【推荐2】Start Today

"What can you do when you have done nothing but mess up your whole life long?" These were the   _______I heard when I turned on the TV the other day. They came from one of the talk shows that are so_______on TV these days. I started to turn the channel but the words I heard made me stop to look at the speaker. He couldn't have been more than 18 years old,_______ already thought of his life as a useless waste.

I wanted to_______at him, "You are not dead yet!"

It is so sad that so many people can't get rid of the past or live in the present. There are people in their twenties who already think they have_______the boat to success and happiness. There are people in their thirties and forties who sit around_______that life has passed them by. I want to shout at them all, "_______! You are still young! Chances are everywhere!"

If you want a happy life, you_______just think about your past mistakes. If you want joy and love in your life, you must choose them today. Never put off what should be chosen until tomorrow!

A new chance in life_______before us every morning. We can live with hope starting at this moment. It doesn't matter how hard our past has been. Our present can be full of joy and our future can be full of happiness. It doesn't matter________we are eight or eighty-we can still make our lives wonderful. Life isn't over until your last heartbeat. Start today, then, to make your heart beat with joy and love.

【推荐3】One small mistake changed Sonia's life. Now she is _________ and tries not to miss any opportunities that come to her way.

One day, Sonia walked _________ a little boy, who wanted to buy crayons, but he couldn't _________them. He looked sad when he saw the money in Sonia's hand. _________ she didn't realize he was in _________ of help at all. Sonia ignored him and _________ on her way home.

After reaching home, she told everything to her brother Gur. Gur told Sonia that God had given you a(n) _________ to help a boy, but you _________ it. There's possibility that God was _________ you; maybe today would have become your big day of your life. Hearing Gur's words, Sonia __________ back to the shop to find the boy but time never

__________ for anyone. Sonia got disappointed and returned home, continuously __________ at herself. Why didn't it come into her mind what Gur had__________? "Chances are everywhere. All you need to do is to grab them because they don't always __________." said Gur. Now what Sonia has missed is a chance that she can only __________.

On that day Sonia learnt that biggest __________ in her life. Actually not only Sonia, but many of us ignore the chance of helping in __________ ways because we always run after bigger ones. However, big opportunities do come but not every day. Therefore,__________ small ones so that you can't miss big ones. Sonia also __________ to wait for big opportunities, but now she knows that with small opportunities she can make big __________ in her life.

After a tornado touched down in a small town nearby, all the local newspapers carried stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest. A particular picture ____________ touched me. A young woman stands in front of a totally destroyed home, a pained expression twisting(使扭曲) her features. A young boy, seven or eight years old, stands at her side, eyes downcast. A tiny girl stares into the camera, eyes wide with confusion and____________. This would be a good ___________ to teach my children to ____________ those less fortunate than themselves.

I taped the picture to our refrigerator, explaining their ____________ to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and to three-year-old Meghan. “We have so much, and these ____________ people now have nothing,” I said. “We will ___________ what we have with them.”

I sorted through our____________ and ___________ the boys to go through their toys and _____________ some of their less favorite things.

Brad and Brett_____________ the toys they had chosen to donate into a box while I filled it with clothes. Meghan walked up with Lucy, her much-loved doll hugged ____________ to her chest. She ____________ in front of the box that held the_____________, gave Lucy a ____________ kiss, and then laid her gently on top of the other toys. “Oh, honey,” I said. “You don’t have to give Lucy. You love her so much.”

Meghan nodded seriously, eyes glistening(闪光) with held-back _____________. “Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she’ll make that other little girl____________, too.”

I stared at Meghan for a long moment. I suddenly ____________ that true generosity is _____________ that which you cherish(珍爱) most. I, who had wanted to teach, had been taught.

Without a word, the boys went to their rooms. They came back with their ____________ toys and placed them in the box next to Lucy. Swallowing back tears, I pulled all three of them into my arms.

【推荐2】As a girl of eight years old, I couldn't avoid crossing a crime-filled neighborhood to go to school. Nobody got __ when there was a crime, not even if a killing was happening directly across from our __:"What's that, Mom? Someone is screaming!" "Turn off the light! Stay __! Keep your voice down!" Mom would __.

Usually, I would see other girls that I knew, and I would catch up and we would __ together. Along this route was an old grey house with a __. It never caught my attention __ a kind and lovely elderly lady __ us with a musical voice and a smile." Look in my apple tree!" she said." Do you see the Cedar Waxwings?" Well, I had never known what the __ was called. Every school day, my friends and I would __ the old lady to see if she was __. She had taken this little yard and made it a small paradise of flower beds: so established that she __ had lived there for many years. She enjoyed our frequent visits and told us all kinds of things about birds and nature. We __ to love her.

But one day, we didn't __ her. Though we looked, there was never a __ of her: her garden began to look __ and the greyness of the house seemed to take over the colorful mood. We were __ to know where she had gone. One of us __ to open the gate and knocked at the door, but the dear old woman would never greet us again.

Every time I __ a bird, especially a Cedar Waxwing, I think of her. Every time I face a hardship,

I remember her grace and dignity. Her __ in the old house made it beautiful.

【推荐3】Ever since I was 13 years old, I wanted to be a photographer. I had a dream of working for some magazines, which would allow me to travel around the world to ________ the right picture.

After leaving high school, I ________ in photography in the University of the Arts. However, I kept reflecting on my ________ though I learned a lot in my freshman year. There was nothing wrong with the school, but it was not ________ for me.

I ________ teachers and they helped me analyse the situation ________. Such a feeling made me know teaching students how to ________ their full potential in their artwork was what I wanted. And ________, I wanted to be engaged in a ________ that made me feel like I was actually making some difference in the community.

I decided to transfer to Buffalo State College, where I would graduate the next year with Bachelor’s degree in Art Education. Studying in Buffalo totally ________ my life. When I was in class, I always ________ myself in what I was learning. Then, during my first on-site teaching lesson at a middle school, it ________ me that this was what I would want to do for the rest of my life, and I ________ loved it.

Now, as I’m finishing my senior year, I’m happy I made such a decision in my life. I believe this is ________ the one for my entire life, ________ the one I had once been dreaming, but turned out not for me.

【推荐2】Not long ago, I was the guide on a wildlife-photography trip to Svalbard near the North Pole. After two days of _________, we arrived there and _________ several seals resting on the ice. I _________ my camera and a motion sensor near the edge of a hole to get a(n) _________ of a seal.

The next morning, I was woken up because a polar bear was _________ closer. At first the bear walked toward our boat. Then it made a(n) _________turn and headed directly for my camera. The motion sensor reacted to the bear’s _________, making the camera start taking pictures. The bear circled the _________, gently sniffing it. Unexpectedly the camera _________ into the hole and disappeared beneath the deep ice.

That was the __________ moment in my photography career. I was so __________ with myself. A year later I obtained __________ to bring a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to find the camera. There was a lot more ice than the __________ trip. As I knew well, polar bears could be nearby. We decided to __________ it. The ice was so thin, and soon we __________ technical difficulties and had to pull the ROV out of the water twice. __________ on the third try the ROV found the camera. We shouted and __________ around on the ice.

I was overjoyed to see all my __________. I saw the polar bear breathing and sniffing the camera. __________ that camera is the most satisfying __________ of my career with the lovely animal and its habitat presented.

【推荐3】As a child, I’d spent entire afternoons ________ new worlds in my mind and giving life to ________ in my stories I wished could be my friends. I’d written myself into my favorite stories so I could be part of them. Writing was a part of me; it was who I was.

However, in high school I ________ with writer’s block (阻碍). By the time I was in college, I’d stopped writing entirely, ________ the dream remained. I wanted to ________ a novel one day. It was then that I read an interview with the Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb. She said she’d go crazy if she didn’t write; she needed to do it to stay ________. Her words made me feel ________. She was telling me that I wasn’t really a writer.

Or so I thought. I tried again, and it was like feeling the sun on my skin, or hearing snow lightly fall. I hadn’t realized it, but I hadn’t really been happy until I ________ my pen again. Writing was in my blood after all. Finally, half-hours ________ to writing stretched into hours. Before, I had been upset all the time because I didn’t advance my writing projects. Now, every day was a step forward, and I was ________ with it.

One day, I was reading a story in a library. ________, an idea hit me that I wanted to submit a few stories. I didn’t do it in the hopes they would get published. And then, something ________ happened. The first story I submitted was chosen for publication! When I got the e-mail, I was wild with joy and ________ around my kitchen table.

That moment________me that I must keep writing — not because I’ll go ________，but because I want to keep being crazily happy like that.