【推荐1】I come from a broken family that many would consider dysfunctional(失衡）at the very least: marriage, divorce,etc.After we grew up，my three siblings and I could go years_______speaking. And that is where this story _______

My sister Jeanne and I were born only 14 months_______.but by the time we were teenagers We had lost _______.   By age 19,I had moved away from our home in Wisconsin to live on my   father's horse farm in Virginia.We lived separate and our connection somehow ended.

Fast-forward about five years,I was 24 and on _______ with my fiance(未婚天）to New York City,a place I had never been to.

During a day of sightseeing,we were crossing a very _______ street loaded with people.I had laughed at something my fiance said,and I _______   heard my name yelled from somewhere around   me:"Cheryl! "I _______ in my steps in the middle of the road.Tears_______ in my eyes.I knew without a ____________that it was my sister Jeanne.I yelled back before even turning to look."Jeanne? It was her.

I later asked how she'd known it was me---she ____________ saw me!She said it was my ____________I wouldn't say my laugh is all that   ____________,but I guess to a family member it's infectious.It ____________your heart and resonates(共鸣）in your mind.

Since that time,my sister and I have never been____________.We both moved back to Wisconsin. We____________daily.Many years have passed,and we are now in our 50s.But our meeting ____________wasn't just a sign.I see it as more of a ____________ , a reminder not to lose touch with loved ones.It is too easy to remain ____________.After our sister-to-sister ____________,I don't plan to let that happen again.

【推荐2】Michael wore the same clothes every day for the first three weeks of school. When the other kids began to ________ that he was wearing the same pants and shirt day after day, Michael, a college preparatory high school freshman, became the ________ of ridicule and laughter. But there was ________ Michael could do. His mother simply couldn’t ________ to buy him new clothes.

Two of the kids were Antwan and Kristopher, big freshman football players. But over time, they ________ that their disparaging（毁谤的）words felt like bullying and seemed to be slowly breaking Michael’s ________. Something finally clicked.

Kristopher felt like he needed to do something. So he and Antwan ________ a plan. They went home and ________ through their own drawers and closets. The next day at school, they ________ Michael at their third-period class and asked him to come into the hall. Michael was ________ uncomfortable about being called out by the ________ boys.

Kristopher told him, “We’re in the same third period, and I ________ for laughing at you, and I want to give something to you to ________ it up.” He then ________ Michael a large bag. Inside were clean shirts and shorts, plus a brand-new pair of New Balance ________.

Michael was blown away. He was very happy, ________, completely. And Michael got much more than new clothes. He no longer sits ________ at lunch. Now he ________ with his new friends, Antwan and Kristopher.

Reflecting on the ________ Antwan and Kristopher called him into the hall, Michael said, “The best day of my ________ life, basically.”

【推荐3】Horror blanketed the heart of the World War I soldier, as he saw his life-long friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench(壕沟)with continuous gunfire whizzing over his head, the soldier asked his lieutenant(中尉)_____ he might go out into the“No Man’s Land”between the trenches to bring his __ comrade back.

“You can go,”said the lieutenant, “__I don’t think it will be worth it. Your friend is __ dead and you may throw your own life away.”

The lieutenant’s words didn’t __ and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously he__ to reach his friend, lift him onto his __ and bring him back to their company’s trench. As the two of them tumbled in together to the bottom of the trench, the officer__ the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend.

“I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,”he said. “Your friend is dead, and you are mortally__.”

“It was worth it, __, sir,”the soldier said.

“How do you mean, ‘worth it’?”__ the lieutenant.“Your friend is dead!”

“Yes sir,”the private answered. “But it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still__, and I had the__ of hearing him say, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”

Many a time in life, whether a thing is worth doing or not really __ how you look at it. Take up all your courage and do something your heart tells you to do so that you may not regret not doing it later in life. May each and everyone of you be blessed with the __ of true friends.

【推荐1】When I was a boy, I spent much time playing alone. I didn’t mind it too much, though. I lived outside town, next to a forest where oaks (橡树) were my companions (同伴). I would sit under them and enjoy their _________, sharing my stories with those _________ friends.

Therefore, it was so shocking for me when I was _________ in a wood processing factory. It wasn’t just the time-taking work, long hours, and low _________, but it was also seeing trees being _________. The red oak trees were heavily _________ because they made the prettiest hardwood _________.

One afternoon after a long day’s work, I decided to take a walk in the forest. As I walked _________ around, I was filled with the longing for childhood days. Feeling so _________, I dropped my head and that was when I found it: a red oak acorn (橡子) that had somehow survived hungry __________ all winter long. Something I’d read once __________ me at that moment: “An acorn becomes a __________ eventually if it wants to!” I smiled, bent down,__________ a handful of dirt and carefully planted that little acorn. Then I __________ my home, no longer sad, for I also realized in our life we all start out as an acorn, but whether our future is a forest or not is __________ us.

【推荐3】I was so blessed for all the special moments I had with my mother. When she was eighty-two, she thought she was ________ me by asking me to take her to the many doctor visits she had, but it was a ________ for me to spend quality time with her.

I tried to make a(n) ________ of our days together, ________ her doctor’s visits with doing something thrilling. One day, while we were driving and deciding where to eat lunch, I ________ to a stoplight and saw a large sign outside a restaurant. I looked at the ________ sign and asked my mother. “Have you ever played Skee-Ball?”

“No.” she replied.

So we chose to eat in this restaurant. I ________ the special lunch buffet, and it came with fifty tokens (代币) for the arcade (电玩) games. I ________, “Aha! We are rich!”

After we ate, it was time to use those golden tokens. Mom loved playing Skee-Ball and collecting ________. She moved from game to game like a child. She had fun ________ as one machine spewed (喷出) out seven tickets again and again! I ________ her token after token for the next game to be played...until we ________ tokens.

When we went to ________ in our handfuls of tickets at the automatic counting machine, Mom chose a toy whistle. The man gave her a(n) ________ one for me, so we had fun blowing whistles together.

I keep that whistle on my desk, a ________ of a wonderful experience with my mom as we embraced (欣然接受) her willingness to make the most of every day.