【推荐1】Mary Warwick’s heart sank when she realized temperatures were dropping below freezing in Houston in the days before the New Year. She _________ her car to downtown Houston before sunset on December 21^st to _________ under the Waugh Drive Bridge, where a colony (群) of 250,000 bats had lived for almost 30 years.

Her _________ were confirmed: There were dozens of tiny bats on the ground, too weak to _________ the concrete beneath the bridge. They had dropped 15 to 30 feet to the_________ ground below and looked _________.

Warwick, a wildlife expert, put on a pair of gloves and gently _________ the unresponsive bats one by one. She picked up 138 bats and placed them in a box _________ with a soft blanket. Warwick decided to take them home to _________ them up. For the next several nights, she returned to the Waugh Drive Bridge with extra__________to rescue more bats.

What happened next was completely unexpected. The Houston Humane Society posted on social media that Warwick was __________ rescuing the creatures and at the news, citizens quickly offered to __________.

By New Year’s Day. Warwick together with Houston residents had saved more than 1,500 bats. She __________ the bats in separate containers until the __________ outside was safe enough to return them to the bridge. All creatures — no matter how small — have __________ on the planet, she said.

【推荐2】The only thing I ever stole in my life was a book. I was six years old and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, bound in wonderful red Moroccan leather. No one would read it in a million years — it was about the abolition (废除) of slavery — but it was_________because I learned to read with it.

I was born in South Africa and_________in an orphanage (孤儿院). The first thing I ever remember is being hit. A temporary teacher called Miss Bornstein was the first person to take a(n)_________in me. I trusted her and I asked her to help me read that_________book. She must have thought there was_________in this little kid, for she agreed. From then on, she sent me a book a month and it_________my life. Through books, I could escape the orphanage, in my head_________, and go anywhere a story took me.

Reading_________me and I finished up winning a_________to an expensive boarding school.__________reading, I'd have become a railway repairman or a drunk. I used to invent stories and serialize (连载) them for the bullies, in exchange for not being__________.

The very first book I totally__________was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, which I read when I was about nine years old. Like me, he was alone, poor and led an__________life. So here was this excellent story about someone in a hopeless situation, yet things__________well. It gave me__________.

Probably the most__________book I've read is The Pearl by John Steinbeck. It's very short—and I've read thousands of books since — but it was the first time I__________saw how beautiful words could be, and how astonishing a story could be.

It has a great__________about a young Mexican couple who discover an incredible pearl. Greed is a theme, but__________, it's one of those stories that tells you everything about life. If you want to know the truth, there is one place you can go—__________.

【推荐2】82-year-old Willie Ortiz, an old solider, has a special love for cats. It started in 1995, when he _______ a hungry stray cat begging for food. While people were ignoring and driving the cat away, Ortiz instantly _______ that it needed help.

He started feeding the cat, which led him to a shocking _______ that there were several colonies of stray cats throughout Hartford in need of food and proper _______ . Since then, Ortiz has devoted his life to looking after stray cats. He would do it regardless of the weather; the only _______ was when it was snowing so much. Though not everyone understood his _______ , people’s negative feedback did not stop him from doing what he wanted.

However, the _______ of the cats’ medical care increased as he collected more cats. To continue his _______ , he has led something of a _______ life: by day he collects scrap metal to fund his continuing evening activity to help homeless cats. His friend Kathleen Schlentz set up a GoFundMe for Ortiz’s cats to help the kind veteran and to ________ his noble work.

“I have never met a more ________ person; Ortiz unknowingly ________ me in so many ways. I feel ________ to know a person like him. Knowing him has made my life better,” wrote Schlentz.

Willie Ortiz ________ that though he has a big and happy family, his life became even more ________ when he started feeding stray cats. While his calling is difficult, this is his life, and it brings him joy.

【推荐3】28-year-old Luke Wesley, a restaurant manager, was tall, energetic and kind-hearted. One evening, he noticed an old man in a wheelchair enter the restaurant and ________ by the window without ordering anything. He just had his eyes fixed on a ________ outside the window.

Since the restaurant should have closed an hour earlier, Luke had to remind the man it was________ closing time. The old man ________ sincerely, saying that the place was full of his ________ memories including his wife and many other things. Luke was ________ about what the man was saying; he just noticed the man’s eyes filled with tears. Later, the old man told Luke his name was Smith and was a regular________ 40 years ago and it was in this restaurant that he met his beloved Priscilla and fell in love with each other. ________, both of them loved to watch mountains. However, one day on their way to the mountain to ________ their first wedding anniversary his wife was hit dead by a speeding truck and he survived but lost his ________ to walk. Sad, Luke patted Smith on the shoulder to ________ him but words failed him. A good idea occurred to him suddenly, Luke promised to accompany him to hike the mountain and take a photo of the breathtaking ________ which his wife was dying for. That was actually Mrs. Priscilla’s long-lasting ________.

The next day, Luke carried Smith to the top of the mountain successfully. Seeing the old man ________ the photo with tears, Luke felt ________. The two became lifelong friends from that day onward.

【推荐1】As a teenager in the 1990s, Melissa Blake was interested in fashion. Unfortunately, fashion wasn’t much interested in her.

Blake, who has a genetic bone and muscle ________ and stands a little under four feet tall, couldn’t find jeans or dresses in her size. ________ through Glamour(时尚杂志), she didn’t see a single person who looked like her, and it ________. “When you’re a teenager—disabled or not—you deal with issues of ________. If I had seen someone who looked like me, I would have felt really seen.”

Blake, now 39, has spent her adult life trying to ________ for that. She is a disability-rights ________ as well as a little-known freelance writer, but she gained a national following in 2019 after ________ at those who made ugly comments about her online.

She tweeted, “people said that I should be banned from ________ photos of myself because I’m too ________.” In one of the preatest “I’ll show you!” ________ of all time, over the next year, Blake displayed a new selfie every day.

Her fans went wild, calling Blake a goddess and a powerful woman. Among her ________ is Mindy Scheier, the founder of Runway of Dreams, which showcases fashion for people with ________. Last fall, Scheier asked Blake to be one of the event’s 24 models.

“Getting Melissa in this year’s biggest fashion event just makes people understand how important it is to ________ who consumers are in the fashion industry, or what we ________ represent in the word ‘model’.” says Scheier.

“It was a little ________,” Blake says of modeling. But she’s glad she took the ________. Often, when we think of ________ for people with disabilities, we think of buildings and employment. But it’s also ________ to have access to what’s fun and enioyable.

“Fashion isn’t going to solve all the world’s ________,” says Blake. “When disabled people are included, it sends a message that we ________ a seat at the table in all aspects of life, frivolous or not.”

【推荐2】Around me were people lining up to climb the man made “mountain’. Out of it ________ some specific rocks for climbers to stand on and hold on to. Near me were my parents, who at times smiled at me ________. But with the ________ moving steadily, I got increasingly nervous.

The mountain was made for three people to climb at a time, with safety ropes attached to each climber. There were three sections-easy, medium and difficult to climb. ________ I was a little kid aged 10, I took the easy section. I could have changed my ________, but I thought that would make me look scared.

I ________ all the terrible things that might happen. Maybe I could ________ with tons of people watching me. Or I could take a while to climb and the people would get ________. Finally, it was my ________. Butterflies in stomach, I put on the safety ropes and placed my ________ on one rock and my foot on another, slowly heading toward the top.

Suddenly, the next rock was out of reach for my hand. There was nowhere for my feet to step on to ________ me. The only ________ was to lift my weight using only my arms! Unwilling to ________, I gathered my courage and strength and grabbed a rock with both my hands. I made it!

When I rang the bell at the top to signal I had ________ my turn, I received warm applause from my parents and the people below. Despite my tired legs and arms, this memory of me overcoming ________ will always be an important experience.

【推荐3】One day, I came cross an old lady who looked worried on my way back home from running a special assignment. She stopped me on the sidewalk, ________ asking for directions. I gave her the right directions, ________ the way she needed to go. But she looked ________ and started to tear up, like she had been lost for a while and wasn’t ________ with the area. And the fact was like that.

It was dark and cold, so I offered to walk with her, ________ her it was only a 5-minute walk. I saw her ________ to walk and keep up the pace, so I ________ down and carried her bags for her.

I ________ with her during the whole time, getting to know her. I found out she lived outside of the country and came here temporarily to ________ a sick family member. From what she said, I found she was incredibly ________ and kind.

When we got to her ________ , she cried, gave me a big hug and showed me great ________for helping her. With a smile on my face, I let her know I was ________ she was safe. Meanwhile, I ________ myself being lost in an unfamiliar place. And I hoped I’d receive similar ________ in that situation.