【推荐3】I believe I had the perfect life. Because I was about to _________ my high school, and on my way to college, I had great friends and a loving family. There was nothing missing. But I spoke too soon.

It was around 9:25 a.m. that I heard the news that would _________ my life forever. My brother Zach had been in a car accident. He fought for five days before he _________. That day, I became an only child. I felt extremely _________

After Zach’s death, I found _________ in food. I ate, then I slept, then I ate again. I couldn’t cry. I could hardly feel anything, and I was _________. I stopped building relationships for fear that they would end just as suddenly as Zach’s life. Also, I became nervous about any potentially _________ situations — driving late at night — but I couldn’t express this fear of life because I wanted to be strong for my parents. I saw my parents’ _________ worse than mine because of the losing of their son. I didn’t want them to _________ me. I also experienced a lot of __________, because I was angry about why the sadness had happened to me, and I never escape from this emotion.

Now, it has been nearly five years since Zach’s death. I don’t __________ life anymore: I face it bravely. I__________ my friendships and began socializing more. I even share Zach’s story with people around me. Although my new friends never met him, they know about Zach.

One lesson I learned from losing my brother was never to be __________ to say, “I love you.” I loved my brother, but it was too late to __________ it loudly. The last time I remember telling my brother I loved him was when he was dying. Don’t make this __________ like me.

【推荐1】During the coronavirus lockdown, a fifth-grade teacher contacted me asking for help. She was ________ with students not attending online class but her students all loved the story in my book. So she asked if I had any ________.

My immediate ________ was for me to do a weekly book club where I would read to the students. The idea was ________ by Mrs. Sandberg, my first teacher in America.

When I moved to America from Iran in 1972, I spoke seven words of English. Despite the language ________, I immediately loved school. My favorite part of the day was ________ lunch, when Mrs. Sandberg read to us. Her kind voice ________ me to magical places where animals could talk and where kids had grand adventures.

With this joyful ________, I started the club. At the first session, five kids ________. I read to them and tried to ________ a conversation. Whenever I asked a question, I was met with complete ________. The following week, a few more kids came; they ________ started responding, but with one-word answers. The next session, they gave ________ answers and more students participated in the conversations.

This club has quickly become the ________ of my week. I have gotten to know the students and grown fond of every single one of them. Reading out loud forces me to forget everything else for an hour. I recently wondered if our post-lunch reading hour had given Mrs. Sandberg a chance to forget her ________, too.

【推荐2】I was almost 10 years old I he first time I moved to a new house with my family. One of the things that ___ me most was that I had to leave in the middle of a book. Our ___ grade teacher, Mrs. Rice, was reading aloud to our class from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie — a few ___ each day.

I was a child in the fifties and sixties, long before Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert ___ in the television series, so I couldn’t ___ the story on the black-and-white television in our new living room.

I must have told my teacher how ___ I was to leave in the middle of Laura’s story, which I’d ___ to love. Mrs. Rice, in all her ___, told me that she was sure the book would be waiting in the____ in my new town. She said I should go there ____ we got settled, check it out and finish reading it.

The move was not among the easiest I’ve ____ in my lifetime. The new fourth teacher was ____ not Mrs. Rice, and the new kids weren’t like the friends I’d left ____.

My mother knew the ____ I’d found in books through the years — beginning with the first one I remember her ____ to me, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Childs Garden of Verses. ____, in her wisdom, she ____ my siblings and me into the car and took us to the Carnegie-style library in our new hometown.

Over the next five decades. I moved ____ a half-dozen times, but one thing was constant in each ____ — the library was one place where I always ____ at home and never worried what people thought of the “new kid”.

【推荐3】The idea came to him when he least expected it. Alvin Irby was at a _________ when he saw one of his former students sitting in the shop with a ________ look on his face. That’s when Irby realized that by ________ barbershops with books, he might be able to ________ young black boys to read.

Irby, a former kindergarten and first grade ________, knows how important it is for young children to read. He also knows that young black boys ________ often don’t have adult male role models who inspire them to read.

That’s where the barbershops come in.

Irby ________ Barbershop Books as a way to not just get books into the _______ of young black boys, but also create community reading spaces in a place where kids go _________. Since its launch in 2013, the program has created kid-friendly reading spaces in 50 barbershops in 12 states ________ the United States.

“Our belief is that if we can create positive reading _______ early and often for young black boys, then they will choose to read for _______. Because they will ______ themselves as readers.” Irby noted, adding, “This is really _______barbershop Books is about, getting young black boys to say three words: I’m a _________.”

Irby’s idea is _________. And it will continue to _________ thanks in part to the National Book Foundation Barbershop Books recently won the organizations 2017 Innovations in Reeling prize. It is _______ to programs that use reading to make a social impact. The _______ comes with a S10,000 prize. Irby plans to use the prize money to bring Barbershop Books to more communities and to ________ training programs for barbers so that they can create their own community reading spaces.

【推荐1】In the dictionary of Jessica Cox, a woman aged 36 from Tucson, Arizona, there seems to be no such words——can’t or impossible. How does that ________?

Jessica was born without ________ but that has only ________ her doing one thing: using the word “can’t”. While she________ prosthetic limbs (义肢) as a child, she finally gave them up and used her feet to________ everyday tasks. “Prosthetic limbs can never________ the tactile (触觉的) ability of flesh and bone——but my feet have that ability,” she said.

She has lived with her ________ since birth with no explanation of why she was born________ what most of us________ as essential (基本的) parts, and she has been proving that she can do________ people with arms can do, ________ what most people are proud of. With her feet, she can eat with chopsticks, type on a keyboard, play the piano and even surf on the sea. To our________, she became the first armless black belt in the American Tae Kwon Do Assocaition. But what ________ people most is that in 2008, she became the first________ to fly a plane with her feet, ________ her a Guinness World Record.

Now Jessica and her husband are working together touring the world as Jessica gives encouraging speeches. “I wanted to________ others not to let fear stand ________ of their opportunities.”

So, next time you are ________ to tell yourself “I can’t possibly …”, remember this ________ woman and change the vocabulary in your________.

【推荐3】On his 67th birthday, Dad had a heart attack. He was _______—he survived. But something _______ him had died. His passion for life was gone. He refused the doctor’s _______, and his bitter attitude made every visitor _______. Dad was left alone.

I asked Dad to come and live on our small farm, _______ the fresh air would do him good. A week later, I_______ the invitation. He criticized and complained everything here. Frustrated, I decided something had to be done.

One day I read an article saying several depressed patients’ attitudes had _______ dramatically(显著地) when given dogs. That afternoon I drove to an animal shelter, where a pointer’s eyes caught my attention. They watched me _______.

A staff member said: “He’s been here for two weeks with nothing heard. His time is up tomorrow.”

I turned _______ the man in horror. “You mean to ________ him?”

“Madam,” he said coldly. “We don’t have ________ for every unclaimed dog.” The pointer’s calm brown eyes ________ my decision. “I’ll take him,” I said.

On arriving home, I took the dog to Dad’s room. “Look what I got you!”I said ________.

Dad frowned and murmured. “I don’t want it.” Then, suddenly, the pointer ________ from my grasp. He sat down in front of Dad.

Dad’s anger ________, and soon he was hugging the animal.

It was the beginning of a ________. Dad named the pointer Cheyenne. Together they spent long hours walking down country roads and relaxing on the banks of streams.

Dad’s ________ faded, and he and Cheyenne befriended each other. Then, one night two years later, Cheyenne rushed into my bedroom as if telling something. Running into Dad’s room, I found he had __________.

Two days later, my sorrow ________ when I discovered Cheyenne lying dead beside Dad’s bed. While burying him near their favorite stream, I silently ________ the dog for restoring Dad’s peace of mind.