【推荐1】My father and I have always had a difficult relationship. He thought I wasn’t what a good daughter should be. Whatever I did was never good enough in his eyes. So when I tried to look for approval, I was________ disappointed.

My mother was gentler and when my father would ________ me, she’d have my back. Five years ago, she died from a disease and, ________ her there, my relationship with my father became ________. I felt like he was trying to control me and this caused ________ and panic in me. I realized that I couldn’t continue the________ with him, so I left home eventually and________ contact with him.

About a year later, I was out campaigning and I saw him alone. I ________ him and asked how he was. He was hesitant, but I could see in his eyes that he was ________ I’d come over. He said he was proud that he had a daughter who went to the House of Lords to talk about women’s rights. I realized that, having decided I didn’t need his ________, I finally had it.

Our relationship isn’t ________ now, but we see each other every few months and I value the time we have together. Last year, on his birthday, I sent him a card and he________ phoned me to say thank you. I’ve realized that if you want to have somebody in your life, you have to________ them as who they are. And I’m proud of myself. I don’t need anybody else to give me that sense of________. And because of that, our relationship is no longer a________.

【推荐2】“Today I will give you a special test,” said the English teacher with a smile on his face.

All the students set up straight and ________ for the test to begin. The teacher began to ________ the test papers to all the students. ________ he finished handing out the test papers, he asked them to begin.

The students were very ________ to see that there was not a question but a black dot (圆点) in the centre of the paper. The teacher ________ the students’ surprise and said, “I want you to ________ about what you see there.”

At the end of the class, the teacher took all the students’ answer sheets (答题纸) and read the answers. ________ of them described the black dot. After reading all the answers, the teacher said, “Here everyone only paid attention to the black dot, ________ no one wrote about the white paper.” The whole class listened ________, because they were afraid to fail in the exam.

Then the teacher said, “Don’t worry about your ________ for this test. I just want you to think about our life. The white paper is like our whole life and the black dot in the centre of the paper ________ problems in our daily life.”

Our life is a ________ given to us by God, with love and care. Still, we just pay attention to the problems like ________ and poverty, and never see that these problems are very ________ compared to everything else we have in our life.

So we should try to take our eye off our problems and ________ each moment life gives us.

【推荐3】For long, a question disturbed a little boy. He couldn’t understand why his next-desk-pal (同伴) could rank 1st whenever he wanted to, while he himself _________to.

At home, he despondently asked his Mom, “Mom, am I more _________ than others? I feel I study as hard as him，but why do I _________lay behind?” Staring at him, she went _________, not knowing how to explain.

She felt an impulse (冲动) to say, “You are too _________. You are not really as hard-working as others...” .But she stopped, _________she knew her son was suffering from the pains of _________grades and rankings. She thought it cruel to add any additional burden to his son and was trying to find out a _________answer.

Time went by quickly, the son finished primary school. Although his studying was harder and better, he was still unable to _________his pal. To show her pride of him, Mom decided to take him to the sea. During the trip, she managed to give out an answer.

Now, the son no longer __________his rankings, because, with the 1st ranking, he was __________to Harvard University.

Back home in winter vacation, he was invited to give a speech to the students and parents in his high school. In the speech, he mentioned a(n) __________experience in his childhood. “When my mother and I were lying on the beach, she pointed to the front and said, ‘Do you see the seabirds flying for food over there? When the __________come near, little birds can escape quickly __________“clumsy” seagulls would take more time to complete the process. However, have you noticed birds that __________fly across the endless ocean are none other than “clumsy” (笨拙的) seagulls?’”

【推荐3】Karie double-checked the words on her spelling test. If she got 100 percent today, she’d win her class’s First-Quarter Spelling Challenge.

Three more words to go. N-i-c-e-l-y, Q-u-i-c-k-l-y, H-o-n-e-s-t-y. Wait! She’d spelled honesty, not honestly! She erased the t-y and wrote l-y before handing in her paper.

After a break, Karie hurried into the classroom. She fidgeted (坐立不安) in her seat. Ms. McCormack walked to the front and cleared her throat. “Congratulations. Karie! You did it!” The whole class _________.

Ms. McCormack presented Karie with her prize—a _________. Karie grinned as she read the _________ on the box: to Katie for her perfect first-quarter score in spelling.

Karie _________ the front door after school. She scooped up (抱起) her cat. “Can you spell nicely, Casper? And quickly and honestly, and...” Karie’s stomach tumbled to the floor. Honestly? H-O-N-E-S-L-Y! It suddenly struck her that she had _________ the word. Karie went to her room and _________ on how she could tell the class she hadn’t earned the prize after all. She couldn’t sleep but kept tossing and turning in bed all night.

Ms. McCormack was unlocking the classroom door when Karie got to school the next morning. “You are a(n) _________ bird.” Ms. McCormack said. Katie’s hands trembled. She gave her teacher the spelling paper and the dictionary. “I can’t keep this. I misspelled honestly and you didn’t _________ it. ” “Come and sit down, Karie.” For a moment, Ms. McCormack stood quietly reading the words on the dictionary. Then she picked up her pen. She crossed out the word “perfect” and wrote “honest” before handing the dictionary back to Katie. Katie’s jaw dropped. “I get to keep this. _________?” “For honestly, no.” Ms. McCormack smiled. “But for__________, yes.”

【推荐1】Before Jenny passed away from cancer, she made her husband, Steve, and their daughter, Brittany, promise her one thing: he would _______ Brittany, a high school senior, to the homecoming (返校节) game, where she was _______ for homecoming queen. It was important to her that her daughter should go. Brittany and Steve _______.

Days later, on the morning of Friday, September 24, Jenny died. Keeping their _______, that very afternoon, an emotional Brittany walked arm in arm with her father across the football field with the other nominees (被提名者) to await the _______ of the voting.

Brittany wasn’t named homecoming queen that day; Nyla was. But, like many in the close-knit community, Nyli had heard about Jenny and her noble deeds for the community. In a(n) _______ gesture, moments after receiving the crown, Nyla walked over to Brittany, removed the crown from her head, and placed it atop her friend’s. The two embraced, _______ holding each other tightly for support.

“She’d rather have her mom than a crown,” Nyla said. By handing it to Brittany, “I was telling her that she was her mom’s queen, and that she was loved by many, especially me.”

“I fell so much love from her, and I just felt s much love for her,” said Brittany, who paid Nyla the ultimate praise. “I can see my mom through Nyla. They have the same caring, _______ spirit.”

“Nyla is no less queen for lack of a crown.” said a teacher. There’s a saying that real queens _______ each other’s crowns. But the truth is, real queens give up their crowns to let other queens ________.

【推荐2】On a bright afternoon, Jordan, Mahir and Mahir’s father gathered at the foot of a mountain. “Hey, Jordan, over here!” Jordan’s best friend, Mahir, waved his hand, pointing to a crack in the side of the mountain. “We could _______ this!”

Jordan tied his safety harness (系带) and checked his rope. He weighed one of them in his hand, determining its weight. Then he looked for _______ locations, considering the difficulty of the task. “That crack is _______ narrow. I don’t think we’d get up very high.”

“At the time of a test, a person rises or falls.” said Ghanim, Mahir’s dad. Shaking his head in _______ over the foreign proverb (谚语), Jordan examined the crack. It was nothing more than a sliver in the solid face of the cliff. He shifted in his harness as Mahir gave the proverb his own explanation: “If you’re not reaching the _______, you’re not trying hard enough.” Jordan recognized the bit of advice from a previous climbing lesson.

His own father’s voice resounded in his thoughts, as if in a half-forgotten dream. “Climb a mountain, son, and you climb the insecurity in your own life. You climb over your shadow, climb over your _______.”That was five years ago, before the automobile _______ that took his dad’s life. Jordan’s father swiftly turned his car and effectively _______ a car from going over a cliff (悬崖). The sudden move had saved the people in that car. But his father’s car went off a cliff. _______ with the difficult situation, Jordan’s dad had never hesitated before making the decision.

And now Jordan wouldn’t either. ________ on his balance, he took a deep breath and began to climb. Finally, they made it to the peak of the mountain.

【推荐3】An American teacher walked up and down in a classroom while she was teaching stress management to her students. As she_________a glass of water, everyone_________they would be asked the “half empty or half-full” question.

_________, with a smile on her face, she asked, “how_________is this glass of water?”

Answers called out_________from eight to twenty ounces(盎司).

She quieted the students down and then replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t_________. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel_________and paralyzed. In each case, the_________of the glass of water doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. Do you know why? ”

All the students kept silent and listened carefully, lost in thought.

She continued, “Our_________and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to__________. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed—__________to do anything.”

It’s important to remember to__________your stresses. As early in the evening as possible, put all your__________down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!

More often than not life gets terrible__________we think too much. And the moment you remove your burden, you’ll find yourself feeling so much more relaxed.

So rather than moping around(闲逛) and feeling sorry for yourself, start doing something about it. After all, life is too short to__________yourself to anything that’s not making you happy.