【推荐1】Just like everyone, I have experienced ups and downs in my life. I am an aerospace engineer from India. I was told by my relatives, close friends and others that it was _________ for a non-IT student to pursue a master’s degree in IT and graduate from a US university.

I had never taken courses _________ to computers or programming. I was never interested in being a _________ , but things changed. Computers became my companion and I _________ how dependent on them I was. I _________ imagining the back end processes happening inside the CPU and they amazed me. That's why I _________ to pursue a master's degree in IT.

At first, it was way too _________ . Coming from a middle-class family, the huge cost per credit was a big _________ . My English accent was terrible. Most _________ , the course seemed impossible at first. But I never __________ .

I got a few offers, but I decided to choose my university __________ it promised its students to help them learn practically. During my first month, it was difficult to understand the Americans’ __________ and finish my assignments. But I never gave up. I walked two miles to the __________ every day so that I could use my travel money to buy a meal. I started looking for __________ and I got an offer to work as a student assistant, which meant lifting benches and chairs every day.

I took it as a(n) __________ , and I believed that hard work was my strength. Right now I am graduating with a GPA of 3.96/4 and a job offer from a multinational company that has asked me to start right after __________ .

If you think you can never achieve something, you need to __________ yourself and start working on your __________ . Hard work always pays off. To be __________ , you need to start from somewhere and always question yourself about the limits of how far you would go to __________ your goals.

【推荐2】Whitson, 44, set out on June 13 with his ninth-grade son and his wife, Ramirez, eager to show them the wild beauty of the Arroyo Seco (a river) in central California. The first night, they built a ________ and pan-fried a steak, ________ it with chocolate bars for dessert. The last thing any of them ________ was that they would become ________ .A ________ that was supposed to be secured at the top of the slide—the only safe way down—was ________ .There was no way to climb out of the gorge (峡谷).The rope had been ________ to the slippery rock wall when Whitson had made the same journey seven years before. At the time, he’d ________ lowered himself down the side of the waterfall and continued his_________.

Thoughts raced through Whitson’s mind: ________ spring rains had likely washed the rope away. There was no other way to safely get down. Friends knew they were in Arroyo Seco, but it might be several days _________a search party was ________ There was no cell service. He desperately ________ a plan. Whitson looked at his water bottle and he suddenly had an idea: He _________“HELP!” on each side of the bottle and wrote an SOS note on a piece of paper with the ________, June 15, and their whereabouts —then put it inside. The bottle ________ into the pool, then ________ through the narrow passageway. It was a very long ________. Remarkably, they didn’t wait long. About a quarter-mile downstream, two hikers had__________the bright green bottle right away； read   the _________and hiked to the Arroyo Seco Campground to alert (向……报警) the manager   to call a search and rescue team.

【推荐3】My mom died in 2011, at 80.I miss her and _______ all our missed opportunities to connect. We called many times a week, _______ after my boys were born. We talked about any number of things, but after a while l got _______.My mother was never very _______ .She could circle a topic for hours before getting to the _______.

Once she _______ me in the middle of the workday. I was a little _______, but I listened as she chatted for 10 minutes about this and that until I _______, “Mom, I'm working. Why did you call?”

“Why do you have to be like that?”she said and then told me that a _______ I barely remembered had died. We talked for a short time more, but I __________ almost immediately after that, my mind already back to __________.Years later, when reflecting on this call, I __________ that my mom and this woman had once been close but had lost __________ over time. My mom was feeling __________she wasn't there for her friend, and she was frightened too.

But she didn't say any of these things, and of course I was too busy to __________ the clues(线索）.I was always very busy.

My mom was a homemaker. I was trying to __________ my ambition as a reporter with being a good mom, and occasionally even a good __________.She was always telling me to slow down. Slowing down was not my __________.However, my mom kept the details pretty private. She didn't want to __________ her kids with a life she ensured we wouldn't understand. Because all those years ago, when she said, “I wish you could slow down,” what she was __________ trying to say was, “I wish you could slow down and talk to me.”

【推荐1】In 1973, I was teaching in an elementary school. Each day, 27 kids _________ “The Thinking Laboratory”. That was the _________ students voted (投票) for after deciding that “Room 104” was too _________.

Freddy was an average _________, but not an average person. He had the rare balance of fun and compassion (同情). He would _________ the loudest over fun and be the saddest over anyone’s unhappiness.

Before the school year _________, I gave the kids a special _________, T-shirts with the words “Verbs Are Your _________” on them. I had advised the kids that while verbs (动词) may seem dull, most of the _________ things they do throughout their lives will be verbs.

Through the years, I’d run into former students who would provide information on old classmates. I learned that Freddy did several jobs after his __________ from high school and remained the same __________ person I met forty years before. Once, while working overnight at a store, he let a homeless man __________ in his truck. Another time, he lent a friend money to buy a house.

Just last year, I was conducting a workshop when someone knocked at the classroom door. A woman excused the interruption and handed me an envelope (信封). I stopped teaching and __________ it up. Inside were the “Verbs” shirt and a __________ from Freddy’s mother. “Freddy passed away on Thanksgiving. He wanted you to have this.”

I told the story to the class. As sad as it was, I couldn’t help smiling. Although Freddy was taken from us, we all __________ something from Freddy.

【推荐3】The story happened ages ago, when my daughter was still little.

I was driving across the country with my daughter to _______ my husband. Since I _______ to reach my _______ before supper time, I drove quickly for a long time without a stop. Then after driving for many miles, I became tired and needed to stop for a break to get _______.

I found a rest area. It was mostly _______ in a quiet area of the highway. I parked the car and carried my daughter into the _______ . When I came out a minute later, I saw a middle-aged _______wandering around. Feeling _______ about that, I asked the lady why. What _______ me was: they were waiting for us!

The lady ________ to me that she and her husband wanted to see us ________ back into our car. She told me that sometimes rest areas ________ be a dangerous place for a young lady like me. I was very touched by their being so ________ to a stranger. Being young and probably ________ of the hidden ________ of rest areas, it had never ________ to me that there was any possibility of something going wrong. I ________ them for their kindness and continued the journey, reaching our destination safely.

I never got their names but years have passed and the ________ of their kindness is still deeply ________ in my mind. Sometimes angels come in make-up and just because you can't see their ________it doesn't mean they aren't angels.