【推荐1】When I was 25 years old, I had a big dream in my mind and lots of things in my backpack. I wanted to travel around Africa with my ______. So I left my hometown with great confidence and ______ in Cape Town on a one-way ticket, not really sure what to do next. ______, before my trip actually started, I met a kind, old Nigerian man. He gave me the best travel ______ I ever received: “Be like a student on your way around the world.”

It sounds ______, but it really changed my mind about travelling. He helped me ______ that travel is about learning and observing different cultures. “It’s far too easy to go into a(n) _______ country for you and believe your ways are better. But if you study, ask questions, and _______ to learn from the locals, you’ll have far richer experience,” he promised me.

On other trips ______ I was on my tour way to Cancun, I didn’t know the man so I was just a tourist. I only stayed there for a week to see the ______ and places of interest and then left. The culture didn’t ______ me. I left the cities and towns without really knowing anyone or anything. Those people and things ______ in those very places to which I had ______ a visit.

This time, I promised to myself that I would be a ______ student traveler. After seven months of ______ travelling from Cape Town to Cairo, I returned home. Having a student-like attitude helped me learn a lot. This trip satisfied me more than any other trip ever did to me.

【推荐2】“Can’t stop loving you ...” My 3-year-old son was singing. But I was not in the ________ to sing along. My manager had just told me that, in spite of my excellent performance, he couldn’t give me more ________ in the future. The message ________ me hard. But it brought about a sudden________ that, in the end, taught me the power of embracing opportunities, no matter where they came from.

My manager’s decision planted a seed of ________. But I reminded myself that I had already proved I could be an ________ scientist on a part-time schedule. During my 7 years as a university researcher, my career had ________.

When I left my university post for the biotech company, ________ by the desire for my work to reach patients, I expected that I would be capable of growing professionally and ________ my career there. But now I was being told that I should be ________ as a trouble-shooter (困难解决者), rather than the project leader I desired to be.

A friend suggested that I reach senior managers about ________ in other departments. With little________, I approached the three senior managers. Only the third ________ listened to my story, and told me that I was ________ to join him in building a vaccine (疫苗) research unit. I hesitated and replied that I knew ________ about vaccines. He said, “You are smart and willing to work hard. You’ll make it.”

The ________ was exactly what I had been seeking for, but I was still shaken by my manager’s lack of confidence in me. A few sleepless nights later, I decided that taking a chance on the ________ was better.

I soon discovered a new ________. My career path within the company opened up. And I took on more responsibilities and led fantastic projects — all because of the ________ change on me. It taught me that when I step out of my ________, I find my most creative, productive self.

【推荐1】As I began 2021, I planned to give a gift a day for the entire year. I also intended to keep _______ of the gifts in a journal.

I wanted to be _______ with my giving. Some gifts would take time to prepare and _______, such as the quilt I _______ for months into a sleeping bag for a homeless person. Other gifts came about more _______, such as helping a man read a (n) _______ on an item at a store when he’d forgotten his reading glasses. I always tried to look for an opportunity to _______.

Many of my gifts in 2021 _______ reading to my two sons, especially at night. Good stories make great gifts, and reading aloud to my children _______ beautiful memories.

One of my most ________ gifts throughout the year involved letting other customers go ahead of me in line at the grocery store. When I ________ a person standing in line behind me with little shopping, I spotted a chance to put another’s ________ before my own. Throughout the year, my children enjoyed hearing my ________ about my gift-giving. Sometimes my boys would make ________ about my gift when we ________ for bedtime at night.

When my sons and I stood in line one day at the store, my older son ________ his little hand and whispered that we could let the man behind to check out first. ________ stretched across my face as I realized that my boy had shared the joy of ________.

Although this act of giving didn’t qualify as something ________ or surprising, it remains one of my favorite gifts of 2021, and all because I saw how my ________ to give had become part of my children’s lives as well.

【推荐2】I had just finished my dance class, and it was a disaster: I started on the wrong foot and couldn’t get the steps that other students seemed to do easily. I began to _________ my talent for ballet.

Just then, my big sister Julissa arrived. She took one _________ at me and asked, “What’s wrong, Lakeisha?”

“Nothing,” I said _________.

“Uh huh,” Julissa replied. “Looks like a (n) _________ ‘nothing’ to me, so tell me what happened.”   

“Well,” I mumbled (咕哝) , “maybe I shouldn’t be taking _________ classes? It felt like I was the only one who couldn’t land her pirouettes (单脚尖旋转) today.”

“Listen,” she said, “not every day is a (n) _________ one, and not everything you try is going to _________ the way you want. The point is to keep _________. Remember that and you’ll be fine.”

“I tried my best, but …” I replied.

Looking at me seriously, Julissa said, “Maybe ballet is not your _________ yet, but dance is. I see how you shake and move all the time. There are all kinds of __________ to dance, so maybe you just need to __________ your own style. Why not stick to jazz dance? You are so good at it.”

I thought about her __________ and my performances carefully. Yes, why had I never __________ that? I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but it may not be a good __________ for me. It seemed as if I suddenly saw the light. “You’re right,” I replied. “Thank you. I’m so __________ to have you to guide me!”

【推荐3】“I’m going to tell you a story,” I tell my class of high school seniors. “It’s a tale about love. And heart-break. And embarrassment.”

Their eyes widen. I_________my throat. “In eleventh grade,” I begin, “I fell madly in love. Her name was Lewis, who I found_________. Unfortunately she had no interest in me. It was Valentine’s Day when I spilled my Valentine cards onto my desk, and I saw an enormous one, decorated beautifully. My mind_________: ‘Who could it be from?’ With trembling hands, I_________open the envelope and out fell an image of a king, the heading of which_________ ‘To a King of a Valentine.’”

I give the class a_________look. “I saw the signature and almost fainted: Lewis. Then my eyes_________up to the writing above her signature which read, ‘To the Ugliest Boy in Our Class.”

“Well, it ruined Valentine’s Day for me. It shook what little_________I had in myself for a long time after. But I_________. Accidentally, I found out who did this trick. It was not her. Now I refuse to give up this holiday of love.” I smile. “And that’s why we’re going to have a party to celebrate__________instead of rudeness”

Their eyes__________. They are willing to let me take them__________I am going. I hand out some paper so they can make cards. “Now please write something positive and sincere to everyone in the class. Even if it’s someone you__________know, there’s always something nice to say.”

All these years, I’ve made it a__________in each of my class. After 20 years of teaching, I don’t think students will remember all of the grammar or vocabulary I taught them. But if all a student__________of one of my classes are the valentines they received one long ago February, to me that makes it all worthwhile.