【推荐1】I’m known for my determination. If I want something, I _______ for it; I refuse to give up until I succeed. Over the years this _______ has worked well for me and helped me achieve my goals. _______ this year everything changed. I had set my sights on a summer job that I was _______ to get at the Water Zone, because the employees there could go on the water rides after their shift (当班时间) and get free food at the snack bar. It was the _______ job to have on hot summer vacations. So I set out to _______ the job. I completed the application, carefully prepared for my _______, and gathered many recommendation letters. I was _______ that nothing could keep me from my dream job. But after my interview, the manager of Water Zone told me that he could _______ only those with experience in water safety. I was very shocked and ________. I felt like a failure.

On the last weekend before school ended, my teacher, Mrs Keller, asked me ________ I would be interested in an opening at a summer day camp. I decided that I had nothing to ________, so I called the manager and ________ an interview. She was ________ by my babysitting experience and employed me. In less than a week, I had completely ________ about wanting to work at the water park. Each time I comforted a little boy who missed his mother or a little girl who needed help. I felt I was doing something ________. I realized that I had discovered my life’s purpose: to work with ________.

Sometimes in life we don’t get ________ what we want. It’s natural to feel ________: I sure did. But I also learned an important lesson. Sometimes when we don’t get what we want, something even ________ is waiting for us around the corner!

【推荐2】My Ph. D. adviser called me into his office saying, “You are fired from the lab.”

I had moved to Israel to study for a Ph. D. At first, things went well in my new lab. Then I ________ some problems. I made a few mistakes in the lab that slowed my ________, but he never spoke to me about any concerns. I’m still not ________ why he fired me, but I guess it was because of those mistakes. He wasn’t confident that I could ________ my research in time as we’d planned.

The first few days after I was fired were especially ________. I spent hours staring at my computer screen, unable to get anything done. I tried to ________ his mind with promising results, but he ________ to his decision. I could not tell the news to my family in India, as the fear of ________ them overwhelmed(压垮) me. I soon got into a ________ of sadness and anxiety.

Around that time, I watched a movie-Dasvidaniya. One line from the movie stuck out to me, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. What kind of lemonade could I make out of my present ________? My desire to complete a Ph. D. was never in doubt. After much ________, I told myself that one ________ attempt was not the end of the world, and that I needed to give it another ________. With renewed ________, I emailed expected advisers and applied to other programs. Within 2 months, I ________ an offer from a Ph. D. program in Italy.

【推荐3】A professor was traveling with a few of his students, they happened to pass a lake. Then the professor told one of his students to get some _______ for him.

When the student _______ the lake, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart(牛车) started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very _______. The student thought, “How can I give this muddy water to my _______ to drink!? ” So he came back and told professor, “The water there is very muddy. I don’t think it is _______ to drink.”

After about half an hour, again the professor asked the _______ student to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The student went back to the _______. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. So he _______ some water in a pot and brought it to the professor.

The professor looked at the water, and then he looked up at the student and said, “See what you did to make the water _______. You let it be ... and the mud ________ on its own — and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is ________, just let it be. Give it a little ________. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It is ________.”

What did the professor emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless. Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless ________. When there is peace ________ you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spread around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

【推荐3】On a Monday morning, back in 2015,I remember parking my car under a tree in the car park outside my doctor’s clinic (诊所). Heartbreak, grief and the loss of the idea of a complete family_________me not managing well.

I_________uncontrollably. My doctor had decided that I had severe depression (重度抑郁). I wanted to be_________as my son, Kai, was depending on me.

Still sobbing (哭泣), I was_________to hear a knock on my car door. A lady with short fair hair, probably in her 40s,_________opened it and began to speak calmly and kindly to me. “I don’t know what you’re_________right now. But I know this: What you are going through will_________,”she said. “Can I give you a_________?”

There I was, with tears in my eyes,_________accepting this kind stranger’s reassuring hug. All I managed to reply in a choked-up (哽咽) voice was “thank you”. This was the most significant act of__________that I’ve ever experienced from a__________. My hope in the world, in people and for me__________.

When my__________has been cured about a year later, I came across the same kind stranger at the opening of an art exhibition. She__________me and smiled. She said that she could tell I was doing well. We hugged again, and once more I was able to express my__________for her gesture—this time a little more clearly.

【推荐1】A few years back I suffered from a strange vertigo (眩晕) which caused me to feel dizzy. Around that time, I had to travel to North Carolina for a ________ trip that I could not miss. My wife insisted that she ________ me on the trip, along with my daughter. They were ________ about me.

On our hour-long Uber ride to the airport, vertigo ________ . As I sat in the front of the car, I couldn’t ________ myself, and vertigo came on ________ so that I threw up all over the Uber driver’s seat. I was so ________ .

I asked the driver ________ to pull over not to bother other ________ and I could deal with the mess I created. After some ________, my wife asked me if we should ________ the trip and head back home. I told her that I felt OK.

The Uber driver got us to the airport safely. He even helped us ________ the luggage into a cart. Before his ________ , I told him I was sorry for what had happened and I thanked him for his understanding and kindness. “No worries, my friend. You ________,” he waved with a gentle smile.

________, my vertigo issue had gone away and the rest of the trip was ________ and we returned home safely.

My wife and I were so glad that we were always surrounded by kindness ________ disappointment or anger. I desired to attend business meeting which God ________ and I got good response from the Uber driver, which was the ________. Sometimes we meet someone who is ready to help others without ________, and we remember them for good.

Ida Nelson and her sister were relaxing and enjoying themselves in the sauna (桑拿室) when she heard a series of long low sounds from a small airplane _________ the nearby airport.

It was 11:30 at night in the Alaskan village of Igiugig, population 70,and, as she told the reporter, “Any time a plane flies over that _______, you know something is wrong,"

Nelson and, her sister leaped out of the sauna, ran to the window, and saw the problem: The airport’s runway lights were ___________.

Nelson _________ some clothes, jumped into her ATV, and floored it to the airport, where she found a local pilot trying to turn on the _________ manually.

_______ , if someone pushed the button 10 or 15 times, the lights would just light up. Not this time. Meanwhile she and the pilot learned of the plane’s _________mission: It was a medevac (医疗救护直升机), there to _________ a seriously ill local girl to the nearest hospital, 280 miles away in Anchorage.

Nelson had a plan. Driving her ATV to the end of the runway, she _________ her headlights for the plane to follow. Great idea, but it wasn’t enough. __________ light was needed, so a neighbor called nearly every home in the village-32 of them.

Within 20 vehicles arrived at the airport, many of the __________ still in pajamas (睡衣). Following directions from the medevac pilot, the cars lined up on one side of the runway.

The medevac made its final __________ and, guided by the headlights, __________ safely. The young patient was loaded onto the aircraft, and the plane immediately took off again. Her illness was never publicly revealed, but she has since been released from the hospital.

In a world filled with __________, the little community’s positive activism was a __________. Not so much for Nelson. As she told the reporter, in Igiugig, coming together “is kind of a normal deal”.