【推荐2】When I was young, I was a terrible student. I didn’t ________ talking with my grandmother on the phone, because she would ask me about school and about what I was reading.

Each Christmas, I would get a package from Grandmother. “Another ________. Just like every year!” I would think and then put it aside. I would ________all my latest toys on Christmas morning and for days and even weeks after.________, I would open Grandmother’s gift. I would read the book and sometimes ________ the text, but I didn’t find this interesting.

Although I was not interested in ________, I had great patience with younger children. Seeing how I ________her kid with homework, my neighbor said I should become a teacher when I grew up.

During my second term in college, I ________ in my Children’s Literature class. Our teacher________ a list of classic children’s books. It was then that I wanted to ________. I raced home and ran to the basement (地下室). There on the dusty shelf sat the most amazing collection of children’s books any teacher could ________ to have. My grandmother didn’t ________ me what my little girl mind wanted, but what she knew I ________ — a gift for the soul that would last a lifetime.

I ________ to water the seed my grandmother planted so long ago. I graduated from college, received my master’s degree and became a ________ , trying my best to plant those tiny seeds in all my students.

【推荐3】Hardship comes in different shapes and sizes. But few things in life are as _______ as feeling cut off from the people we love.

Recently, while _______ against the COVID-19, my grandkids and I have to stay indoors and started _______ via Wechat. Mostly, I read to them because I love doing it, but I also do it for their parents' mental health. Besides having to stay indoors, they are _______ to homeschool their kids, who can't go to school or play with their friends.

Reading to each other is an age-old practice to me. It has _______ and healing (治愈的) power especially in current situation. When we read, we see the words with our eyes. But hearing them read is a different _______, we just need to be quiet and listen. Sometimes, the voice and the love it_______ mean far more than the words. Today, I wechatted with my grandkids, Ran and Wey, and read them a book my kids loved long ago, and they thought it _______, frequently bursting out laughing.

Now more than ever, while keeping a safe distance, we all need to _______ each other. Sometimes the words we read are so powerful that they will never be ________.

【推荐1】So far, many dolphins worldwide have been captured and kept in small pools, performing for people, especially kids. These dolphins are fed on fish instead of having to _______them. Gradually, they start spending most of their time near the pool waiting for food rather than underwater. They get out of shape and can no longer _______for long distances, which affects their_______ greatly, and results in _______ consequences (后果).

Thus comes the question. “Should captive (被关起来的) dolphins be _______?” Jeff Foster, a dolphin expert, decided to help two captive dolphins, Tom and Misha, to reach their top physical_______. Every day, he trained the two dolphins to get used to their wild homes again. Twenty months later, Tom and Misha began to act like _______ dolphins and they were set free back into the sea.

_______Tom and Misha lived in captivity for 4 to 5 years, they were able to adapt to the wild. It was _______ what Foster had hoped for. His dreams for the dolphins had finally come true and he knew that the dolphins would ________ in the wild.

This program was successful, but there have been other failures. For example, another dolphin, Keiko, returned into the ocean in 2002, but________ a year later because of all the misery (痛苦) he ________ in the past. The sudden ________change did not suit him well.

If people want to avoid these accidents, we must go to great lengths and put ________to ensure it doesn’t happen ever again. In fact, with virtual reality technology picking up, there can still be great ways to ________ kids with sea animals without having to capture them.

Throughout history, people have been the victims of pickpockets. Today, _______ is one of the most rapidly increasing _______. Pickpockets are increasing _______ and developing better methods to practice their skill. _______ one million Americans lose money to pickpockets every year. No one is really safe _______a skilled pickpocket. His victims, or “marks” _______ they are rolled, can be rich or poor, young or old. _______ the 18th century, pickpockets _______in England. Large crowds of people would gather to watch the hanging _______ was supposed to be a warning to other pickpockets. __________, in time the practice was discontinued.

Police officials say that most __________ pickpockets come from South America. __________ these expert pickpockets __________ in special schools called Jingle Bell School. A pickpocket graduates from a J. B. __________ he is able to steal a wallet from a dressed dummy that has __________ inside its pockets!

Some of the __________ places of pickpockets are banks, airports, supermarkets, trains and bus stations. __________a pickpocket will work with another pickpocket __________ his partner. __________ being the victim of a pickpocket, it is __________ to be very careful when in the midst of large gatherings of people.

【推荐3】In the college admissions war, we parents are the true fighters. We’re pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of their first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a _______ demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we are _______ to acknowledge that our obsession is more about us than them. So we’ve come up with various _______ that turn out to be half-truth’s prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.

We have a full-blown prestige(声望) panic: we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. _______ parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Behind the hysteria is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is _______ and mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better _______ approaches than less selective schools. On two measures - professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams-selective schools do slightly worse.

By some studies, selective schools do _______ their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is considered at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical coincidence. _______, a well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.

_______ count more than colleges. Getting into Yale may ________ intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and its ________ is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life’s only competition. In the next competition - the job market and graduate school - the ________ may change. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph. D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees from prestigious universities didn’t.

So, parents, ________. The risks have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a ________ society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for ________. One study found that all things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappointing.