【推荐1】Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. hastily          B. differently       C. struggling        D. sit               E. rich          F. fragile G. exposed        H. respond          I. adversity          J. resisting        K. observed

Potatoes, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and     1     all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them     2     and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her, he asked, “My daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she     3     replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she     4     the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its     5     aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same     6    — the boiling water.

However, each one reacted    7     .

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was     8    , with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were     9     to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you     10     ? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Moral: In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?

【推荐2】Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

If the package looks pretty, people will buy just about anything. So says an advertising executive in New York, and he has proved his point by selling boxes of rubbish for the price of an expensive bottle of wine.
Justin Gignac, 26, has sold almost 900     1    presented plastic boxes of rubbish from the street of Big Apple at between ＄50 and ＄100 each. Buyers from 19 countries have paid for the souvenirs(纪念品). The idea has been so successful that he is thinking of promoting it around the world.
It all began when Mr. Gignac was at a summer workshop, “We had a discussion about the importance of     2    ,” he recalls. “Someone said packaging was unimportant. I disagreed. The only way to prove it was by selling something nobody would ever want.”
He searches the streets of Manhattan and typical     3    include broken glass, subway tickets, Starbucks cups and used     4    forks. “Special editions” are offered at a high price. He charged ＄100 for rubbish from the opening day of the New York Yankees’ stadium.
Mr Gignac denies     5    his customers for fools: “They know what they’re getting. They appreciate the fact that they’re taking something nobody would want and finding beauty in it.”
Some     6    customers include people who used to live in the city and want a down-to-earth souvenir. He claims he has even sold to art collectors.
Realizing that the concept appears to be a real money-maker, Mr Gignac has     7    a company and is employing his girlfriend as vice president. He     8    to discuss his profit margins: “It’s actually quite a lot of effort putting them together—but yes, garbage is free.”
Mr Gignac is considering more varieties of souvenirs. He maintains that he has signed     9    with people interested in similar projects from as far as Berlin and London.