【推荐1】I feel very excited at the thought that in another week I will be with you again on holiday. I ______ my stay in England very much indeed. Mr. Brown and my classmates are all very ______ to me but as they say in England, “There’s no place like ______,” and I think you will feel this above all at ______ time.

I am leaving here on Thursday, the 23^rd, and I’ll be ______ in Basle on Friday morning, ______ I’ll be home about lunch time. Can you ______ me at the station, as I shall have a lot of ______?

In some of my early ______ I have told you all about the other students here. Well, I want to ______ my Canadian friend, John, to come and ______ Christmas with us. Will that be ______? His parents died last year and he cannot go home for Christmas. And also he has no friends in England ______ the Browns. He is a nice boy. I know you all like him, and I feel ______ he will enjoy Christmas with us. But I haven’t ______ him yet because I thought it was better to ask you first. Please let me know soon ______ it will be all right.

I've got some Christmas ______ for you all but I am not going to tell what they are. So it will be a ______.

How are you all at home? I hope you are all keeping ______. I’m looking forward to seeing you next ______.

【推荐3】It is a blue, cotton shirt. The shirt belonged to my _______ David. On his birthday before he left college, his mother bought him the shirt.   _______ I gave him free use of my bike, he let me wear the shirt, occasionally.

We shared the shirt, and as days _______, we shared more of our _______. David was in school by scholarships and grants (助学金). He _______ to keep his scholarships, because without even one of them, he would have to _______ and back on the farm. And in David’s home, there was always only enough money to cover the expense. His father died when he was twelve.

_____David also talked about his father. Usually it was late at night, in the dorm just before bed, and the   _______   always ended with tears that flowed from a river of memories and   _______: memories of a father suffering from   _______ at a time when his son was just a teenager; longings for opportunities to cure his father’s disease missed, because disease does not understand about the   _______ between father and son. Nor does(do)     _______ care.

Time passed and we had to say   _______ to each other. After lots of hugging, and words of thanks, we eventually _______. It was on my _______trip upstairs to our dorm that I saw a package on my bed. I _______ the wrapping paper. It was the blue cotton shirt in a box with a card   _______ to it, reading:

Thomas, I can’t thank you enough for your _______. This has been tough years and you have been   _______ a friend. Thank you for listening. Thanks for everything.

David

I pushed aside the note, with   _______tears dropping on the shirt.

I still have the shirt today, though it has faded and wrinkled with age.

【推荐1】People may misunderstand what they used to be familiar with. I remembered a ________ professor was invited to our school, teaching stress management principles in a school hall ________ with students.

As she ________ a glass of water, every one of us expected we'd be asked the ________ “glass half-empty or glass half-full” question. ________, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How ________ is this glass of water I'm holding?”

All of us shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple of pounds.

She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn't matter. It all ________ how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it's fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm________ a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel ________ numb (麻木的) and paralyzed, ________ me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the ________ of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the whole class ________ our heads in agreement, she continued, “Your ________ and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and ________ happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel specially numb and paralyzed— ________ of doing anything else ________ you drop them.”

It's important to remember to ________ your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't ________ them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of ________ stress, it's a strong sign that it's time to put the ________ down.

【推荐2】I moved to a new city and took a job in marketing. I didn’t really understand whether it ________ me. I enjoyed doing things that I felt had ________ —I could see their benefit and feel their impact. As the months passed, I felt it just wasn’t for me. I needed to find a way out.

A job advertisement for a(n) ________ for a new youth magazine came at exactly the right time. I applied and was ________. My role was to help teams of young people edit their ________ and help them with their work. I had assumed the magazine would be a(n) ________ of games and dull reviews, so I was ________ when one of the first pieces written was about social welfare. ________ , I found something I was interested in.

I felt a ________ in me straight away. I had a purpose again. Days were lost to discussing hot topics and ________ the words of their strong and opinionated (坚持己见的) voices. ________ in their world, I could see myself making a difference to the team’s ________ ability. As our website ________ increased and the work shifted to reflect what our ________ wanted, I developed a greater ________ of what young people might want to read.

The biggest change the job brought, ________, was to my well-being. It is rare that you find yourself in a job you love, one that you are happy to ________ each day. I was thriving (充实）in this ________ environment, inspired by the talented young people I was helping to ________ their careers. Now, I realize that there are jobs that will keep you happy, ________ and inspired.

【推荐1】When our girls are brave, they are free to explore in their learning and in life. That exploration leads to the _________ of their talents, passions and weaknesses. On Saturday night we saw one of our students act so bravely that it took my _________ away.

One of the lead characters of our show, Blue Stockings, was played by a science teacher, Ben Walker._________, Ben broke his nose very badly playing football on Saturday and consequently couldn’t perform. Ella Jones, an eleventh-grade student and part of the cast, who _________ to rest on Saturday, was _________ to play Ben’s role.

Think about that. She had three hours’ notice, playing a role of a _________ she had never played before, in front of a paying audience, and if she couldn’t _________, she would reduce the impact of the whole play. Not the end of the world, but it would be _________ for all concerned.

I would have _________, but Ella rose to the __________.She said, “I was astonished;__________, I figured the show must go on and I wanted to __________. I wasn’t scared until I arrived at the theatre and realised how much there was to __________. It wasn’t just about lines, but it was the stagecraft（舞台表演技巧）.”

Asked how the show __________, Ella said, ‘‘It was amazing, and the audience seemed to love the male character I played for the first time.” She added, “Just because you’re scared doesn’t mean you can’t be __________. Anyway, I made it.”