【推荐1】Thanks to my child, I believe that Santa sends out gifts every year. And I once played Santa’s _______.

One year, our son Jay _______ a new sound system. “Please bring me a new stereo (立体声唱机), _______ I don’t have to listen to my dad’s old music,” he told the mall Santa. Robin and I took note.

On Christmas Eve, we _______ Santa’s cookies and milk by the fire, put a few carrots on the roof for the deer, and put Jay to sleep _______ at the back of the house, where the sound of Santa’s shoes wouldn’t _______ him. That’s when I went to the workshop and spent the whole night putting together that stereo.

Then we moved Jay from our bed to his—he was afraid that Santa might think he wasn’t home and would _______ to leave presents. At long last, I _______ the stereo and positioned it by the tree. Robin and I fell asleep early that Christmas morning, filled with satisfaction. At 7 a.m., Jay woke us up and led us to the _______ excitedly. He fell in love with the sound system.

A few days passed, and Jay asked me a ________ question. “Dad, how did I get from your bed to mine?” Ever the protected one, I said, “Santa may ________ you! Isn’t that fun?” He said nothing, walking into the hall and looking ________ at the floor. He came ________, “Dad, look at the wheel marks on the carpet (地毯). The stereo was rolled out of that bedroom and down the hallway.” I was ________. Jay was only six, and he showed me the evidence.

After that, the real fun began. Jay got to be Santa when we gave presents to a needy family—he just ________ it. We actually got the most joy from Santa when Jay kept the magic alive with us.

【推荐2】Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn’t had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn’t spent this time preparing for_________.

His mission? Saving the world’s oceans from _________ pollution.

It’s a calling he found in 2015 after moving to a community in Mumbai called Versova Beach. He had played there as a child and was _________ to see how much it had _________. The sand was no longer _________ because it was covered by a layer of garbage more than five feet thick — most of it plastic waste.

“The whole beach was like a _________ of plastic,” he said. “It hurt me. The ugly mess.” What Shah had seen is part of a global environmental crisis. More than 8 million tons of plastic _________ in the world’s oceans each year. It’s _________ that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. “Plastic in the ocean is a _________. And the sea-species have no choice at all,” Shah said. “We are ____________ their habitats.”

In October 2015, Shah began ____________ up plastic waste from the beach every Sunday morning. At first, it was just him and a neighbor, and then he began calling on others to join in. Word ____________ and with the help from social media, more volunteers got ____________.

For Shah, the work has always been a ____________ journey, but it has earned global attention. After he was ____________ as a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations in 2016, Shah now devotes nearly all of his free time to this ____________.

He’s now spent 209 weekends on this mission, ____________ more than 200 ,000 volunteers, some of whom are young students, to join him in what’s been called the world’s biggest beach cleanup. By October 2018, Versova Beach was ____________ clean and Shah’s cleanups expanded to another beach as well as a stretch of the Mithi River and other regions of India.

“This world talks too much. I think we must talk ____________ and do action more,” he said when interviewed by CNN in October 2019. “We are a smart species. Well adapt. We’ll learn. And with these youngsters rising up, I see ____________.”

【推荐3】Now I am living in Italy, working as an English language assistant. I am living with one of the _______ from a local school, who is very kind. At the moment, it’s a bit _______ as we don’t always understand each other. This is known as a _______ barrier(障碍), when two people cannot communicate because they don’t have a language in _______.

I have learnt that it is more _______ speaking in real life than speaking it in the classroom. My teachers could _______things to me in English when I didn’t understand. My _______ doesn’t speak any English. When I don’t know the _______ in Italian, I try to explain it and when that doesn’t _______, I try to show the thing I’m talking about.

Yesterday, the Internet wasn’t working and I had to __________ my housemate where the router(路由器) was so I could find the password for the Wi-Fi. I had no __________ what the Italian word for router was so I tried to explain it several time. In the end, I called it the “Internet box” and she __________ what I meant.

However, it isn’t all __________. When we finally understand each other, we both __________ and have a little celebration. Sometimes I feel very __________ because keep making many mistakes, but my housemate __________ me nicely and tells me that I’m doing well. I can also feel my language __________ because I have no choice but to __________ Italian. I hope that I will be speaking like a real Italian by the time I __________. I’m determined to __________ over this language barrier.

【推荐2】It was hard not to notice the 8-year-old boy across the street who stormed in and out of his own house. He did it often enough that a _________, William Dunn, wondered what was going on in his life. So Dunn asked him.

“He told me that he didn’t have a _________,” says Dunn, now 58, “and I realized there might be something I could do for him.” That something was fishing, a passion Dunn’s father had _________ with him.

Since then, Dunn has taken groups of kids out almost every weekend to fish. Most didn’t have father _________ in their lives and had never fished before. Some were _________ kids who had shuffled from one home to the next.

In the beginning, Dunn— “Big Will” to the kids—spent a good chunk of his _________ from his job selling tires to rent charter boats for the kids. Then, in 2018, he started the nonprofit Take a Kid Fishing Inc. He and a small group of _________ have introduced more than 2,500 kids-most without fathers around-to the _________ peace found on the water and the exhilaration of nabbing a _________.

“I’m able to forget about the __________ when I’m fishing and concentrate on something fun and __________,” says Smith, 21, who is in a foster program for young adults. “Fishing is learning for __________. I’ve learned that I deserve a better life than what I had. Whenever I feel __________ about something, I know it’s time to go fishing.”

Dunn’s own father __________ this past December. As a result, the fishing trips have taken on new meaning for him. “I have even more passion for it because now I’m fatherless too.” That’s why he’s always eager to watch the kids on the boat.

“There’s nothing like feeling that first tug on the line and seeing a kid __________ with a smile,” Dunn says. “I feel lucky to witness that every weekend.”

【推荐3】The phrase “take a penny, leave a penny” may not have been created by 14-year-old Nomaan “Nomi” Bilal, but he’s taken it to a whole new level.

Bilal collected quite a few pennies and _______ them with organizations helping people in need. With mostly pocket change, Bilal _______ a total of $4,150 from neighbors, family and friends. He donated it all to a district-run program for _______ disadvantaged families. The organizations used the donations to purchase and _______ gift cards for about 20 families.

While finishing up his first year of high school online, Bilal started collecting _______change he found. Through Facebook, Bilal and his mother, Nadia Pervez, got the _______ out, and soon enough plenty of people were stopping by to _______ bags upon bags of change. Every day, Bilal devoted most of his spare time to _______ and hand-rolling coins. Eventually, a stranger heard about his _______ and contacted Pervez to donate a coin sorter, which has made the __________ quicker and easier.

Roseann Miceli, director of a charity organization, called Bilal's efforts __________ and unprecedented (前所未有的). Miceli will buy more gift cards with the rest of Bilal’s fundraising, which continues to __________. She said the families were so appreciative — they would be __________ out their windows: “Thank you so much”. Miceli wanted Bilal to know that he’s made a big difference with small change. The idea came to her while she was __________the donations from his house. “I think a ‘thank-you’ and a wave __________ the door 6 feet away with a face mask is not enough for this kid who has been __________ pennies for the past 20 days,” Miceli said. She organized a “thank-you parade” to drive past Bilal’s house. Cars lined the street, with the drivers all waving, holding signs and shouting “thank you” from a social __________.

“I was just __________ at the scene that so many people should come out of their way just to see me,” he said. One of the parade participants gave Bilal a handmade sign that __________: “Nomi is our hero.”

“It shows that one person can make a difference and how such a small effort can turn into such a big thing,” he said. “And that my community is very helpful and thoughtful throughout these __________ times.”

【推荐1】When Arfel Condova-Rojas was biking to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge last November, she planned to go bird-watching. Bingo! A mile into her walk, she saw a female _________ near the water’s edge. Cordova-Rojas had worked at a wild bird rehab (康复) center and _________ that swans can be aggressive. But as she approached this time, it didn’t _________. She was certain that the bird needed _________ attention. Cordova-Rojas put her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, _________ picked it up and held it in her arms. And then a thought _________ her: What should I do now?

Her best _________ was the rehab center, but that was on the other side of town. How was she going to transport a 17-pound swan on her _________ all that way? Luckily, some _________ driving by offered her, her bike and the swan a (n) __________ to the rehab center.

Staff members at the rehab center __________ that the swan might have lead (铅) poisoning. They got the swan back up on her feet. __________, the swan had a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Rojas came to her __________, she passed away.

It’s a (n)__________ ending, but the story shows just how far people are willing to go to __________ animals.

【推荐2】On a sunny spring morning, a seven-year-old girl was sharpening(削) a beautiful pencil. _______, the wind was so strong as to blow open the door. The girl stood up to _______ it, but then fell on the floor. The sharpened pencil pierced (刺入) directly into the girl’s chest into her heart, and only a small part of the pencil could be seen.

The girl’s mother was so _______ that she dialed the emergency number and put the girl flat on her back. The girl _______ and asked her mother to pull the pencil out of her heart _______ it was particularly painful. The mother hesitated for a while but _______ her daughter. She told her daughter not to pull out the pencil without her permission.

In the end, the girl was _______ successfully! She had a very serious _______ but she didn’t lose too much blood. If the pencil were pulled out, the blood would have poured out from the wound, and doctors couldn’t have saved her! _______, the measures taken by her ________ were totally correct.

The mother’s comments afterwards were quite ________ “I really didn’t know what to do. My daughter was especially obedient (听话的) and she ________ my decision not to pull out the pencil. I knew she was in great pain, and her obedience was what I ________. I thought if I had pulled out the pencil, she would have believed she was ________ and might fall asleep and lose consciousness (意识). In the emergency vehicle, I simply kept asking her if it was ________. She nodded her head, which gave me great ________ because she was conscious and still felt pain. She was struggling for__________.

In the world, there are so many people struggling with different ________ When you are trapped in wild mountains, when you come across setbacks and hardships, and when you have no other way but to experience the pain by yourself, ________ask yourself. “Am I in pain?” When we feel the pain, we’ll have the courage to try our best to________and never give up.

【推荐3】Emma Jones’ three-year-old son, Eric, was sharing a hot dog on the deck overlooking her friend Sarah Roth’s swimming pool. One moment Jones was watching Eric play around with the other children at this _________ of moms and kids last July. The next moment he disappeared without a _________. She turned to her friend Machel Rawlings and asked, “Have you seen Eric?”

Rawlings stood, _________ the pool and suddenly screamed. Eric was found _________ face down in the deep end. What happened next was a _________ textbook response: As Rawlings dived in the pool, grasped the boy, _________ him over and swam him to the end. Meanwhile, their host, Sarah Roth, dialed 911. At the pool’s _________, Rawlings handed Eric up to his mother. His skin was blue and wasn’t breathing.

Rawlings who’d taken a CPR course just four months earlier, immediately began rescue breathing. Hanging up the phone, Roth, a former flight attendant who’d accumulated _________ experience before, _________ CPR from Rawlings. Three long minutes went by with Roth breathing into Eric’s mouth and __________ chest compressions (按压) while Rawlings and Jones __________ his condition. Gradually his color __________, and as the ambulance was arriving on the __________, Rawlings looked at Roth. “He’s breathing,” she said.

The __________ with which the women acted saved Eric’s life. Emma Jones found any words seemed powerless. She said __________, “They did everything right.”