【推荐3】The lead role

Travaris always loved singing and he landed the lead role in the school musical. He could barely wait to tell his parents the _______. But when he made his announcement over dinner, they looked at each other and frowned (皱眉头). “You said the performance is in the week of November 13?” his dad asked. Travaris’s heart _______. Of course, his older sister was getting married in Hawaii that week. “I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to tell them that you can’t do it,” his mom said.

The next day at school, Travaris _______ to tell Ms. Phelps, the theater director, that she should give his part to someone else because he wouldn’t be in town during the _______. But all day he was flooded with _______ from his classmates for getting the lead role. He didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was all for _______ in the play.

Travaris was still staying after school to practice his part, reading his lines, singing the songs, and even learning the dance numbers. But as the weeks went by, Travaris started to feel _______. He knew that the longer he _______ dropping out of the play, the more he would hurt the rest of the cast and crew.

Finally, Travaris told Ms. Phelps how he couldn’t be in the musical. Ms. Phelps thanked him for taking the whole _______ into account. “But don’t forget to audition(试镜) again next year, and the chance is bound up with ________. ”she added with a smile.

【推荐1】While Ashley Jost was shopping at a bookstore, a self-help book caught her eye. The 27-year-old _________ the book Girl, Stop Apologizing, and began reading it when she got home.

After reading for a few minutes, her dog started barking, so she put the book aside and went out. When she got back, she _________ something on the ground. Five dollars fell out. “ Wait, what just _________?” Ashley wondered.

She looked through the book, and in one of the last _________ there was a Post-it(便利贴) that read: ”To the person who buys this book: I am having a _________ day, I thought maybe I could brighten someone’s day with this little _________. Go buy a cup of coffee or some desserts, and practice some self-care today. _________ that you are loved, you are amazing, and you are strong. -Lisa”

Ashley decided to post a photo of the Post-it and five dollars from Lisa on Twitter. It spread _________. After seeing the Post-it and the note, many people promised their own random(随意的) acts of _________ within a week.

“At that moment, I realize that I have the __________ to share more stores about good deeds in my 54 life. I’m very happy to __________ people who did something good for strangers,” Ashley said. “The ripple effect (连锁反应) is pretty __________.”

After seeing her Twitter post, Lisa __________ Ashley a postcard. “Lisa said my Twitter post made her cry in a good way, said Ashley. But Lisa still didn’t __________ who she was. She left no return address, preferring to remain unknown. According to Lisa’s postcard, it had been a difficult time for her and she just wanted to create something positive - of course, she never really __________ to see such a great ripple effect.

【推荐2】A 7-year-old boy from Sacramento was the unlikely savior (救助者) of a 3-year-old girl. She would have _________ died without help. Last week, 7-year-old Massiah Browne went down to enjoy the _________ at the apartment complex where he lives when he _________ something out of the ordinary. “I was just playing in the swimming pool and then I saw a girl _________ of the pool,” said Massiah, a second-grade student, “And I went to get her.”

_________ down into 6 feet of water, he _________ the arm of the 3-year-old whose eyes and mouth were open, and _________ to pull her to the surface, where a relative of Massiah’s, 9-year-old Savannah, helped them both out onto solid _________.

Adults who had caught wind of what was _________ had called 91l and raced down to __________. According to the news, Savannah’s mom performed CPR on the child who was helped to __________ again by the time the Fire and Rescue (援救) __________. “The child was transported in __________ condition with advanced life support efforts provided by Sacramento __________,” a spokesperson for Sacramento Fire Department said.

Massiah’s father Marcus, an Olympic boxer at the 2012 Olympics in London, said his son loves the __________ and swims like “a fish”. Despite the surprise, it __________ typed who Massiah is. “He’s super empathetic (共情的), so for him to __________ something like that, I mean, it’s really nothing out of the norm. What is __________ is that he’s 7-years-old and he can do something like that. I couldn’t believe his __________ during the rescue. He’s a __________ kid.”

【推荐3】Justin Gavin, 18, was on a walk to a local shop. Then he saw something that made his heart _________. A small SUV _________ in flames (火焰) drove past him.

“I’m yelling (叫喊) to stop the car! Your car is on fire! Your car is on fire!” Gavin said. But the driver — a mother of three kids, couldn’t stop. That’s when, Gavin says, he didn’t have _________ to think and fell into action. He ran after the burning car to help the family _________. “I just felt like if I were in that _________, I would want somebody to help me out,” Gavin said. “I guess my instincts (本能) _________.”

When Gavin finally reached the _________, it had come to a stop. He _________ the car door and helped the mother out of the driver’s seat first. As the flames grew larger, he pulled the three children in the back seat to _________. Moments later the car was swallowed by flames.

“It kind of got __________ because I didn’t know whether I was going to be able to get everyone out in time. And __________, I did,” Gavin said.

The mother __________ the teen with saving her family’s life. The police department honored Gavin as a __________ and awarded the teenager with a “challenge coin” to acknowledge his __________ act.

Gavin said the experience was inspiring and changed his __________ of life. “It made me realize life is short and valuable,” Gavin said.

【推荐1】Not many places shower their residents with burning dust. But on that hot August day in Coulterville, as _________ closed in, Jim Rhodes woke to find his car _________ in ash, and the news broadcasting evacuation (撤离) orders.

The _________ were clear, but slowly Rhodes realized: he hadn’t come to Coulterville just to _________ when the town needed him. As a retired soldier. Rhodes _________ in the old town which, in turn, embraced him. So be stayed, joining the handful of residents as _________. Around midnight, a rancher (农场主) came by asking for help evacuating animals. Soon the old soldier got in the truck and headed down into the _________.

The next thing Rhodes knew, he was in some stranger’s ranch, surrounded by _________ horses and goats. The work was _________, but Rhodes let his fighting spirit kick in; he __________ he was on a mission, leading his team toward __________. It took them four hours to __________ all animals into their truck and return to safety. Later they learned that the fire burnt about 2, 800 acres of farmland and forest. __________, no lives were lost, and no major animal losses were reported.

__________ have always been a part of life. But in Coulterville, whenever there’s a fire, you’ll see the __________ running toward it, not away from it.

【推荐3】My mother always made sure that walnuts (胡桃), oranges and chocolate were in the Christmas stockings for the six of us. They were a ________ memory for me, so I continued the ________ when I grew up.

One year, I ________ that I had already put the chocolate in the stockings. On Christmas Eve, we were hosting our extended families’ annual Christmas party, ________ I decided to hang the stockings on the shelf above the ________ to make it look like a picture-perfect holiday. I had considerable praise for my decorating and the food I ________. We had a great family gathering with a beautiful lit fireplace.

Christmas morning, after the ________ of the night before, the children and I ________ to a quite relaxing morning of juice and hot rolls. We lit the tree and candles and put on soft Christmas music. My daughter was ________ to open her stocking and handed the other to her older brother. I was thinking what a picture-perfect ________ this was turning into when my son, lying on the couch with his hand deep into his stocking looking for a Christmas ________, said, “Yuck (可恶)!” He pulled out his hand ________. Instead of a fun treasure, he came up with a handful of chocolate goo (黏糊糊的东西). His sister followed suit. “Oh, yucky!” she said. “I have it, too!”

It appeared that all the chocolate had become ________ as the stockings were hung by the hot fire. Oranges, walnuts and small gifts were all nicely ________ in chocolate.

“Mom,” they said, ________ their eyes, “only you could do something like this.”

That taught me not to try so hard to make everything “perfect”.