【推荐1】We all have weaknesses and strengths-no matter who we are. Sometimes the weaknesses seem to outweigh the strengths and sometimes it’s the other way ________.Some people get sick easily. Some struggle to ________ their finances properly. Some people are ________ communicators and struggle with relationships.

Many people accept it as just bad ________-but not everyone. Some people facing huge ________ still manage to achieve surprising things. They ________above their weaknesses and do not allow them to limit their possibilities.

I attended a school prize-giving ceremony not so long ago and the guest ________ was Andrew Becroft, who had a severe stutter (口吃) as a child. ________ allowing this to limit him, he chose to work hard to ________ it. He is now the Principal Youth Court Judge for New Zealand. ________ did he become successful, but he did so in a(n) ________ where he had to speak in front of others regularly-where his ________ is front and center for all to see. If he hadn't ________ his speaking ability, it would have been very ________ to his life and career prospects.

Here are some more ________: Brett Eastburn has no arms or legs and yet is an inspirational speaker and also a very good wrestler. Ringo Starr, drummer for the Beatles, ________ a very poor background. He was constantly troubled by illness as a child and ________ large amounts of time in hospital. Mark Inglis ________ both of his legs below the knees in a mountaineering accident, but has since climbed Mt Everest.

Most of us will ________ have to face the challenges these people faced. Yet most of us will never achieve ________ that these people have had either, unless we choose to. If Mark Inglis can climb the highest mountain in the world without legs, what can we do?

【推荐2】When we’re young, we don’t always know what interests us. We often learn skills or ____ hobbies to please our parents. As an adult, I wanted to develop one I ____, so I went to trade school.

I entered a cabinetmaking (家具制造) ____. I didn’t think I would be good at building furniture. I had great teachers, but making furniture is ____. There are so many steps and something can go wrong at each one. I was not even a(n) ____ person. My toolbox always looked like a hurricane had gone through it.

I didn’t fully know what I was ____ to at the beginning, but I kept going to class. Doing ____ work and giving it 100 percent of my effort had huge benefits for my mental health. I ____ my fear of embarrassment and asked for help at every opportunity.

I spent that year truly learning. True learning is a humbling (使人谦逊的) experience. I could understand exactly what was wrong with the ____ I made, but I couldn’t ____ my mistakes. And yet, I kept trying. And failing. And ____ again. Until I learned to fail better.

I finished the program — with honors, no less! My ____ were helped by my good wooden work. I also learned how to use tools. Having to ____ push beyond my comfort zone has made me a more ____ person. Maybe most importantly, trade school gave me a more realistic idea of my ____ and limitations. I’m stronger than I thought!

【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 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 praise without feeling ________ isn’t it?

【推荐2】In a fast-paced world driven by noise, excitement, and continuous connections due to technology, I think we've lost a(n)_________for something essential to the human experience: Quiet.

I’m not talking about the library style version of soft whispers, but about the soul-defining quiet of self-reflection of being alone and of being_________.

This past weekend, I found myself _________to my computer screen in a flurry(忙乱）of desperate work to build my career. I was_________social media and worrying about building my vision for tomorrow. Like so many evenings, the call of the Internet had_________me in ,and the beautiful July night in Pennsylvania was ignored-until my husband stepped in and reminded me that there's more to life than noises, likes and _________.

We got into our truck and drove ten minutes to a local state park, a place that has_________our different stages of life through the years. Phones and computers_________,we spent the evening in nature, enjoying simple scenes and _________in the quiet of the setting.

Gone were the rings of notifications(通知），the honking horns of cars flying by, and the__________of YouTube videos. In their place, a silence__________something we both know but sometimes lose__________of: Life’s quiet, simple moments are sometimes the most beautiful.

In these peaceful moments, I found a(n)__________with nature and with my husband. I found a reminder that there is a world __________the computer and the__________of our fast-paced life.

__________,I was reminded that in these quiet moments, we were able to hear the most important voice: our own.

Our world__________constant attention and engagement. We become so__________to constantly connecting and engaging with others that we fail to appreciate something__________to our happiness: our inner voice.

So take a moment, take a break and take some time to find the quiet in your life. Let the quiet moments in life remind you that your inner voice __________to be heard.

【推荐3】Once there was a little boy who enjoyed reading books, especially comic-strips (连环漫画). His uncle called him “Sparky", after a comic-strip horse named Spark Plug. But it was _______ for Sparky to feel happy at school because he failed every subject in the eighth grade. Though he did manage to enter the school's golf team and tried very hard, he still _______ the only important match of the season.

Throughout his youth, Sparky was shy and felt _______with strangers. It wasn’t that the other students disliked him. It’s just that no one really _______all that much. In fact, Sparky was _______ if a classmate said hello to him after class. Sparky was a loser. His classmates knew it, so he learned to _______ it.

But Sparky was fond of drawing. He was _______ of his artwork. No one else appreciated it. But that didn’t seem to _______ to him. In his high school, he sent some cartoons to the yearbook. The editors _______ his ideas. Despite that, Sparky was ________ of his ability. He even decided to become a(n) ________.

So, after completing high school, Sparky wrote to Walt Disney Studios. Despite ________preparation, it wasn’t accepted, which ________ that he was a loser again.

But Sparky still didn’t ________; he decided to tell his own life in cartoons. The main character was a little boy who always lost and failed. Because Sparky’s cartoon character went on to become a kind of cultural phenomenon, people ________ identified with(认同) this “lovable loser”. He ________ people of the painful and ________ moments to walk from their own past, of their pain and their shared humanity. The character soon became famous worldwide. And Sparky, the boy whose many ________ never kept him from trying, whose work was not accepted again and again, is the highly ________ cartoonist Charles Schultz. His cartoon strip Peanuts continues to ________ us, even the losers, to find a way in our life.

【推荐1】Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modern convenience: the iPad.

Instead of looking at nature, I _________ my e-mail. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading _________ newspapers each morning. And that was the problem: I was acting as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation but my _________ wasn’t.

So this year I made up my mind to try something _________: getting away from the Internet. I knew it wouldn’t be _________, since I’m not good at self-control. But I was _________. I started by handing the iPad to my wife. Then, a stroke of luck: The mobile phone _________ at our cabin was worse than in the past. I was _________, forced to carry out my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail and my favourite newspaper websites, I had little way to _________ the world. I had no ____________ but to do what I had planned to do all along: read books.

With determination and the strong support of my wife, I succeeded in my vacation struggle against the Internet. I finally ____________ that it was me, of course, not the iPad, that was the ____________.

I knew I had ____________ when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. “Don’t need it,” I said. However, as we return to work, a(n) ____________ begins: Can I survive when I’m back at work? I don’t plan to ____________ my iPad completely. But I hope to resist the temptation (抵抗诱惑) to use it every five minutes.