【推荐1】Automation (自动化) certainly has its advantages. I am _______ for 24 hour ATMs and a cellphone with various services. _______ I also miss the talks with people that automation has replaced.

Thus, I recently decided to spend a day to achieve all of my goals in a(n)_______ manner. I began by going to the bank. On my arrival, I found I was the only customer. One of the three workers _______ me from a long ago visit and warmly greeted me. After I got my money, we talked for a few minutes, _______ news about our children. Then I moved on to the post office, where my letter to Iceland stirred up a(n)_______ comment by an employee, who longed to visit that country. I spent five minutes _______ him. There followed a visit to the _______, where I walked past the self checkout and was welcomed by a cashier, who _______ that for only one penny more I could get an extra carrot. That evening I had dinner with a friend and reported my ________ to her. She listened carefully and ________ that I could have done everything with my cellphone and it would have taken ________ an hour. True, but I would have ________ all those kind words and friendly smiles. It was after ________ with the bank worker, the postal employee and the cashier that I felt better ________ someone took the time to warm our meeting.

【推荐3】What were you like as a teenager? I was a nightmare. I was rude to my parents, always stayed out late, never did my homework, hung out with the wrong people and made many _________ decisions. Apparently, this is the age when teenagers are out of control and _________ badly. If you’re a teenager now, you think this is _________ criticism or it’s not your fault. Well, you might be _________!

Experts have found that it’s a teenager’s brain that is to _________. Between the ages of approximately 13 to 19 the brain is still developing in areas that _________ behaviour. This has a (n) _________ on learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision making. “This is quite a new _________,” says Professor Sarah. “When I was at university, the dogma (教条) in the textbooks was that the vast brain _________ goes on in the first few years of life and nothing much changes after mid-childhood. That dogma is completely ______________.”

So our brains are still developing much later than we originally thought. Is this the perfect excuse for teenagers to ______________ and not get their homework done on time? It’s something to do with our prefrontal cortex (前额皮层). It’s involved in many high-level cognitive (认知的) ______________ such as decision-making and planning. This region is undergoing large amounts of development during the adolescent years. For a(n) ______________, this hasn’t developed yet. So getting organised to do their homework, for example, can be a bit challenging.

I wish I’d known about this early instead of telling my ______________ I’d left my homework on the bus or that the dog had eaten it. Now I could say, “Sorry sir, my ______________ isn’t developed enough for the cognitive task of planning my homework.”

【推荐1】Many years ago, when we first went to America, we were driving through Montana to Colorado with our two children, then aged 8 and 11. As it was getting _________ we started looking for a hotel, only to find out that it was _________ time in that part of the country, and all the hotels were _________.

Finally, around 9 o’clock in the evening, we _________ at a gas station to fill up the car. My husband asked for a _________ book and told the woman at the counter that we were trying to find a hotel. She told us it would be impossible. He tried for 15 more minutes. When he was _________, the woman, Linda, said she and her family _________ nearby and would be happy if we spent the night at her home.

My husband was _________ at her offer of generosity (慷慨). She called her son to direct us, since she had to _________ at the gas station till midnight.

When we reached their home, her husband __________ us. He invited us to have coffee and chat while we __________ his wife. She came past 12 am. We asked if we could slip away in the morning so as not to __________ them. They said we were now __________ and we would have to have breakfast with them.

Next morning, when we were __________, my husband asked if he could offer some __________. They would not hear of it and insisted we were their guests. We would never forget their kindness.

【推荐3】My single mother used to take on several jobs just to make ends meet. When I was fifteen. she started her own business, and things began to get easier ________

The following spring a new family moved into our ________. The children became my friends soon, ________ the wife, Melissa, befriended my mom. One afternoon, I was at their house and they were generous enough to include me in the ________. Their daughter, ten at the time, ________ a glass of milk. Melissa stated, "We have no money for milk this week." She suddenly realized I was present and explained with a (n)________ look, "Money has been really________

Later, I told my mom about the ________Melissa was experiencing. In ________she immediately opened the cupboard doors and started pulling out food.

Then we drove to our friends' house, made our way to the door, and ________eagerly. When they answered the door, they were there surprised by our ________Handing the items over to them, Mom said, "We just wanted to help out." Melissa then grasped Mom in a big hug and started to cry. Tears began to roll down my mother's face as she________.her friend understanding how difficult it can be to ________ to provide for a family.

Looking at my mother, I felt ________to be her daughter! She had worked so hard to pay for the groceries, but she didn't ________to give to those in need.

【推荐1】Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband, Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.

During the first week of his stay, he ________out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to________ that his suitcase was________. He was extremely________as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his ________.

He ________ the case to the police and then sat there, lost and________in a strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a________country while trying to settle down in a new one.

________ in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to________my husband’s name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said he had found________ in their trash can that had been ________out on the footpath.

My husband ________to their home to find a kind ________holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of________papers. Her parents had ________   sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign________on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had ________his new telephone number to a friend.

That family not only________the important documents to us that day but also restored our________and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.

【推荐3】I used to be a very self-centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people______I think about myself. I am happy that I am becoming a _______person.

I think my______started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my______, and be left alone. I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever______to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester, I was really ______. It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun. So I tried a(n) _______, I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble I ______to help. That was really a big______for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, two of______are still my best friends today.

However, a bigger cause of my new attitude came, when I took a part-time______at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer disease became my______. Every time I came into her room, she was so______because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never______her, so I took her place. She let me ______ that making others feel good make me feel good, too. When she died, I was_______, but I was very grateful to her.

I think I am a much______person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not ______these experiences. They have ______me to care about other people more than about myself. I______who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.