【推荐1】Last month I took my son Tom to see his grandparents in the countryside. When we arrived, my father and mother were so ________ to see us.

At lunch table, Tom told me proudly, “Dad, in the yard, our dog ran after a hen. Finally the hen was ________ to a corner. The ________ hen, when she found no other way out, ________flew up to the roof and escaped successfully. Dad, why can a hen fly?" I ________ for a while and said, "Maybe because of love, It is the love that ________ her inner power and she flies!" He seemed to have ________.

Last weekend we visited Tom's grandparents again. I heard Tom ________ from the yard," Dad! The dog is running after the chicken!" I ran out of the house ________. The hen ran to a group of ________followed by the dog. The hen stopped and turned around suddenly and________the dog angrily, with her two wings ________ her children.

I ran fast and ________ between the dog and the hen, shouting at the dog to drive it away." Dad, why didn't the hen fly away? She knows she can't ________ the dog." asked Tom. I thought for a while and said, "Maybe because of love, the love to her ________ more than her own life." Tom thought for a long time and nodded.

In fact, in our life, we will do the same as the hen did.

【推荐3】When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor, a physician named Doctor Gibbs. He didn't look like any _________ I'd ever known. We often played in his yard. But he never _________ us for making a mess in his yard.

When Doctor Gibbs wasn't _________ lives, he was planting trees in his yard. He had some interesting _______ about planting trees. He _________ the principle "No pains, no gains". He _________ watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional（传统的）wisdom. Once I asked why and he told me that _________ plants spoiled（宠坏）them because it made them grow _________. He said he had to make things _________ for the trees so that only the strongest could __________. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow __________ and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water. So, __________ watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled-up newspaper to help the trees build up __________.

After he died, I walked by his __________ and looked at the trees, which were all tall and strong. I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of __________ these trees meant they grew weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. Hardship seemed to benefit Doctor Gibbs' trees in ways __________ and case never could exist.

Every night, before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But __________I've been thinking that it's time to change my __________. I know my children are going to __________ hardship. What I need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rain falls and the wind blows, they won't be __________.

【推荐2】It was 1952 and my father was away at war, leaving my mother and me behind to face hardship alone. I was ten. My mother was a ___and worked at the local hospital a few blocks from where we lived.

The bell rang and ___of Christmas were the only thing on my mind. I raced home. The apartment was empty and a note was ___to the refrigerator. My mother was working a double shift and ___me instructions for the day. We had planned on making Christmas biscuits ___, but my mother ___it.

I carefully ___through mother’s closet, finding most of the ___for Christmas wrapped in linen cloth, all but one toy, a model airplane. I was still ___at my mother and I threw the airplane onto the floor, breaking one of its wings. I stood ___. How was I going to explain this Then I heard my mother coming through the door. I ___to my room.

After telling my mother the horrible ___, I did not hear my mother ___me. She just told me to follow her. Climbing the steps without catching our ___, we entered the clinic. There in a bed was a boy who looked very sick.

“He is going to die, Danny,” my mother told me, “____today, maybe tomorrow. He loves planes. I knew his mother could not ___to buy him one. So I did. I count my blessings every night and think of this boy and how ___I am that you are not in that bed.”

The ___cut hard and sharp in my heart. The tears ___down my face and I was so guilty. I ran home as fast as I could and into my room where I ___myself to sleep.

【推荐3】An elderly bricklayer was ready to_________. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and _________his extended family. He would miss the paycheck(工资)each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.

The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could_________just one more house as a personal favor . The bricklayer said yes,_________over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to bad workmanship and _________building materials. It was an unfortunate way to_________a dedicated(献身的)career.

When the bricklayer finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door _________to the bricklayer and said, “This is your house.--my _________to you.”

The bricklayer was _________!

What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

So it is with us. We build our__________ , a day at a time, often putting __________ than our best into the building. Then, with a shock, we __________ realize we have to live in the “house” we have built. If we could do it over, we would do it much differently.

But, you cannot__________ .You are the bricklayer, and every day you hammer a nail, place a board, or build a wall. Someone once said, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Your__________ and the choices you take today, help build the “house” you will live in tomorrow. Therefore, build __________!