【推荐1】I had always been warmly praised for my basketball shooting ability when I was in high school. But when I went to Ohio State, I discovered that everyone on the team was _________ in his hometown.

To win a starting job on the team, I had figured I would have to _________ the coach with my shooting ability. But it turned out that the team was _________ full of attacking players and what it needed was someone to _________ on defence. Unwillingly, I decided to take that role, but didn’t expect the _________ was to make all the difference to me later.

One day, when we were _________ a game against the Bucks, I was called out by the coach, Milwaukee, who gave me the _________ to guard our court. Though feeling a bit _________, I accepted. Throughout the game, I continued playing the defence role.

Then, near the end of the game, in a(an) _________ to widen the gap, Milwaukee gave me a precious __________. He asked me to organize an attack. Driving up the middle of the court, I __________ the ball. It was a __________ three-point play and minutes later the championship was ours.

Standing there in that circle of cheering audience, I came to __________ the importance of teamwork. Just as Milwaukee said, “__________ teams often have one or two players who stand out; good teams have five who work together. It is amazing what can be achieved when no one cares who gets the __________.”

【推荐2】Middle school students today may behave surprisingly. Are you often _____ of them?

My daughter (12 years old, 7th grade) is on the cross country team at her middle school. As with any _____ , the cross country team has its “stars” as well as its less _____ athletes. Ethan, Michael (8th grade) and Kenji (7th grade) are the _____ runners for the boys. Yesterday was the first track meet of the season, and when she got home, my daughter told me a story that made me _____.

According to my daughter, one of the new 6th graders is a boy named Albert. He is apparently “a little short and _____” and has never played any _____ races before. The 6th graders ran last, three laps(圈) around the school. _____ in the race, Albert was dead last. All of the other racers were _____ the race when he was just at the end of his second lap. Albert thought he was ______ near the end. But quickly the poor kid realized that he had another whole lap left to run. He broke down and started ______．

When Ethan, Michael, and Kenji saw Albert in a ______ mood in the middle of the field, they didn’t even   ______ . All three of them immediately went out on the field to run Albert’s last lap ______ him. Everyone knew that was ______ the rules in cross country, yet they all remained ______ . Both other teams hung around and waited for Albert to finish. When he managed to ______ the finish line，all three schools cheered for him.

After my daughter told me this sweet story I said, “I hope Albert doesn’t ______ the team after this.” She replied, “No! He’ll get better; he just needs some ______ .”

And that is why I ______ middle school children.

【推荐3】Havard Lorentzen, a Norwegian speed skater, was sitting on a hospital bed in his hometown. He received the _______ news that he might not be able to skate again because of an injury during a training interval (间隙). The promising young athlete _______ his right calf (小腿) on the inside pretty bad with his left skate accidentally.

“The skin was just _______ off my calf when I looked down. It was far from a _______ sight." Lorentzen explained, _______ now able to laugh at the frightening details. After the emergency surgery in Germany, Lorentzen flew home. But things got worse when the skin on his leg turned black and _______. He had to go to a local hospital where the doctors helped him by taking skin from a _______ part of the body and put it on the injury.

Given he was unable to _______ for weeks, the _______ was not a simple process for a young man used to doing everything at pace. But everything began to __________ for the better. First, it helped him be even more focused on important details like sleep and __________ because he needed to come back to the ice quicker. More importantly, he felt less __________ on the ice."I think it is because I knew what kind of consequences there were if I __________, now that I had experienced them." he said.

This new Lorentzen was a different prospect on the ice. He became the champion of the Olympic 500m speed skating in late 2020. He has set his sights firmly on Beijing 2022 and will be ready to __________ his Olympic title. After all, the __________man on ice is a pretty cool title to tell the grandchildren about.

【推荐1】In January 2023, I was commuting (通勤) from Brooklyn to New Jersey. With two little kids and a busy business, a quiet train ride felt like a mini_________ . Yet I found myself spending that _________ time scrolling (浏览) through social media feeds.

One day, I _________my phone and started writing thank-you notes to people who had _________to a money-raiser I had organized. Getting off the train, I was in a noticeably _________ mood. The next day, I wrote more _________ and felt the same. Something _________ . What if I kept it up?

I decided to write one thank-you note for every day. I had no shortage of people I was _________ to. I picked out a different _________ for each month. January was charity. February would be neighbors, and I thought of a dozen names immediately. I remembered when the owners of our __________ bookstore let me and my son, Henry, __________before the store opened and __________to play his favorite soundtrack. I __________when our babysitter dropped off some board games for our __________.

Writing the notes wasn’t that __________: Each was two or three sentences long, taking just a few minutes. I __________ on the person I was writing to and what I wanted to say, and the words came fairly __________ . That focus felt refreshing.

I eventually __________ why this task was the perfect cure to my social feeds. Scrolling through Instagram, I was admiring others’ __________ . However, writing thank-you notes was an act of __________and honoring my own life.

【推荐3】Eradajere Oleita is a 26-year-old student and environmentalist. She has got something about the _________ to two of her country’s problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. Oleita is asking a _________ of local snack lovers: Rather than throw empty chip bags into garbage cans, _________ them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the _________.

Chip eaters _________ their empty bags at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers _________ them. After they disinfect (消毒) the _________ in soapy hot water, they slice them open and iron them together. Then they use cotton and liners (内衬) from old coats to line the insides. It _________ about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each requires around 150 to 300 chip bags, _________ on whether they’re single-serve or family-size.

Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bags Project has __________ 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be __________ to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. However, that’s only half the __________ for Oleita. “We aim to make a(n) __________ not only socially, but environmentally,” said Oleita. “It is worth __________ chip bags and using them to help the homeless. __________, they would land in the garbage.”

【推荐2】As a young boy, Britain's great former Prime Minister(首相), Sir Winston Churchill attended a public school called Harrow. He was not a good student and nearly _______ from the school for breaking the rules. _______, he did finish his schoolwork and his mistakes there did not prevent him from going on to a university. He even really had an army experience, for which he was later elected _______. He achieved it for his wisdom and courage. Because he once refused to _______ during the painful days of World War Ⅱ. His amazing determination helped inspire his entire nation and was an _______ worldwide.

Towards the end of his period as prime minister, he was _______ to make a speech to the students at his old school. When the great day arrived, Sir Winston Churchill gave his short, clear­cut speech：

“Young man, never give up. Never give up! Never give up! Never, never, never, never！”

Another _______ example is Sandra Day O'Connor who fought to achieve her best education. Graduating at the top of her class, she worked her _______ into Stanford Law School, where she graduated with _______. Though working hard, she was ________ a woman in the 1950s. She was refused by many law firms ________ they preferred to hire a less qualified(有资格的) man ________ a great woman lawyer. Yet she refused to give up on her dreams. With great efforts her dream finally came true.

Just like Churchill and Sandra, they stand for those who never give up. ________， many people in our daily life simply say they want something but without making efforts. Instead, they let the fear of failure stop them from trying. As a wise saying goes: “It's not how many times you fall down that ________. It's how many times you get back up that makes success！” With hard work, ________ and preparation, you can overcome any difficulty and achieve success.