【推荐2】Since the first day of preschool, I was always the type to invest more time in my physical war than social activities, the type that__________ the girls who could get up in front of the class and __________ give a presentation. Anything in the area of being vocally confident was never my__________. But now I’m different. Such a change__________my summer job.

My entire existence has been defined by the summers I’ve spent in Avalon, New Jersey. Then, in my 14th summer, I got a job, which made a __________to me.

At first it rightened me: The idea of having to __________my freedom. Not only was the loss of freedom saddening me, but the__________in me came out to play when I realized that I was going to launch myself into a completely __________environment.

The place was Brian’s Waffle House. At the beginning I was very nervous,__________I gradually pushed myself much more and boosted my confidence. I’ve made so many great friends that I’ll __________contact with even when the Waffle House is long gone. The time in the Brian’s Waffle House is not dull. And every customer is a valuable part of the __________.

My summer job has helped guide me in my own personal growth. Now I__________ to sing in front of a large group of people. And I never miss a__________to allow my fashionable style to shine. If I hadn’t walked into the shop. I wouldn’t have__________the social skills I have now. I will be__________for the lessons and values I have learned forever.

【推荐3】On a freezing January evening, Ashley Austrew sat in her car in parking lot, working up the courage to go into a comedy improv (喜剧即兴表演) class. For 20 minutes, the 33-year-old journalist and mom of two sat with thoughts of _________, “OMG, I can’t do this. I’ll be the _________ one.” Then she turned off the _________, took a few deep breaths, and went inside.

For Austrew, trying improv was the first small step to _________ her self-esteem. “All my life, I’ve _________confidence,” she says. “I didn’t have the _________ to try anything new.” So she made a list of all the things she was afraid to attempt and then asked herself, “What if I didn’t let my excuses win?” Improv was her biggest target.

Her fear disappeared as soon as she _________ the class. Her classmates were also _________, and she discovered that she was perfectly capable of earning a few laughs and making new friends. Over the next two years, Austrew went on to _________ with other what-ifs, including writing a book. “Self-esteem is like a muscle — you have to work it __________,” she says.

Some people are blessed with a seemingly unshakable positivity, but most of us need to __________ how to pull ourselves up with our own efforts. Psychologists say we tend to experience our __________ self-esteem in adolescence and spend much of our adult lives slowly building it up. Staying __________ has been tough in the past few years since the pandemic. __________, like Austrew, we can learn to feel better about ourselves and __________ our feelings of hope. Thus, we should try our best to improve our relationship with the person in the mirror.

【推荐1】Tom’s car got so old   that he decided to sell it. He asked among his friends to see if anyone was particularly_________ to buy a cheap car, but they all knew that it was falling to pieces, so_________ of them had any desire to buy it. Tom’s friend Sam saw that he was _________when they met one evening, and said, “What’s up, Tom?”

Tom told him, and Sam answered, “Well, what about advertising it in the paper? You may   _________ more for it that way than the cost of the advertisement!” Thinking that Sam’s _________ was reasonable, he put an advertisement in an evening paper, which read “For sale：small car, _________ very little petrol, only two owners. Bargain at $50.”

For two days after the advertisement first appeared, there was no _________ . But then on Saturday evening he had an enquiry. A man rang up and said he would like to _________ him about the car. “All right,” Tom said, feeling happy. He asked the man whether ten o’clock the next morning would be _________ or not. “Fine,” the man said, “and I’ll bring my wife. We intend to go for a ride in it to __________ it.”

The next morning, at a quarter to ten, Tom parked the car in the square outside his front door, __________ to wait there for the people who had __________ his advertisement. Even Tom had to   __________that the car really looked like a wreck (残骸). Then, soon after he had got the car as clean   __________it could be, a police car stopped just behind him and a policeman got out. He looked at Tom’s car and then said, “Have you reported this __________ to us yet, sir?”