【推荐1】My close childhood friend, Howard Allen, brought us good news. He spent the last eight years ________ night school to get his bachelor’s degree while working a full-time job. After years of late ________ and weekends of doing course work and studying, ________ he graduated last month.

He remained in our hometown after high school, but most of his ________, myself included, left our ________ to other states for university and employment. Over time, newfound responsibilities, families, and other things have made it ________ that we’re back in our hometown at the same time.

One of our mutual (共同的) friends ________ a wonderful idea. We made a weekend plan that ________ we’d all fly back to our hometown to ________ him and celebrate his accomplishment.

We contacted (联系) Allen’s mom and ________ how to have Allen come to the surprise ________ party. We decided that his mom told him that he was going to have dinner with just his ________ to celebrate. Little did he know that the dinner would ________ a 20-person affair with his old friends present from all over the country! Meanwhile, Allen likes cakes very much, and I ________ a big one, whose flavor was his ________, which I knew from my childhood.

When Allen ________ to have “dinner with his grandparents”, he was ________ surprised and moved. He told us how much it ________ to him that we all flew in to make him feel ________. It was obvious that the party was a great ________, but that was what we should do. As is often said, whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

【推荐2】A friend of mine was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little “gift” in its mouth — a dead animal of some sort. Taking a closer look, he was surprised to _______ it as the bunny that _______ Mary, the young daughter of the family next door. My friend felt _______, believing his cat had killed Mary’s bunny.

My quick-thinking friend came up with a plan. _______   from the cat’s mouth the dead animal, which by now was a _______   mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to _______ the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer and blow-dried the bunny _______ it looked pretty good.

Finally, under the cover of darkness, he crept into the next-door garden and placed it _______   in the cage. He managed to make the bunny look very _______   there in his little box.

The next morning, my friend looked out of the window and noticed a crowd of people ________ around the rabbit hutch. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. My friend ________ to go over and act like any normal ________ neighbor and find out what was going on.

When he got there, Mary’s mother said to my friend, “You won’t believe this! It’s a(n) ________ thing! Mary’s bunny ________   a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there...”

Have you ever tried to cover up one wrongdoing with another? Covering up only makes matters ________ .

When we get caught doing something ________ , for example, we may ________ to cover it up with a lie. But just like Mary’s bunny, the result is ________ what we expected. We ________ looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the ________ . What do you think of it?

【推荐3】I was a young newspaper reporter, and I wanted to succeed. My first ________was in Latin America. It was almost my last job.

I had not planned to stay in the village of Zacate, ________   it had been raining hard for a whole day. So I had to stay there.

I found people there full of ________. This village was at the foot of a volcano (火山). It was becoming more active. Men, women and children came to the square. A few helped each other and went out of town to get as far away from the volcano as possible, with large and full ________in their hands. Suddenly, I felt a strong ________. The villagers in the square ran away as soon as they felt the earthquake.

Suddenly, I saw black smoke rolling down the side of the mountain towards the village. Trees and grass ________up in a second. The volcano was coming so ________that in less than a minute the roads to the villages were   ________. All I could do was watch and ________. Suddenly, my landlord (房东) cried out, “Look!” He ________to a small hill. The lava (岩浆) was not coming over it but flowing on each side of the ________, leaving the village center ________.

For a time, at least, we were ________, unless the lava grew much and bigger.

My landlord gave me a wet blanket to cover myself to avoid the ________and we poured water over our heads to cool ourselves. We could hardly breathe (呼吸) because of the heat and the ________ of the burning houses. Thanks to my landlord, I survived the volcano.

【推荐2】One good thing about my home in Maui, Miami was the avocado (牛油果) tree in the backyard. It gave the most delicious avocados. I lived on them when ________ my first child. This tree was so huge that it ________ a massive shadow over our backyard. It was truly our magical tree.

Until one day, someone from the Health Department came to tell us that our tree was too ________ and needed trimming (修剪). In New York, you get ________ if you don’t clear the snow off your sidewalk. Here, it’s when your trees are too high. So along came the trimmer, leaving just the ________ and a few branches. We were all ________ . Some friends who knew it would say, “It’s going to grow back. Your next avocados will be crazy!” Yeah, whatever. The tree is ________ , so stop doing that. It just didn’t work.

But later, I ________ some butterflies flying around the yard. And then, the sun came in the kitchen, ________this pleasant warmth once blocked by the tree. After about a month, I started to notice some tiny green ________ coming our of the cut branches, which eventually ________ full-on bright green leaves.

I started to feel like all was going to be fine, kind of like ________ . Little do we know what seems really difficult is ________ life’s way of making us stronger. It’s life’s way of ________ the butterflies, the sunshine, and the delightful flowers. We all know that saying. “It will be OK ________ . If it’s not, it’s not the end.”

【推荐3】In the middle of town lived an old man. One day he __ his watch in his own store. It was __   to him because it was from his wife. After searching __ in the store for a long while, he __ to ask for help from a group of children playing outside the store. He __ them that the person who found it would be rewarded. __ this, the children hurried inside the store, went through and around the whole store, but all failed.

The man felt hopeless. A little boy asked for another __ sincerely. The man agreed and sent him back in the store. After a while the boy __ with the watch in his hand! The man was very __, and he asked the boy how he found it. The boy replied, “I did nothing but sat on the ground and __. Then I heard the ticking (滴答声) of the watch and just looked for it in that __ . ”We usually think about our own needs, which can’t bring peace into our mind. __, we need to think about ourselves and keep peaceful for a while, which can produce a __ result. So allow a few minutes of __ to your mind every day, and see how it helps you deal with your work and make __ as you expect to!