【推荐3】When I was in middle school, I had a classmate named Alice. She liked to tell me my shortcomings (缺点).

One day, Alice said to me,“You are too short and too proud!” Hearing this, I felt very sad and _______. I ran home to tell my father _______ it, with tears in my eyes. My father said nothing. He just _______ me carefully. Then he said to me, “Are all the shortcomings Alice has told you true? You can write them down and check whether they are true or not.” After _______ them down, I was surprised to find that about half of the things were true. For some of the things, I couldn’t change them. But for many of the things, I could _______ them. For the first time, I knew about _______ better than before.

Later, I showed my father what I had written down, _______ he didn’t read it. “That’s just for you,” my _______ said. “You know about yourself _______ than any other person. If something that is said about you is true, you’ll find it useful. Listen to others patiently, but hear the truth only.”

My father’s advice came to my mind at many important moments. It is the best ________ that I have ever had in my life.

【推荐1】Michael J. Weirsky is a 54-year-old man who had been out of work for over a year. Despite the fact that he had been _________ and had failed to even get a(n) _________, Weirsky would buy two lottery tickets (彩票) every week.

One day, Weirsky stopped at a QuickChek gas station to_________ a lottery ticket. However, after Weirsky got the ticket, he _________ received a call and he put the ticket down. After he answered the call, Weirsky left the gas station without _________ that he didn’t have his ticket. When he finally got home, he realized that his lottery ticket was _________. He looked everywhere for it, but he didn’t _________ anything, making him very _________.

Eventually, Weirsky made the _________ to go back to the QuickChek. ____________, the store clerk told Weirsky that someone had actually found and ____________ a ticket. After making sure that Weirsky really was the person who lost the ticket, she ____________ it to him.

“I was very ____________ that there was an honest person out there because I thought it was gone,” Weirsky said. Two days later, Weirsky checked the lottery app on his phone. To his ____________, he actually had the winning lottery ticket. “I ____________ $273 million,” Weirsky told his mother. At that point, Weirsky was still completely in ____________. Then he left his home to scan the ticket at a store nearby.

Sure enough, the scan ____________ that Weirsky had the winning ticket to the $273 million lottery. After careful ____________, Weirsky decided to find the good man that returned his lottery ticket to him instead of taking it. “I’ve got to find him and ____________ him,” Weirsky said. “I am going to give him something, but I will keep that ____________,” he added.

【推荐2】Plenty of people are doing good work in Pakistan. Far away from the center of Islamabad, Pakistan, there is a _______ that provides education to street children.

What encouraged Zeba Husain to start Mashal School was her unpleasant experience in her youth. “Feeling _______ was something that was truly fixed in my mind. I could feel that a person needs to be _______ of this bad feeling,” she says.

But it was working with refugees (难民) that really gave her a _______ of what some people have go through. “That was something _______ my life,” Husain says.

_______is something that Husain could _______ in the eyes of the street children when she first _______ them 10 years ago. “I saw these _______ children,” she says, “I asked them, ‘Don’t you go to school?’ and they responded, ‘Nobody keeps us; nobody wants us.’” Husain knew it was time to ________ her longtime dream of helping poor people.

As the school gradually grew, the women in the community also became ________.

“It was very, very ________ that the mothers would come in,” says Husain. She decided to start ________ the women with skills development.

Many of her students have now completed their education, and some are working at restaurants as waiters.

“The ________ of it is that they all want to do something for others,” Husain says.

“Making a ________ for a little time goes a long way because it restores your confidence in humanity (人性),” she adds.

【推荐3】Elizabeth lived with her six children in a small house. One winter, there was a big ______, and quite a few houses were washed away, but Elizabeth’s house was high enough to ______ it.

Elizabeth ______ one of the families which had lost everything. She shared her home ______ the family could build a ______ house. Elizabeth’s friends could not understand her since she already had so many children to ______.

“Well,” Elizabeth ______ to her friends, “At the end of World War II, there was a poor ______ in a town in France. Her husband had been ______ in the war and she had a lot of children, just like me now. The day before ______, this woman said to her children, ‘We won’t be ______ to have much for Christmas. I’m going to get just one ______ for us all. Now I’ll go and get it.’ She came back with a little ______ who had no parents.‘Here’s our present.’ She said to her own children. The children were more than ______ to get such a present. They welcomed the little girl ______ and she grew up as their sister. I was that Christmas present.”

【推荐2】I cleared the dishes from the kitchen table, with Mama following close behind to carry our tableware to the kitchen. There was no stopping her. Despite everything, she still wants to _______ , I thought.

My mama had _______ in moving around and had lost much of her speech to Parkinson’s disease. After a recent fall that left her with a broken arm, the _______ suggested she use a wheelchair. It was _______ to see her like this. From the time I was a kid, Mama had always been an active person with a positive _______ . I could still see her in my mind, cooking and cleaning in the house I grew up in, sometimes humming (哼唱) while _______ .

Now I did my best to _______ her like she’d done for me. I made the long drive as often as possible to _______ her and help around the house. Independent as ever, she never _______ working. “You’ve done ________ , Mama,” I said when she took the towel to clean the table. Where does she get the ________ ？

I turned on the tap to wash our dishes and noticed a ________ coming from Mama’s direction. I turned off the running water. Mama was humming! I ________ as she moved around the table, her happy song filling the room. “What’s it that you’re humming, Mama?” “Count Your Blessings (常怀感恩),” she ________ with a smile on her face.

________ , it was where Mama’s strength came from. There was no stopping her from being thankful, always.

【推荐3】Glen was walking along the shore with his son Terry after supper. Suddenly, Glen noticed a scorpion (蝎子) _______in the tide, trying to get back to the _______. Glen tried to pick it up, but it stung (刺) him and _______ back into the tide. Glen tried again and was _______ again.

“Dad, leave him alone! He’s not worth _______.” Terry shouted. But Glen tried one more time. This time he _______ and threw the scorpion onto the beach. Terry said, “Why _______ time on such a tiny creature who’s too stupid to know it’s being _______?” Glen answered, “Son, the scorpion stings me in his _______. I chose to help him ________ that’s in my nature.”

Glen was teaching his son a(n) ________ lesson about being humans. Like the scorpion and other species, we’re born with a nature for ________ and tend to be selfish. ________, we also have a sense of sympathy (同情心) and the power to ________ so that we can act beyond our self-interest.

Human nature is ________. It’s our nature to be kind, loving and generous as it is to be cruel, ________ and dishonest. We sometimes ________ nice nature, but sometimes we act like scorpion ________ by negative nature.

No one is born with good or bad ________. We’re born with the ability to choose to have either. When we choose to be good, we are ________.