【推荐3】A man was visiting a zoo. As he was passing the _______, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that each of these _______ creatures was being held by only a small _______ tied to their front leg. It was _______ that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their _______ but, for some reason, they did not.

He saw a _______ nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to _______. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they were very _______, we would use the same size rope to _______ them. At that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they still believe the rope can still hold them ________ they never try to break free.”

The man was ________. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds, but because they believed they couldn’t, they never ________ to escape. Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging on to a ________ that we cannot do something, simply because we failed in it once before? ________ is part of learning. We should never give up the ________ in life.

【推荐1】During my elementary school years, I used to compare my mum with my best friend Tiffany’s mum.

Tiffany’s mum always_____her lots of money to buy the most fashionable clothes and favourite food. Her mum allowed her to do anything she liked. I really______Tiffany. My mum didn’t give me much_____money and she always told me that I should behave myself. I was annoyed with her.

Whenever I didn’t get what I wanted, I would complain to my mum, “Tiffany’s mum would give her that! I wish she were my mum.” Every time, my mum would say______, “Poor Tiffany.” I couldn’t understand her. “She shouldn’t be feeling sorry for Tiffany!” I thought. “She should be feeling sorry for me.”

One day, I couldn’t help saying to my mum, “Poor Tiffany? Lucky Tiffany! She gets______she wants! Why do you feel sorry for her?”   I burst into______. My mum sat down next to me and said softly, “Yes, I do feel sorry for her. I have been teaching you a______ that she will never be taught.” I looked up at her, “What are you talking about?” Mum said_________ care, “One day she will really want something. Maybe she’ll______that she can’t have it. Her mother won’t______be around to give her money, and what’s more, money can’t buy everything.”

She______, “I have taught you valuable lessons by not giving you everything you want. You’ll know how to look for bargains and______money, but she won’t. You’ll______that you need to work to get the things you want but she won’t. When Tiffany is a grown woman, she’ll wake up one day and she will be wishing that she had a mum like the one you’ve got. Life lessons are more _____ than modern clothes and delicious food.”

It took some time,_____I eventually understood my mum’s words. Now I am a happy and successful woman.

【推荐2】Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was seated in his room when a petition(请愿书)was brought to him. The King had just returned from hunting, and the glare of the sun, or some other _______, had so dazzled (使……目眩)his eyes that he found it difficult to _______ a single word of the writing.

So he called the servant boy. The poor boy _______ a poor reader, huddling (挤在一起)several words together _______ they were syllables of one long word, which he must get through with as speedily as possible. “Stop! Send me that little girl sitting there by the fountain.” The girl _______ pointed out by the King was the daughter of a royal _______, who had come to help her father weed the flower beds. She was somewhat _______ but took courage when the King told her that he only wanted her to _______ for him, as his eyes were weak.

Ernestine, the little girl, was _______ of reading, and often many of the neighbors would __________ at her father’s house to hear her. Those who could not read themselves would come with their letters from friends or children, so she formed the __________ of reading various sorts of handwriting promptly and well.

The King gave her the petition, and she rapidly __________ the opening lines to get some __________ of what it was about. It was from a poor widow, whose only son had been__________ into the army, although his health was delicate. His father had been killed in battle.

Ernestine read the petition with so much __________, and in tones so pure and distinct, that when she had finished, the King, into whose eyes __________ had started, cried excitedly, “Oh! now I understand what it is all about; but I might never have known its __________ had I trusted to that young gentleman. As for you, my young lady,” continued the King, “I know you will ask no better __________ than the pleasure of carrying to this poor widow my order for her son’s immediate discharge.”

How happy Ernestine was! Because of her good reading, the poor widow __________ her son. Ernestine also __________ did the servant boy good for, sorry for his bad reading, he began studying in earnest and finally became a lawyer.