【推荐1】“I am leaving home.” When Timmy, my 10-year-old son eagerly announced that he couldn’t wait to _______, the feeling of guilt peaked as I tried to figure out the _______.

“So, I can get a dog,’’ he stressed.

But I stayed _______—we didn’t need a dog to complete our life— and he gave up. Until the day I _______ Timmy, with his brother, discussing his moving plan. Suddenly, the situation _______: gain a dog or _______ a child, I felt my determination _______. “We can look into it,” I replied doubtfully, but the kind of dog we wanted cost a(n) _______ $ 1,000! Yes, love had a price. I _______ for thought, again.

I shared my present ________ with my friend whose love for dogs was quite sensible. He ________ me to his pet keeper friend who got a pregnant (怀孕的) dog and the baby dogs were due soon. A few days later, we took a surprise trip to the countryside when the little dogs were ________. I would admit that all my previous ________ reappeared after watching a group of blind things, but it was too late. Among screams of ________, we chose one of the little dogs as ours.

We attempt to ________ our kids in a healthy way—I didn’t realize the added dimension (方面) of love and ________ that a dog would teach my kids. On a hot day, Timmy cut short his outing to ________ if Odie, the dog, had enough water. When Odie was sick, my elder son made fresh soup and ________ fed it to him.

My children no longer talk about leaving home ________ there is the troublesome issue of who will take the dog. They quietly learn how to give and receive love. If having a dog means linking my children even closer together, it will be a mother’s prayer ________.

【推荐3】It was 4 o'clock in the morning, when I received the phone call.

“This is the emergency room calling and your son was just _______ in with serious burn on his face, neck and arms. We have called for a(n) _______ and are going to fly him to the burn unit in Seattle.” Seattle was 350 miles from his college, so we knew immediately this was _______.

The doctor described the _______, which caused the burns. At 6 a.m., our son and his friends decided to barbecue hamburgers in the courtyard of their apartment. When they _______ the charcoal (木炭), it burst into flames because they had sprayed too much petrol. The flames _______ my son’s shirt tail and shot from his waist to well over his head.

_______, one of the boys was quick-minded, grasped my son, and _______ him on the grass. While it saved his life, there was not enough _______ to save him from fearful burns and the terrible scars (伤疤).

After he ________ from the treatments, the doctors told him they would not do plastic surgery (整容) for 6 months ________ it takes that long for the skin to stop shrinking and wrinkling. So, he had to return to college with scars typical of burns.

When I was a child, my mother told my sister who had a 10-inch very ________ scar on her arm, “Nancy, if you ignore the scar, other people will ignore it. It does not mean they will not ________ it, but it means it will not matter to them if it doesn’t matter to you.”

I ________ this wisdom on to my son. He took my advice to ________ and returned to school with his head held high-glad he was alive. By the end of the six-month waiting period, he decided that the scars did not ________, so he made the ________ to give up any plastic surgery.

We all have “scars” that we believe ________ people to keep away from us. And we spend a lot of time thinking that if only we looked differently, or dressed differently, people would like us better. But you see, people will only judge you by your looks, or your clothes, if you are judging yourself by these same ________ standards. Put your imperfections out of your mind and concentrate on what you value ________ yourself, and your beauty will shine through.

【推荐2】On July 20, Yu Yifei, a 26-year-old medical intern (实习医生) at People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou, made his way home in a sub way train on Line 5 after his first day’s training. When downpours struck the city, he_________about a dozen people trapped in a flooded subway train as the rainfall in Zhengzhou reached a_________201.9 millimeters between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Floodwaters_________a barrier and entered the underground area. The train came to a sudden stop before the water began_________in the carriages, trapping passengers inside. Thus Yu,_________to leave and fearing for his life, made a_________call to his father.

As water continued to flow into the carriages, passengers’_________rose. When subway workers arrived to withdraw them, Yu_________to get out. As he made his way to safety, he heard a cry for help from someone needing a doctor. He quickly_________the white medical coat given to him at the hospital__________and returned to the platform to save people. On seeing him, a number of frightened people were greatly encouraged and their spirits__________. Some even applauded him.

As more passengers were pulled from the__________, Yu instructed others in the key steps to save a victim from drowning. He__________CPR, or first aid, to those in low-temperature shock from the cold water and near death from drowning. One of the passengers, a female doctor nearly died. After__________consciousness and strength, she joined Yu in treating others. Yu was__________and needed all his concentration to perform another CPR procedure.

That night on a subway station platform, he__________an exhausting six hours giving CPR to passengers who__________survived drowning. He also treated the injured. He__________the subway station at about midnight, with the white coat spotted with blood and__________. Three hours later, he met his father. With tears in eyes, his father and people__________smiled and gave him the thumbs-up.

【推荐3】In 2001, a storm hit Houston. More than 70, 000 houses were flooded, including the _______ of Sarah Feldman and her family.

At the time, they were on vacation in another city, so they didn’t know what kind of _______   they were going to face when they got home. But then Feldman’s grandpa called with _______ news: All of her books had been destroyed in the flooding.

Feldman was 14 at the time and loved _______ books. To cheer her up, Feldman’s father took her to the library at Yale University, where she _______ a conversation with Bill Carver, a man who worked in the library. When she told him about her collected books being destroyed, he _______ that he would send her a book in the mail, so she could restart her collection.

After _______ to Houston, she received his _______ , titled The Medieval Art Book by Barbara A. Shailor. Carver included a note that _______ : Dear Sarah, this is a rather scholarly book, which may be ________ mature for your age, but I thought it might help you shape your ________ library collection. And as the years progress, this book may grow in ________ to you.

Feldman, who is in her 30s now, has fallen in love with medieval art since ________ that book. She has tried to find Carver years later, with no ________ .

“If I could speak to him today,” says Feldman. “I would like to tell him how much that small gesture has ________ my life.”

【推荐2】My first year living in Los Angeles, I was a birthday­party clown. I struggled a lot with my identity because, though I viewed myself as a _________, everyone in my life viewed me according to this _________ day job. To make matters more confusing, being a clown is _________ an identity­masking job.

One night, someone said: “Tomorrow you’re going to be Batman.” At the time I had a giant mustache. I knew: a clown with a mustache—that’s a giant red _________ for parents. But I hadn’t wanted to _________ my physical appearance for that job.

The next day, I went to the party and I had to leave my car _________ far enough away so that the kids couldn’t see Batman _________ in a PT Cruiser. I popped in through the front door: “Surprise! Batman’s here!” All the kids _________. But they didn’t want to see Batman sweaty and out of breath from a brisk jog, so I just kept _________. I started to regret my choice of not __________. I was thinking, “Gosh, this party is not going to go well.” I was so embarrassed. I wanted to __________ and run back to my Bat mobile. But then the laughter kind of merges and changes into cheering and applause.

Then I was still about 20 yards away from the party __________ I just started running and my cape was moving in the __________, and—mustache or not—in that moment, I was Batman.

I saw the birthday boy with his dad, and the __________ was laughing, saying, “You see, son. I told you Batman had a mustache.” Just then I saw the __________ birthday cake with a frosting Batman drawn on it, and the Batman has a mustache. I just stared at it in __________. It looked just like my mustache.

Those kids were at the perfect age where they still believed in miracles and heroes and that the world is an __________ good place—all the stuff that’s so difficult for us to keep believing __________ we grow up in a cold and complicated world.

That year, I struggled a lot with my __________; was I a filmmaker, or was I a clown? But that day, at least, there was __________ in my mind what I was. I may not have been the hero that they expected. But that day, I was the hero that they needed.