【推荐1】Last year, I received an e-mail from my dad, under a subject line: “Mystery creature?” There was no body text, but_______was a ten-second video, shot in the dead of night. It_______a furry creature charging away from the camera and down a driveway. Midway through the video, the animal_______abruptly, turns slightly and stares back. Then it runs into the_______. Watching it again, I noticed that the driveway looked_______. It was my childhood home. There soon came more e-mails with more videos. And the mystery creature_______to be a raccoon(浣熊) without its tail.

For many years, my parents had been_______about setting up some camera traps, just to see what sorts of animals were quietly moving around the_______. But my dad had always thought the camera were a little too_______and complicated. About a year ago, my dad finally________two cameras at reasonable prices that were easy to use. He first________them toward a place where he had noticed a particular pile of scat (动物粪便), which always appeared in the same________. After leaving the cameras on for only one night, he________. To his amazement, right in front of a bench where he’d ________   one camera, a fox arrived. It ________ to the center of the sight line and squatted (蹲下), briefly, in the exact spot. “Can you ________ it? ”he said, playing the video for me again.

I could not, ________ there it was, clear to see. For me, the pleasure in watching these videos was that they would never be ________ believable and that the ________ would always be beyond my imagination. Rather than making the world more knowable, they seem to make it more ________. They’ve turned a backyard into a place full of mystery.

【推荐2】When my daughter was in grade school, she brought home four tiny twigs one day. They were small _______given to the students to plant. None of them looked very hardy, but with a _______ for the future, I planted them in our backyard. Over the years the _______ soil brought an end to three of them.

All that was _______ was a single evergreen. It never got very tall and _______ to one side. Then, I noticed that it was starting to _______. The lower branches were becoming brown. Only the top ones of the tree were still _______.

I did my best to _______it by feeding it a lot of fertilizer (肥料), but it seemed hopeless. One morning I went out and looked at it again, _______ if it would be better to just cut it down. As I walked over to take a closer look at it, ________, I noticed something moving among the branches. It was a bird ________ building a nest (巢) in the topmost branches. I smiled and ________ that maybe this old tree had some life and usefulness left in it yet. It may not be healthy or pretty, but it was still giving a bird a ________.

This tree ________ me that all of our lives have a purpose. It doesn’t matter if we are young and strong, or old and sick. Until our last ________ we still have things to do: love for us to give, and joy for us to share. We can help to make this world a better and lovelier place.

【推荐3】Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village was located near some wetlands which became his second home. He learned the value and beauty of _________ there from a very young age.

When he was 16, Molai began to notice something _________ happening around his home. A flood had hit the area earlier that year and caused great _________, which had driven away a number of birds._________, the number of snakes had decreased as well. He _________ that it was because there weren’t enough trees to protect them from the heat. The solution, of course, was to plant trees so the animals could seek _________ during the daytime. He turned to the forest department for help but was told that nothing would grow there. However, Molai went looking on his own and _________ a nearby island where he began to plant trees.

Watering young plants in the dry season was _________ for a lone boy. Molai built at the top of each sapling (幼树) a bamboo platform, where he placed earthen pots with small holes to _________ rainwater. The water would then drip (滴落) on the plants below.

Molai   __________ to plant trees for the next 37 years. His efforts have resulted in 1,360 acres (英亩) of naturally-grown land that has become home to many plants and animals.

【推荐1】My former teacher, Varga, was an amazing teacher. The first day I had her social studies class, I knew we would have a great________. Her style of teaching was so________ that almost every student in the class loved studying social studies.

My happiest________ was from our class about the American Civil War. Each student________ a person from the American Civil War to________ and then explained his or her findings in class. I chose Abraham Lincoln while other classmates chose other________ people of the time like Jefferson Davis. The students would walk around ________ the other students’ characters and their________ in the tragic ( 不幸的) time period. Mrs. Varga could always find useful ways to make her students well ________ while at the same time they had ________. Besides that, she always ________ us to explore new things.

To be honest, Mrs. Varga has a great ________ on me. I remember I behaved badly before. ________, I met Mrs. Varga who made me become the best student that I could be. I really appreciate her coming to our school. The last day of school was a ________ one for us, because she would no longer teach us. Both of us cried in each other’s arms.

Mrs. Varga is one of the best teachers that I have ever had. She pours everything she has into her ________. Thanks to Mrs. Varga, I had a great time at Conrad Schools of Science.

【推荐1】I have always been an independent person, but I have come to know that being independent does not mean refusing help. I am _______ asking for help, and I try to accept. Furthermore, I will even _______ help and when someone is in trouble, I _______ walk away. And all these changes came from an accident on an island.

Sometimes a person’s independence is a _______ of pride, daring, stubbornness and luck. I used to be too _______ since I was little. I was once a traveler who never asked for _______, choosing instead to struggle with maps and signs until I found my way.

Then one day on the island of Koh Phangan, in Thailand, everything _______. I was swimming in the ocean with Sean, my fiancé (未婚夫), when he was _______ by a box jellyfish (箱型水母). He _______ within three minutes, 25 years old. Yet when onlookers and travelers asked if I wanted ________, stubborn pride and force of habit ________ me accepting. But two young Israeli women stayed. ________ my protest (反对), they were with me even when the police tried to cover up the ________ of Sean’s death. It was listed as drunk drowning to avoid hurting the ________ industry. The Israeli women ________ have walked away. ________, without even telling me, they ________ their schedule rather than leave me behind.

________ I didn’t realize it at that time, I would not have ________ the disaster without these great women. Actually, the person who needs help the most is usually the last person to ask for it. I have learned ________ is better than refusing because it not only helps you walk out of trouble, but also helps you know the real meaning of life.

【推荐2】Days after Argentina canceled international passenger flights to protect the country from the new coronavirus, Ballestero began his journey home. He _______ aboard his small sailboat for what turned out to be an 85-day difficult _______ across the Atlantic.

Ballestero could have stayed put on the tiny Portuguese island, but the idea of _______ what he thought could be "the end of the world" away from his family, especially his father who was soon to turn 90, was _______. So he set sail in Mid-March after _______ his 29-foot sailboat.

"I didn't want to stay like a coward（懦夫）on an island where there were no _______," Ballestero said. "I'll do everything possible to be with my _______."

Friends tried to persuade him to _______ the adventurous journey, and the authorities in Portugal _______ him he might not be allowed to re-enter. But he was _______. "I bought myself a one-way ticket and there was no going back," he stated.

Sailing can be a lonely passion, and it was _______ so on this voyage for Ballestero, who each night turned in to the _______ on a radio for 30 minutes to _______ how the virus was spreading across the globe. "I kept wondering whether this would be my _______ trip," he said.

When he _______ it to his native Mar del Plata on June 17^th, he was surprised by the hero's welcome he _______. On the dock（码头）, a medical professional administered a(an) _______ for COVID-19. Within 72 hours, after the result came back negative, he was _______ to set foot on Argentine soil.

While he didn't get to _______ his father's 90^th birthday in May, he did arrive home _______ for Father's Day.

【推荐3】Most people need to hear those three little words “I love you”. Once in a while, they hear them just ________.

I met Connie the clay she was ________ to the hospice ward (临终关怀病房), where I worked as a ________. Her husband, Bill, stood nervously nearby as she was ________ from the gurney to the hospital bed. We got her ________ in, and I marked her name on all the hospital ________ she would be using.

Connie was a romantic. She loved soap operas, romance novels and movies with a good love story. As we became ________, she confided (吐露) how ________ it was to be married 32 years to a man who often called her “a silly woman”.

“I’d give anything if he’d say ‘I love you’, but it’s just not in his ________.”

Bill ________ Connie every day. As Connie had fewer ________ moments, I began spending more of my volunteer time with Bill. One clay,________ coffee in the cafeteria, I got him on the ________ of women and how we love to get ________ cards and love letters.

“Do you tell Connie you love her?” I asked, and he looked at me as if I was ________.

“I don’t have to,” he said. “she knows I do!”

“I’m sure she knows,” I said, “but she needs to hear it, Bill. She needs to hear what she has ________ to you all these years. Please think about if,” The day was ________ 12.

Two days later, Connie died at 11 A.M. When Bill saw me, he ________ himself to come into my arms for a long time. “This morning I fold her how much I loved her... and loved being ________ to her. You should have seen her smile!”

I went into the room to say my own ________ to Connie. There, on the bedside table, was a large Valentine card from Bill, the sentimental kind that says, “To my wonderful wife... I love you.”