【推荐1】Opening my car window, I called out. “Ma’am! Ma ‘am!’” The only lady in the parking lot ________ until she saw me. “How nice you look today!” I said.

Her face registered ________ for a second when she found I was a stranger, and then she smiled, “Thank you!” she ________. I stared at her and felt her shoulder ________ a bit more and her final steps to her car seemed ________.

I have made it a point in recent years to compliment (赞扬) people, especially women and girls. Instead of just thinking ________ in my heart that someone did a great job, I say it out loud. It’s like having a(n) ________ in my head. When I see someone who ________ a kind word, the cheerleader jumps up and down and throws her pompoms(绒球花) in the air.

As women, we have learned from our role models to be ________. Even when we do receive a(an) ________ compliment for what we’ve accomplished, we downplay(贬低) our own ________ as the world expects us to show ________. Now, when I compliment a woman and she ________ the game of denial, I say to her, “Just say thank you.” Most of them are relieved they can ________ the compliment. It’s a good beginning to accept the ________ without feeling guilty, isn’t it?

【推荐3】A young girl is smiling at me from a picture frame on my desk as I write this. She is my child I _______ sponsored from the Philippines. Even though I have never met her in person, she has found a _______ place in my heart. It doesn’t _______ me much to help her, about a dollar a day._______, millions of people in this world live on less. The _______ that helping her gives me, however, is beyond _______. It connects me to her, to life,_______ to love.

I can still _______ the first time that I decided to help a child overseas. It was many years ago. I was only a teenager myself and had a little extra _______ each month. I didn’t feel like ________ anything, though. We had ________ everything we had in a house fire a few years before.________ that had taught me a lot. I had learned that I didn’t need a lot of “stuff” to be ________. I had also read a lot about the ________ of children in poor countries around the world. It seemed like a far better thing then to give what I could to help them. With my Mom’s love and ________, I soon found a few organizations like Children International that were ________ others around the world. It felt so good being able to reach out and help another ________. It felt so good being able to make even one life better. I could feel the compassion and ________ growing within me and beginning to change me.

Empathy (同情) does change us. It helps us to ________, to be kind, and to make this world a ________ place.

【推荐1】The COVID-19 pandemic（疫情）has left many worrying about the future. However, I’ve found ____ in my mother^’s one simple self-care ritual（仪式）and I have decided not to keep ____ in a sort of uncertainty.

I was ____ by a single mom who had two kids, two jobs and a mile-long ____ of cleaning, cooking and bill-paying. ____, she was never seen with a hair out of ____. Every morning, she^’d head to a ____, lift her chin（下巴）up slightly, a gesture of confidence, and put on lipstick （口红）____ delivering a forced yet toothy smile. I was too young to ____ why.

My mother ____ her red lips until the very end. In hospital, she asked me to help walk her to the basin to brush her teeth. I stared at her from behind _____ she might fall. 1 was deep in sorrow and uncertainty, tears ____ down my face. Then suddenly, from behind, I sensed that ___ gesture. Chin up. Confidence. A second later I heard the click of the ____.

We don’t know what’s going to happen next. Yet one thing is ____. When the world falls apart, we^’ve ____ got unbelievable power to choose. I'm not suggesting we ____ what^’s around us but focus on what we can control to ____ getting knocked around by uncertainty. Get up and shut the door on anything ____. Just be sure to keep putting that _____on.

【推荐2】The new, “used” car that I bought just three months ago wouldn’t start the other day. The factory battery that _________ along with it decided that it had worked long enough and _________ to take an early, permanent retirement. My _________ neighbor gave me a jump but the battery stubbornly wouldn’t _________ the charge. After getting one more jump, I _________ to the local auto parts store to buy a new one. Installing (安装) it was much more _________ than we thought, however, so I took it to a local mechanic who finally got the new battery in and the car _________ once again.

Driving it this morning, though, I _________ that the time and date on the screen in the dashboard (仪表板) had _________ gone back to nine years ago, resetting to the __________ date of the first time it was started. While my son smartly figured out how to __________ it back to today, I thought about all the times I had wished I could go back in time and undo some of the __________ and missteps I had taken in my own life.

Many of my choices brought me __________ in the past, but they have also brought me wisdom for the present. When you __________ your own life, don’t regret the roads not taken. Instead, be __________ with the path you are on, the things you have learned, and the love you have shared.

【推荐3】Janelle would be late for work. However, what she saw in the mirror made her stop. Being a busy college ________ just one year removing from her teenage years, she wasn’t exactly concerned about the ________ of her clothes. But her restaurant boss saw things a little differently. He had recently ________ the staff on the importance of appearance, and had specifically mentioned the need for ________ to wear clean and neat blouses.

As an assistant manager, Janelle thought she should set an example for the other ________. But if she stopped to ________ the blouse normally, she would be late. Her boss didn’t ________ anyone to be late for work. So she held her iron and set it on low heat. Carefully keeping her blouse away from her ________, she started to iron it while wearing it. It seemed like a logical solution to a(n)________ problem.

It seemed to be working ________ until Janelle accidentally ironed her neck by mistake. Then it suddenly turned into a really ________ and painful idea. It took more time to treat her burn than it would have taken to iron her blouse _________ And she spent a day ________ the pain of the burn.

I had the same experience. When I used to clean our yard, I often destroyed its look by using a creative way of ________ wild grass. Then my dad would tell me the way was ________ and said, “There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. There is a reason why something is done in certain ways. Those old, boring ways work.”

【推荐2】Decades ago, I traveled alone for the first time in my life. The trip to Colorado was not for business or family reasons, but just to travel and ________.

As I prepared for it, I felt excited and ________ at the same time. Would it be fun? Would I be bored? Would I stay in bed all day or would I jump with excitement to do the next thing? I wasn’t ________. Little did I know that it was going to be so ________ a journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me, travel is always about the ________: Always thinking of who would ________ what. Because it’s about family time. But when travel ________, who would I connect with? What would I do? Well, I found that I got to do anything I ________!

While traveling, I met locals and also other ________. Honestly, I had conversations ________—on planes, while hiking, in restaurants.

It was quite a(n) ________ experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of adopted kids, a cookie baker, and an internationally ranked marathon runner. The inspiring stories I discovered were ________ and nothing was like my wonderful and ________ life at home. I got to go rock climbing by myself, go hiking solo, and eat ________. And it was all ________, going smoothly. Actually, I felt surprisingly ________.

It was just me, my SUV and my backpack for a week. ________, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t ________ existed. It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are ________ and there is so much more out there to ________ and discover!