【推荐1】One year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms, though my teacher told me about them again and again. But soon, the _________ of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.

One day, I _________ to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the _________ seemed to be surprised.

Gently shaking his _________, shrugging（耸）his shoulders, he said, “You don’t say!” I was _________. I thought perhaps this was not an proper _________. I had better change it. So I said to him, “Have you ever been to the Great Wall?” “Certainly, everyone back home will _________ me if I leave China without seeing it. It was amazing.” I continued, “The Great Wall is one of the _________ in the world. We are very proud of it.” But soon “You don’t say!” came to my ears again. I couldn’t _________ asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?” “Well, I didn’t ask you to do so,” he answered, __________ surprised. I said, “Didn’t you say! ‘You don’t say!’?” __________ this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to __________, “‘You don’t say!’ actually means ‘Really’! It is a/ an __________ of surprise. Perhaps you don’t pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I know I had made a __________ of myself. Since then I have been more __________ with idiomatic expressions.

【推荐2】After persuading most of his patients, his wife and son to go back to France following the lockdown of Wuhan, Philippe Klein, a French doctor, decided to stay in the epicenter during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I am a doctor, so I have to do my job and do my_______,” said Klein.

Before authorities in Wuhan_______the city, suspending all outbound flights and trains in late January to_______the highly infectious disease, Klein had_______about 500 foreigners living in Wuhan, most of them French.

Following the outbreak, he closed his_______ at the hospital to reduce the chances of infection for his patients. Instead, he began to give_______and treatment at patients’ homes.

But while he continued to see his patients, Klein found some had a fever and he might be_______ with the virus, so he decided to send his wife and son back to France.

“When I came back home after seeing patients, I didn’t feel very comfortable. I really did not want to put my family _______, so I asked my wife to leave Wuhan,” he said. “My son was crying when we_______, but it was better for them to leave Wuhan and let me do my job. Also they were very proud because I was doing my duty here.”

In addition to his sense of duty as a doctor, he said he also chose to stay because of his deep________for the people and the city.

“People in Wuhan are very friendly to French, and here I feel like a star sometimes,” he said. ________ the lockdown of a vast city with 11 million people, which is rare in human history, has made a big________ on Klein. He said he was touched by the________Wuhan residents had made to contain the outbreak.

“The last month was the craziest month in my________ life,” he said. “And I would like to say to the people of Wuhan and to Chinese people that they are going to overcome this epidemic. And their sacrifice, their courage and their unity, will________. It will be an example to the world to make such a sacrifice to protect the rest of the world.”

【推荐3】I entered a restaurant and ordered some food. Later, a group of people _______ in and ordered theirs. To my _______, they got served first. I watched as they began to eat and laugh heartily. I _______ heard one of them talking proudly about how he’d _______ someone in the restaurant, which made me feel angry. Unable to _______ it anymore, I called the waiter.

He _______ told me, “Yours is a special order, which is being carefully prepared by the head chefs. Their order was prepared hurriedly by the apprentices (学徒). That’s the___________why they were served first. Please have some juice as you wait.”

I calmed down and waited _______. Shortly after, my meal was served. Unknown to me, the owner of the restaurant, who was an old friend of mine, saw me when I entered and decided to _______ me. She changed my simple meal to a five-star meal. The people at other __________ were shocked. They couldn’t stop staring and they __________ about why they didn’t get such service like me.

Such is life! Some people are ahead of you and talking about how they are __________ than you, and how they are enjoying __________. You are waiting tirelessly __________ why it’s taking so long.

The owner doesn’t want you to be served a __________ meal. You’re waiting long because yours is a special meal, which takes time to prepare and deserves waiting.

【推荐2】Alina’s life as an angel of love began in middle school, when, in the planting club of her school, she learned how to grow eggplants.

From then on, she was _________ in growing the eggplants. Later she found a big piece of land in the home backyard to plant seeds, hoping to _________ her crop in fall.

This was _________ than it sounds. She spent all her spare time caring for the plants and she became thinner. However, her great work _________. Much more than the family can consume, she suddenly had an idea that she sold some eggplants to _________ fund for local Rescue Center for Blind Children. Her father Barret strongly supported her _________, and did some _________ on social media but he didn’t expect his daughter’s crop to become a big _________.

Alina’s eggplants _________ well, though eggplants aren’t the only choice when people buy vegetables. __________, they knew the earnings were for a good cause. Within a week, those eggplants helped her raise $1,000! Her father and she __________ every penny to the center.

What she did was very __________ to the center. The head said fund—raising __________ much to providing treatment for blind children and her donation can make a difference,

Alina felt very happy, planning to do it with her family all over again next year: In her words, “I get a lot from this __________, I’ll try my best to use my own hands to help the blind children in the poor __________.”

【推荐3】My brother and I were driving home together. We talked happily and due to ______, my brother took a wrong turn.

Unfortunately, the wrong turn took us towards a bridge and we had no way to ______. Unwillingly, my brother ______ the bridge toll and drove on. He was clearly ______ by the mistake and the needless waste of $4.

We eventually ______ an exit slip-way and, as we took it, my brother noticed a beat-up black Mustang pulled over to the side of the road. A young man was standing nearby trying to ______ someone. I was busy trying to ______ which way we went next, but my brother pulled over and asked him if he needed any help. And he ______. He had a flat tire and needed a wrench to get it off.

My brother ______ him a wrench, and then helped him ______ the flat. By and by, we knew the young man was from a rough neighborhood nearby. He said that this had been a ______ week for him; earlier he had gotten into a minor car accident, and now this flat on his way home from work. But he called us “A breath of fresh air”, because he really would have been ______ if we hadn’t come along.

After we had ______ the job, he thanked us again and pulled out $20 and tried to give it to us. “No,” I said. “We were never supposed even to get on that ______, if we didn’t take a wrong turn. But now we know why we did. It was to help you. Thank you for turning our ______ into an opportunity to serve.”