【推荐2】Small children are easy to throw up in the air and catch — and they _______ it. “Again, Daddy, again!” Jacky shouts as I throw him skywards and catch him on the way back down again. He throws his arms and legs out _______ he were flying, his eyes wide with _______. His trust in me is _______, which is quite a nice feeling, but at the same time gives me a huge sense of _______.

I hope Jacky will always—trust me fully, but I know that, as he gets older, it will need more effort and sound judgment _______. Trust is such an important part of a parent-child relationship that it’s something that I can’t _______ to lose. Every time I _______ Jacky to something new, he’ll do it only because he trusts me and feels _______ in the knowledge that he won’t get hurt. ________, teaching Jacky to swim means he has to believe that, when he’s swimming in the big pool, I’ll come to his rescue if his doggy paddle lets him down.

________, in the workplace, trust is important for strong ________. It is something that every manager should work hard to ________ among their team. If people don’t trust you, they’re unlikely to follow your directions and willingly become a loyal (忠诚) team member. A ________ of trust can make people work against you rather than for you. At the very least, it means that people are not going to be giving you their best. Good ________, like good parenting, is a long-term commitment.

【推荐3】Ms. Evans passed out the quizzes. “Everyone ready?” she asked, _______ the clock. “Begin!”

Raj zipped through addition, subtraction(减法), and multiplication(乘法) problems. When he came to _______, he slowed down a bit. Then his pencil tip _______.

“Time’s up!” Ms. Evans called. “Exchange papers, please.” After checking, Ms. Evans made a/an _______. “We have a new speed-math champion this week.” She smiled at the new girl, who had been in class for only three days. “Congratulations, Caroline. As for the rest of you, keep _______.”

Raj shook his head. He didn’t need to do that. Next Friday, he’d sharpen two pencils. Then the _______ would be his again.

_______ for the second week in a row, Raj wasn’t the winner.

“Good job, Caroline,” Ms. Evans said, “Looks as if the others are going to have to work harder to _______ you.”

This time Raj decided to practice his math like crazy. He started on Monday: addition problems during breakfast; subtraction while he brushed his teeth; multiplication on the bus; and division during his after-school snack. As the week went _______, he did better and better.

Even so, when he saw his score in class on Friday, he didn’t feel as ________ of winning as he had before. Maybe Caroline had gotten an even higher score.

While Ms. Evans paged through the ________ papers, Raj watched her face. Had his work paid off?

“Our champion has changed this week,” she said at last, “Congratulations, Raj. You’ve really ________.”

Caroline was standing right in front of Raj’s desk. “Good job on the quiz,” she said.

“Thanks,” Raj replied, “You, too—I mean, winning the past two weeks.”

Caroline shrugged. “At my old school, I was the ________ at math, so I always won. It’s fun to have some competition here. It makes math more exciting.”

Fun? Exciting? Raj stared at her. What was fun about ________?

“Are you going to try to win the title back next Friday?” he asked.

“Of course.” She smiled, “I will try my best! See you Monday. And good luck, champ.”

Raj grinned at the teasing. Maybe math was more ________ this way.