【推荐1】I believe that I always have a choice.

I believe that I always have a choice. No matter what I'm doing and what is happening to me.

I used to write my books, typing on a keyboard, _______now I can no longer _______ my hand. Today I am sitting at my computer, speaking these words through a microphone. In 2008, I was diagnosed with ALS, a(n) _______ disease, which would weaken and finally _________every important muscle in my body. That is to say, I will be _________ unable to move, to speak, and finally, to_________. Only largely depending upon others could I live. I was lost and felt everything around me become dull.

I was _______ to give up writing completely and remained _______ all day long. In the _______, some of my friends and relatives came to ____________ me. However, It wasn’t long ____________I became lonely again, wondering the meaning of life. Sometimes I came up with the ____________ that I’d better end my life because I couldn’t ____________ the complex(复杂的) expressions on my family’s faces. I became depressed, doubtful and ____________. Then one day as I was wheeling myself along a nearby street, I found an old guy in dirty clothes with no legs ____________ in the street. I was shocked and woke up at once. I was more ____________ than him. I have thousands of ____________ to live on. When he came to me begging, I was so inspired and offered all that was in my purse. From then on I ____________ to go through the process of learning to use voice recognition software. Old woman ____________I was, I wrote more now than ever.

Every day now I have a ____________ on not only whether I will live, but how I will live. I can choose to see it as an invitation—an opportunity to learn who I really am.

【推荐2】On a cold morning at a Subway Station, a man with a violin played for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the ________ , most of them on their way to work. About four minutes later, the violinist ________ his first dollar. A woman threw ________ in the hat and continued to walk. At six minutes, a young man leaned ________ the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. At ten minutes, a three-year old boy ________, but his mother pulled him along ________. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, _________ the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk unwillingly, ________ his head the whole time. At forty-five minutes, the musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. After one hour, he finished playing and silence ________. No one noticed and no one ________. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the ________ averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the ________ music.

In a common-place environment, at an ________ hour, do we perceive beauty? If so, do we stop to ________ it? If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written... How many other things are we missing as we ________ through life?

【推荐3】Earlier this year the phone companies stopped supporting the software for my old 3G flip phone. So like the rest of the modern world I was ________ to buy a new smart phone. I didn’t use it much at first, only to get a ________ from my daughter or to play a game or two. Soon, however, I found it far ________ to surf the web on the smart phone than my computer. Even with my limited time I ________ found myself spending more and more of it on this phone. It happened almost without me ________ it.

Yesterday I was on it ________ the sea of stories, posts, news, and videos. Then suddenly a long, white, ________ nose pushed its way between me and my ________. I started to push it away but that only got me a lick (舔) from my chin to my glasses. ________, I put the phone down, took my glasses off and ________ my dog. Soon we were hugging, running around, and playing down the hallways of my home. And I ________ something too. There was a feeling in my heart: a ________ mixture of love, laughter, and joy. It was a feeling that I hadn’t gotten ________ during all that time I had spent on my phone.

Technology is here to stay. But we shouldn’t let it ________ us. We should use it only when it ________ us to do the important things like loving each other, making this world a better place.

【推荐2】A little boy invited his mother to attend his school’s first teacher-parent meeting. To the little boy’s _______, she said she would go. This _______ be the first time that his classmates and teacher _______ his mother and he felt _______ of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar(疤痕) that _______ nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to _______ why or how she got the scar.

At the meeting, the people were _______ by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother _______ the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed and _______ himself from everyone. He did, however, get within __________ of a conversation between his mother and his teacher.

The teacher asked __________, “How did you get the scar on your face?” The mother replied, “__________ my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was __________ afraid to go in because the fire was __________, so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a long piece of wood coming down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked __________ but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She ____________ the burned side of her face. “This scar will be __________, but to this day, I have never __________ what I did.”

At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and felt a great __________ of the sacrifice(牺牲) that his mother had made for him. He held her hand __________ for the rest of the day.

【推荐1】I used to live selfishly, I should admit. But one moment changed me.

I was on my lunch break and had _________the office to get something to eat . On the way, I _________a busker(街头艺人)，with a hat in front of him. I had some _________ in my pocket, but I would not give them to him, thinking to myself he would _________ use the money to feed his addiction(上瘾) to drugs or alcohol. He _________ like that type-young and foolish. _________ what was I going to spend the money on? Only to feed my addiction to Coca-Cola or chocolate! I then _________ I had no right to place myself above _________ just because he was busking.

I _________ and dropped all the coins into his __________, and he smiled at me, I watched for a while. As __________ as it sounds, I expected something more to come from that moment—a feeling of __________ or satisfaction, for example. But nothing happened. __________ , I walked off. “It proved to be a waste of __________ ,”I thought.

On my way home at the end of the __________, I saw the busker again and he was __________ . I watched him pick up the hat and walk __________ a cafe counter. There he poured the __________ contents into a tin collecting __________ an earthquake fund-raising(募捐) event. He was busking for charity(慈善)！

Now I donate any __________ I have to charity tins and enjoy the feeling of giving.

【推荐3】From childhood, Diane loved to write. Throughout school she_______ writing, but pursuing it_______ was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother was a nurse. “Medicine was a fairly_______ option,” Diane says. “And writing was a career where it wasn’t a _______ that you’d have high income.”

She became a doctor but still wanted to do some writing. However, being a doctor was so_______ that she didn’t take up writing until her thirties. She_______ a novel—a fictionalized version of her travels in China after university. She got excellent_______ . Diane sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to _______ her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her _______  as an author.

“I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we ________all possible areas she thought needed ________. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn’t hear anything.” It was not long ________ Diane found another agent who was________ if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. “I got back a really brief letter: ‘Thank you, I’m no longer interested.’ It was really________.”

A decade went by, and Diane found herself itching to write again, this time ________ for her own enjoyment. She ________ herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. “The characters________ a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn’t thought about. It just________ out.” One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Diane had a publication deal. Her novel Cicada was published in March.

“________ it hadn’t been published, I still gained so much from the________ ,” says Diane.