【推荐1】Cheating in sport is as old as sport itself. The athletes of ancient Greece used potions to strengthen themselves before a contest, and their modern counterparts have everything from anabolic steroids (类固醇) to growth hormones with which to_________their bodies. These days, however, such stimulants are_________, and those athletes must therefore face the challenges of anti-doping (反兴奋剂) agencies.

The agencies have had remarkable success. Testing for anabolic steroids was introduced in the 1970s, and the incidence of cheating seems to have_________dramatically as a result. The tests, however, are not entirely_________. And a study just published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism by Jenny Jakobsson Schulze and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden suggests that an individual’s genetic make-up could_________the tests in two different ways. One genotype, may allow athletes who use anabolic steroids to escape detection altogether. Another may actually be convicting (给……定罪) the innocent.

The test employed for testosterone (睾酮素) abuse usually relies on measuring the_________of two chemicals found in the urine (尿液): TG. and EG.. Any ratio above four of the former to the latter is considered_________and leads to more tests. However, the production of TG is controlled by a gene called UGT2B17. This gene comes in two varieties, one of which has a part missing and therefore does not work properly. A person may thus have none, one or two working copies of UGT2B17, since he inherits one copy from each parent. Dr. Schulze_________that different numbers of working copies would produce different test results. She therefore gave healthy male volunteers whose genes had been examined a single 360mg shot of testosterone — the standard dose for legal medical use — and checked their urine to see whether the shot could be_________.

The result was remarkable. Nearly half of the men who carried no functional copies of UGT2B17 would have gone undetected in the standard doping test.____________, 14% of those with two functional copies of the gene were over the detection threshold (门槛) before they had even received an injection. The researchers estimate this would give a ____________rate of 9% in a random population of young men.

Dr. Schulze also says there is substantial____________variation in UGT2B17 genotypes. Two-thirds of Asians have no functional copies of the gene which means they have a naturally____________ratio of TG to EG, compared with under a tenth of Caucasians (白种人) — something the anti-doping bodies may wish to take into account.

In the meantime, Dr. Schulz’s study does seem to offer innocents a way of____________themselves. Athletes who will travel to Paris for the Olympic games may be wise to travel armed not only with courage and the “spirit of Olympianism”, but also with a copy of their____________, just in case.

【推荐2】Never in recorded history has a language been as widely spoken as English is today. The reason why millions are learning it is simple: it is the language of international business and,     _______, the key to prosperity.

David Graddol, the author of English Next, says it is _______ to view the story of English simply as success for its native speakers in North America, Britain and Ireland, and Australasia — but that would be a mistake. Global English has entered a more complex stage, changing in ways that the English-speaking countries cannot control and might not _______.

An important question one might ask is: whose English will it be in the future? Non-native speakers now _______ native English speakers by three to one. The majority of encounters in English today take place between non-native speakers. According to David Graddol, many business meetings held in English appear to run more smoothly when no native English speakers are _______. This is because native speakers are often poor at ensuring that they are understood in international discussions. They tend to think they need to avoid longer Latin-based words, but in fact _______ problems are more often caused by their use of idioms, metaphors, phrasal verbs, etc.

Professor Barbara Seidlhofer, Professor of English and Applied Linguistic at the University of Vienna, records and transcribes spoken English interactions between speakers of the language around the world. She says her team has noticed that non-native speakers are _______ standard English grammar in several ways. Even the most experienced speakers sometimes omit the “s” in the third person singular. Many omit definite and indefinite articles where they are _______ in standard English, or put them in where standard English does not use them. Nouns that are not plural in native-speaker English are used as plurals by non-native speakers (e.g, “informations,” “knowledges,” “advices”). Other variations include “make a discussion,” “discuss about something,” or “phone to somebody.” Many native English speakers will insist these are just _______. “Knowledges” and “phone to somebody” are simply wrong. Many non-native speakers who teach English around the world would __________. But language changes, and so do concepts of grammatical __________.

Those who insist on standard English grammar remain in a(n) __________ position. Academics who want their work published in international journals have to obey the grammatical rules followed by native English-speaking elites (精英).

But spoken English is another matter. Why should non-native speakers bother with what native speakers regard as correct? Their main aim, __________, is to be understood by one another, and in most cases there is no native speaker present.

Professor Seidlhofer says, “I think that what we are looking at is the __________ of a new international attitude, the recognition and awareness that in many international contexts non-native speakers do not need to speak like native speakers, to compare themselves to them, and thus always feel ‘__________’.”

【推荐1】When I was little, I’d play chess with my grandfather, and he’d smoke his cigar while telling me stories about growing up, pursuing dreams, and travelling around the world. Yet it was only after he passed away that I _________ how fast his stories had faded away.

Hence the importance of preserving _________ dawned on me, which ultimately changed my previous outlook on remembering our loved ones and the stories we share.

All too often, we take for granted the value that our family histories and personal experiences have had in our lives. They help to _________ who we are, providing markers of our growth. I believe to some degree we are all naturally _________ about our ancestry, but we can be stuck on knowing what questions to ask.

Full of regrets but armed with a newfound _________, I thought about solutions to help other people record the precious memories for those they love—before it’s too late. As freelancer (自由职业者) platforms became mainstream, I discovered many highly qualified writers were _________ around the world, so I began matching ghostwriters (代笔者) with clients to help them write a book. Then, Story Tree, a memoir-writing service, was _________.

Since then, we have explored the power of stories and their ability to connect us with our past and _________ the present. It has been documented that learning more about one’s family history has been linked to _________ emotional health, increasing compassion and providing a deeper sense of cultures and traditions.

Among all the heritage stories at Story Tree, family is a dominant theme. Other common themes are love, enterprising spirit, overcoming difficulty, and settling in new surroundings. However, __________ is a thread that always ties these together.

【推荐2】I’ve dragged a stool (凳子) outside and sat my daughter Sally on it. She’s sitting high with her eyes closed, skin wet from the shower, and her _______ hair behind her back.

Today, I’m sending Sally away for a week of summer camp. This was all my _______. She’s nearly 12, and I notice that I’m with my child nearly 24 hours a day. So Sally has become increasingly _______ on my presence. What _______ me most is that she has become a “mini-me”. She pursues my hobbies, my dreams, and my opinions. And that’s _______ I pulled her to the summer wilderness camp.

After we eat, I _______ Sally to the camp. Once there, we are introduced to Sally’s fellow campers. Sally stands by the group of children, holding my hand, _______ in her eyes. “I need you for a few more minutes,” she tells me, holding my hand _______. The camp’s officer comes over to help her meet a few kids. I kiss on her cheek and then I disappear _______ she realizes I’m gone.

It’s not until I drive home that I finally ________ it. A piece of my ________ has been taken from my body. I begin to shake. The tears ________ down my face. It takes every bit of my ________ to keep driving forward. I calm down and ________ myself why I chose this path. I want Sally to have a ________ to find herself out of my ________. I don’t want to see only ________ in my child. I want to learn who she is. If I don’t set her free, I fear I’ll never really meet her real ________.

After 12 years of ________ being together, I want to finally meet my daughter for the ________ time.

【推荐2】High school is a time filled with memorable events such as graduation proms (舞会). For Josephine, her high school experience ________ due to financial difficulties, before she had the ________ to go to prom in the tough 1961. However, her grandson, Michael Ganczewski, decided to give her a magical ________ during his own senior prom.

When Michael asked Josephine to be his prom partner, she initially ________ his idea, ________ saying she was too old for a prom and Michael would have many young girls to choose from. She was not going to the prom, but she was just ________ for feeling loved. But for Michael, his grandmother was the perfect ________, and then he ________ her. On prom night, Josephine wore a beautiful dress.

Though ________ about her dancing skills initially, she soon discovered that the true ________ of the evening lay in simply being with her grandson.

Josephine admitted she wasn’t too ________ with this generation’s latest dance trends, but she ________ to do her best. Her grandson’s desire to make her feel cherished ________ her deeply. As she remarked: “For the rest of my life, I will never ________ that he wanted to show me a good time. That to me is very ________.”

As if the gesture itself wasn’t ________ enough, Josephine’s prom night ended with a ________—Josephine was crowned (加冕) prom queen, fulfilling a(n) ________ she had waited for since 1961.

This wonderful night, filled with ________ and joy, just showed the importance of the ________ between a grandson and his grandmother.