【推荐2】A letter from Grandpa

Dear Ronny,

Years ago you came to me for help. You said, "Grandpa, how is it that you've accomplished so much in your life? You're still full of _________, and I'm already tired of struggling. How can I get that same _________ that you've got?"

I didn't know what to say to you then. But knowing my days are _________, I figure that I ________ you an answer. So here is what I believe.

I think a lot of it has to do with how a person _______ things. I call it “keeping your eyes wide open”.

First, realize that life is filled with________, but many are good ones. If you don't keep watching for them, you'll miss half the excitement. Expect to be thrilled once in a while, and you will be.

When you meet up with challenges, _________ them. They'll leave you wiser, __________, and more capable than you were the day before. When you make a mistake, be ________ for the things it taught you. Resolve to use that lesson to help you reach your goals.

And always follow the rules. Even the little ones. When you follow the rules, life works. If you think you ever really get by with _________ the rules, you're only fooling yourself.

Sometimes we have to be ________ enough to move from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Life isn't just reaching _________. Part of it is moving from one peak to the next. If you rest too long in between, you might be tempted to________. Leave the past in the past. Climb the next mountain and enjoy the view.

Dump things that weigh you down __________ and spiritually. When an old resentment（怨恨）, belief, or attitude becomes heavy,_________ your load. Shed those hurtful __________ that slow you down and drain（消耗） your energy.

Remember that your choices will create your _________and your failures. So consider all the pathways _________, and decide which one to follow. Then believe in yourself, get up, and get going.

Most important of all, ________give up on yourself. The person that ends up a winner is the one who resolves to win. Give life everything you've got, and life will _________its best to you.

Love always,

Grandpa

【推荐3】Leslie Morissette’s son, Graham was 6 years old when he was diagnosed with leukemia (白血病). Throughout Graham’s _______ in the hospital, Graham connected with everyone he met, from_______patients to younger children. “He would _______ other sick children his toys or act stupidly to make them laugh,” Morissette said. “Graham’s special spirit is what keeps me going. He gave me the energy and the _______ to fight with him. In 1997, when he was 8 years old, Graham passed away.

____ by how Graham lived his life caring about others, Morissette _______ the nonprofit Grahamtastic Connection in his honor. The organization provides free technology—including computers and robots—for children _______ cancer and other serious illnesses.

One of the major goals of Morissette’s work is to _______ kids to their classrooms, which really helps them continue their _______ despite hospitalization and the days ________ in school.

The robots “transport” children right into the classroom in real time. They can ________ the robots right form their ________ bed or home. If children are unable to attend school, they can ________ log on to their tablet PC or laptop and call in the robot. They can ________ up and down the school paths. They can go to lunch with their ________. The real magic happens between classes, when they’re walking down the hallway with their friends, by robots, ________ their weekends and their favorite foods and other things. It’s great technology that really gives children the feeling of control, when their world is maybe ________ control.

“Every time I can help a child in need, I feel ________ Graham is smiling,” Morissette said, “I believe that Graham’s ________ lives on in the work that I do. And I’m ________ and honored to be able to do it in his honor.”

【推荐2】I was ready to pay for my bananas at the grocery one night, when fear seized me. My wallet was gone. I could only have left it on the G9 bus, which was now speeding in the dark to some _________ station.

The _________ moment was quickly followed by mental math. How much time and money would it cost to replace the _________ of that little wallet? The credit cards, the driver's license, the cash, all lost to the bus.

Two hours later, back at my house, I heard a knock on the door. My husband _________ it while I was on the phone in the dining room. “Does Jennifer live here?” I heard a lady say. In my husband's hand was my wallet, with not a penny _________ . She left before I could even make it to the door to offer my thanks.

After sharing the story online, I heard from someone, who _________ the lady as Erin Smith. Without delay, I called to thank her. She said she _________ my wallet on a bus seat. She calculated that going to a stranger's house was a _________ move, but she decided to take the chance. “If I were in that _________, I would want someone to try to find me,” she said.

This one stranger responded beautifully to my small crisis, but she actually wasn't the only one. Right after Erin __________ my wallet on the bus, she posted a picture of my driver's license to an online forum (论坛), trying to see __________ anyone knew me. No sooner did she leave my doorstep than I had emails from two women whose kids go to my son's nursery and who recognized my face. I've never __________ words with those moms beyond small talk, but they wanted to help. I read that people are more divided than ever, but that's not how the people I encounter tend to act.

__________ I feel blessed someone had wanted to help a stranger. Erin had gone __________ what almost anyone would have done, finding my house on a bitterly cold night, and for that I was extremely __________ .

【推荐3】A Race against Death

It was a cold January in 1925 in North Alaska. The town was cut off from the rest of the world because of the heavy snow.

On the 20th of that month, Dr. Welch _________ a sick boy, Billy, and knew he had diphtheria, a deadly infectious (传染的) disease mainly affecting children. The children of Nome would be _________ if it struck the town. Dr. Welch needed medicine as soon as possible to stop other kids from getting sick. _________ , the closest supply was over 1,000 miles away, in Anchorage.

How could the medicine get to Nome? The town’s _________ was already full of ice, so it couldn’t come by ship. Cars and horses couldn’t travel on the _________ roads. Jet airplanes and big trucks didn’t exist yet.

_______ January 26, Billy and three other children had died. Twenty more were _________. Nome’s town officials came up with a(n) _________. They would have the medicine sent by _________ from Anchorage to Nenana. From there, dogsled (狗拉雪橇) drivers — known as “mushers”—would __________ it to Nome in a relay.

The race began on January 27. The first musher, Shannon, picked up the medicine from the train at Nenana and rode all night. __________ he handed the medicine to the next musher, Shannon’s face was black from the extreme cold.

On January 31, a musher named Seppala had to __________ a frozen body of water called Norton Sound. It was the most __________ part of the journey. Norton Sound was covered with ice, which could sometimes break up without warning. If that happened, Seppala might fall into the icy water below. He would __________, and so would the sick children of Nome. But Seppala made it across.

A huge snowstorm hit on February 1. A musher named Kaasen had to brave this storm. At one point, huge piles of snow blocked his __________. He had to leave the trail (雪橇痕迹) to get around them. Conditions were so bad that it was impossible for him to   __________ the trail again. The only hope was Balto, Kaasen’s lead dog. Balto put his nose to the ground, __________to find the smell of other dogs that had traveled on the trail. If Balto failed, it would mean disaster for Nome. The minutes passed by. Suddenly, Balto began to __________. He had found the trail.

At 5:30 am on February 2, Kaasen and his dog __________ in Nome. Within minutes, Dr. Welch had the medicine. He quickly gave it to the sick children. All of them recovered.

Nome had been __________.

【推荐1】An Uber driver stopped her workday so she could help a mother with a sick child.

Nicole Ihus’s son John Henry was _________ last month with a severe disease. Nicole, living in Kansas City, contacted doctors from Minnesota and Missouri hoping to treat John Henry for the condition, but in vain. Luckily, Nicole managed to contact “the _________ doctor in the world for this condition”, who had saved the lives of some children, at Johns Hopkins in Florida. So she traveled _________ there to give her newborn son a fighting chance.

After John Henry was _________ into the ICU, Nicolo felt sad and _________ in the new state, but she had to leave her son’s side to buy him some _________. Upon ordering an Uber ride to the nearby children’s store, she was _________ by a woman named Belinda. Shortly after Nicole got into her car, the mother poured out her heartbreaking _________.

“She told me her story,” Belinda said. “She was _________ a couple of times and I really felt sorry for her.” __________ simply dropping Nicole off at the store, however, Belinda parked the car and insisted on accompanying her __________ into the store so she could __________ John Henry to new clothes. Obviously, Nicole was filled with gratitude.

Nicole said, “For this __________ to go completely out of her way---stop what she was doing---to be with me for several hours while we shopped together, that was just __________.” As Nicole cares for her newborn son, she hopes to introduce the Uber driver to her son as a thank you for her __________ of kindness.

【推荐2】Spring was in the air, but this year it felt different. Like many families, Sandy and John, who were ordered to stay at home because of the COVID-19, were running _________ on groceries. Then Sandy, 72, found a typed note _________ up in her morning paper.

“My name is Greg Dailey. I deliver your newspaper every morning,” the _________ read. “I understand during these times it is difficult for some to get out of their houses to get everyday _________. I would like to offer my services for free to whoever needs groceries.” It included his phone number. She was doubtful, but she _________ anyway, Sandy said, “I called Greg, and he delivered $302 of groceries to the front of my garage the very next day without _________ me a penny.”

Dailey, 50, is a self-described “shy guy”. But when he noticed that an older customer didn’t want to walk down to the sidewalk to pick up her morning newspaper _________ the coronavirus pandemic, it made him think there must be plenty of people around who were _________ to leave their home—even for groceries.

Some grocery stores deliver, but it takes days or weeks. Customers have to figure out how to _________ their orders online, which can be ____________, and then there are delivery fees to pay.

Dailey sat down at his computer and typed out a(n) ____________ to shop for all 800 of his newspaper customers and ____________ else in his delivery area that might need help.

A few days ago, he received another thank-you note from a longtime subscriber, “You were there when I stayed at home ____________. You’re the ____________ thing to an angel I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you know what that does to your heart? I just ____________,” Dailey said.

【推荐3】“I guess I’m never going to see Hawaii before I die.” My mother said these words many times during the last years of her life. Her father, a soldier from World War II, was one of the ______ of the Pearl Harbor, who had passed away shortly before I was born, and it had always been a ______ for her to visit the place which ______ such a historical and emotional meaning for her.

In fact, my mother was lucky enough to travel all over the world during her marriage to my father and she saw many places we would be ______ of. She once lived in Dubai with my father, and they spent some amazing time visiting that beautiful city.

______, she never got to Hawaii. As my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary ______, my sister and I decided that ______ was going to be a better gift than ______ our parents were in Hawaii for their golden celebration. So finally, after years of ______ my father took her there, and completely ______ everyone by reviewing their vows of love in their youth on a beautiful beach. I think it was one of the happiest ______ in her life, and one of the most unforgettable moments I carry with was that my sister and I ______ our father to make that trip happen. But the good time was short, because my mother’s health ______ became worse after she came back and she passed away the next year.

I’ll forever be ______ that my mom had that time with my father in Hawaii before she left us. My father had a chain that he had bought for my mother as a ______ of that trip, and now he wears it every day. My mother will stay in our mind forever.