【推荐1】Even though it was only October, my students were already whispering about Christmas plans. With each passing day everyone became more ______, waiting for the final school bell. Upon its ______ everyone would run for their coats and go home, everyone except David.

David was a small boy in ragged clothes. I had often ______ what kind of home life David had, and what kind of mother could send her son to school dressed so ______ for the cold winter months, without a coat, boots, or gloves. But something made David ______. I can still remember he was always ______ a smile and willing to help. He always ____ after school to straighten chairs and mop the floor. We never talked much. He _____ just smile and ask what else he could do ,then thank me for letting him stay and slowly _____ home.

Weeks passed and the______over the coming Christmas grew into restlessness until the last day of _____ before the holiday break. I smiled in ______as the last of them hurried out the door. Turning around I saw David ______standing by my desk.

“I have something for you” he said and ______ from behind his back a small box.______ it to me, he said anxiously, “Open it.” I took the box from him, thanked him and slowly unwrapped it. I lifted the lid and to my ______   saw nothing. I looked at David’s smiling face and back into the box and said, “The box is nice, David, but it’ s _______”

“Oh no, it isn’t” said David. “It’s full of love, my mum told me before she died that love was something you couldn’t see or touch unless you know it’s there.”

Tears filled my eyes ______ I looked at the proud dirty face that I had rarely given _____to. After that Christmas, David and I became good friends and I never forgot the meaning ______ the little empty box set on my desk.

【推荐2】Several years ago, I went on a trip alone to Mozambique. Our bus broke down by the side of the road. There was certainly nothing in the way of _______ or campsites or any kind of place to sleep. I _______ I’d just have to bed down on the roadside like others. But I was pretty _______ at the idea. Most everyone else was traveling with their families or other _______, and here I was, a very young woman, alone, with pale white skin that just screamed out “I’m a foreigner and do not _______ here.” Besides I spoke Portuguese reasonably _______ but not any of the local dialects, which _______ my difficulty.

I was trying to work out what to do when I _______ one of the women passengers I’d been chatting with _______ to me. “Come with me,” she said. I was then taken to the nearby village, where she lived. She and her large family ________ me that night. We had chips and matapa, a delicious Mozambican dish. Her kids laughed and circled around and were ________ to have a visit from a real white person. I couldn’t ________ a lot of the conversation, because only the woman spoke Portuguese, but I felt so ________ despite my foreignness.

This kind-hearted woman ________ a stranger a night spent trembling in ________ and hunger by the side of the road.

【推荐1】From the age of eight, I had to contribute my share of labor along with my father. Our family was too _________ to afford paid laborers. Working in the rice fields was no easy job, especially in summer. The _________ sun would beat upon my arched back. With only a hat, a shirt and a pair of shorts as my _________, I would be sweating like a pig within seconds.

One day, while resting beside the field, I _________ my present life: My family was tied to land, doing _________ jobs every day. How could we and farmers like us have _________ to a better life? Thinking of this, I was suddenly _________ with great pity and great respect for them, and the focus of my _________ began to extend beyond myself and my family. A voice inside me _________ that I should do something to help that. It was right then that I __________ to pursue useful knowledge and technology to __________ their burden of labour. This undeniable (不可否定的) __________ pushed me hard to go to a university on a scholarship and __________ earn a degree on agriculture.

Although now I went into academic research, I would always __________ what working in the rice fields had taught me: Your hard work will be __________ if you plant your feet firmly on the ground, for being down-to-earth is an unbroken truth.

【推荐2】The word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by hardship. The circular motion (循环运动) between happiness and _________ is the one I’ve been dealing with lately.

A year ago, I developed troubling symptoms(症状) in my left _________. My husband sent me _________ to a specialist who said I had already suffered some everlasting loss of vision and would, without _________, go blind in that eye within months. And I urgently _________ to begin painful eye injections. Almost blind? Painful eye injections? I was _________. What if the _________ medicine didn’t work? What if my right eye developed the same condition? I _________ thought that, amazingly, the medicine was only three years old; before that, patients just went blind.

Over that long week, I _________ myself to casually __________ sadness, to cry and acknowledge my fears about my very fragile body. I __________ to be near anybody but my husband. Fortunately, I __________ pretty quickly, within the week. During this __________ time, I posted my __________ in my blog and receives great care and support from friends online, which filled my heart with __________ and encourages me to receive the eye injections. Besides, the doctor __________ the efficacy(功效) of the medicine. In the end, I bravely received the eye injections and they were very successful. I was lucky enough to see the world again with my healthy eye.

Finally, I gained a __________ insight: being your happiest self isn’t equal to a lifetime of __________ skies, and we are bound to __________ storms of life. Knowing this can help us face difficulties optimistically and __________ the change of life.

【推荐3】She had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful little image of innocence. It was ______ outside.

We all stood there, just inside the door of the Wal-Mart. We all waited, some ______, others anxiously, because the ______ messed up their hurried day. I got lost in the sound and sight of the rainfall.______ of running through the rain happily as a child came pouring, and ______ the worries of my day.

Her voice was so ______ as it broke the gloomy silence we were all caught in, “Mom, let’s ______ the rain.” she said.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Let’s run through the rain!” She ______.

“No, honey. We’ll ______ until it slows down a bit.” Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated, “Mom, let’s run through the rain.”

“We’ll get ______ if we do.” Mom said.

“No, we won’t, Mom. That’s not what you said this morning,” the young girl said as she reached for her Mom’s arm.

“This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”

“Don’t you ______? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, if God can get us through this, he can get us through ______!”

“The entire crowd ______, dead silent. You couldn’t hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes. Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.

Now some would ______ it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of approval in a young child’s life. Time when innocent trust can be cared for so that it will bloom into ______. “Honey, you are absolutely right. Let’s run through the rain. If we get wet, well maybe we just need ______ Mom said. Then off they ran.

We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they ran past the cars. They held their shopping bags over their ______ just in case. They got wet. But they were ______ by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your ______ possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your ______ memories. So, don’t forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day!