【推荐1】“I have a letter for you,” my friend Kirsten told me on the phone. “I think it’s from your mother.” I was ______, since my mother had been ______ for seven years.

A few weeks later Kirsten handed me the ______ dated Aug. 30, 2002. Aground then I was preparing for my pilot course’s final exam at the ______ school. The students finished the training on ______ days.

I was the first to ______. My mother’s letter ______ after I left. Kirsten picked it up from my mail-box, to keep ______ she next saw me.______, a few days later, when it was her turn to leave, she ______ the letter among the piles of papers she ______ packed into boxes. It ______ there for a decade, during which my mother died. In 2013, when Kirsten ______ some dusty belongings from her flying school days, she ______ the letter.

It’s been two years since Kirsten gave me the letter which I’ve carried on my long flights. But I haven’t ______ it yet. When I told some friends this, they ______ their heads. They said they wouldn’t have been able to wait a second. Of course, I ______ -How could I not? -about her ______ in the envelope. Surely, I think, she had written to wish me luck, ask about my life and tell me the news from ______ to make me at case. However, for now it’s ______ to look at her handwriting on the envelope, and to remember that until I open it, I know I’ll hear from her once more.

【推荐2】Last Friday night I was leaving Joe’s art class and heading to Roscoe for dinner with friends. Instead of taking the highway, I ______ to drive down Roscoe’s little main street. Roscoe s is a fairly ______ town, though it does have a traditional main street. I ______ that people there had already put up their holiday ______. There were few cars in the street so I look ray time driving ______ and enjoying each light. Yes, it was the first week of November and ______ not close to Thanksgiving Day, but they were still pretty.

The next day, I walked into a kid’s store to ______ chiffon (雪纺绸) flowers for a hat I was knitting (编织). An employee came out of the back room ______ some beautiful holiday decorations. She saw me and ______ explained that she wasn’t really decorating for Thanksgiving for fear that I would ______ her. There was just a weekend event that ______ some holiday cheer, but afterward all the decorations would be taken down. Her ______ confirmed the fact that holiday decorations were clearly important ______ her. I knew she was just following the decorating ______: Put it up—take it down-put it up again.

After a deep ______ about the two events, 1 have decided that this year I’m just going to ______ what I see. It doesn’t matter what holiday it is or if it’s up or down at the “correct” time.______ ifs pretty, ifs going to make me delighted. Sometimes, I think we make ourselves a little ______ trying to follow rules that are not really important, or trying to be ______ or not to stand out in the neighborhood. This year I’m going to see the holiday decorations wherever they are and whenever they are and just be ______.

【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.”

【推荐2】When I was about twelve, I was taken out for dinner with my family one day. As we headed towards the______, a girl about my age came up to us and asked if we had any spare______. My mom asked where she kept her things. She pointed to an old car. She said there were six of them ______ in that car, which was the same size as my______.

After ______ her a few dollars, we said goodbye. Then, my mother sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my______. But she didn’t come. ______, she had gone home and ______our cupboards into a few bags. She brought all the ______ over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn’t there when that______, but I could imagine the______appearing on their faces.

Later, when I ______about what she had done, I asked her______she helped them. She told me that the girl’s family ______needed help. The girl and I were the same______, yet we lived ______ lives.

Here I stood, ______ in good clothes, headed to dine(用餐) in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I ______with my sisters. I remembered thinking that the other girl didn’t have any food to eat and had to share an old car with five other people.

After______ this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she had done. She ______ me one of the best lessons I ever learned.

【推荐3】Pete Richards was the loneliest and hopeless man in town after his beloved girl was killed in a car crash. He owned a shop from his grandfather, which mainly sold _________ things: bracelets (手镯) worn a century ago, gold rings and silver boxes decades ago.

On this Christmas Eve a small girl was standing there, her sincere and big eyes_________ each treasure. Finally she straightened up with _________ and entered the store merrily. “Mister,” she began, “Would you please let me look at that necklace in the window?”

Pete parted (分开) the cloth and _________ a necklace. The blue stones shone brightly _________ Pete’s pale hand. Looking at the little customer, who had yellow hair and sea blue eyes, just like his lost girlfriend’s, Pete felt _________deep inside. He studied her, “How much money do you have? Are you buying it for someone?”

“The necklace is just _________,” said the child. “This will be the first Christmas since mother died. I've been looking for the most wonderful present for my sister.” “I _________ my bank,” she poured out several pennies on the counter (柜台).

Looking at the trusting look of her blue eyes, Pete drew back the necklace. How could he tell her the high price? _________, he turned towards the back of the store without warning.

Over his shoulder he __________, “What’s your name?” He was very busy about something.

“Jean Grace.” When Pete turned to where Jean Grace waited, a package __________ in his hand. “There you are,” he said shortly. “Don’t lose it on the way home.”

“You paid the __________ price anyone can ever pay,” he said. “And it’s my __________ that I have no one to give anything to. Will you let me see your __________ and wish you a Merry Christmas at your door?” She smiled happily at him and nodded.

To the sound of many bells, Pete Richards and a girl whose name he had yet to learn walked home, and walked into the beginning of the great day that brings __________ into the world for both.

【推荐1】It was a hot, wet summer day a few years ago. At a local gas station, I noticed two elderly ladies _________ away from their car. There was a look of shock and _________ on their faces. I looked and saw what they saw. Five wasps (大黄蜂)had started to _________ a nest around the gas cap. My eyes _________ in surprise. I shared the ladies' fear. The nest seemed to be forming.

Wasps had never been _________ of mine. Several times wasps had _________ me while I was cutting my grass, bringing me a lot of pain _________ I was afraid to cut the grass for a long time.

The most _________ time, however, was when I was a young boy. A friend of mine and I were running and playing in my backyard. I had _________ stepped on one of their hidden nests because before we knew it, we were being run after and __________ over and over by the wasps. We ran to my mom with tears in our eyes. My mom immediately let us have a cold bath and put us in the __________ water before giving us medicine to fight all the __________ in our little bodies from the stings(刺毛).

Recalling the past stings, I knew I couldn't let fear prevent me __________ others now. I reached into my back pocket for a paper towel and tore out the nest while the __________ wasps flew around me. The ladies finally thanked me and I said “You're welcome!” with a smile and a(n) __________ heart.

【推荐3】I am fortunate our household is tight-knit. However, something isn’t _________.

My son was attending university this December and I didn’t_________ for him to go. I had prepared my son well. But no one had prepared me for this. I _________. I felt as though I were drowning.

Having “an empty nest” is never an easy phrase. It’s not just an empty room but a__________ part of who you are. And for me, swimming __________ that hole.