【推荐1】We were sitting in the doctor’s waiting room when my father said something that _______ me, “Are you my daughter or my sister?” My heart broke as I stared at him. The doctor told us my father had Alzheimer’s disease (老年性失智症). It was a big _______ for me. I was facing a battle on two fronts, emotional and physical, and I was _______ for it. The disease didn’t take him away suddenly. Instead, it slowly _______ him. It made me sad to watch my father hide his _______ to read the clock.

As the disease continued to develop, his behaviors became _______. We had to face another painful fact — we could no longer provide my father with the level of _______ to keep him safe at home. He _______ to move to a skilled nursing home.

Babies are born helpless; parents keep on _______. Children grow up and learn that relationships are reciprocal (相互的). However, the parent-child relationship isn’t ________. The parents remain the giver, and the children remain the taker. That is the natural order of the world — ________ the child becomes the parents’ caregiver.

When a(n) ________ appears, we can do something to change the fact. ________, my father is alive and taken good care of in the nursing home. If he can get through the illness, then I can ________ it. I will give him everything he deserves (应得) to have as a great father. And we will be awarded (奖励) a(n) ________ future by doing our best.

【推荐3】In 1991, I went to visit my grandma in an old folks’ home. At the time, she was 89, and I was 28. I felt a bit _______, because the place was full of people at the last stage of their life. I didn’t know how to _______ that.

When I saw Grandma, they were having a _______ in the hall. After she introduced me, a woman in a wheelchair beside told me how much she _______ dancing. So I asked her to dance and she _______ accepted my invitation with a big smile. I _______ her to the open area, and I lifted her arm up and spun her wheelchair around, and we laughed a lot. When I wheeled her back, I _______ a lot of little old ladies smiling at me. So I _______ with them and we snowballed the party into a great dancing ball.

Of course, I danced with Grandma. While dancing, I asked how she dealt with _______. She said: “Just accept the number of candles on the cake. Life won’t stay the same. So accept the ________ and make every day count. There’s a ________ that golden years are a time to celebrate accomplishments and ________ gained from experience.” Then I realized how ________ it was for me to see the old as they saw themselves. They weren’t thinking that much about growing older. ________, they lived at the moment and ________ that room like stars.

【推荐1】On a freezing January evening, Ashley Austrew sat in her car in parking lot, working up the courage to go into a comedy improv (喜剧即兴表演) class. For 20 minutes, the 33-year-old journalist and mom of two sat with thoughts of _________, “OMG, I can’t do this. I’ll be the _________ one.” Then she turned off the _________, took a few deep breaths, and went inside.

For Austrew, trying improv was the first small step to _________ her self-esteem. “All my life, I’ve _________confidence,” she says. “I didn’t have the _________ to try anything new.” So she made a list of all the things she was afraid to attempt and then asked herself, “What if I didn’t let my excuses win?” Improv was her biggest target.

Her fear disappeared as soon as she _________ the class. Her classmates were also _________, and she discovered that she was perfectly capable of earning a few laughs and making new friends. Over the next two years, Austrew went on to _________ with other what-ifs, including writing a book. “Self-esteem is like a muscle — you have to work it __________,” she says.

Some people are blessed with a seemingly unshakable positivity, but most of us need to __________ how to pull ourselves up with our own efforts. Psychologists say we tend to experience our __________ self-esteem in adolescence and spend much of our adult lives slowly building it up. Staying __________ has been tough in the past few years since the pandemic. __________, like Austrew, we can learn to feel better about ourselves and __________ our feelings of hope. Thus, we should try our best to improve our relationship with the person in the mirror.

【推荐2】Soon it would be the holidays, but before that, there were year exams. All the ________ had been working hard for some time, reviewing their lessons for the exams. If they didn’t ________, they would have to retake them in September. There were usually a few who ________, but Jane didn’t want to be one of them. She had worked hard all year, ________ just before the exams she was working so hard that her sister Barbara was ________ about her. She went to bed too late. The night before the first exam, Barbara ________ that she should have an early night and take a ________ pill. She promised to wake her up in the morning.

As she was falling asleep, Jane was afraid that she might oversleep. Her ________ kept jumping from subject to subject. At last, with the help of the medicine, she went to sleep. In no time at all, she was sitting in the examination hall, looking at the examination ________, but she couldn’t answer any of the questions. Everyone around her was writing pages and pages. ________ she thought hard, she couldn’t find anything to write about. She kept looking at her ________. Time was running out. There was only an hour to go. She started one question, wrote two sentences, ________ and tried another one. With only half an hour left she wrote another two sentences. By this time she was so worried that she started ________. Her whole body shook. It shook so much that she ________ up. She was still in bed and it had all been a ________ dream. A minute later , Barbara called her name.

【推荐1】I was walking in a park on a cool autumn morning. The view was charming and a pleasant breeze(微风)was kissing my face_______.

Then I saw a mother and her little baby. The mother wore _______clothes that seemed to be found in a dustbin—how easy it is for fortunate people to _______away things they don’t need, and they do this _______thinking of the unfortunate! She was holding her baby, protecting her from the morning _______and expecting some money from strangers so that she could _______food for both of them. It isn’t an uncommon _______as we see these things every day. But they sometimes can_______us strongly. It was then that I realized how _______ I had been in my whole life for living a rich life.

Then a man ________some money and food to the mother, and as she took them, her face was________as if she had been the happiest person in the world. And why not, she could now ________ her baby at least for the day.

Actually happiness doesn’t ________luck, your financial or your physical conditions, but only on yourself. It is just a ________ in your hands. If you choose to be happy, ________can stop you from it. The mother was happy just ________she got food for her baby. Back home, I decided to first be happy and then do the rest of my work. It was ________ than I thought it would be.

How________ it is that one observation can change your life! Life has a lot to offer if you observe very ________ . One who observes can ________ real happiness.

【推荐2】I was on my way home when a man came up to me excited, shouting out, “Gil! Gil Gadson!” I said “Yes?” He gave me a big hug. Seeing the ____ look on my face, he stepped back. Then he went on to explain how he ____ me.

I work in the field of mental health and ____ give lectures at different places. He said that I’d once given a(n) _____ about the power of gratitude and that it had ____ his life. He said we’d even talked for a while after my speech and that my ____ had made him re-evaluate (再评估) everything in his life. He ____ by saying that he started ____ the things he had, stopped feeling sorry for himself and others and had become ____ in his life.

He said that he’d made amends (赔罪) to those he had ____ before and opened his eyes to all who had always showed him ____ and love. He then hugged me again ____ and, with tears in his eyes, said he would be forever ____ as I had influenced his life. We _____ telephone numbers and then he was gone, ____ to stay in touch with me. I didn’t remember this man but I will surely ____ him.

I tell this story because when it ____ kindness, it often happens from complete ____who prove our very existence with just a few words when they’re only saying thank you. It is my ____ that we as human beings should help and encourage each other. The more we     ___ it, the more united we will be.

【推荐3】When Pat Jones finished college, she decided to travel around the world and see as many foreign places as she could________she was young. Pat wanted to visit Latin America ________, so she got a job   ________   an English teacher in a school in Bolivia. Pat spoke a little Spanish, ________ she was able to communicate with her students even when they didn't ________much English.

A sentence she had read somewhere stuck in her mind: if you dream   ________   a foreign language, you have really mastered(掌握) it. Pat repeated this sentence to her students and ________ that some day she would dream in Spanish and they would dream in   ________ .

One day, one of her   ________   students came up and explained in Spanish that he had not done his homework. He had ________   early, and had slept ________.

"What does this have to do with your ________?” Pat asked.

"I dreamed all night, Miss Jones, and my dream was in English. ”

"In English?” Pat was very ________ , since he was such a bad student. She was ________secretly jealous (嫉妒的). Her ________ was still not in Spanish. But she encouraged(鼓励) her young student, “Well,   ________me about your dream."

"All the people in my dream   ________English,” the student said. “And all the signs were, in English. All the newspapers and magazines and all the TV programs were in English. ”

“But that’s   ________   ,” said Pat, “what did all the people say to you?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Jones. That’s   ________ I slept so badly. I didn’t ________ a word they said. It was a nightmare(噩梦)!”