【推荐1】From the time I was seven, I had a dream of becoming a member of the students’ union. I always _______ my school leaders for taking responsibility for all of us. I dreamed of being a leader. The years flew by, and soon I was able to take part in the elections, _______ I would win. But the reality struck that I didn’t have a chance. Girls across the school _______ knew me. I just did not have what it _______ to win a school election. _______ I cried in my room that evening, I suddenly took a deep breath and decided I wouldn’t stop dreaming. 

What were the points that would work in my favour? I had good grades, and I was friendly and helpful. I would not allow my plain appearance to _______ me back from putting my best foot forward. That evening, I began my election _______ a whole year in advance. 

I loved making friends and I liked being helpful, so I decided that perhaps I could use these _______ to work up to my advantage. In order to learn how to _______ a great election speech, I also ________ a course on effective public speaking. 

The day after the election, when the head teacher ________ I won the second highest number of votes, the students ________. Suddenly, I realized that I had ________ much more than I had dreamed of. I had won acceptance and love of my schoolmates and they knew me as somebody who would ________ them. I was able to put a smile on their faces and ________ their day.

【推荐2】I was reading an article the other day about a man by the name of Steve Callaman. In 1982, he was crossing the Atlantic alone in his sailboat when it ___ something and sank. He was out of the shipping lanes and ___ in a life raft, alone. He had few ___ and his chances of survival were small. Yet when three ___ found him seventy-six days later. he was ___ — much skinnier (极瘦的) than he was when he started.

His account of how he survived was ___. Somehow he managed to catch fish and even made a device to make fresh water from sea water, The most remarkable thing, ___, was how he managed to keep himself ___ when all hope seemed lost. ___ how often he must have thought there was no point in continuing with the ____. He was suffering a great deal. His life raft was punctured (刺破) and even after trying for more than a week to ____ it, it was still leaking (使渗漏) air and it was wearing him out to keep pumping it up. He was starved, totally exhausted. ____ would have seemed to be the only choice.

Whenever you read about people who ____ these kinds of situations, you will ____ that they do something with their ____ that give them the courage to keep going. However, there are many people in similarly hopeless situations that give in or go ____. The survivors do something with their ____ that help them find the courage to carry on.

For Callahan, he wrote simply, “I told myself I could ____ it. Compared to what those have been through, I was ____. I told myself these things over and over.”

Next time when it seems as if your own goals are far-off or when your problems seem too difficult to deal with, repeat that ____ over and over again, “I can handle it. I can handle it.”

【推荐2】My first year living in Los Angeles, I was a birthday-party clown(小丑). I _______with my identity because, though I viewed myself as a filmmaker, everyone in my life associated me with this ridiculous day job.

For certain parties, I had to go as a _______ character, so at the party I'd actually be＂Mickey Mouse" or "Sponge-Bob SquarePants. "One night, I was told that I was going to be Batman. At the time I had a giant mustache but I didn't want to _______ my physical appearance for that job. _______, for the party, I chose not to shave.

Normally at these parties, you pop in through the front door: "Surprise! Batman's here!" However, my element of _______ was shot because they saw me coming from, like, a quarter of a mile away, which left me plenty of time to _______ my choice not to shave.

Once I got close enough for them to make out the _______ of my face, the entire party _______in laughter and then into cheers.

After I ran into the party, they were_______me. I saw the birthday boy with his dad, who was laughing, and he said, "You see, I told you, son. Batman has a mustache." He took me to the huge birthday cake with a Batman drawn on it, and the Batman had a mustache. I just stared at it in ________.

When________ bringing the cake out, instead of just admitting that it was messed up, the parents tried to save ________ and said to the boy," Batman always has a mustache. He just shaves it for movies." In a ________ of fate, my mustache confirmed what the parents had said and   ________the kids that I was actually Batman.

That day, there was no doubt in my mind what I was. I may not have been the ________ that they ordered and expected. But that day, I was the hero that they needed.

When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and ________ what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It ________ be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good ________ not only because he had earned ________ but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly, ________ John’s new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another. 

John and I both know we should never ________a person’s clothes for the real person within them. ________ there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for ________ what is on the inside to what is on the outside. 

For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to ________ as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape ________ all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.

【推荐1】When we moved into our home in Maui, Hawaii, 16 years ago, one good thing about this house was the huge avocado (牛油果) tree growing in the _______ .

This tree gave the most delicious avocados I have ever _______. I lived on these avocados when _______ my first child. Fresh avocado was the very first food for my kids. This tree was so huge that it _______ a massive shadow over our backyard. It was truly our magical tree.

Until one day, someone from the Health Department came to tell us that our avocado tree was too _______ and needed trimming (修剪). In New York, you get into trouble if you don’t _______ the snow on your sidewalk. _______, it’s when your trees are too high that you will get into trouble. So along came the trimmer, leaving just the _______ and a few branches. I was sad. The kids were all sad. Some friends who knew it would say, “It’s going to grow back. Your next avocados will be crazy!” Yeah, whatever. The tree is _______. So stop doing that. It just didn’t work.

But a few days later, I noticed some unusual ________ flying around the yard. And then, the sun came into the kitchen, creating this pleasant warmth once ________ by the huge tree. After about a month, I started to notice some tiny green shoots coming out of the cut branches, which ________ turned into full on bright green leaves.

I started to feel like all was going to be fine, kind of like life. Little do we know what seems really ________ is actually life’s way of making us stronger. It’s life’s way of bringing in the butterflies and the ________. We all know that saying, “It will be OK in the end. If it’s not, it’s not the ________ .”

【推荐2】Years ago, a neighbour kid kicked a football and broke a small _______ of our house. We were a family living on a small _______ at the time, so I boarded it up, thinking I’d get to it someday.

Over the years, I’d sometimes ask some advice from window companies. The plan was to upgrade to energy-efficient windows for the whole house, an _______ process—$ 15, 000. It was simply out of _______ and I turned it down again.

_______, the thought of that window ate at me for years. Every time I went down there, it kept _______ me. I knew I needed to deal with it, but I had built up the _______ so much in my mind that I put it off again and again.

Then my wife had a job _______, and we needed to move. A _______ buyer couldn’t get a loan on the house if there was a ________ window. So I pulled off the boards to face this thing. It had already been for at least 5 years.

I used some rust (锈) remover, sprayed all around the rusted frame, and gave it a ________ pull. To my ________, it easily moved. I pulled the window out and took it downtown. It was a 12 fix.

I could have fixed the problem for 12 the ________ day when it happened. But I let it worry me for years. ________, this isn’t just about my window. Many of us tend to live with broken windows of one type or another for years. We suffer more in ________ than in reality. Step forward, and you’ll find a solution.

【推荐3】When I was younger I was lost in the stories in magic books. I _______ them thirstily. Also like most of the readers of these stories I secretly wished for magical _______ for myself. I wanted to be able to _______ make my pain disappear, to make my problems go away.

_______ I got older, however, I realized that there was no such thing as magic. Later, the competitive reality of life set in, and I struggled through a long _______ of poverty (贫困). Worst of all, I had daily _______ from a back injury that was never completely recovered. I felt great _______ when both of my sons _______ from loneliness. I still sometimes daydreamed of magic but finally that died away.

Then one day I _______ a different kind of magic called LOVE. It grew stronger in my heart, soul and ________ day by day. This magic connected me to my own best self and to all of the ________ souls in this world. Though it didn’t ________ my poverty, it made every day of my life ________ and colorful. Though it didn’t make my back pain go away, it helped me ________ it so much better. Though it didn’t cure my sons’ loneliness, it helped me see the beautiful, loving and joyful souls.

There is such a thing as magic in each one of us in this world. This is LOVE. May you choose it, share it, and ________ every single day of your life in it.