【推荐3】Setting of fireworks during festivals is said to have a history of about 2000 years. It does add to festive atmosphere. But let’s stop and________the price we pay for just a few minutes of_________

First, the amount of money we spend on fireworks is_______.The excitement is gone ________. Let's face it, what we really are doing is burning _______ . Those tax dollars would be_______ to much better use.

Second, there is the matter of_______ .Fireworks contain chemicals that are harmful to people and animals. Over the years, these chemicals will_______ the air we breathe and the water we drink.

Third, let's consider the rubbish left behind after a fireworks _______ . What a _______! One would probably _______ those who set off the fireworks would have the politeness to _______ the trash afterwards. _______   they don't. The mess_______ the kind of attitude people have toward our_______ .

Fourth, fireworks are_______. Some fireworks can damage your_______ , especially the fireworks used meanwhile that give off a big BANG. Losing your hearing is too high a price to pay._______ all the safety warning, we still see injuries and deaths as a result of fireworks. Approximately 10,000 Americans are injured every year by fireworks.

In my view, all consumer fireworks should be_______ . Public fireworks displays should be kept to a minimum and should be paid for through volunteer funding, not tax dollar. Finally, those people in charge of fireworks displays should be_______ for cleaning up the mess they make.

【推荐2】It was a usual day for Kathy. She was walking her dog in her neighborhood when some crows (乌鸦) flew over and one of them ________ a baby robin (知更鸟) to the ground. Kathy rushed over.________ , she carried him back home and ________ him in a box lined with grass. He looked like he was in ________ and the fall had injured his feet. “He was so tiny. He couldn’t fly yet; he needed a________ .”Kathy says.

She ________ the bird wet cat food using a tiny paintbrush. “It was like having a human baby,” Kathy says. A week later, she started bringing Squeaker — ________ for his talkative nature— out to her yard, where he would hop in the grass. Soon his feet healed, and his wings grew________ enough to take him up to low branches in a tree. Within a few ________, he was able to spend the night outside in the tree. For the next couple of weeks, every time Kathy went outside Squeaker would fly over and ________ on her shoulder. When she taught him how to dig for worms, he’d stand on her foot — always as ________ to his rescuer as possible. “I really became his mom,” she says. “We ________. I loved this little creature.”

One day, Squeaker decided it was time for him to ________ on his own. He ________, out of sight. Having known that this day would come, Kathy ________ hoped she had done enough to________ the robin for the big world out there.

One month later, Kathy was ________ when Squeaker swooped (俯冲) down on a branch right near her head. “I was so happy to see him and to watch him flying so well. I think he wanted to show me he was okay,” says Kathy holding back tears.

“We don’t think of the common bird as anything ________, but Squeaker taught me so much with his love and his ________ to recover. It was inspiring. It’s a(an) ________ of how connected we all are. ”

【推荐3】While high school does not generally encourage students to explore new aspects of life, college sets the stage for that exploration. I myself went through this _______ process and found something that has changed my _______ at college for the better: I discovered ASL-American Sign Language.

I never felt an urge to _______ any sign language before. My entire family is hearing, and so are all my friends. The _______ language were enough in all my interactions(交往). Little did I know that I would discover my _______ for ASL.

The _______ began during my first week at college. I watched as the ASL Club _______ their translation of a song. Both the hand movements and the very _______ of communicating without speaking _______ me. What I saw was completely unlike anything I had experienced in the ________. This newness just left me ________ more.

After that, feeling the need to ________ further, I decided to drop in on one of ASL club’s meetings. I only learned how to ________ the alphabet that day. Yet instead of being discouraged by my ________ progress, I was excited. I then made it a point to ________ those meetings and learn all I could.

The following term, I ________ an ASL class. The professor was deaf and any talking was ________. I soon realized that the silence was not unpleasant. ________, if there had been any talking, it would have ________ us to learn less. Now, I appreciate the silence and the ________ way of communication it opens.

【推荐1】At the age of 60, my father was hit by a car when he walked to a nearby supermarket to buy vegetables. After _______ for two months in hospital, he finally woke up. His waking up excited all our family._______, he didn’t know any of us. Doctors said his brain was hurt so _______ that he had lost all his memory. And his mental age(心理年龄) was only five. We were sorry to hear about the bad news.

Since I was his only child, it was my _______ to look after him. He forgot almost everything, but he did remember he liked sweets. I used the sweets as a way of _______ bad behaviors. I would gave him one sweet _______ he didn’t sit on the ground, a second for stopping painting on the wall, and another for not trying to put clothes on the dog.

Dad became the _______ child in town. He climbed up the tree to catch a bird and couldn’t get down after it flew away. He broke my window with a ball and _______ our telephone in water like washing clothes. When I told him he was doing _______ things, he would answer smilingly, “I like that!” My son, then aged five, and two eight-year-old daughters, welcomed their ________ playmate. He would happily make them real cigarettes, ________ his sweets with them, and carry them high in the apple tree to pick apples.

It is eight years since the ________. Dad has accepted the fact that he is the grandfather of his three playmates but not a brother. He has also accepted that they grow taller but his ________ stays the same. Though it is still ________ to take care of him, he brings us a lot of fun. In some way I think it is a(n) ________ thing to look after dad like looking after a child. How many people can have the chance to care for a child-like parent?

【推荐2】Valentine’s Day was the time my father chose to show his love for the special people in his life. Over the years I fondly (天真地) thought ________ him as my “Valentine man”.

My first memory of the ________ he could bring to Valentine’s Day came when I was six. That morning at the breakfast table I found a card and a gift-wrapped package at my chair. The card was ________ “Love, Dad” and the gift was a ring with a small piece of red glass to ________ my birthstone, a ruby (红宝石). There is ________ difference between red glass and rubies to a child of six, and I remember ________ that ring with pride that all the cards in the world ________ not surpass (超越).

________ I grew older, the gifts gave ________ to heart-shaped boxes filled with my _________ chocolate and always included a _________ card signed “Love, Dad”. In those years my “thank-you” became _________ of a perfunctory (敷衍) response. The cards seemed less _________, and I took for granted that the Valentine would _________ be there. I had _________ my hopes and dreams in receiving cards and gifts from “significant others” and “Love Dad” just didn’t seem quite _________ .

His final card remains on my desk today. It’s a _________ of how special fathers can be and how important it has been to me to know that I had a father who continued a tradition of _________ with simple acts of understanding of the people in his life.

Those things never _________, nor does the memory of a man who never _________ being my Valentine man.