【推荐1】Every teacher has moments when we question whether we’re suitable for the job. Don't despair—it’s what you do with the bad days that ___________ .

I remember the first time I cried after a bad day. A lesson had not ___________ , and my students were certainly not learning as much as their peers who had ___________ teachers. I remember wishing for my first year to ___________ me soon so that I would have the answers about how to teach. Now I've taught for six years and there are still days when my students stare at me as if I were from outer space. ___________ I'd face the truth that I am not ___________.

___________ the days passed, I slowly came around, ___________ confidence in myself. Sometimes, we are our own enemies, ___________ the faith in our abilities the others see. It is in our despair that we find out greatest teaching ____________. We treat those bad days as a means to ____________ —What could be changed to ____________   better?

I have learned that this is not all on you. When we teach we enter a ____________ with students and we must discuss what they will be putting into the classroom too. I have realized I will never be ____________ to have all of the answers and I will never be able to ____________ bad days. We question whether we should be in the ____________, but it is within the questioning that we strengthen our ____________ to make a difference, ____________ let it drown us in a ____________ of despair.

There are no teachers who are never doubting themselves. Bad days do not circle us; they are an opportunity to ____________.

【推荐2】I grasped a sandwich as I tried to finish my work during lunch. My company, like many companies, had_________ costs by not replacing people as they left. The survivors had to take up the work. For me and my co-workers, this meant no lunch hour. I wanted to quit, but given the economy, it was hard to find another job. I felt ________. Then a conversation with a six-year-old girl changed my ________.

The young girl was standing in line with her mom at the supermarket.

“Good day at school?” I asked.

A nod.

“What’s your favorite subject?”

“Lunch.”

I smiled. That had been my_________ too. At lunch, I could talk with my friends, draw pictures or play games. There were no adults to tell me what to do. The time was mine.

But what happened to lunch time now?

I knew I was entitled to a lunch break at work. So I decided to ________ it. Our office was located in the downtown and I set out to_________ the area. A few blocks away was an art museum with free admission. At the end of another street, I was surprised to discover some horses eating grass in a field.

At the beginning of my tours during lunch, I received some ________ stares from my co-workers, but I chose to ignore them. In fact, I watched in amazement that some of them started to_________ their work during lunch. ________, we started inviting each other out for walks and discovered we had other topics of conversation beyond the common complaints about work.

I’m still looking for a new position, but with less anxiety than before. If we can’t change our ________, we can change our attitude.

【推荐3】The number of the best

How big should a business team be? It is an enormously important issue for companies. Teams that are too small may _________ the skills required to get the job done; teams that are too big may be impossible to co-ordinate.

Similar trade-offs may apply when it comes to firms as a whole. Start-ups are often short of staff. The founders must play a host of different _________, from obtaining finance to product development and marketing, for which they may not be equally suited. But the _________ is that they can have highly collaborative working environments.

People who have worked for start-ups say the culture changes when the company reaches a certain _________. Patty McCord, formerly of Netflix, referred to the “stand-on-a-chair number”—the biggest group that can easily hear the boss _________ them.

Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist (人类学家) at Oxford University, has done a lot of work on primate groups. His argument is that the size of the group is linked to the size of the brain. With their large brains, humans can cope with larger bands. A larger social group has many advantages, _________ greater protection and specialisation.

Whereas 150 is sometimes referred to as the “Dunbar number”, the academic himself in fact refers to a range of _________. He observes that humans tend to have five intimate friends, 15 or so good friends, around 50 social friends and 150-odd acquaintances.

Running a larger network can be difficult. So much time is needed to maintain relationships that their quality inevitably _________. The armed forces have spent millennia experimenting with unit size. A Roman centurion (百人队长) oversaw 100. The modern American army company has 180 members. Britain’s equivalent numbers 120.

These are rough estimates, rather than rigid figures. But it is striking that many group activities seem to be _________ a Dunbar number. The Special Air Service, Britain’s elite fighting unit, has four-man patrols; when your life depends on it, you need to have absolute ____________ in your colleagues. As a result, such groups are limited in size.

Sports-team sizes ____________ the playing area. There are five players in a basketball side and six in ice hockey; outdoors there are 11 players in football and cricket teams, and 7-15 in the various forms of rugby. Perhaps this is the optimal size for coaching purposes, or perhaps crowds would ____________ to distinguish individual players if teams were larger.

Small work teams may also tend towards these two size ranges. “If you want a committee to ____________ something, limit it to four to five people,” says Mr Dunbar. “But to brainstorm in a meeting, you need 12-15.” Many companies use “agile” teams which draw employees from across the company; they tend to have between five and nine members.

The modern company may settle on a ____________ with a small group of “core” workers and a larger group of contract workers. The result may be more ____________ within the core staff but the non-core staff may be less well treated. The small core teams may work effectively. The big question will be the effect on morale of those outside those teams.

【推荐1】13-year-old Abraham was born with a rare blood disorder and needed a bone marrow (骨髓) transplant. About a year later, he ______ better news: His transplant was successful, and he ______ for Make-A-Wish, an organization that grants wishes to children with serious ______.

Abraham wanted a long-lasting ______, and he shared with his mom the idea. “I remember we were coming home from one of his doctor’s ______ and he said, ‘Mom, I really want to ______ the homeless,’” Abraham’s mom, Miriam, told CBS News. “I said, ‘Are you sure Abraham? Are you sure you don’t want a PlayStation?’” He was sure to provide food for the homeless. “So we weren’t going to ______ an opportunity like that because we always tried to instill (灌输) ______ into our children,” Miriam said.

In September, 2021, Make-A-Wish helped Abraham organize a day to hand out ______ food in Jackson, Mississippi, with food and supplies ______ from local businesses. “When the homeless get the plate, some of them would come back and ______ to us and thank us, which really ______ our hearts.”

When his wish is ______ in August 2022, Abraham has plans to continue helping the homeless. “If I was out there on the streets, ______, I would want somebody at some ______ to think of me and to do something special for me.” he said.

【推荐3】When I was young, I wondered why neighborhoods didn't plant fruit trees to build community. Later, my husband and I decided the right ________ to answer this question was to do it ourselves, so we set about ________ our front yard with fruit trees, such as strawberries, pomegranates（石榴）and oranges.

Every crop brought us ________ to neighbors and strangers. The food was a（n） ________ to communicate. Kids in the neighborhood, including our sons, learned ________ and gentle timing. When we had extra, we'd ________ it. Then, we received a ________ lesson: a gift hidden as a loss. Our first-ever crop of pomegranates had ________ , but at harvest, they were all gone, ________ in the middle of the night.

We were shocked, sad and ________ . One of my friends had fun suggesting we post a ________ to curse the thieves.

________ , we made a decision that we ________ need a sign, but our sign would ________ sharing and community. Last fall, we had a larger crop of pomegranates. We posted a sign that ________ , “If you'd like one, please ________ and introduce yourself and we'd be happy to cut one ________ the tree for you. Cutting ________ the branches and is good for future growth so we can continue to share with new friends like you. Thanks, the Green Family.”

Today, I am happy to role model ________ for my young sons and to have been blessed with the opportunity to ________ an edible（可食的）front yard for others.