【推荐1】A 9-year-old boy is called a hero after he rescued his dad when a car fell on him. Brave J.T. Parker’s ________ thinking saved his father’s life.

________ dad Stephen Parker said that last July, he and his sons J.T., 9 and Mason, 17, were in the backyard working in a Toyota car when the ________ happened.

“ We were ________ the engines out of the car and, after we got it jacked (用千斤顶顶起) up, I climbed under there to take the parts off,” he said. “The one part came off pretty ________ but the other side was not coming off.”

At that moment, Mason had gone inside the house ________ he cut himself, but the dad ________ working. Suddenly, the car fell on top of him.

He said he _______ at J.T. to jack the car up but he didn’t think his young son would ________ it.

“ I couldn’t move at all,” Parker said. “I was totally ________ , and then I passed out. It was all in his hands.”

J.T., who weighs about 50 pounds, said he, too, didn’t think he would be able to   ________ the car off his father, but he started jumping up and down on the jack right away.

It took him   ________, but J.T. was able to save his father   ________. He then ran to get his brother out of the house. They called the   ________ immediately.

Parker was then sent to the nearest hospital with 13 broken ribs (肋骨). He was   ________ two months later thanks to the timely rescue from his young hero.

【推荐2】Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it’s true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn’t _______ a silly bicycle accessory (配件) into a life lesson I carry with me today. My mother and father were _______ in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I _______don’t know how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task, but she made it look _______. We had to keep _______ of our belongings, and if something was lost, it was not _______.

One day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire _______—and it was in the window, white, shiny, plastic and_______with flowers, the basket winked(眨眼)at me and I knew —I knew—I had to have it.

“It’s beautiful,” my mother said when I pointed it out to her, “What a neat basket!”

I tried to _______ at first, and I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn’t stand it ________:“Mom, please, can I please, get it? I’ll do extra housework for ________ you say. I’ll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?”

“You know,” she said, “If you ________ you could buy this yourself.”

“By the time I make enough it’ll be gone!”

“There might be ________ way,” she said.

And our paying plan ________. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I couldn’t find. Each week I ________ counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there. And then, weeks later, I counted, re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, happy day! I ________ it! I finally had the exact amount we’d agreed upon…

Days later, something ________ happened. A neighborhood girl I’d played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike. I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this ________. And then ________ the lesson I’ve taken with me through my life: “Honey, your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently ________ my hot tears. “Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself.”

【推荐1】Failing in something isn’t a really nice feeling. But Scotland’s Fettes College in Edinburgh wants to show its students that ________ is not something to fear and is actually something to ________ !

From this year on, the boarding school has been ________ the “Failure Week” to celebrate taking risks and learning from failure. Whether it is in sports or at school, children often face a lot of ________ to succeed and do well, and the school is becoming ________ about them.

“Young people from all walks of life live in a high-pressure environment where they are ________ efforts to achieve a level of being ________ ,” said Sue Bruce, head of personal and social education at the school. “This week at Fettes we have been focusing on one of the most misunderstood ingredients of ________----failure. While we are often ________of failure, it is important to learn that it is only ________failing, often many times, that we learn how to succeed. Through the week, we have looked at the ________of some of the most successful inventors and artists, who failed hundreds, if not thousands, of times in their ________ to success.”

To ________failure, students were encouraged to try something they had been ________ to do before, like playing an instrument or juggling in front of an audience. A number of students ________ and tried things that they finally failed in, but they had fun and ________ the experience.

Students also ________ about famous people like J. K. Rowling and Richard Branson who failed many times ________ they achieved what they had set out to do. “Don’t let failure stop you. Thomas Edison had failed many times before taking his inventions to the ________ , which people were eager to buy. If you let the fear of failure stop you from doing something, you are ________ stopping yourselves from learning, developing, and potentially succeeding,” said Bruce.

【推荐1】Every year I’d read over 2,000 college applications from students all over the world. It is quite ______ to choose whom to admit. ______, in the chaos of SAT scores and recommendations, one ______ is always irresistible (无法抗拒的) in a candidate: kindness.

The most surprising ______ of kindness I’ve ever ______ came from a student who had excellent scores and a supportive recommendation from his college counselor (顾问). Even with these qualifications, he might not have ______. But one letter of recommendation caught my eye. It was from a school security ______. Actually, letters of recommendation are typically written by people like former presidents, celebrities, and Olympic athletes.

The security guard wrote that he supported this student’s admission because of his ______. This young man was the only person in the school who knew the names of every member of the guard staff. He turned off lights in empty rooms, consistently ______ the hallway monitor each morning and tidied up the classroom after his peers left school ______ nobody was watching. This student, the security guard wrote, had a(n) ______ respect for every person at the school, regardless of position, popularity or power.

It gave us a ______ onto a student’s life in the moments when nothing “counted”. That student was admitted by unanimous (一致的) vote of the admissions committee.

Next year there might be a flood of security guard recommendations ______ this essay. But if it means students will start paying as much ______ to the people who clean their classrooms as they do to their principals and teachers, I’m happy to help start that ______.

【推荐3】Not a day when I have doubted my love for this girl． We got to enjoy our 42nd wedding anniversary， while_____the beautiful Mayan towns this past week， where we had breakfast and I___some photos． I am so fortunate to have Anne enjoying these adventures as my___during the last 10 years that we have been travelling， photographing and exploring Central American countries．

When Anne was in her early 30s， a strange_____attacked her body． Within a couple of years her joints became inflexible and couldn't move____． The doctors foretold that she would probably be in a（n）_____ by her mid 40s ﹣ and we had all this_____planned for our life once the kids_____ home．

Anne_____to make the best of it， and refuses to____the illness and the severe pain that she has at times． Her yearly_____by her doctor， shows slow advancement_____to the early years of the disease setting in． The doctor's____to Anne for the past few years is "keep doing what you are doing"． Of course I am her right hand man，____for oncoming cars that she can't____ her head to see， and putting her socks on because she can't reach her_____． I have to stop at times as she_____her breath． And so we have a pile of_____while exploring， documenting， climbing volcanoes， and_____endless miles in hilly towns and cities each day．

Anyway this is the_____of my life as we head on to 43 years of loving and supporting each other．