【推荐2】When I moved to Washington, D.C, I left all of my friends behind. ________ new acquaintances to home-cooked meals was my best ________ to make new friends. Given that my food was pretty good, everyone was soon asking me for the ________, which was how Bun Bo Bae, my cooking blog came into being.

In hindsight (事后看来), I’ve probably been   ________ to start a food blog. I spent most of my childhood in the kitchen with my mom. I would watch her cook,   ________ a lot of knowledge of cooking. To my ________, I left for college before I could learn my mom's best dishes.

I went to France to study. I was ________ alone for the first time in my life. There were no roommates, dorms or dining halls. I was ________   homesick. So, I started calling my mom and asking for the recipes for my favorite dishes. As it ________, my mom didn’t have any recipes. She just taught me how to cook intuitively (凭直觉地); thus, I learned to cook by ________ and feeling my food.

Bun Bo Bae was initially a space for me to put what I learned into writing. I wanted to write down every ________ I was given in detail. Later on, I ________ more. I created some recipes by myself. Soon my food blog and follower count grew.

Bun Bo Bae increased my ________ at work. I knew I was a great cook, but I had no idea how to make a website. So I taught myself web building. And the ________ helped me land my job at NPR, where one of my recipes was ________ in a famous cafeteria.

【推荐3】That year I was nineteen and studying chemistry at college. My family thought education was the ________ to success. I agreed. However, I felt dull in chemistry class. One day, my professor asked, “Why are you here when you have little ________ in chemistry?” I tried to explain by blaming pressure from my ________. But apparently he knew it was just a(n) ________ excuse. He said, “Your success can only be measured by yourself, but not by your parents. There is no secret to success, no examination you have to ________, but passion is very important. To be successful, you must follow your ________. Whether you are passionate about fixing cars or exploring the world, you must be passionate about your goal and ________ a path to realize it. Then you will achieve success and find ________.”

At nineteen, the advice was hard for me to ________, but I knew he was correct. His words ________ me I should consider “I think” rather than “my parents think”. I made a selfexamination and found my passion was ________. I had a gift for playing the piano but I ________ it.

There was only one way to ________ whether I could be a successful musician, so I took my professor’s advice and ________ to the university’s music school.

I’m now fifty years old, and live ________. When I watched the various awards I received on the walls in my office, a contented smile appeared on my face.

【推荐2】Skid Row(贫民区）. The very phrase for a place where dreams go to die. Children there, in particular, are always living in_________and desperation. _________ one couple is determined to use their own experience with loss to develop a sense of_________ for kids.

In 2012,Mary and her husband, David,were _________ their first child when she miscarried(流产）.The couple were extremely_________ But they refused to let their heartbreak _________ them. On the day which would have been their child's birthday, suddenly an idea crossed their_________ since we can't throw a birthday party for our own child, why not do it for those children in Skid Row?

So the couple _________ a room in the rooftop, and filled it with all the makings of a great party like cakes and gifts. Many of the first 15 kids who _________ had never had a single birthday party before,and they were so excited to have one now. Since then, the couple have thrown a birthday party each and every month. Usually an hour __________ each party, volunteers arrive to set up the decorations and activities: face painting, balloon artists, a DJ, cake, and pizza, to make sure there are more than enough to go around.

“A party cannot change__________. But what we are doing is to make these children's life as __________ as possible.” as Mary shares on Facebook. “We are on the rooftop. If you look down,it's not __________ to see homeless person after homeless person on the street, and it reminds you these kids won't__________ this area after the party. However, for even a short moment, if you look up, you'll find the sky is so beautiful, and you are above everything   - you still have the chance to live a normal life and determine your own future. I hope these parties can bring some __________ in their life.”

【推荐2】I once heard a story of a 40-year-old woman who was jogging in a US state park when she was attacked and killed by a mountain lion. Her family immediately filed suit（提起诉讼）________ the state because of its “________ to manage the mountain lion population” and because it didn’t “react to reports of lion activity in the area by posting ________ signs.”

But an interesting thing happened. Her husband felt it was wrong to ________ the state or anyone else for his wife’s death, ________ he stood to possibly win a small fortune. Against her family’s wishes, he ________ the law suit. “Barbara and I have always taken responsibility for our own ________.” he explained. “Barbara ________ to run in the wild and, on a very long shot, she did not come back. This is not the ________ of the state, and people should take ________ for themselves.”

I would like to meet that man. He ________ believes that the Blame Game “is a no-win in the long run”. He seems like a person who would rather spend time ________ what’s broken than fixing the blaming for it on someone else. This isn’t about law suits—it’s more about whether we are essentially ________ of life or whether we are powerful and responsible people. An ________ step in gaining mastery over your life is to ________ the urge to make something or someone else responsible. Like novelist J.K. Rowling said to graduating Harvard students, “There is an expiry (过期的) ________ on blaming your parents for steering（引导）you in the ________ direction; the moment you are old enough to take the ________, responsibility lies with you.” Certainly ________ and circumstances have ________ who we are, but who is responsible for the person we become?

【推荐3】A Florida man likes to shop at garage sales for old plaques(纪念匾)so he can reuse the wooden backs. Recently, he was looking through a___________he bought years ago when one _________a small ball caught his eye.

The man took a moment to___________what was written on the plaque and quickly realized there was a___________stone inside the ball-a piece of moon rock brought back on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The plaque and rock had been a___________to the state of Louisiana by then-President Richard Nixon but___________ended up in a garage sale for the man to find years later.

“I can’t even tell you how long I___________it for. I’m not even sure how much I___________for it. The wood in the plaques is such nice wood and that is what I___________them for," the man said. The man __________the Louisiana governor’s office, which____________him to the Louisiana State Museum. The man hand-delivered his____________to the Louisiana State Museum. He didn’t want to take a chance that something might happen to it during__________.The museum’s director is____________for his generosity and __________for reuniting the state with this priceless object. “It is an extraordinary piece of Louisiana history,” he said. “We’re____________to take possession of this piece and to share it with our audiences.”

After Apollo 17____________on Earth, Nixon____________379 pieces of the satellite stone to all the states as well as foreign nations. Over time, those gifts began to____________A 2002 search found that many were unaccounted for. To date, the fate(命运)of 171 rocks remains __________