【推荐1】Born in America, I spoke English ,not Chinese, the language of my ancestors. When I was three, my parents flashed cards with Chinese _______ at my face, but I pushed them_______. My mom believed I would learn_______ I was ready. But the_______ never came.

On a Chinese New Year’s Eve, my uncle spoke to me in Chinese, but all I could do was_______ at him, confused, scratching my head . “Still can’t speak Chinese? ” He_______ me, “You can’t even buy a fish in Chinatown.”

“Hey, this is America, not China. I’ll get some_______ with or without Chinese.” I replied and turned to my mom for_______ . “Remember to ask for fresh fish, Xin Xian Yu,” she said, handing over a $20 bill. I _______ the words, running downstairs into the streets of Chinatown.

I found the fish ______ surrounded in a sea of customers. “I’d like to buy some fresh fish,” I should to the fish man. But he______ my English words and turned to serve the next customer. The laugh of the people behind increased _____ their impatience. With every _____, the breath of the dragons (龙) on my back grew stronger—my blood boiling— ______ me to cry out. “ Xian Sheng Yu, please.” “Very Xian Sheng,” I repeated. The crowd erupted into laughter. My face turned_______ and I ran back home ______ , except for the $20 bill I held tightly in my pocket.

Should I laugh or cry? They’re Chinese. I should feel right at______ . Instead, I was the joke, a disgrace (丢脸)to the language.

Sometimes, I laugh at my fish_______ , but, in the end, the joke is on _______ . Every laugh is a culture_______; every laugh is my heritage (传统) fading away.

【推荐2】On such a rainy day, I had no intention to drive up the winding hilly road to my daughter Betty’s house. But she had _______ me to see something at the top. So here I was, _______ making the two-hour journey through the thick fog.

I _______ along the dangerous highway. Turning down a narrow track, we _______ and got out. When we turned a corner, we stopped—and I gasped (喘息) in _______. From the top of the mountain, for several acres down across the valleys, were rivers of daffodils (水仙花) in blossom. A variety of _______—from the palest milky to the deepest lemon-shone like a carpet before us.

A flow of _______ filled my mind. Who created such beauty? Why? How? _______ we approached the home that stood in the center of the possessions, we saw a sign _______: “Answers I Know You Are ________. The first was: “One ________—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.” The second: “One at a Time.” The third “Started in 1968.”

She started almost fifty years ago, probably just at the ________ of an idea, but she kept at it. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a(n) ________ and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have ________?” Betty looked at me sideways, smiling.” Start tomorrow,” she said. “________, start today.”

【推荐3】“Father, I don’t like to go to school,” said Harry Williams one morning. “I wish you would let me stay at home. Charles Parker’s father doesn’t make him go to school.”

Mr Williams______his little boy by the hand, and said _______to him, “Come, my son. I want to show you _____ in the garden.”

Harry walked into the garden with his_______, who led him along until they came to a bed in which peas(豌豆) were growing. Not a weed(杂草) was to be ______about their roots.

“See how beautifully these peas are ______, my son,” said Mr. Williams. “How clean and healthy the vines(藤) look. We shall have a good ______. Now let me show you the vines in Mr. Parker’s garden.”

Mr. Williams then______Harry to look at Mr. Parker’s pea vines.

After a few moments, Mr. Williams asked, “Well, my son, what do you ______Mr. Parker’s pea vines?”

“Oh, Father!” replied the little boy. “I never saw such______looking peas in my life! The weeds are nearly as_____ as the peas themselves. There won’t be half a crop!”

“_______are they so much worse than ours, Harry?”

“Because they have been left to grow as they______. I suppose Mr. Parker just planted them, and never took any care of them______”

“ Yes. A garden will soon be overrun with weeds_______it is not taken good care of,” Mr. Williams   ____, “and so it is with the human garden. Children’s minds are like garden beds. They must be   ____ cared for. I send you to school in order that the garden of your ______may have good seeds and _____ plentifully. Now which would you_____, to stay at home or go to school?”

“I would rather go to school,” said Harry.

【推荐2】My aunt came to my home with her six-year-old daughter Alice this morning. While my aunt was talking with my mom, my cousin felt a bit _______. So I suggested I went out with her. My aunt happily _______. We went to the park together. There we bought two _______ and started flying them. She jumped up and down and I knew she was _______ having great fun. And I must admit I haven’t enjoyed myself like that for a long time.

Later, we sat down on a bench, looking at the gardens. As we were _______ there, Alice said, “What a great day today!” I smiled at her and agreed. I then started thinking about what we had done that day. We did something quite _______, yet we were very happy.

Many people wait for their “best days”. But I think today is our _______ day. That’s a lesson I learn today. As adults, we often make plans _______ in order to have a great day. Some people think they can have a nice day through spending a lot of _______. I think we should be more like ________. They don’t think about money or what will happen tomorrow. They ________ live in the moment and enjoy the moment!

We often hear the expression that we should live in the ________. How do we do that? We’re not doing such a ________job. Remember today is important as we are exchanging a day of our ________ for it. Yesterday is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a ________. That’s why it is called present. So seize the day!

【推荐3】When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor, a physician named Doctor Gibbs. He didn't look like any _________ I'd ever known. We often played in his yard. But he never _________ us for making a mess in his yard.

When Doctor Gibbs wasn't _________ lives, he was planting trees in his yard. He had some interesting _______ about planting trees. He _________ the principle "No pains, no gains". He _________ watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional（传统的）wisdom. Once I asked why and he told me that _________ plants spoiled（宠坏）them because it made them grow _________. He said he had to make things _________ for the trees so that only the strongest could __________. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow __________ and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water. So, __________ watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled-up newspaper to help the trees build up __________.

After he died, I walked by his __________ and looked at the trees, which were all tall and strong. I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of __________ these trees meant they grew weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. Hardship seemed to benefit Doctor Gibbs' trees in ways __________ and case never could exist.

Every night, before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But __________I've been thinking that it's time to change my __________. I know my children are going to __________ hardship. What I need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rain falls and the wind blows, they won't be __________.

【推荐1】It happened when our grandchild, Anne, was three years old., My husband, Paul, asked her if there was anything she wanted to plant in our garden. She had an answer———Fritos (曲炸玉米饼).

"Anne, Fritos might not______in this soil,"he said. But Anne looked at her grandfather and said that if the other vegetables could grow, so would Fritos.   Paul   __this in the simplest way possible. He sent Anne running to the house for Fritos.

That evening, I asked Paul, "Are you______?”

"She will forget it"he______. The next day, Anne asked again. To gain time, Paul said It would _______two weeks for Fritos to come out. That should be plenty of time for her to forget, he thought.

For the next two weeks, she arrived every evening to check her "Fritos land". Anne grew more______. But with each passing day, Paul became more and more______. By the 13th day, he had_______a plan, and the next morning we began to work.

We planted two plants where the Fritos were______. Then we began the difficult task of tying Fritos around the leaves of the plants. At last, that was quite a______off our mind.

Anne ran straight to the garden as usual. We were shocked when she shouted, “Grandpa! They’re up! The Fritos came up!”

The story was repeated several times. When Anne was in second grade, it was finally forgotten until the day her teacher talked about the topic of______. As part of the lesson, the teacher asked each child to______ something that grows in a garden. You can______what Anne said!

Anne’s parents_______it was time to tell the truth. Their daughter sat very still while they talked, and when they finished, she remained_______ . Suddenly, Anne burst out laughing and said, “That's the best joke Grandpa ever played on me.”

【推荐2】We run into situations where we take many things for granted (理所当然的) in our daily lives. We only ________ things when they are gone. This is a sad truth of human nature.

The other day, I witnessed a similar situation. I left work and boarded the train. After entering, I noticed something ________. The center of the car had a few empty seats while both ends were crowded with people ________. I paid no much attention and sat down on one of the empty seats. I ________ a funny smell. It wasn’t long before I noticed a ________ person sleeping on three seats in front of me. He was bleeding from his nose. Why wasn’t anyone helping him?

His clothes were ________ and he was giving off a strange smell. Along with the smell, his eyes were ________, watery and red. Occasionally he scratched (抓破) himself and people looked at him as if he was a/ an ________. As the train stopped at stations and more people came in, they covered their noses and ________ him. All the seats around him were empty.

________, he began to swear at the people around him. A plain-clothes ________ took out his certificate (证件) and ________ it to the homeless man. The officer, not wanting to touch the homeless man, told him his rights and directed him to exit the ________. The homeless man turned around and said “MY HOME!” and started crying as the officer ________ the man out of the train.

A man doesn’t value things until they are gone. If he didn’t have a ________, at least he had freedom. Now he has neither. No one wants to help someone who won’t help himself.

【推荐3】This is my driver Jacob. He was sent to _______ me up and take me to where I’ll be working.

He _______ with me that since the pandemic he had had to change _______ and was currently spending six days a week away from his family in a town that had more work. He _______ the name of his hometown Nah Bok and shared that he had to spend five hours on his _______ day off on the three different buses to get there and back to spend one day with them.

My father had _______ away when I was young. Sometimes away for weeks and months at a time. I _______ us kids waiting for our turn to have just a couple of minutes on the _______ with him. So two hours into our drive when I saw a _______ saying Nah Bok I asked him if that was where his family ________. He said yes and it was about 5 miles down the road. I said why didn’t we ________ and say hello. He looked at me like I was ________ or joking and I said again.

As we ________ his wife was chatting on the side of the road with his mother. All of the children came out. They were so ________ to see him.

Be kind. Slow down and listen to people’s stories. Take the time to give somebody else a ________ even if it’s just your time.