【推荐1】Last May I bought some sweet potatoes for food. Several days later, a tuber(块茎) left in the kitchen was sprouting(发芽). Thinking it was a waste of money to throw it away, I_________the tuber into a pot hoping that it might take root and_________something that could be put on the dinner table.

_________, the tuber did take root and began to grow. In the following months I_________it when necessary and it grew very well. Seeing that it was autumn and the plant would not grow any longer, I decided to_________ . I pulled out the plant, which took some_________and began to dig with my fingers to see if there was any tuber in the pot.

When my fingers could almost_________the bottom of the pot, I took the root and pulled it carefully, for the potato could_________easily. As almost no earth was left, I tried to pull again and again but I failed to lift it up. In_________, I pushed the pot over and found the root was outside the pot! It had grown through one of the holes in the bottom of the pot.

Then and there I changed my opinion of this plant, for the seemingly weak plant gained the__________of me.

Very carefully I__________all the soil out of the pot,__________the root might be harmed or broken. Holding the root, I was deep in thought. The root outside the pot looked like a__________and strong finger of an old farmer who had __________his way to make a living. The end of the root was dark gray and__________. Obviously, the peel(皮) must have been removed during its struggle with the__________of the heavy pot. It struck me that the tuber, though seriously __________, had struggled hard and it seemed that it had never__________.

Such is a sweet potato, an ordinary-looking plant with__________characteristics. It managed to grow where I thought it was almost impossible to__________.

【推荐2】Honesty is always the best policy. Though lying often allows one to escape punishment for the moment, the ______ will always come out. In most situations, one will ______ that lying does not offer the same long-term benefits as honesty does.

Sometimes people lie for the purpose of being ______. For example my cousin Joanne was invited to her friend’s birthday party and she asked for my ______ on her dress. In fact, her dress was terrible, but I ______ and told her that the dress was beautiful. How could I ______ her excitement over the dress?   Looking back at that moment, I probably should have told her the truth, considering that the guests laughed at her.

After that I realized the ______ of telling the truth. My brother once helped his best friend cheat on a ______ test. That night, he told me what happened at school. I was very angry and asked him to say sorry to his math teacher immediately ______ he went to school the next day.   ______, the teacher only forced the two boys to take the test again. If my brother had not followed my ______, he might have been kicked out of school. Besides, my brother’s behavior sets a good example for his friend. So he ______ his friend and helped him avoid serious punishment.

In some cases, lying seems to be difficult. For example, how can one ______ to young children what has happened when they lose one of their family members?   Lying seems kind, but if one lies to children, they may feel more ______ when they discover the facts. Therefore, it is important for each of us to be ______ anytime.

【推荐3】A woman professor was giving a lesson to her students on stress management. As she _________ a glass of water, everyone in the class _________ they would be asked the “half-empty or half-full” question. _________, that was not the case. With a smile on her face, she asked the students, “How much do you think this glass of water weighs?”

Answers called out _________ from eight to twenty ounces(盎司).

She quieted the students down and then responded, “The absolute weight doesn’t _________. But it counts how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my _________. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb. In each case, the _________ of the glass of water doesn’t change, but the _________ I hold it, the heavier it becomes. Why?”

Lost in _________, all the students kept silent and listened to the professor carefully. “Our stresses and ____________ in life are like that glass of water. If we ____________ our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will feel exhausted, even unable to ____________.”

____________ you have to do is put all your burdens down, as ____________ in the evening as possible. Don’t carry them through the evening into the night; by doing this, we can get ____________ next morning and are ____________ to move forward.

More often than not, life gets terrible when we ____________ too much. And the moment you ____________ your burdens, you’ll find yourself feeling so much more relaxed.

So rather than being upset and feeling ____________ for yourself, start doing something about it. After all, life is too short to ____________ yourself to anything that is not making you happy.

【推荐1】An old man who was no longer strong and energetic decided to live with his son to spend the last fewer years of his life. The man was weak, his hands trembled and his eyesight was poor. The family ate together at table, but the old grandfather’s ________ hands made eating rather ________. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, often ________ spilled on the table cloth.

Life was always not easy for the elderly. The son and his wife became ________ at the mess (脏乱). “We must do ________ about grandfather,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of the spilled milk and food on the floor.” So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family had their dinner at the dinner table ________ . Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a ________ bowl. Sometimes when the family glanced in grandfather’s ________, he had a tear in his eye. Still, the couple always blamed him when he ________ a spoon or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in ________.

It’s an evening before supper, the father ________ his lovely son playing with small wood pieces. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?” The little boy ________, “Oh, I am making bowls for you and mummy to eat your food from when I grow up.” The words so ________ the couple that they were speechless. Then tears started to ________ down their cheeks. Though no word was ________ both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took his father’s hand and led him back to the family dinner table gently. From then on, the grandfather ate every meal with the family.

【推荐2】Worth the pain in the end

I used to hate running. It seemed too hard and pushing outside my comfort zone was not something I was raised to do.

In fact, I wouldn’t have become a_____if it weren’t for my husband Charles. He had been a serious competitive runner for many years. After our marriage, he wouldn’t stop talking about how much he missed it.

“So start running again, why don’t you?” I was getting _____ of hearing about it.

So he picked it up again, and after about a year, I started to join him at the track (跑道). Just a few weeks later, Charles signed us both up for a five-kilometer race. I ____about doing it. It was too soon.

But on _____ day, there I was.

The gun went   ____.Thousands of runners pushed forward.

The first kilometer was ____.

“I don’t think I’m going to make it.” I was already breathing heavily and painfully aware of the group of runners   _____ past me.

“No, you’re doing ____”, said Charles. He was trying to encourage me, to get me focused on something other than my   ____.

“I can’t,” I said,_____ audibly (听得见地).

He tried a different way to _____ me. “Just make it to that house and let’s see how you feel.”

After another minute I saw the three-kilometer   ____. All I could think of was that I was dying and that my husband was torturing (折磨) me.

Miserable doesn’t even begin to describe   _____ I felt. And there was so much _____.

“You’ll be fine. You’ve got less than a kilometer to go.”

I rounded a corner and saw both sides of the street thick with people watching the race, all cheering the runners on. I _____ my legs to keep going.

Then I looked up and saw the clock. The seconds ticking away (一分一秒地过去) gave me an incentive (助力). I knew that if I finished this race, I would have achieved something. So, I straightened up, and kicked it.

I had my arms held higher when I passed ____the finish line. A volunteer put a   _____ around my neck.

“You did great! I’m so _____ of you!” Charles was thrilled that I’d _____ it.

“That was AMAZING! I want to do another race. This running stuff is amazing!” I proudly hugged my medal as we started to walk to the post-race festivities.

My lungs and my comfort zone both ____.

【推荐3】On a foggy evening, Steven took his old father to a restaurant for dinner. His father was very old and weak. While eating, he_____dropped food on his shirt and trousers. Other_____ watched him in disgust while his son was ______.

The whole restaurant fell_ ____. All the diners turned away from the father and son one after another while Steven _______ his father in a soft voice of a man, “Eat as ______ as you can, father. It will be weeks before I______back from my business trip.” At that moment, the old father nodded with ______ , tears full of his eyes. After he finished eating, Steven, his son, who was not at all______, quietly took him to the wash room,______the food particles(饭粒), removed the stains, combed his hair and______his glasses firmly.

When they came out, the entire restaurant was______them in dead silence, not able to understand ______ someone could embarrass themselves publicly like that. The son______ the bill and started walking out with his father. At that time, an old man among the diners called out to the ______and asked him, “Don’t you think you have_______ something behind?”.

The son replied, “No sir, I haven't.”

The old man insisted, “Yes, you have! You left a(n) ______for every son and hope for every______.” The restaurant went silent. All behind looked at Steven with regret and then, with great respect at both father and son, who were ______ into the fog.

To care for those who once cared for us is one of the ______ honors. We all know how our parents cared for us for every little thing. Love them, respect them, and care for them.

【推荐1】Terje Isungset is a Norwegian composer and performer. Recently he has become a ________ in the world of music. While most musicians seek to ________ a cold atmosphere at concerts, Terje Isungset is not ________ about a cold feeling. He performs with instruments he makes himself out of ________.

A recent performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall ________ a set of instruments including ice horns, ice drums and ice chimes(编钟). He ________ his work as being about more than making music, since he also ________ to display the characteristic of being beautiful and pure. “I consider it a part of ________ bigger. It’s not me and my project and my self-esteem—it’s the extreme weather, ” he says.

The Norwegian is ________ a background in traditional Scandinavian music and jazz. He’s the ________ of Ice Music Festival in Norway—so people here have ________ to enjoy ice music—and plays at about 50 festivals and concerts a year, many in the ________ conditions of Norway, Canada or Russia. ________, at concerts in warmer climates, higher temperatures can ________ difficulties, as spending any more than 50 minutes at room ________ could damage the instruments.

All of the instruments for the London show were made in Norway and transported in special ________. When it comes to ________ ice instruments, not any water will do. “If ice is from polluted water, it doesn’t ________ that good. If it’s from tap water it doesn’t work because there are some ________ in it,” he says. “The best choice is the pure ice from the north of Sweden. I’m really ________ to that ice.”

【推荐2】I love music. From the time I was a preschooler, I remember ______ my father play jazz on the piano and my family sing with ______. As I grew up and took piano lessons, I became very ______ of classical music. In the early 60s the Beatles was ______ and I was attracted to “pop” and “rock” music.

As time went on, I ______ to like almost every type of music, from opera to new age. Music did ______ for me. It helped me in every mood and ______ me up. My husband and I can go to a Broadway musical, or an opera. What is it that ______ us to music? Why do we have iPods today with thousands of songs? It’s ______ music is a part of the earth and our nature.

Music is for every ______. It is thought that babies hear ______ before they are born. Mothers sing lullabies (摇篮曲) to their babies and are able to put them to ______. When ________, pre-school children listen to music. It is also thought that it helps them ______ the beginnings of mathematics. It has been used in ______ settings as a way to comfort and help cure victims of stress syndrome(综合症). It also helps people keep ______, when music is played and sung during a memorial.

While we ______ music every day, we don’t think about all of this. ______, we listen to music regularly because it is a (n) ______ part of our earth’s rhythms. So, the next time you listen to music, think of it as a ______ that you share at any time and can have with you always.

【推荐3】Music can make us happy, peaceful or sad. As an orchestra(管弦乐队) conductor, Amy Anderson brings music to life, allowing people experience many ____________ that music can give.

Anderson fell in love with music when she was a child. She began playing the piano at seven and started composing at nine. She bought many videos ____________ by the world’s great orchestras and conductors and listened to them for hours on end.

During a concert, the audience see the ____________ of a conductor and the arm movements he or she makes. What audiences do not see is all the work the conductor has done before the ____________.

Months before a concert, Anderson studies the music by ____________ it on the piano. She listens to recordings, reads about the composer’s life, and reviews historical events that would have influenced the composer. Her goal is to recreate the music as the composer ____________.

While conducting, Anderson uses her whole body to ____________ how the music should sound and feel. Her ____________ are dramatic(激动人心的) when the music is ____________ and gentle when the music is peaceful.

To help young musicians better ____________ how to play the music, Anderson might tell them to imagine a ____________ and leisurely walk or a ship being tossed(颠簸) by waves.

“It is music’s ability to reach people that I value most,” said Anderson. She has seen audiences at her concerts ____________, clap together in rhythm, and shout “Bravo!” ____________, audiences are moved to tears. After one concert in Serbia, audiences ____________ around the orchestra’s buses and cheered for the young musicians as they climbed aboard.

Anderson is happy, knowing that she and the musicians have changed lives for the better, ____________ spirits and brought joy to people.

【推荐1】When most of us get a text message on our cell phone from an unknown person, we usually say “sorry, wrong number!” and move on. But when Dennis Williams ______a text that clearly wasn’t intended for him, he did something _______.

On March 19, Dennis got a group text ______ him that a couple he didn’t know were at the hospital, waiting for the arrival of a baby.

“Congratulations! But I think someone was mistaken,” Dennis ______. The baby was born and update texts were coming in quickly from the overjoyed grandmother, Teresa. In her ______, she didn’t seem to realize that she was sharing the baby’s photos with a complete stranger. “Well, I don’t ______ you all but I will get there to take pictures with the baby,” replied Dennis before asking which room the new ______ were in.

Much to the family’s surprise, Dennis stuck to his ______! He turned up at the hospital ______ gifts for the new mother Lindsey and her baby boy. Lindsey’s husband was totally ______ by the unexpected visit. “I don’t think we would have randomly invited him over but we ______ it and the gifts.”

Teresa ______ a photo of the chance meeting on a social networking website ______by the touching words: “What a______ this young man was to our family! He was so ______ and kind to do this.” The post has since gained the attention of social media users all over the world, receiving more than 184,000 shares and 61,500 likes in just three days.

【推荐2】During my stay at the University of Michigan, one of the senior professors asked me to join a seminar on culture and emotion. In a general ________ of self-introductions, I introduced myself in a(n) ________ Dutch way as one of those who are “interested in culture and emotion”. The professor supplemented (补充) my self-introduction to________ American standards, saying I was one of the world’s experts on the________. In response, I looked down in________, and thought that “expert” was a big word.

When I lived in North Carolina, my new friends came over to________. Conversations were full of interest and energy, and there was a lot of________. At the end of the evening, when my guests left, they thanked me for the dinner. My heart________, because I was born and raised in the Netherlands, where “thanking for dinner” means the relationship is ________. Emotions are different enough to feel out of________ when you move from one culture to another. The professor at the University of Michigan meant to make me feel________, but instead made me uncomfortable. My friends meant to show ________, but they made me think they were distancing themselves from me.

We think about emotions as feelings deep inside us, but in________, our emotions happen in interactions with others. In my own culture, it was hard to observe the________ emotions of others, but I was able to see them when I moved to the US—a different________ from where I was raised.

【推荐3】Sarah Ivermee is a mother from the UK who gave birth to her son Freddie back in 2011. _______, the little boy was born deaf in one ear and nearly deaf in the other.

In 2014, Freddie was given a cochlear implant (人工耳蜗) for his deaf ear, and he absolutely _______ it. Though Freddie was happy with his implant, Sarah quickly learnt that not all children in his situation accept implants _______.

“We learnt very quickly that not all families have had such a smooth ride, having lots of problems with children not _______ to wear their devices as they look ugly and _______ ,” Sarah said. “We did some _______ and found there was not a lot available to _______ the look of hearing devices and _______ there must be something we could do.” When Sarah _______ that a friend's 9-year-old daughter felt out-of-place while ____________ her device, she offered to decorate it for her, ____________ it into something the little girl loved. “She loves them and loves the fact that she can have ____________ designs that her friends don’t have,” Sarah said. This experience inspired Sarah. In 2014, she founded the company Lugs, which ____________ custom-made kits (配件) families can ____________ to decorate hearing devices and cochlear implants. Thanks to these kits, kids can decorate their devices with everything from flowers and butterflies to superheroes and cartoon characters.

“I thought there would be a lot of families ____________ with children who don’t want to wear their hearing devices, and I felt I had to ____________ ,” Sarah explained. “Knowing children are not only ____________ to wear their hearing devices but also ____________ to show them off makes it all worthwhile.”

The kits are ____________ the lives of families all over the world. One mother even said that she used a kit to decorate her three-month-old daughter’s device!

We applaud (赞赏) Sarah for going above and beyond to help these kids feel more ____________ about themselves!