______. He then eats a quick meal and comes here, and spends the next 1 to 2 hours _______ crushing each piece and makes a neat pile for the birds. He has been doing this for the last 3 to 4 years, which _______ us a lot. When we told him that we ________ an interest in this, he felt amazed, since for him it wasn’t a big ________.

When we asked him what encouraged him to do this act of ________, he said, “It’s just something small I do, so that the leftover bread doesn’t go into the ________ and the birds get food.” We ________ his story with the hope that it would remind us to be aware of leftovers, too and that it might encourage someone to start something ________ in their own area.

【推荐3】Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t _______ but this was one of those celebrations that I didn’t mind. They are a bunch of young, single guys and I would have felt out of place.

What _______   me was the way they behaved. One of the young men came over _______ in the day to “warn” us of the upcoming event and said it would be over at about 11 p. m. That was the first step. Even more _______ was what they did next. “Here’s my _______ , offered our neighbor _______. Text me if it’s too noisy.” That was a level of _______ I had never experienced in all my years of being a neighbor!

And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the _______ end time, even when the music reached high decibels (分贝) and even when we couldn’t _______ to the phone number, we felt no anger. We knew they would stop and ________ to it finally.

It takes such little effort to make people feel that they ________ and get people on your side. Everyone needs to ________ every now and then, especially in these uniquely tough times. But people who do it without disturbing others are few and far between. I hadn’t fully ________ my neighbors until this week. But now I see them in a new light and with greater appreciation. They didn’t just bring the ________ to the neighborhood; they showed us a good way of ________ in life.