【推荐1】Talk to any “successful” person and you’ll quickly realize success doesn’t come suddenly. First comes _________, and it takes perseverance to _________ past the discouragement it brings.

Popular actress Meryl Streep has been winning awards since the 1980’s. Yet, she shares a story from before she _________.

Before she earned herself the _________ of “the best actress of her generation”, she had to _________her own insecurities and setbacks. Meryl says, “I didn’t have _________ in my beauty when I was young.” So, imagine how disappointing it was for a (an) _________ actress to be denied by a major role based _________ on her looks!

It was the mid-1970’s, and Meryl Streep was struggling to make a _________ for herself. Certainly the young actress was __________ excited when she was __________ to meet a major Italian film producer. But as Meryl walked into his office, he turned and asked, “Who brings me this __________ thing?”

Had she accepted this __________ opinion as fact and considered herself “too ugly” to ever succeed in Hollywood, Meryl Streep would have never become a __________ name. “I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to __________ myself from any concern with my looks,” Meryl says. “For an actress, worrying about appearance is a horrible, horrible __________.”

Meryl refused to __________ her dream, and she’s since enjoyed a __________ that’s spanned several decades. The actress has won 2 Emmy’s, 8 Golden Globes and 3 Oscars, among many others, and currently holds the __________ record for the most Academy Award acting nominations (提名).

Meryl bravely chose not to place her focus on her looks but on her __________. Failure is part of life. But when we do encounter it, it’s important to fight on.

【推荐2】My desire was to be someone who mattered. I wanted to make a ________ in the lives of people and in the lives of animals. After all, ________ had always been a large part of my life, from the time when I was a little girl. I thought that my “________” would somehow include my love of singing, writing, travel, and of course, working with animals.

But something happened that ________ my entire core. The “love of my life” dog, my Nicholas died because of cancer, which was ________ for me.

However, I didn’t lose hope. Nicholas’ death made me aware that I should do something meaningful to ________ a need. Thus, I began to do research and then ________ a small group called Small Paws Rescue. I ________ sending the latest news on our rescue efforts to about 25 people. Within a few months we had ________ to a group of several hundred.

A few years passed and my rescue ________ were being read by more than six thousand people in different countries. National media began asking me to do interviews and to ________ episodes for Animal Planet.

It took me a while to ________ that I had not only found my purpose in life, but each of the ________ of my heart had been included as well. Now my days are filled with ________ people and animals. In the past 13 years, my Small Paws Rescue has ________ more than 8,000 dogs and affected the lives of thousands of people, too.

【推荐3】If it wasn’t for one very watchful snowplow (扫雪机) driver, a 5-year-old from West Bend, Wisconsin, might not be here today.

Maddox Pierce ________ in the middle of the night fearing he was alone in the house. His mom, Brittany Weissenburger, was at ________, and Maddox didn’t realize his aunt was taking care of him.

The scared child ________ to walk to his grandpa’s house down the road. Wearing just his pajamas (睡衣), Maddox stepped onto the ________ road at about 4 a.m. and soon started ________.

Snowplow driver David Gehrke was just starting his work when he saw something ________ on the road. The temperature was cold, and David said he felt ________ that he turned his truck’s wing lights on that morning or he might never have seen Maddox ________ there.

“As I passed Kilboum Street I saw something on the sidewalk,” David said. “At first I thought it was a deer or large dog. No, it was a ________. He looked at me as I drove by.”

David quickly turned his truck around. “I immediately ________ my jacket, trapped (裹) it around him and put him in the ________. I called the police. I kept him ________ while help was on the way,” the driver added.

When the ________ arrived, they took Maddox home and ________ his mother. While Brittany was shocked by the news, she was grateful to David for noticing Maddox and stopping to ________ him.

David received a certificate (证书) of appreciation, but he said the only true reward was learning that Maddox was OK!

【推荐2】When my son Reace celebrated his sixth birthday two years ago, he made a wish that I would get a transplant. Less than a week later, his wish came true when I received new _________.

Born with a breathing disease, I was able to manage my _________ without a hospital visit until I was 23. At 30, _________, it steadily worsened and I was _________ for a transplant. I started having check-ups once a year, then every six months, then every three months until I was _________ living at the hospital and reliant on oxygen to survive. Everyday _________ like having a shower or brushing my hair became _________.

After four months on the list, I _________ the call to say a pair of lungs was available. The transplant was successful and the _________ was noticeable. Before my transplant I had been so __________, I couldn’t even walk from the couch to the front door without __________ my breath—and it was only six paces. __________, I was so used to being breathless that I didn’t know any difference. I had __________ what it would be like to be a __________ person and now I know. I can do everything an ordinary mum would do: housework, workout, or taking Reace to basketball.

I am extremely grateful to my __________ and his family.

【推荐3】I live in a part of New York City one writer recently described as “not a people place.” Less residential neighborhood than busy transportation center, it has been _______ hard hit by the shift to work-from-home. Every month a restaurant that used to _______ workers buying lunch drops its gate for the last time: the fancy French-sounding bakery was the first to _______, then the bar across the street, _______ even fast-food joints.

Somehow, an Indian restaurant has _______, staffed six days a week by a young guy named Ram. As our dining options and his customer options _______, we began to see each other a lot. Ram now knows where I grew up and that only one member of my _______ can tolerate spicy (辛辣的) cooking.

Recently he asked me for book recommendations, which either means business is even _______ than I feared or we’re getting to be _______. I want to ask him how he could possibly be earning enough from the ________ when huge chains around him are ________, but instead I just enquired ________ things are picking up. His answer is always the same: No, but we are ________ they will soon. It’s hard to ________ whether I keep going there for the chicken tikka masala, which is ________, or the positive attitude, which is even more nutritious.