【推荐2】Growing up, I was a greedy reader but never a big fan of novels. My classmates would be ______about the latest Harry Potter book, while my copy sat ______dust on a shelf. I saw those kinds of books as a waste of time. “Why read a ______story when I could read a book that ______teaches me something?” I reasoned.

My parents had a bookcase full of novels, so I_______myself, “Why not try fictions (虚构小说)?”

What surprised me the most was how much I ______. Some of the best books I read were historical fiction. Not only did I learn about life in Afghanistan and Ghana, but also struggles that people there encounted during ______period. It was all about those countries’______.

Beyond this______, I’ve discovered that reading fiction is good for my ______health. Life is burdening and it’s often difficult to distance yourself from work. But when I’m ______in a good book, I can temporarily escape from the real world and ______a different world. It’s a ______ way to gain distance from stress so that I can______myself and regain energy for my work.

So, give fiction a try. You’ll be ______ how much it brings to your life.

【推荐3】“I’m not a patient person at all,” says Tesni Ward, a wildlife photographer. As Ward continues, it becomes clear she’s talking about her life ______ photography.

It once took her about two hours to ______ the destination, two hours to find the mountain hares (野兔), about half an hour to get into the right ______, and then she just sat there and waited for another two hours. And then, she ______ got the desired images with a hare stretching and running.

What Ward can’t ______ is unethical wildlife photographers. These people are often ______ to wait for a long time and tend to ______ the photographing process. Having been sitting there for hours in vain can ______ photographers. In such a case, they ______ use some ways to attract animals out, which can ______ their natural behavior. According to Ward, a non-intrusive (非入侵的) way is to use a camera that shoots automatically when an animal is ______.

In the eyes of Ward, the ______ of wildlife photography is the unpredictability. “Every single encounter is going to be completely ______, which excites me most,” says Ward. But of course, there are also a set of ______.” Sometimes you take a lot of bad photos, because so many factors such as animals’ behavior and the light are out of your ______,” she says.

Ward’s overall goal in photography is to help people have a better understanding of wild creatures and inspire them to protect the wildlife.

【推荐2】I grew up in Kazakhstan. Before I moved to America, I never expected that I would experience a culture shock.

The first thing that ________ me was how Americans tend to be very ________. They will start a ________ with passengers on the bus and say hello to strangers on the street. Americans become friends first and build up ________ later. However, for Kazakhs, they have to ________ that someone is good and honest before having a harmonious ________. That’s why at first we may appear ________ because we have to know someone in order to ________ them, but once we do, we are very warm people.

Another aspect of American culture that I found different from my culture was a sense of ________ and personal space. Americans feel ________ when others stand too close. In America when friends greet, they shake hands or give a short hug and immediately step aside to have some ________ for conversation. Also, Americans do not ________ to be asked their age, weight, or personal matters. In Kazakhstan we greet each other with a hug and a kiss and personal space is not a ________. Kazakhs would rather speak sitting or walking quite close to each other. Moreover, it is ________ to ask about someone’s age or weight.

Part of the excitement of living in a new culture is knowing how it differs from your own culture. By learning to ________ the culture of another country, we become more open-minded.

【推荐3】During my freshman year at Babson College, I was trying to discover how to get educational resources to the most faraway areas of Yemen, the war-stricken country. Soon I learned that I couldn’t send _______ or even deliver online courses because Yemen's access to the Internet is extremely _______ .

After months of hard thinking, I realized that the best way to _______ education would be through _______ , which are accessible to users and help to _______ concepts into bite-size pieces.

Then, I worked with a few professors to _______ the first text message course. Every morning, students were texted about two pieces of screen-length _______ explaining a certain concept or case study _______ , normally ending with a test. Our team began to build Artist, the first text message learning app, to make something greater out the idea.

Our team members were totally _______ for the first seven months of the company. The ________ part was staying on the same page when we're apart all day and making sure everyone was ________ everything well. It’s important to ________ from time to time and have very clear roles and responsibilities. When we first created our app, our email system ________ and we couldn’t get emails for two weeks. It was a ________ .

________ , we didn’t give up and realized that putting confidence in the team and task was the only way we were able to deal with ________ . We trusted each other and had the same ________ . Actually, if you like the people you’re creating something with and believe in where you’re going, everything else can be easily ________ .

After several months, summer came and our team finally got our business back ________ . We received very ________ reviews, with most of students liking text message learning more than any other form of digital learning.