【推荐1】This time last year I had a bit of a crisis. I left the company where I’d worked for 23 years. My child applied for university and the ________ of an empty nest unfolded before my eyes.

A friend asked how I was. I tried to say “fine”, ________ the word stuck in my throat. I felt like I’d been ________ a roof and was in free fall. The scaffolding (脚手架) of my life had gone：the status of my job, my role as a ________, my youth. I felt sad. “________ is difficult,” she said. That ________ me in the heart. It allowed me to ________ to myself I was in trouble.

I sat down at my computer, searching for a site that might give me ________: a story of someone who had walked this path and found a way ________. Some advice or a community that might help me work out what my next ________ might look like. There was nothing. I shouldn’t have been ________. During my years as an editor, I’d had trouble getting stories about women in midlife, or older, into the magazine.

Women are fed a fixed ________ of their lives: get educated, get a job, find a ________ and have some kids and that’s where the story stops. The ________ parts of women’s lives are unmapped, undiscussed.

So I’ve set up an online ________ for women in midlife. It’s called Noon and it helps women ________ their next act. We tell stories of transformation — a woman who became a comedian at 60 and a housewife who became a doctor at 50. We offer ________ advice to get women through tough times.

So why shouldn’t younger women look forward to their Noontime, a period of ________ and purpose?When having broken through the________ society sets up for us, we can finally ________ our own dreams. We are here and we have power as well as the knowledge that there is so much more to come.

【推荐2】In life, we will succeed and fail often for reasons that are entirely out of our____. We can work harder than anyone else in the office and still not be____. We can be incredibly nice and love someone deeply, and they may not love us   ____.

The bottom line is that life is not ____.

That is a bitter ____   to swallow for many of us. As a result, some people ____   after being hit by even one unfair blow from life. But if we let life’s unfairness_____ us, we will never receive the beautiful blessings that life has____ for us.

My first____ marriage felt very unfair to me. No matter how hard I had tried to be a good wife, I could not make the relationship____. I could have been____ by that experience. But I believed that I could be ____ married one day ____   I always wanted to experience traditional family life. And then, I met this kind, thoughtful, generous man.

When we are faced with life’s seeming unfairness, we have to let go of the outcome that we have been____ and keep trying, and doing the right thing._____ that life is neither fair nor straightforward. And by knowing that if we remain confident, we can drive our unfair experiences away and use them for our benefit.

【推荐3】Evelyn Glennie was the first lady of solo percussion (独奏打击乐器) in Scotland. In an interview, she recalled how she became a percussion soloist in spite of her disability.

“Early on I decided not to allow the _______ of others to stop me from becoming a musician. I grew up on a farm in northeast Scotland and began _______ piano lessons when I was eight. The older I got, the more my passion for music grew. But I also began to gradually lose my _______. Doctors concluded that the nerve damage was the _______ and by age twelve, I was completely deaf. But my love for music never _______ me.”

“My _______ was to become a percussion soloist, even though there were none at that time. To perform, I _______ to ‘hear’ music differently from others. I play in my stocking feet and can _______ the pitch of a note (音调高低) by the vibrations (振动) I feel through my body and through my _______. My entire sound world exists by making use of almost every ________ that I have.”

“I was ________ to be assessed as a musician, not as a deaf musician, and I applied to the famous Royal Academy of Music in London. No other deaf student had ________ this before and some teachers ________ my admission. Based on my performance, I was ________ admitted and went on to ________ with the academy’s highest honors.”

“After that, I established myself as the first full-time solo percussionist. I ________ and arranged a lot of musical compositions since ________ had been written specially for solo percussionists.”

“I have been a soloist for over ten years. ________ the doctor thought I was totally deaf, it didn’t ________ that my passion couldn’t be realized. I would encourage people not to allow themselves to be ________ by others. Follow your passion; follow your heart. They will lead you to the place you want to go.”

【推荐1】Some of the greatest problems we face today are concerned with the gradual destruction (破坏) of our environment through overuse of our _________. So my family do what we can. We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags. We walk where we don’t have to _________.

But when I’m the only one with a cloth bag in line at the grocery store, I ask myself: Does it do any good?

I recently found the answer from flamingos (火烈鸟). These beautiful birds gather in _________ groups of a thousand or more. Every year, when the time comes for migration (迁徙), a few flamingos start the process by _________ from the lake. But _________ of the others seem to notice, so the tiny group returns.

However, the next day they _________ again. This time a few more struggle along with them, but the vast majority _________ no attention, so these pioneers come back.

The trend continues for several more days. Every time a few more birds join in but, _________ the thousands of others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once again _________.

Then one day, things __________. The same small group of birds takes wing and a tiny number more join in, just as before. This time their total number is enough to tip the balance (扭转局势). As one, the whole group takes flight and the migration __________.

A few can make a __________. It’s true that all of the great problems of the world have been solved because of the __________ efforts of a few.

If you believe in a cause (事业), don’t __________. Others will someday notice and __________ we will solve even our greatest problems.

【推荐2】New genetic analysis has revealed that many Amazon tree species are likely to survive human-made climate warming in the coming century, contrary to previous findings that temperature increases would cause them to die out. A study, _________ in the latest edition of Ecology and Evolution, reveals the _________ age of some Amazonian tree species — more than 8 million years — and _________ shows that they have survived previous periods as warm as many of the global warming imagined periods _________ for the year 2100.

The authors write that, having survived warm periods in the past, the trees will _________ survive future warming, provided there are no other major environmental changes. _________ extreme droughts and forest fires will impact Amazonia as temperatures _________, the trees will stand the direct impact of higher temperatures. The authors _________ that as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the risk of drought and fire, conservation policy should remain _________ on preventing deforestation (采伐森林) for agriculture and mining.

The study disagrees with other recent researches which predicted tree species’ extinctions ____________ relatively small increases in global average air temperatures.

Study co-author Dr Simon Lewis (UCL Geography) said the ____________ were good news for Amazon tree species, but warned that drought and over-exploitation of the forest remained major ____________ to the Amazon’s future.

Dr Lewis said: “The past cannot be compared directly with the future. While tree species seem likely to ____________ higher air temperatures than today, the Amazon forest is being transformed for agriculture and ____________, and what remains is being degraded (使恶化) by logging (伐木), and increasingly split up by fields and roads.

“Species will not move as freely in today’s Amazon as they did in previous warm periods, when there was no human ____________. Similarly, today’s climate change is extremely fast, making comparisons with slower changes in the past ____________.”

“With a clearer ____________ of the relative risks to the Amazon forest, we ____________ that direct human impacts — such as forest clearances for agriculture or mining — should remain a key point of conservation policy. We also need more aggressive ____________ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to make minimum the risk of drought and fire impacts and ____________ the future of most Amazon tree species.”

【推荐3】Imagine an area 34 times the size of Manhattan. Now imagine it covered ankle-deep in plastic waste. That’s a total of about 19 billion pounds of ______. And according to the estimates available, that’s how much plastic waste ______ in our oceans every year.

“We’re being ______ by our waste,” said Jenna Jambeck, an/a ______ engineer who led the 2015 study that announced this shocking number. According to Jambeck’s research, this ______ will double by 2025 unless something is done, ______ and at a global scale, to stop the tide of garbage.

Plastic has in many ways been helpful to us, used in all walks of ______ from medical equipment to parts of airplanes. ______ some of the very traits (特性) that have made plastics so popular have also made them a ______ problem in our landfills   and oceans. Today, plastics are the No. 1 type of trash found in the sea. Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental group that organizes a yearly ______ cleanup event in more than 150 countries worldwide, said plastic pieces ______ around 85 percent of all the garbage collected from beaches, waterways and oceans — and that’s just the stuff we can ______.

Ocean Conservancy says plastics are believed to ______ at least 600 different wildlife ______. One in three leatherback turtles, which often ______ plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies (肚子). In 2017, a ______ whale beached on Norway’s coast had 30 plastic bags in its ______. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating ______ on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

And it’s not ______ wildlife that’s threatened by the plastics in our seas. A growing body of evidence suggests humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat.

With this in mind，experts say that all of us have a ______ role to play in relieving the issue — in ways both big and small.

【推荐2】Hitting the road early, I stopped by MeDonald’s. I picked up my order at the drive-through window and _________ into the parking spot to eat.

“Mommy!” a little girl screamed, standing next to an old car. “Mommy! The door won’t open!” she screamed again with _________ in her voice. Minutes later, I saw Mommy and Daddy _________. Then Daddy tried with a long stick. No _________.

I opened my trunk and got a hanger (衣架). I heard a _________ sound, but in a hurry, I paid no attention and shut the trunk. Daddy’s eyes _________ as I approached with the hanger. Afterwards Daddy began his attempts to put it into the window. Pop! The lock broke open. Mommy and Daddy thanked me _________. Daddy joked, saying worst of all, his coffee was cold. I waved as they drove off. Bang! Bang! Their old car backfired (逆火) twice, maybe for _________.

Heading back to my car, I reached into my pocket for the _________. It wasn’t in. I suddenly __________ what that strange sound was. The car was locked. It was still early and no one was around. Unsure of how long it would take to wait, I __________ against the door and shook my head.

Bang! Bang! There came the old car. As it turned out, Daddy couldn’t stand cold coffee, so he circled back for a __________ cup. By the look on his face, I could __________ he knew what had happened. He stood beside my car, a hanger in hand, and set to work. He __________ a bit. My car gave him more trouble. But __________, he made it. I smiled my thanks and waved them goodbye!