My wife and I usually don’t keep houseplants. Anything in pots gets either overwatered or underwatered. But after my diagnosis with a brain cancer, I loved the idea of having something green and ________ around us.

Last year, my friend Mitch gave me a lucky bamboo plant. Tending to the plant gave me a sense of ________ at a time when I sometimes felt useless because my ability to move was limited. As a physician, I was used to being the one who ________ care. Watering the plant ________ me to a core part of my old identity and taught me I could still be a caregiver.

However, after several weeks growing in perfect condition, the plant ________ began to show signs of stress. No matter what I did, the leaves kept ________ and dropping to the floor.

“I can’t even care for a simple plant!” I yelled. “If my lucky bamboo dies, I might die too!”

Identifying with the green and growing plant had offered me comfort. But when the tree was struggling, I felt increasingly uneasy and ________.

It was several months later when I recovered from surgery that I realized I had wrongly linked my careful nurturing of the plant—something over which I had at least some control—with my own ________—something over which I had no control.

As my ________ lessened, I began to study online tutorials to figure out how to care for the tree. I transplanted it to a larger pot, and when it was back in the sunny window, we both began to thrive (旺盛) again.

Now whenever I look at the tree in its new pot, I make a point to relax and think of the things I can ________.

【推荐3】Jason, a father of three, was seriously injured in a car crash. It would cost a large amount of money to save his life.________. he did not have life insurance（保险）or much savings. So his family had to raise ________.

His 9-year-old daughter, Kaylei, came up with the idea of making and selling ________ at a local dairy shop. And a line of cars formed to buy her baked goods. One couple even ________ $1,000!

When asked how she felt about the community's ________ to her bake sale, Kaylei said,"Just ________.I cried many times because of those who reached out their hands to us."

A GoFundMe page was also set up for the poor family. "The accident has already made such a huge ________ on the family and we just can't ________ seeing things getting worse. It is so ________ to think the kids will lose their father without the money needed," a man wrote on the page.

Soon over $35,000 was raised, ensuring Jason a successful ________, Jason's wife shared her gratitude（感激）to those who have helped and ________ them during this difficult time on the GoFundMe page.

"I'm feeling so blessed （幸运的）for all these donations. Never before would I believe people would ________ this much about someone they haven't even ________," she wrote. "The children and I were all ________ when the misfortune struck. But your donations have helped us ________ this terrible situation. A million thanks to all of you?"

【推荐1】For 13-year-old Reagan Bischoff, the simple tasks that other people complete with ease were often the hardest for her. Since early childhood, she’s _______ brain injury and partial paralysis (瘫痪) on the left side of her body. But her determination and _______ to learn and teach other kids how to_______those challenges recently won her an award from Brain Injury Services.

Sarah Pickford from Brain Injury Services _______her for putting so “much energy and attention into living a full life” while also _______herself to helping other people. “That’s _______ for someone who’s only a young teenager. Her reaching out to others is a wonderful _______ ,” Pickford said.

Over the years, Reagan pushed herself to _______ in swimming and horseback riding. She also plays the trumpet (小号), using a special _______ to play with one hand. She came up with the idea to use a smaller keyboard so she could type with one hand to finish her online ________during COVID-19. Reagan also found a tool to ________her with buttoning jeans.

As she ________ skills and confidence to deal with her disability, Reagan also ________ a YouTube channel to “help kids who have disabilities like me, so they can ________ things I wasn’t able to do.”

As for the award, Reagan said she was ________ and happy “that people recognized me for my work.”

【推荐2】Being blind is tough under any circumstances. But things were even _____ for Srikanth Bolla who was born in a small village near Hyderbad, India, where the common belief was that kids with disabilities were “useless”. Fortunately, Srikanth’s parents loved their son and refused to _____ social pressure. _____, they encouraged the blind boy to dream big. Srikanth was not _____. He is the founder and CEO of a successful company now.

Of course, getting here was not easy. As a young boy, Srikanth was enrolled in a _____ school. Unfortunately, the students and teachers didn’t approve of his disability. So his family decided to send him to a special school for the disabled in Hyderabad and he became the top of his class. But Srikanth was refused to study _____ . Srikanth took his plea (诉求) to the court and became the first blind student in the country to be allowed to study science.

But despite his good _____ in the national board exams, Srikanth was not allowed to take the entrance exams. So he decided to _____ for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and succeeded.

After graduating from MIT, Srikanth returned to India and devoted his life to helping the country’s _____ community. In 2012, he established Bollant Industries. Not surprisingly, most of the company’s employees are physically challenged.

Srikanth owes his success to his parents. Despite being poor and uneducated, they encouraged Srikanth to ______ his dreams and taught him that true happiness comes from being compassionate towards others and giving them the opportunity to excel (胜过平时).

【推荐3】Neil Anthony Aban is a 30-year-old farmer from the eastern Philippines.

Farming was not Aban’s _________ career choice, rather he _________ to land a white-collar job.

“I thought before that farming was a very _________ job.” he says. “Most farmers work hard from sunrise to sunset.”

Having decided against taking up _________ in college, he chose a nursing degree. However, for financial reasons, Aban _________ to finish the course and ended up working on his family’s farm to help bring in money.

He _________ the local government’s 4-H Club training program that encourages out-of-school youth into farming to learn advanced techniques in agriculture.

“It was a random (随意的) _________ I made as I wasn’t busy then,” he says.

Inspired by the other farms they visited during the training, he decided he would _________ a farm like those.

In May 2014. Aban _________ 19 other Filipino participants selected for the Young Filipino Farm Leaders Training Program in Japan, where they trained at regional host farms.

“I soon realized the ____________ of old Japanese farmers because they are the only ones taking care of their farms,” he says.

Aban ____________ 10 hectares (公顷) of farmland in Kanagawa Prefecture from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. “There were many moments I wanted to give up because it was hard,” he says “But I always looked at the influence of this experience on my country.”

After 11 months, Aban ____________ his hands-on practical training from Japanese farmers and left the country.

Upon returning to the Philippines, Aban turned his land into a larger production farm. It offers courses on farming. “I never thought that I could turn my farm into a ____________ site,” he says.

In 2018, his farm became an official farm school. “It’s really ____________. At first no one believed in me. From zero enrollees, now I have more than 200 participants,” he says. “I want to help the youth ____________ agriculture,” he says. “They really should be into farming.”