【推荐1】“Doctors say men over 45 shouldn’t shovel（铲）snow because of an increased risk of heart attack,” the morning news from the television. “Well, that’s not ________ to hear it,” I said. I looked outside at a foot of ________ fallen snow. I had two walkways to clear, two cars to ________, and two driveways to shovel.

I breathed heavily, and stepped out of the house. The temperature was ________. I felt the icy air hit my lung and I licked（舔）my cracked lips. I got hold of my snow shovel and ________ my body to shovel out the first path. I knew this was going to ________ quite a while and wished that my 55-year-old back would hold out.

I shovelled, lifted, and dropped as I slowly ________ my way through the snow. I stopped from time to time to breathe in the cold air, look around, and ________ the beauty of winter, I went inside only once to warm my ________ fingers and change a thicker pair of gloves. But then it was back outside to finish the ________. Over an hour later, when I was ________ , I smiled and watched my breath move away ________. The good news was that I still felt a ________ heart beat and that my back stayed undamaged.

In this life we are endlessly ________ with frightening news. Sometimes this is not the ________, though.

【推荐3】One bitterly cold morning a few years back, I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water to brush my teeth. No water. In a ______, I turned to the kitchen hoping for better. No. My next step was to call my city ______ department. The voice that answered was that of someone who’d already answered the phone too many times that ______. I learned that my waterline was ______. Only one company could solve the problem, and it was booked ______ two days.

Two days later, after I got the all-clear, the guy at the water department told me, “______ you want to go through that again, open a tap and let a pencil lead stream of water ______ for the rest of the winter.”

For the next six weeks, the endless stream became an upsetting ______ of everything I didn’t know. I really had no ______ where our water came from. Or how my phone call to the water department had ______ to the water department. As I ______ out of the window, I further realized I knew nothing about the concrete sidewalk leading to our door, the lawn beneath the ______ fallen snow, the squirrels in the trees ... nothing. And these were just the things I could see through one small window. I had read a number of books about ______ across Antarctica, down the Amazon River, and up Mount Everest; I’d written books about 50,000-year-old wood buried in the ______ of New Zealand and the violin makers of Cremona, Italy — ______ I knew nothing about the world right outside my front door.

【推荐3】Every year, around 20,000 American teenagers age out of foster care (寄养) at 18, and have to start their lives by themselves.

Ella first became aware of foster care when her parents were considering adopting a child. Although the _______ didn’t work out, Ella often found herself thinking about that child. “I’m really close with my family, and just couldn’t imagine being _______ on my own at 18,” she says.

Later, Ella visited Children Services, with a list of questions, trying to _______ what aging out looked like. One question was “What’s not being _______ for these young people?”. Near the top of the list was furniture. “The idea of moving into an apartment and not having a bed to sleep on pulled at my heartstrings,” says Ella.

Ella contacted her parents’ friends, asking if they had spare furniture to _______. And a local furniture store offered free space and delivery truck. Then she formed Chair-ity, a nonprofit providing furniture for young adults who have _______ foster care.

Watching those in need receive a bed, a table — whatever — was transformational. Ella remembers Hannah, a former foster care girl who couldn’t afford any furniture. When Hannah _______ to Chair-ity, Ella asked what she needed. “Everything,” she replied. When she found her once _______ apartment stood a full kitchen set, a bed, and a table, she said, “It really relieved my pressure.”

“To think what hadn’t been thought about in years could bring so much happiness to somebody was _______,” Ella says.

Today, Chair-ity has given furniture to nearly 200 young adults. As word has got out, Ella has received donations from more and more people. She’s convinced these contributions give those young people __________ and confidence.