【推荐1】When Amanda Moore noticed that the new student from Mexico always sat alone at lunch, she decided to befriend Rafael Anaya. She also noticed that he________ to understand English. Then she used the Google Translate app to hand-write a letter in Spanish asking him to________her for lunch. Her action________her the “Student of the Month” award for October at school.

Actually, Rafael always________ because he felt so lonely. “He always ate lunch alone and I felt ________ about that，” Amanda said. She knew he spoke Spanish and he seemed lonely. She spent the whole afternoon ________ writing the letter, using the app to help her.

The next day Amanda handed the letter to Rafael and waited for his________.It wasn’t until their math class that he said “yes”. The two had been________together for lunch ever since. The letter helped Rafael feel more comfortable and encouraged him to________his English harder. “I think for Rafael it made a huge________，”said their teacher. “He really wants to learn English to talk to Amanda. The two used hand gestures and Google Translate for ________now but they hoped it would become ________ when Rafael's English improved. And, Amanda was learning some________.

Amanda’s mother felt________moved by her daughter’s action. “It is just so sweet，”she said. I think this ________ is special.”

【推荐2】In one elementary school, a class of four-and five-year-olds sit in rows, fascinated by their teacher. As part of the daily routine at the state primary school in Acton, West London, Ms Beshirian holds up cards printed with _____ sounds—“qu”, “k”, “w”—and the children chant them back to her in unison. Later they practise reading sentences made up of sounds they have _____ rehearsed. That is a lot of fish, runs an example.

This is phonics, a way of learning to read in which children are taught to decode words. Teachers have long _____ whether this approach is better than the previously favoured one, in which children learned to recognize _____ words, typically while someone read to them. To critics there is something Gradgrindian (功利的) about phonics, which they argue fails to transmit the joy of reading. _____ , over the past decade or so schools in England have adopted the method. When Nick Gibb, a minister, declared the “debate is over” earlier this year, _____ was silenced.

The shift arises from persuasive evidence. In 2005 a study in Scotland found that children who were taught using phonics were, by the end of the programme, seven months ahead of their _____ reading and spelling ability. Other work has supported the results. Rebecca Allen of the University of Oxford notes that few _____ are backed by such strong evidence.

The _____ is becoming apparent. England’s performance improved in the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, a cross-country comparison. Sandra McNally, one of the authors, notes that, whereas the boost faded with time for better-off children, who would have ______ learned to read well anyway, it persisted for poor readers and those without English as a first language. “Other approaches rely on existing child vocabulary and life experiences,” says Lydia Cuddy Gibbs, head of early years at Ark, a charity which runs 38 state schools. “Phonics helps to put children on a(n) ______ playing field.”

Nor must phonics kill ______ . In Acton the children often play teacher, and phonics is their favourite class to re-enact. Some applaud their friends with teacherly ______ , says Sarah Charlton, who works at the school. “They’ll walk in and say, ‘Maria did amazing reading today,’” she laughs.

Arguments continue over the best way to teach phonics, and questions such as when whole words should be introduced. But ______ , phonics seems firmly embedded in English schools. “It’s very rare that you get a piece of education practice that you stick with and push over a number of years,” says Sir Kevan Collins of the Education Endowment Foundation. “That’s to be ______ . That’s unusual.”

【推荐3】I started learning English at the age of 22 in 1995, which is late to start studying a language.

I joined a_________to study English. I needed to get a 550 TOEFL score to study in the USA. It was a_________task for me as a beginner. At the end of the program, I took the TOEFL and I_________it. I was the only person to get a 550 score from the_________class. After a few weeks I was_________to go to the USA.

There was no one to pick me up at the airport. So I was_________with my 550 TOEFL score to find my way around. It was not that easy and the_________did not help me at all.

I remember asking people very simply and probably_________how to get to my hotel, and in return I would_________nothing. But I understood one____________from one person’s answer —“CORNER” and I was able to go to a corner where there were some free phones to call specific hotels.

So I____________one of the phones and called my hotel. I was trying to explain my____________with my broken English. Finally, I____________to understand that there were direct hotel buses from the airport. It was at that moment that I felt successful in learning English because I was able to____________ .

I have been a learner of the English language ever since and my learning never____________.

【推荐2】People who lost their loved ones know how precious it is to safeguard their memories. Beaton’s _________ passed away in 2003 due to cancer and ever since then, Beaton found comfort in listening to her voice in the _________, which he managed to _________ till December 2014. But when the UK-based telecommunications company Virgin Media had to _________ their old data as part of their technical work, Ruby’s _________ was also deleted.

Talking about how _________ the recording was to him, Beaton said, “I listened to it quite often. Basically, it came to the point where if I felt _________, then I would listen to it to cheer myself up” and added, “In December, _________ it disappeared. I just could not tell people how it _________ me at that time. I was absolutely devastated (被击垮) by it.”

Rob Evans, the executive director of engineering at Virgin Media, said finding Ruby’s message was like “__________ for a needle in a haystack (干草堆).” He thought the chances of retrieving (找回) the message were quite __________ and a team of 11 engineers took three days to __________ it down.

Evans called Beaton to __________ the good news that they had been able to retrieve the voice message in January 2015, twelve years after his wife’s __________. He broke down in tears of __________ after hearing Ruby’s wonderful sound again.