【推荐1】Anger Is a Gift

“Mom, where are you? I've been waiting for 10 minutes.” I shouted into the phone.

“Honey, sorry. I left the office a bit late and the ______ caused really bad traffic, but I...”

I hung up. Conversations like this happen every week. Being a teen is ______ enough, and my parents often make me feel less important than their work.

In second grade, I broke my arm on the slide. When the school nurse called my mom, she was too ______ to answer. When the phone call ______ my father, he sighed (叹息) and said, “I'm in the middle of research.” I sat in the nurse's office for hours, before my parents finally ______ to take me to hospital.

I wished my parents could keep me company. To make my parents take me seriously, I ______. I tried to establish my own authority by ______ their schedule. My mom did everything possible to solve the problem, but nothing ______ until she met that adviser.

One day after I shut my door in her face, my mom didn't complain or cry. ______, she knocked and said, “I have something to tell you.” I opened the door. “Today I met a really good adviser. He said that every time your daughter is angry, she is just saying: I ______ you.”

It dawned on me that my anger was merely a mask for me to ______ my loneliness and disappointment. But facing one's ______ need is the first step towards being happier. This concept not only helped things between my parents and me but also enabled me to handle conflicts and emotions. I started to pay attention to other people's ______. When an angry customer approached me at my volunteering job, he was saying, “I need more service.” When a homeless person shouted to me in a parking lot, he was simply saying, “I need food and help.”

I am now able to see ______ the fog of anger and see the real face and heart of other person.

Five minutes after I hung up on her, my mom's car finally appeared through the fog. She rolled down her window and said, “Let's go to a hotpot place, shall we?” I ______, “OK, but promise me you won't be late again.”

【推荐2】I fell in love with reading when I was a child. Through reading, I developed a good relationship with my parents.

Born as a second-generation South Korean in America, I was raised in an environment in which my parents _______ to settle in American culture. My parents were awkward（尴尬的，笨拙的）, strange and different. Their limitations as immigrants(移民) _______ me. As a child, I was alone and quiet. I grew up in a family _______ I was forbidden to speak English. I wanted to _______ the depth of the books I read but the words _______ me, like my parents. I wasn't able to change the situation   which I was placed in, _______ I worked very hard. Every week, I went to the library to check out new books. I would have _______ reading all the books by Friday afternoons. I became a better reader. Pretty soon, I was the _______ reader in the class. People would look at me _______ amazement（惊讶） as they saw me read 500-page books in only a few days. But I believe the greatest __________ was reading every night to my parents. Every evening, we __________ together in our living room, and I read to them. Slowly but surely, our __________ grew. My parents can communicate with others __________; for me, grammar quizzes became a piece of cake.

Today I'm proud to have Asian-American parents who were __________ enough to learn English from a young boy and wise enough to __________ their son to read at a young age.

【推荐3】As I held my father’s hands one night, I couldn’t help but notice their calluses (老茧) and roughness (粗糙). His hands tell the story of his life as a _______, including all his struggles.

One summer, I remember, a drought (旱灾) hit Ontario, turning it into a _______ desert. On one of those hot mornings I was picking sweet corn with my dad to fill the last _______from the grocery (杂货) store. Fifty dozen was all we needed, which _______ took twenty minutes. That morning, however, things didn’t _______ quickly. After forty minutes of aimlessly walking in the field, we still needed twenty dozen. I was completely discouraged and _______. Dropping the basket heavily, I declared (宣称), “If the store wants its last twenty dozen, they can pick it themselves!” Dad laughed, “Just think, my little girl, only ten dozen left for each of us and then we’re _______.” Such is Dad —whatever problem he meets with, he never gives up.

_______, the disastrous effects of the drought were felt all over the country. It was a challenging time for everyone, but Dad remained optimistic. He _______ to be grateful for other things like good health and food on our plates. Only then did I truly begin to ________ Dad and his faith that guided us through the hard times.

Dad is also a living example of real ________. From dawn to dusk, he works countless hours to ________ our family. He always puts our happiness ________ his own, and never fails to cheer me on at my sports games in spite of his exhaustion (精疲力竭) after long days. His loving and selfless nature has inspired me to become more sympathetic (有同情心的) and ________,   putting others first.

Dad, the life ________ I have learned from you will stay with me forever. You are my father, teacher, friend and, most importantly, my hero.

【推荐3】Tony Brown often visited technical schools as part of his work. But at a London school an accident happened. He had eleven _________ in total and it was two years before he could walk again.

_________ Tony improved physically, he couldn’t _________ what had happened. Tony was diagnosed with post-traumatic (创伤后) stress disorder, but none of the _________ seemed to help. Then a doctor told him a puppy (小狗) could _________ stress and might help with his anxiety.

In May 2019, they adopted a black puppy called Gibson. He says, “I’d never thought of it as a _________ . After just a few weeks, I could feel myself _________ a lot. If I was feeling _________ , he would jump up on the sofa and sit on my chest and I found that really _________ and comforting. Wherever I go, he will __________ me. I now look forward to going out for walks while I would always make __________ to stay in the house before.”

His wife Anna has also noticed a(n) __________ . She says, “Gibson is a cute dog that loves Tony. He is a fantastic __________ . It has given him a focus on life.”

Tony is taking part in a study that tracks puppies through adulthood to learn how their early experiences and environment __________ their development. Tony says, “Gibson has done so much for me. I want to do __________ for him.”

【推荐1】Passing Along A Gift of Love

Ten years ago, my mom gave me a peculiar but welcome thing: a fancy blood pressure monitor. My doctor told me I had high blood pressure and she wanted to make sure I was_______it. Being in my early twenties at the time, this situation should have_______me, but it didn’t; I had long been suffering from_______anxiety and stress that ended up being a decade long _______. It’s only been in the last few years_______through lots of meditation, self inquiry, exercise, and diet, I’ve slowly _______from it, day by day.

I’m happy to say that I no longer need my blood pressure monitor. My mom is in good_______   and doesn’t need it, but I know she spent a decent amount on it back when her_______was not the best._______, I decided to put it up for sale online for a nominal fee, and a woman____________saying she wanted to buy it from me shortly after____________it. I went to a coffee shop and____________her, along with an older woman who looked like her mother. Neither of them looked like they were in the best of health.

She____________took out some cash from her wallet to pay me, and it____________me then and there that there was no way I could possibly let her pay me. I had a smile card at hand in my wallet; I____________   it in the bag and told her “Here, just take it.” She was confused and____________to hand me the money again. I again insisted that she take it. She was____________and thanked. I wished them good____________and a happy life.

Although I didn’t____________my mom in cash, I am more than happy that I repaid her by passing     ____________her gift to someone who really needed it.

【推荐3】A few days ago my family and I were out for an evening walk. As we headed home, dark _______ started rolling in and we knew we probably wouldn’t make it back without getting wet. _______ enough, the rain started falling just as we_______ our neighborhood. We all _______ down the street and into the house but when we got there I noticed that one of my sons was _______ . I went back out in the rain and found him   _______ in an irregular pattern in front of the house. His face was one of _______as he seemed to be going in circles. This is my child that usually hates getting _______.

I shouted to him, “What are you doing?!!”

“I hate getting wet!” he _______ back.

“Then why are you running around in the ________ ? Hurry inside!”

“I’m trying to but I have to ________ the rain drops!”

He was getting more wet than any of the rest of us ________ he was trying to avoid the raindrops. As I went and put him ________ my arm and walked him inside, I realized that there is a good________in this story.

How often do you________life “avoiding the raindrops”? How often do you get so worried about the little ________that might happen, the failures that you miss out on the great ________ that you could be having? We can spend all of our time running around in circles trying not to fail or we can accept that failure is going to come and ________forward anyway. Any happy and successful person will tell you that the road to success is   ________with failures.

But every time you fail, you learn. Every time you learn, you improve. The more you improve, the more ________ you will be.