【推荐1】I love the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I've watched it many times. And each time I do, one part of it always makes me _______ and feel good about life itself. _______ it has even been an _______ for me to travel the world.

Do you remember when Charlie is telling Grandpa George that he's _______ a golden ticket to visit the Wonka chocolate factory? He is so _______ but then pauses for a moment to _______ that their family is very poor. He's a good boy and wants to do the _______ thing. But when he suggests selling the ticket to earn some money, Grandpa George _______ it！He tells the boy:“There's plenty of _______ out there. But this ticket-there are only five of them in the whole world. Only fool would give this __________ for something as common as money. Are you fool?" Charlie   ________ “No, Sir.” Grandpa smiles and   ________ him.

What great __________ those are. With his years of __________, Grandpa is telling Charlie he's holding a golden __________. This is for him to do something extraordinary. Only a fool would give it up for money, which won't __________ this experience.

And so it is with travel. I quickly __________ the truth in the saying “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you __________”. Because wealth is not only defined(定义) by our bank __________.It also means many other aspects of our life such as unique experiences, understanding other cultures, or the __________ of making new friends.

【推荐2】A friend was cast in The Sound of Music. Tim suggested our daughters might enjoy being a ______ of the musical.

“You can try out for the band,” he said.

“No, I’m trying out for the show.” I answered. But there was one problem with my ______: I’d never been in a musical. And I’d never sung ______.

My daughters wanted to ______, so we memorized show tunes and prepared to audition (试镜). As our audition ______, I felt nervous and wanted to give up. But I knew ______ would set a bad example.

“Whether you’re ______ or not isn’t important-doing your best is who ______,” I’d been telling them. Now I had to live it.

I walked into the audition. To say I was ______ would be an understatement. After all, my last audition had been in high school. I sang my song, trying to look confident. My daughters did a good ______. Then we waited for the result. The good news is that we all ______ it! Not only was I cast-I was a lead!

To prepare, I ______ to the cat, the shower and the dishes when alone, I knew I’d have to get over my ______of performing in public. After all, this’d be my first time to sing in public. I was a little nervous.

I told friends and family about the ______. I didn’t want the theater to be ______, but I didn’t necessarily want it packed either. ______, if it were full, I preferred to fill it myself with ______ faces.

The show was successful. Friends and acquaintances all ______ us. After that experience, I ______ more auditions and even learned to enjoy singing on stage. And I filled my life with the sound of ______.

【推荐3】I recently heard a story about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. What set him so far apart from others?

He____that, in his opinion, it all came from an____from his mother that happened when he was about 2 years old. He had been trying to____a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his ____on the slippery(光滑的) bottle and it ____, making its contents pouring all over the kitchen floor.

When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of____at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said: “Robert, what an(a)____and wonderful mess you have made! I have____seen such a huge pool of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to____down and play in the milk for a few____before we clean it up?”

Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said: “You know, Robert,____you make a mess like this, you have to clean it up at last and restore everything to its proper____. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you____?” He chose the sponge and together they____up the milk.

His mother then said: “You know, what happened just now is a____experiment in how effectively to carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s____out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can____a way to carry it without dropping it.” The little boy____that if he held the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it.

This scientist then____that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make____.

Wouldn’t it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert’s mother responded to him?

【推荐3】This was my grandmother’s first Christmas without grandfather, and before he passed away we had promised grandfather that we would make this her best Christmas ever. When my parents and I _______ at her house, we found she had waited up all night for us. The house did seem a little _______ without grandfather.

Grandfather had always said that the Christmas _______ was the most important decoration of all. So we immediately set to work on the beautiful artificial tree that was stored in grandfather’s closet (壁橱). Through our efforts, we finally stepped back to _______ our handiwork. It looked beautiful. _______ something was missing.

“Where’s your star?” I asked.

The star was my grandmother’ s favorite part of the tree.

“Why, it _______ be here somewhere,” she said, starting to sort through the boxes again. “Your grandfather always _______ everything so carefully when he took the tree down.”

As we emptied the boxes and _______ no star, my grandmother’s eyes filled with tears. Grandfather had given it to grandmother some fifty years ago on their first Christmas together. It brought them great happiness. Now, on her first Christmas without him, the star was _______ , too.

“Don’t worry, Grandmother,” I ________ her. “We’ll find it for you.”

My mother and I formed a search ________ “Let’ s start in on the closet where the ornaments (装饰品) were,“ Mother said. ”Maybe the star just fell out of the box.”

That sounded ________ , so I began to search the closet. I thought I tried every ________ , but no star. I could see grandmother was ________ , although she tried not to show it.

“What’s in this wrapped box?” Mother suddenly called out. “It was at the bottom of father’s closet.”

Grandmother took the box in ________ and opened it. Her face ________ when she unfolded the paper and pulled out a golden star. There was a(n) ________ attached.

Don’ t be angry with me, dear. I broke your star while packing the decorations, and I couldn’t ________ to tell you. Thought it was time for a new one. I hope it brings you as much ________ as the first one. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Bryant

So grandmother’s tree had a star after all, a star that expressed their everlasting love for one another. And we were glad we were able to make this Christmas ________ for her.