【推荐1】My sister is nine years old, a little bit fat and doesn't __ really well at school. She is heavily made fun of and thus has developed some __ and distrust towards adults, who usually don't put high hopes in her.

Yesterday we went to an art __ together. There were paintings from kids with disabilities. My little girl has __ eyes, for the paintings she liked most were also the best of the show. She also voluntarily helped to __ the chairs and table for a sharing session （分享会），painted by herself alongside new friends while I attended the sharing, and ___helped me to do many other things, which doesn't __ often at home as she's usually __ in her iPad.

We went to a book store. I bought a book written by a mom __ her journey with her autistic（自闭症的）son. On the bus back home, I briefly __ the book to my sister, and to my surprise she was truly __31_. She kept asking me to tell more stories about this friend in the book who __ with small things in life. This is the first time I've seen her so interested in a __ . Usually when she talks to me, she describes events at school and at home ___a clear focus. I'm very __ that the life of an unknown __ has found its way into this little girl's heart.

I'm very thankful for the __ of books, for the beauty that my sister showed to me, and for the time we had together. I pray that I can __ seeing clearly the wonderful things in her, so that whenever the not — so — kind world puts her __, I can remind her how truly__________ she has always been.

【推荐2】Flowers for Miss Benson

Miss Benson was the kindest, sweetest, most beautiful person on the earth in my mind. She was my second-grade _______. Early in the term, I started asking my mother to put an extra apple in my lunch for Miss Benson. _______I never quite worked up the courage to hand my gift to her_________. Each day it found its way unobserved to the corner of her desk. And each day the response was the same:

Miss Benson would come in and sit down. “Good morning, children. Why, how nice!” She would pick up the_______ of the day, and then look around the room. “What _______little boy or girl brought me this?”

No one_______the honor, least of all me. I kept my head down, looking at my desk.

“Can it be that I have a secret admirer?” she would ask.

I would feel the_______rising in my face. I was certain that everyone was looking at me, and I would sigh with _______ when Miss Benson started the lesson after putting the fruit away.

One fall morning, the class was boiling with _______. As was said, the next day, Friday, was Miss Benson’s birthday. Everyone wanted to get her a present. My heart gave a jump; at last I could give her something ________. That afternoon was spent combing the fields for wild flowers.

In the morning I hung back as others ________their gifts. Finally I went to the desk and gave the flowers to Miss Benson. My reward was a smile and a pat on the head.

The next Monday, Miss Benson didn’t ________. Later on, I was asked to go to the principal's office. He, clearly and slowly, told me that because of the poison ________I gave her, Miss Benson was in hospital.

I ________ all the way home because of the tragedy to my loving teacher. I begged my mother to take me to visit Miss Benson.

Miss Benson was sitting up in bed when we arrived. Her________was covered with bandages. Only one eye was showing.

“I didn’t know they were poison flowers,” I burst out. “I didn’t ________ to make you sick. I only wanted to give you something.....” I stopped talking and swallowed hard.

Miss Benson ________me with the eye. “You wanted to give me something ________, didn’t you, Paul?”

I nodded.

“All those ________ were from you, weren’t they?”

Again I nodded.

“I’ll tell you a great big secret, Paul,” she continued, “When I am married, if I have a son, I would like him to grow up just ________you.”

I wasn’t certain that I saw tears in her eye as Mother led me out of the room.

【推荐1】One Friday evening in December, two weeks before Christmas, I lost my job without any warning. I was ________ for the weekend, when my daughter Kristil and I ________ to get our Christmas tree. Then I listened to my voicemail: “We’re sorry but your work assignment has ended as of today.” My heart ________.

I wasn’t just a single parent; I was the only parent. My paycheck was ________.

The next day as we searched for our tree, I struggled to be cheerful as I ________ each price tag (标签). Over the next week, I ________ applied for jobs as my bank account grew smaller. On a weekend afternoon, I dropped Kristil in a ________ gated community for a birthday party. I watched as she went in, surrounded by all the nice things we couldn’t afford. I drove home ________.

Back at home, I glanced out the window. It had been snowing on and off all morning. I _________ a small elderly woman with short white hair struggling to open her car door _________ the wind. As she got out, I realized it was my old professor, Sister Esther Heffernan, whom I hadn’t seen for about six months.

“What are you doing out in this weather?” I asked as we hugged. “Well, I tried to call last week but couldn’t ________. Then I called your job and they said you weren’t working there anymore, so I thought I would come by.”

Just being in Sister Esther’s ________ gave me hope that things would be all right. As she got up to leave, she handed me a Christmas card and kissed me on the cheek. I walked her to her car and ________ as she drove away.

When I opened her card, I gasped (喘气) in ________. Hundred-dollar bills fell onto the table. Tears of ________ welled up in my eyes as I counted. I silently thanked her in my heart.

【推荐3】Pangolins (穿山甲) are the world’s most heavily poached (偷猎) mammal. And three out of four Asian pangolin species are critically _________ now — heavy demands for their meat, scales, and blood have _________ them with extinction.

Growing up near Cue Phuong National Park in Vietnam’s Red River Delta, Thai Van Nguyen had been accustomed to seeing dead pangolins. _________, everything changed when he witnessed his neighbor killing a baby pangolin. It was then that his _________ to save pangolins was ignited (点燃). And he knew the biggest _________ would be shifting the mindset and habits of the Vietnamese people.

To change the fate of the pangolins, Nguyen set out to _________ the public on the importance of pangolin conservation. His efforts _________ a series of outreach and education campaigns: he published research in peer-reviewed journals, attended international workshops, and developed Vietnam’s first reintroduction and tracking programme for pangolins.

Then Nguyen founded Vietnam’s first Pangolin Rehabilitation Center. So far it has _________ to restore and release nearly 500 pangolins and has _________ to rescue other species like turtles.

In 2018, Nguyen __________ his work, creating Vietnam’s first-ever anti-poaching unit, which has destroyed 9701 animal traps, and arrested 558 people for poaching—leading to a significant __________ in illegal activities in Vietnam.

Nguyen devotes his life to __________ pangolins, bringing global awareness of pangolins’ __________. “It’s my greatest joy that I can really make a __________,” he said. And it is this devotion that __________ won him the Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots activism in 2021.