【推荐1】Mom must have made hundreds of pies. But she would not be________ any this year. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, she'd had a stroke and lost the ________ to speak and swallow. She would have to stay in rehab while she ________ those skills. I was sorry that we wouldn't get to enjoy her ________ Thanksgiving, as was our ________. My husband, my brother and I made reservations to have our ________ near Mom's rehab center.

The day before Thanksgiving, Mom ________ her swallowing test; her speech was slowly ________. This was progress, but I couldn't help feeling ________ that Mom would get no Thanksgiving. At the restaurant the next day, we finished with plenty of ________ for dessert, but no time. We'd have to get it to ________ if we were getting to the rehab center on time.

“We'll have three pieces of pumpkin pie,” I said. Mom liked nothing more than to watch her family________ their dinner with a pie. And that would be the closest thing to a ________ Thanksgiving that I could offer her.

“I'm sorry,” the waitress said, “but we only have one slice left.” ________ it was meant for Mom. In the center, we found her in good spirits.

“ You've been doing so well with ________, I thought you might try eating just a little. I reached for the fork, ________ Mom beat me to it. She ________ the container from my hands and dug in. I could ________ by the way she sighed Mom was savoring the first real food she'd had in ________. An angel had ________ the best piece of pumpkin pie I never ate for the Thanksgiving.

【推荐2】Tonnie, a 12-year-old boy, was walking alone on the street. It was 10 pm. What caused Tonnie to run away from home was that his mom asked him about his low grades in the recent _________. Tonnie had a careless attitude and didn’t _________ in a nice way. She scolded him, but Tonnie quarreled with her without _________ he was at fault. The _________ ended so bad that Tonnie left their _________ in a storm with his eyes filled with tears.

He walked for more than two hours, tired and hungry. Suddenly, he was _________ by a sweet smell from a small noodle shop.

He realized there was not even a coin in his pocket. With a _________ face, he decided to _________. However, the shop owner saw him and asked him to stay for some food.

Tonnie explained he had no _________, but the shop owner smiled and said he wouldn't __________ him for any. He prepared a hot bowl of delicious noodles for Tonnie. Tonnie __________ him from his heart and promised him that he would return his __________.

Tonnie was in tears when he ate the noodles. The shop owner asked Tonnie what had happened, Tonnie told him about the quarrel with his mother.

The shop owner asked Tonnie. ''Do you feel you __________ me something? ''

Tonnie said, ''Yes. Of course! This is a great __________. You know I was very __________ as I ate nothing from the noon! ''

The shop owner smiled, ''Good my dear! Now think about your mom. She cooked for you. She washed your clothes. She __________ you with all her heart. She was always there for you when you needed her. And she __________ quarreled with you just for your own good. Don’t you feel you owe a lot to her? ''

Tonnie realized his __________. He thanked the shop owner and rushed to his home. He saw his mother searching for him on the street with tears in her eyes. He felt very __________ and hugged her, begging her __________.

【推荐3】Are parents rational (理性的) about their children? No. Parents aren’t rational because ________ isn’t rational. Young people can understand this about romantic love, but they find it ________ to accept this part in parental love.

My eldest daughter’s ________ the other day brought this up. “Let me ask you something, Dad,” she began in patiently controlled ________ that every experienced parent knows.

“I sailed around the Mediterranean in a yacht (游艇) when I was seventeen,” she said. “I hiked through the Pyrenees from Spain to Paris. I’ve done rock climbing and deep-sea diving and slept in rainforests in the jungle of Indonesia. Right?”

“Right,” I said, “So what?”

“So this,” she went on. “When I go to the corner drugstore to pick up some shampoo, why do you always tell me to be ________ when I cross the street?”

There is no satisfactory ________ a parent can give to this.

All I could say in reply was that when I was 50, my mother would ________ me not to drive too fast. If I were 80 and she were still alive, I would be getting the ________ warning. No matter what the age, a child is a child.

There is something else, too, that children find it hard to understand. When they are far away, there is nothing we can do about their ________. They are in the hands of the gods. Parents try not to ________ about it.

But when the children are close, the old protective urge quickly ________, and it doesn’t ________ how far they have been or what experiences they have got through.

Most ________ happen around the corner, not in the rainforest. The most instinctive (本能的) act of almost every creature is to ________ its young, and with humans this reaction stays for a lifetime.

In the parents’ mind, a child ages but does not ________. Rational? No. But if we were rational, would we want children at all?

【推荐1】People become colder and colder toward what’s happening. So many people show non-caring attitudes towards the people in need nowadays. But I was pleasantly surprised to see a(n) _______ act right in front of me in a busy crossroads.

We were waiting in our car for the traffic light to turn green _______ I saw a young man’s bicycle tip（倾斜）and then _______ against the sidewalk. The _______ boxes and other things fell to the ground together with the _______. Though most of the full boxes were tied to the bicycle, he struggled to stand and pull the bicycle, clearly unable to _______ the whole weight on his own. Since it was a busy road he _______, hoping for some help.

I wanted someone to give him a(n) _______, but without much hope. I was _______ what would happen next when two men came out of their car which was first in line, waiting at the traffic lights and closest to the ________ of the accident.

A woman crossing the road was already there, trying to ________ the young man. ________, she was a kind-hearted woman. Seeing the two men ________, she moved aside. These two big strong men ________ the bicycle with its heavy load and put it up straight. By then, three more passers-by ________ and along with the woman, ________ the different things from the road and helped reload the bicycle again.

The traffic light had turned ________ but there was no honking（鸣笛）from any of the traffic waiting in the ________. The two helpful drivers ________ quickly to their car and the patiently waiting traffic moved forward at ease.

This ________ scene on a very busy road in our big city made me feel surprised and thankful for such helpful citizens.

【推荐2】I will never forget one summer in my childhood. While walking in the attic(阁楼), I stepped on something and ________ down, with my hand landing on a floorboard that popped up and almost hit me in the head. When I________ and looked inside the open space, I could not believe my eyes: There was gold in there!I seized a handful of shining gold cubes, ran to the bottom stair and ________. “Mama. I found gold up here under the floor!”

Back up the stairs I dashed.________ my brothers almost knocked me back down as they ran right by me. When Mama opened the door and ________ her head out, she simply said, “Honey, that’s insulation(隔热材料). Now put it all back. ”

I felt really disappointed. I had thought I made a real ________.

When I ________ inside to put the fake gold back, my hand touched what felt like a book. I pulled it out. It was old and small: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, which I’d never heard of. And now that I was bored, I decided to see what was inside this little book. To my ________, it was a book of passages, phrases, and proverbs and I could tell that this was going to be ________.

So I spent quite much time on it and found ________ in these pages, As I didn’t know how to express things clearly, I often ________ to talk about them. This book helped me ________ that I didn’t need to feel ashamed or embarrassed, because other people had similar experiences.

When I went to college, Bartlett’s came with me. Over the years, I’ve kept my original ________, which to this day I often ________. Although it was a ________ to find the book, it liberated me in a way. It helped me see more than my young mind and heart were able to understand.

The book discovered under those floorboards was, indeed, gold.

【推荐2】“Hey!’   You have a hairless spot on the back of your head!”   Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock. I tried to shrug(耸肩) it off.   “It’ll grow back.”   I worked to sound ________.

At first, the loss was minimal. ________ the spot with my fingers became the top priority every day. No new hair, smooth as an egg. Weeks later, the spot was a little larger, and there was still no________ of any hair poking through the skin. I began to ________, but continued to try to be cool about it.

As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more.   ________ my fingers through it,   I would stare at the alarming quantity of hair in my hands, willing this to________happening to me.

We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia ( 脱 发 症 ). He recommended an injection to try, which would be   ________   to the head skin. I underwent several costly injections over a few months, but in vain.

________ the injection began to trouble my sleep, and we finally had to stop the________. My hair still didn’t grow back.

I had to wear a wig (假发) to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would   ________. Though aware that I should   ________ the fact to my friends, I was scared, not knowing how they would handle the information.   ________ , hesitantly, I told them what was happening after days of struggle. To my surprise, they all thought nothing of it.   This was a(n)   ________ for me.

I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel________of. I am learning that being bald doesn’t change who I am, and if I don’t let it affect my self   ________ then other people are much more likely to accept me as I am, too.

【推荐3】The classroom was full of those of us who wanted to work on school newspaper. I didn’t write a lot, but working on the paper ________ fun. I liked the idea of being a reporter, interviewing my friends, and ________ middle school events.

To be chosen, we had to turn in an example of our ________. I wrote an article about the joys of summer, and showed it to my father, a(n) ________ poet. He read it and frowned (皱眉). “It’s okay,” my father said, taking out a pencil. “But how about changing this sentence to…”. And as a result, he rewrote the ________ piece without me for I never said anything to ________ him. No surprise, his version (版本) was wonderful. He had a gift for language. It was so much better than my piece that. I turned in his version ________ mine.

“Welcome to the Dundee School News,” my teacher said to me. But before I could be ________ about the news, he added, “based on that excellent article you wrote about summer, I ________ you to write a personal opinion article every week for the second page of the paper.” I was so surprised. I was unable to write at that level but I couldn’t tell ________ to the teacher, and I couldn’t ask my father for help, either.

That term working on the paper was really painful. And my teacher expressed his ________, “Can’t you write something more like that first piece you wrote?” he said each time I turned in my article. I couldn’t, because at that age, I didn’t have my father’s ability and experience as a writer. Week after week, I tried hard, but my writing never ________ the level of the first article. At last, to my total ________, another student took my place. I ________ that my father rewrote my first article himself, instead of trying to help me to improve it. But in my heart I knew it was my mistake because I allowed him to do it.

Later, I did become a successful writer on my own. Looking back, I realized that the pain and shame of that school experience had a ________ side. It taught me to depend on myself and be myself. So every day, I try to use my own words, find my own style and be my own best self. It feels great.