【推荐1】Some of us look at a mountain and wonder how tough it would be to _______ it. Others decide to make it more challenging by taking a mountain _______ . And then there is an exceedingly small number of people who say, “Pah, two wheels is far too _______, I’m on my unicycle.”

A young man was riding a unicycle towards the_______. Was this a camera moment? Was Mike Murphy going to jump out from behind a rock? But there was no _______ crew around and the man continued to merrily wind his way up the mountain.

This man was Souryan Dubois. The French unicyclist was so keen on it that he took to the Wicklow Mountains every _______ he got. It turns out there is an activity more interesting than unicycling and that activity is _______ unicycling.

Souryan said he spent many _______ hours unicycling around the mountains of Ireland, drowning in the real fun of the activity. He started it when he attended a circus workshop, aged nine, and has been unicycling since. When he arrived in_______with his unicycle, he hoped to find a community of____________ enthusiasts. He spotted a unicyclist on a Cork street, and met a Polish unicyclist living here but was forced to conclude, that, like his chosen method of transport, the Irish competitive unicycling community is very ____________.

______________, it was a great way to meet the Irish who were very ____________about the one-wheeled vehicle. He got the usual helpful people pointing out that he was____________ a wheel or had forgotten his handlebars.

The Irish didn’t realise they were talking to a unicyclist ____________ his game. The 21-year-old took six medals at the last Unicycling World Championships in South Korea, including gold in the 42km race. (309words)

【推荐1】The invention of rubber surgical gloves is celebrating its 135th anniversary in 2024!

Believe it or not, this little tool ________ in every doctor’s office and hospital was invented out of ________. In 1889, Dr. William Halsted was in love with the nurse and eventual wife, Carolyn Hampton. ________, this invention should be named “Rubber Gloves of Love”.

Hospital procedures ________ surgical personnel to wash and disinfect their hands before interacting with patients. Carolyn ________ severe dermatitis (皮炎) due to the use of mercuric chloride (氯化汞) for disinfection. She was almost about to ________ but Halsted wanted to keep her near him. To protect her ________, he thought hard and suddenly, something ________ him. He contacted the Goodyear Rubber Company, asking the engineers there to ________ thin rubber gloves for Carolyn.

________ rubber gloves were very different from what we have today, but they proved to be an excellent ________ to the operating room. The gloves were ________ well received. Many other personnel began wearing the gloves. It’s generally ________ that now they have many uses, far beyond their original ________. For example, hairdressers use them to prevent getting poisoned by dyes and solutions used in their business.

Whenever I see gloves anywhere, I couldn’t help but think of this ________ of inventing the “rubber gloves of love”.

【推荐2】This week we drove over to spend some time with Aunt Carmeleta. We don’t see her _________ because she lives in Tennesee, which is far from us. However, this past week her husband Ken drove their motor home to Michigan to _________ a party.

As always, it was _________ to see Carmeleta. She met us at the motor home door _________. She gave us each a big hug and scurried(碎步疾跑) around to make us _________.

The first time my friend, Bill, met Carmeleta, he said, “She can’t be _________!” Bill had never met anyone so kind, _________, and full of mercy(仁慈) as Carmeleta. But after knowing her for well over 50 years, he _________ she is.

I’ve been _________ to know Carmeleta my whole life. She has __________ me more than she could ever know. When I __________ to her how people were talking bad about me, she would __________ me, “Just keep being yourself. __________ yourself for who you are.” I’m sure she saw areas where I needed __________, but she only showed love, patience, and mercy to me.

Next month Carmeleta will be 89 years young. I say young because she never seems to __________ for me. And she is still full of love, kindness and mercy. She accepts people where they are, and she is for real!

【推荐3】On a Saturday morning, I drove my son Andrew to a shoe store. We ________ the trip to arrive right when the store opens, for Andrew is a nonspeaking autistic (自闭症患者) and prefers to go shopping when it’s not ________ .

After the purchase, I thanked the two clerks and headed toward the door. What came next only ________ when the inner voice told you to do things differently. ________ having Andrew point to the “thank you” symbol on the picture chart he carries with him, I held up his letterboard and asked how he’d like to ________ .

The picture chart only contains images that ________ his most frequently used words. The letterboard, however, ________ an effective tool. He can ________ more through the use of a letterboard—by pointing to individual letters on an alphabet grid (网格). Using it requires ________ time and effort for him, though. He would not ________ use of the letterboard on his own. I need to present it to him and ________ his wishes if he pushes it away.

“Thank you,” Andrew pointed to each letter. The two clerks’ ________ almost dropped as they watched. One spoke up: “My brother Jason doesn’t talk. Can I ask you?” “Andrew, what do you think?” I asked, ________ that his patience might be running out.

Surprisingly, Andrew ________ started pointing to letters: “Tell Jason he will change everyone’s opinion of him in 26 letters.” I immediately ________ . Sometimes I forget just how powerful the 26 letters are. Just how powerful Andrew is.

【推荐1】Water is one of the most important things for life on Earth. What happens ________ you suddenly can’t get this precious liquid?

Mark, an expedition (探险) guide from Shropshire, in the UK, ________ this for himself while ________ along the Zambezi River for two months. When he reached the gorge (峡谷) at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, the area became much more ________ to travel through. Mark guessed that it would take a month to get to the other side of the gorge, and with no other people for miles around, he was beginning to ________ food: After two weeks of trying to pick his ________ through the gorge, Mark decided to find another ________. On his ________, he could see another river heading into the Zambezi.

________ at 4 am, Mark climbed out of the gorge with two—litter water bottles. But after three hours of walking, he ________ ran out of water. He was on the edge of a cliff (悬崖). He could see the river far below him.

He examined the cliff and saw a few tree roots to hold onto, so he decided to make an attempt at climbing down. When he reached a ledge(岩架), he became ________ due to his thirsty, hunger and tiredness. It was not until a few minutes later that he came to himself. Even so, Mark kept pushing himself down the cliff for nearly an hour until he came to the ________. He had to sit there for an hour, cooling down and drinking water.

While few of us are likely to experience this kind of extreme dehydration (脱水), around four billion people experience a ________ of water at least one month of the year. Mark was lucky. After resting for a week, he was able to ________ his journey. Although his experience was a ________ in patience, it also taught him how important water is.

【推荐2】From the age of eight, I attended a little boarding school on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border. On Sunday afternoons, the _______ would leave us to wander the edge of the grounds where we were supposed to _______ time chatting or playing sports but my _______ was to climb over the fences and disappear into the landscape. Often, much to the teachers’ annoyance, no one knew where to _______ me.

That was the point. To walk to a(n) _______ place and, for a moment, feel the world as something new brought with it a feeling I would desire. The habit _______ with me. By my mid-20s, I was a _______ walker. Walking became a way of life that, _______, gave shape to a wandering decade and I would ease myself into new _______ the world over by setting out on foot to get ________ and then find myself again in the backstreets of Ahmedabad or Isfhanan, Ramallah or Bari.

Now I have established my home in the landscape of Devon. Here, walking ________ me and my dog Dharma as an essential daily practice. The world outside our front door is an ________ the tiring, routine aspects of our lives. It’s a place where we watch the seasons change and ________ the movement of the sun and the light around the moon. We walk the same ________, day after day, but every minute of every hour can feel like ________.