【推荐1】Lisa winked (眨眼) as she placed a warm blanket in my arms. It was a particularly _______ evening in this little Italian mountain village.

Her _______ was the first knock on the door of my temporary (临时的) home in Campania, from my closest _______, a house dress-wearing woman in her 80s with a lovable smile. But there was on _______: Lisa spoke little English and my Italian was very limited (有限的).

I tried very hard to _______ my Italian, but my long hours of studying _______ produced less than 60 seconds of results in Lisa’s living room. In _______ sentences we talked about the weather and how I liked the village. She also _______ me photos of her family. But she spoke too _______ for me to follow. Although Lisa and I speak ________ languages, we found ways to ________. One afternoon when she saw me ________ laundry she shook her finger at me and pointed at the sun. I was ________ until the sun went down and I got wet clothes back into the house. After that, every time we hung laundry, one finger shake and I never again got wet clothes at the end of the day. When it was time to ________, I woke early to take the train. The village was ________. But Lisa broke the silence, calling out from her balcony. I couldn’t understand every word, but I got the main idea: Italiano, Italiano!

【推荐2】Brenda Bongos was a girl with one big ambition—to play the drums in a band. But a(n)_________ lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a band, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to lots of _________ people in a care home. The sound of beating drums would really annoy them. Brenda was _________. She always tried to find a way of practicing her drums without bothering other people, but without success. However, _________to practice as much as she could, Brenda tried all kinds of ways.

One day, while watching a science documentary, she heard that _________ cannot travel in space without air. At that moment, Brenda bongos decided to become a _________astronaut. So Brenda built a space bubble connected with a machine, which drew out all air. Inside was a _________ of drums. Once inside, Brenda _________ the machine and played like mad!

It wasn’t long before she had become _________. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble. ____________ afterwards she started giving concerts out of the bubble. ____________ Brenda became a real musical astronaut as the government asked her to be part of a space journey, and had gone far beyond her first ____________ of playing drums in a band.

When asked how she had ____________ all this, she said, “If those old people next-door hadn’t ____________ so much to me, I wouldn’t have gone to such ____________ to find a solution, and none of this would have ever happened.”

【推荐2】I went to the self-service restaurant on the ground floor of Sakra World Hospital while taking care of my _______ father. After lunch, I came back to the room on the 5th floor where my father _______ .

In the evening when I was _______ to leave, I took my bag and found that the money purse (in it was)_______ . I had put 40 thousand rupees in it since I had to pay some bills from the _______ . I started to look around _______ , and then recalled my visit to the self-service restaurant a few _______ before.

As I was heading to the self-service restaurant, I was quite upset at my carelessness and hoped that _______ would have stolen the purse. When I entered the self-service restaurant it was _______ except just a couple of waiters hanging around.

I went to ask ________ they had seen a grey purse. They told me to check with the ________ lady named Rani who happened to be sweeping the floors. When I asked Rani, she told me to check on the ________ . To my big ________ , the money purse was there! I picked it up and looked inside, and yes, all of the money was ________ there!

Rani described that she had ________ the purse while cleaning the table, and put it on the counter ________ to let the purse owner come for it. I was ________ to her and left.

I later came back and offered her some money for her kind ________ , but she was unwilling to accept anything. However, I insisted on doing like this and she finally accepted a little.

I was greatly moved by Rani’s ________ and felt so ________ to have met a person like her!

【推荐3】From the fourth grade, I was in very low spirits. I never really had any friends during that time. My only friend had just ______ to another city with her parents at the end of the third grade. What was ______, my pet dog and my cat had just died. It almost seemed as if my life was slowly ______for me, and I always felt ______ because no one and not even my family would talk to me. I didn’t think they knew what I was ______. It was a really hard time for me. I’d always ______my feelings and just put a nice, fake smile for them. That’s all they ______, right?

During the end of my seventh-grade year, I started to make a friend or two. That is when my depression ______started dying down. But, I was still ______myself, calling myself fat or ugly, and my friends knew this! They tried their best to help and it did ______in some way but not fully. Eventually, I found this song called “Beautiful”. There was one line that said, “We are beautiful in every way, yes, words can’t bring us down.” I now realize we are all beautiful.

【推荐1】You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats his dogs.

For many years, I _______ living with my dogs, Tilly and Chance. Their companionship was nearly enough to keep my _________ at bay. Nearly, last year, I started _________, but with reservations. When I first dated Steve, I learned he had a dog, Molly, and a cat, Flora. While I was thrilled that he was an animal _________, I worried that three dogs were perhaps too many, and my dogs might attack Flora, the cat.

The next week we walked our dogs together. It was a hot day. When we _________ to catch our breath, Steve got down on one knee. Was he proposing (求婚)? I liked him too, but so soon? He poured water from a bottle into his hand and _________ it to my dogs. In that moment, I began to _________ him.

We continued to date, though neither of us brought up the future. And then in late November, Tilly had an _________ on her leg. I _________ the dogs out four times a day, and I worried that Tilly constantly __________ the stairs could reopen the wound. Then Steve suggested his house. All __________ fine. The three dogs __________ a pack that, with coaching, respected Flora’s space; Steve and I formed a good __________ caring for Tilly. We made good housemates.

A year later, much to my delight, this man __________ a little box with a ring and proposed to me. He did not kneel (跪) down, nor did I need him to. That’s only for giving water to the dogs that __________ us together.

【推荐3】Two old beggars were sitting on a busy corner. They watched helplessly as scores of people walked by, some purposely ______ them and others too caught up in their own cares to even notice their ____. Every so often, a ____woman or a small child would drop a few coins in the ____ which lay in front of them.

As the crowd began to die down, they started to ___ their things and head for their evening shelters. Just as they were getting ready to leave, they noticed a man walking toward them. He was obviously a ___   man—they could tell that from his finely tailored business suit.

The first beggar whispered to the second with _____, “ He’s coming our way!”

The two tried not to look _______ at the man as he stepped closer to them, but they couldn’t ______ gazing up with anticipation (期待) as he reached into his pocket and took something out.

“Trunk” was the only sound they heard _____ what looked like a piece of hard ___, wrapped in tissue paper hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man ____ and continued on his way, not making a backward glance.

“How insulting (侮辱人的)!” said the first beggar. “He could have _____ left us a few coins or a spare bill, but he mocks (嘲弄) us with a piece of rock candy. Who does he think we are—_____? There’s no way we can even eat this—we have no _____.” He picked up the object and threw it into the gutter(排水沟).

“I haven’t had anything like this for ages,” the __beggar thought. “I can’t chew it, but I can suck on it for while, and the sugary juices will stay in my ___ for a long time. How nice of that man to offer me something so sweet.”

With that, he __ the white tissue paper, but to his ___, there was no hard rock candy inside. __, into his fell a shiny white pearl worth thousands of dollars.