【推荐1】Every day on the way to work I drive down a street lined with pine trees. One tree in particular _______ my eye. It must have suffered some severe _______ . Part of its trunk（树干）grew nearly parallel（平行）to the ground, and then in an effort to _______ its own path of life, the trunk took a 90 degree turn _______ to stand tall and stretch（伸展）toward the sun.

This tree became a _______ for me. Each day as I drove by, I saw this bent but determined tree and I would be _______ . It was a reminder to me that _______ I may not have had the best start in life, I could change _______ in the paths of my life at any time.

I was planning to stop one day to get a perfect _______ of my kindred-spirit（志趣相同的）tree. But that week I was ________ . After that busy week, I still didn’t take any action. Every time I drove by the tree I ________ tell myself, “Tomorrow, I’ll stop tomorrow to take one.” Then one day, as I drove by, I glanced over and, much to my ________ I found a lonely sawed-off stump（树桩） ________ the symbolic tree had stood. It was gone! I had ________ my plan until “tomorrow” and tomorrow proved to be too ________ .

A picture of a tree is not of great ________ . But my lesson rang through clearly ________ I found out one of my colleagues had been diagnosed with stage-four cancer. He may no longer have many ________ .

What have you been putting off? What would you do if you knew you would ________ have the opportunity to do it again? Why not do those things ________ that you have been putting off until tomorrow?

【推荐2】While food bank lines have grown longer, millions of pounds of produce are still going to waste. When several Stanford University students heard about the huge amount of food _________ every day, they were shocked and they knew they had to _________.

That’s why they _________ the Farm Link Project, a grassroots movement that not only _________ supplies to charities, but also helps farmers earn money.

“The farmers want to donate their surplus food, but they can’t _________ to take on the associated _________, like packaging and transporting it,” a student explained.

That’s where Farm Link comes in. Funded by donations, they _________ food from farmers and pay truckers to deliver _________ to food bank distributors.

Their first projects in April alone transported 50,000 pounds of onions and 10,000 eggs and _________ 644,000 pounds of food across many states. The group quickly __________ to include 20 students and graduates from five different colleges. “Our __________ is to get produce where it is needed most,” said another student. “No food bank should have to turn people away.”

With so many dedicated, caring individuals working __________ to make that happen, we have no doubt they’ll   __________ their goal!

Talk about making a difference! __________ Farm Link, families across the country won’t have to worry about going __________.

【推荐3】We first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our marriage. Someone had been returning our garbage cans to the _______ each garbage day, and Jim and I had wondered who. Then one day we _______ him: an elderly man who lived across the street. I baked cookies and _______ them outside the garage with a thank-you note. Later that night, a typed letter had _______ the gift. The letter was from Tom and explained how he had _______ to walk the neighborhood, returning cans for people he _______ knew. Back when he’d been fighting a war, his wife, Gee, had found herself living _______ . Neighbors had taken the time to _______ her garbage cans, so she didn’t have to and he never _______ . Now he paid it forward by doing the same for all of us.

Years later, Tom died. We photocopied that letter and ________ it to one of our own for, Gee. We told her how ________ we were to have known Tom. She wrote back and invited us over to ________ Christmas ornaments(装饰品). My kids sat in Gee’s living room and ________ lifted antique ornaments out of a well-kept box. Gee quietly explained each ________ . She told me that she and Tom had built their ________ piece by piece during each year’s after-Christmas sale. I realized how ________ it must be to part with that box. Yet she smiled ________ we left with it and found it a new home.

Passed from one home to the next, the box of ornaments ________ our family of the bonds around us. This Christmas, we’ll ________ our tree with Gee’s ornaments. Maybe I’ll talk to him just as Gee till does. Thank you, I’ll say, for teaching us what it ________ to be a neighbor.

【推荐1】The idea of donating mosquito nets (蚊帐) to millions of Africans came to Katherine Commale’s mind when she was only five years old. She _______ a documentary about Africa, which _______ that on average, every 30 seconds one child died of malaria (疟疾) there, which can be caused by mosquito bites. This made her astonished, but it also _______ her to do something to save their lives. _______, Katherine started raising money for mosquito nets so that Africans don’t have to _______ malaria. She sent nets to Africa through an organization called Nothing But Nets. By making hand-decorated _______ with her family and giving them to those who donated money, Katherine inspired people to join her. Her _______ was posted on the website of Nothing But Nets. People were touched by her _______, which went beyond age and race. _______ were pouring in from around the world.

However. Katherine still seemed ________. She and her friends wrote letters to the ________ who were on the list of The World’s Billionaires hoping they could contribute money. After receiving the letter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ________that it would donate three million dollars to Nothing But Nets. ________ , to have more people know Katherine’s deeds, the foundation invested (投资) in filming a public welfare documentary.

Thanks to Katherine, the frequency of children’s death ________ from malaria in Africa has been decreased to one person every 120 seconds. Katherine’s kindness influenced the world even though she was only a little girl. She showed that no one is too ________ to change the world into a better place.

【推荐3】About 15 years ago, Andrew Mclindon, a businessman and cyclist was riding his bike in Austin, Texas, when he thought about a friend’s 12-year-old son. The boy had never known the ______ of biking because he was born with the brain disease that often causes balance ______ .

When he got home, Mclindon, now 60, went online and found a three-wheel bike with a seat belt ______ for a child with balance issues. Soon the boy was ______ around the street with his fellows having fun and getting ______ . Additionally, seeing the boy interacting with other kids happily, McLindon was ______ by the smile on his face, which ______ the McLindon Family Foundation. Funded by donations, the group works with clinics to find children who can benefit from owning an ______ bike and to help change each bike to ______ the particular needs of the child. Therefore, the bikes are ______ , but with the producer’s huge discount, some kids are lucky enough to get one. “We worked with a 14-year-old who ______ spina bifida (脊柱裂伤),” says McLindon. She spent most days on the couch watching TV. Soon after she ______ her bike, she was training for special-needs sports. In a magazine interview, she said, “I always knew there was a(n) ______ in me.”

So far, the foundation has ______ 450 bikes, and that’s just a start. “I do a lot of things. I run a lot of corporations,” McLindon says. “But getting these kids their ______ is the most important thing that I do.”