【推荐2】“Please don't wake up,” I plead silently to my 10-month-old son as I log into another Zoom meeting from my tiny New York City apartment. I use a virtual________—a picture of my university office—to________the fact that I'm in my kitchen, where it's easier to avoid the loud calls for “Mama!” from my 3-year-old daughter and the hunger________of my infant son. Such meetings—a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic—________the stress I feel as a working mom, trying to hide the messy reality of my life as a parent. It has led to a unique type of Zoom burnout, one I fear is ________to working mothers.

I've always tried to hide my motherhood________ from plain view. I don't have photos of my children on display in my university office,________some of my male colleagues clearly feel comfortable doing so. I haven't wanted my colleagues to________me as less committed to my work because I have children. ________now, working from home, I feel unable to control whether my children are________.

My workdays are________with meetings to discuss research projects. When the pandemic started and the meetings________ to Zoom, I felt an unspoken________ to turn my camera on. Almost everyone else had their camera on, and I feared that if I kept mine off, I wouldn't be viewed as “present.” The________I experience during Zoom meetings compounds other stressors in my life. However, reduced anxiety and a chance to take care of household duties while still contributing to the meeting—is________it to me.

【推荐3】I was _____ of an evening paper in London.One day I was _____   to write a few articles _____   begging(乞讨) in London.It was then that all my adventures (冒险) _____.I made a decision that the best way of collecting _____ was that I would go deep into the realities of _____.I used to be_____；of course，I had learned all the skills of make­up(乔装打扮)，and I could still make the use of _____.Having finished all necessary preparations，I placed myself in one of the _____ streets.At home that night I was ______ to find I had received ______ a pound.

Well，you can imagine how ______ it was to settle down to work ______ the newspaper at two pounds a week.When I knew that I could make as ______ as that in a single day，I______ my job as a reporter，though my pride (自尊心) was______.My knowledge of make­up was so good that no one could recognize me even in the street and I quickly became a public character.All day and every day，money ______ into my cap and I usually ______ at least two pounds in a day.In the end，I was able to have a large beautiful house in the country，and later to ______.Nobody had any idea where my money ______ came from！   My dear wife only knew that I had business in London：that was all.

【推荐1】I’ve been a college professor teaching people how to think more creatively and use more of their brainpower. _________, this lifetime passion was awakened by a casual contest in my childhood.

At a picnic of my father’s company, they held contests for kids — who threw a cloth handkerchief the farthest this time. I, 13 years old, was full of the spirit of _________, so I threw myself into the contest, which, I realize now, was not meant to _________ real skills, but simply for laughs. But it stirred my _________ of thinking outside the box.

It disturbed me to see the kids throwing _________ when the handkerchief always opened and stopped. The _________ was not to throw harder but to prevent the cloth from _________. Suppose I hid a rock in the cloth without tying it. The rock would drive the cloth at least _________ than the others, and when they separated, people might not notice a small rock _________ nearby. I had a good chance of __________ it, but I didn’t want to win by cheating. So I had to make the handkerchief fly like a rock. Like a rock! That was it! I __________ tied knot (结) after knot until it was the size of a large walnut (核桃), like a strong __________. I threw hard, and the balled handkerchief rocketed off 60 feet away. All stared at me in __________ and the judge ran to check. “It’s just the __________,” he declared, holding it up and untying the knots.

What I learned from this contest was __________ thinking. To live creatively, you have to tap into the less-used parts of your brain.

【推荐3】A 90-year-old driver is showing it’s never too late to pursue your dreams. Last year, Hershel McGriff became the _________ driver to compete in a NASCAR event when he raced at the Tucson Speedway in his home state of Arizona.

McGriff has been _________ since he was a teenager. His first time behind the _________ came when he was just 17 years old after he read an ad in his local newspaper and was drawn to the _________ that comes with driving hundreds of miles per hour around a track, _________ for first place.

“I borrowed my dad’s 1940 Hudson — an ugly car, and I got a couple of guys to help me,” McGriff _________ his beginning in the sport. “I didn’t do very _________. I think I finished 12^th or 13^th out of a bunch of cars. But that got me started.”

His first win on the NASCAR circuit (联赛) came when he _________ in Mexico at the age of 22. McGriff went on _________ dozens of races, finally being __________ as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. He retired from the sport at 74, but he never stopped his love for the track and decided to return to racing for a few special events that have made him famous in his hometown and __________ others to keep pursuing their dreams as well.

McGriff’s spot in the race was a gift for his 90^th birthday from his son and longtime friend, team owner Bill McAnally. “Bill called me up on the phone and said, ‘For your 90^th birthday, I will furnish the car. All you have to do is __________ it,’” McGriff said. “When he made the __________, I was ready to accept.”

McGriff’s history-making race shows that you can pursue your dreams at any __________, but for this young-at-heart racer, it was just a chance to drive and __________ pursuing his passion.

【推荐2】Our 13-year-old son won a local “Hoop (篮圈) Shooting” competition and entered the regional competition. So on Saturday morning we headed down to Green Bay, Wisconsin for an ______ to move forward to the state championships.

In the competition, my son ______ waited his turn.Nearly an hour later, he went to the hoops. His first basket was a ______. We could see the frustration (沮丧) in his eyes. He tried ______ to shoot another hoop. Then another failure. But he continued. Finally, he ______ to shoot a few balls and scored 20 points. My son ______ from his hoop, frustrated and disappointed, being ______ that he didn’t make it because there were several guys getting over 40 points, already ______ his.

If it had been up to our son to decide, he would have left before watching the game and ______ himself in our hotel. Instead, we took this chance to help him ______ this life disappointment：giving him time for frustration and then sharing our opinion on this ______. We told him：It was because of his earlier ______ that we were able to watch this game; it was ______ to fail. We all failed at some point in our lives. We were proud of him though he didn’t receive the prize.

In the end, we ______, watched the game, and had a great time! When you are ______ by life, don’t let it keep you down. As the old saying goes, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”

【推荐3】Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t _______ but this was one of those celebrations that I didn’t mind. They are a bunch of young, single guys and I would have felt out of place.

What _______ me was the way they behaved. One of the young men came over _______ in the day to “warn” us of the upcoming event and said it would be over at about 11 p.m. That was the first step. Even more _______ was what they did next. “Here’s my _______,” offered our neighbor _______. “Text me if it’s too noisy.” That was a level of _______ I had never experienced in all my years of being a neighbor!

And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the _______ end time, even when the music reached high decibels (分贝), and even when we couldn’t get through on the phone number, we felt no _______. We knew they would stop and be ________ eventually.

It takes such little effort to make people feel that they ________ and get people on your side. Everyone needs to let loose every now and then, especially in these uniquely tough times. But people who do it without ________ others are few and far between. I hadn’t fully ________ my neighbors until this week. We had adopted that all too American “live and let live” posture. But now I see them in a new light and with greater ________. They didn’t just bring noise to the neighborhood; they shone the light of ________.