【推荐1】On New Year’s Eve, I came across an old couple at a secondhand store. They moved slowly around me _______something.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

They stopped, looked at me and said, “We’re looking for _______ things that look new.”

Then they _______ . I didn’t. It must have been a private joke between them.

Noticing I looked _______, the man explained, “Look, every new year in the past we _______ to begin the year with new things. It was a goal to surround ourselves with things _______ and new so that we had new direction, new hopes and dreams for the _______ ahead.”

“How did that _______?” I asked.

“Well, after so many years, we discovered it really got us _______,” the woman said.

“Then why do you ________at a secondhand store? Are things bad financially?”

“No, not at all. We just discovered that things don’t have to be ________but to be of great value. ________ it’s old, it’s new to someone who ________ saw it before,” the man said.

“So, each year now we search for things that are ________ to others but mean the world to us,” the woman added.

This couple had spent most of their lives ________ that there was power in “things” and on New Year’s Eve, they should ________ old things and be surrounded with new things. They spent most of their lives believing that by doing so, their life was going to change magically.

________, the truth is, there really isn’t anything different from one day to the next, one year to the next, except for your ________ to it. Everything is there waiting to be ________, so everything is old until you see it for the first time.

I have learned a ________ that day and it has been the best New Year gift I have ever received.

【推荐3】As the train picked up its speed, the passengers slowly settled down on their seats. A window seat is always my favorite. I_______the lower berth (铺位), so that I could enjoy the_______of outside from the moving train. I don’t know why I always preferred to get the_______seat. An elderly lady_______the front seat of mine. I looked at her. She must be in her eighties, I guessed. At one point, we met our_______. She smiled at me and I gave her a response. Both of us were_______. By that time, the train was in its full speed.

It was 7:00 pm, evening time. So, _______ time was still in a long way. I couldn’t_______myself any longer and asked,“Auntie! Where are you going?”She looked at me and friendly said,“_______camp, dear.” Suddenly my enthusiasm________to know the reason. I politely said,“Auntie, you are ________someone?” She smiled and said,“Yes!” Just to continue the conversation, I talked to her in a very cheerful________,“Auntie, you must be feeling so________to see your child and your grandchildren.”

________,this question hurt her a little but boldly she answered,“Oh, dear! You are so sweet! Anyway, I had only one son who was________and was killed in a battle just a few days before. I bought so many new clothes for him. So, I thought why not________my son’s clothes for some other soldiers, so that I would control my________and would be happy thinking that my own son has________it.”

I was shocked to hear her heartbreaking story! But I________the old lady from the core of my heart when I was thinking of her________heart!

【推荐1】As temperatures approached 90 degrees in New York City last July 4th, three police officers went into a Whole Foods Market to get something cold to drink. What they walked into was _______.

Once inside, they were_______ by a store security guard who asked for help with a(n) _______ thief. The woman in question didn’t have the _______ of a career criminal. She was obviously _______, and her cheeks were wet with tears.

The officers looked inside her bag. “All we saw was _______ of food. We didn’t see anything else,” Cuevas said. “I’m hungry,” she _______ quietly. Caught on the spot, the woman no doubt _______ to be put to jail for the crime of being hungry while poor. But the officers had other ideas. “We’ll _______ her food,” Sojo told the ________ security guard.

There’d been no ________ among the three men, no ________ to see whether they were all in. It went unsaid. ________, they picked up the woman’s bag and ________ her to a cash register, where each chipped in $10 to pay the tab. She would not be ________ today.

All the woman could do was silent ________ in gratitude. Covering her face with a handkerchief and ________ her tears, she repeated, “Thank you.”

She wasn’t the only one touched by this act of kindness. A man at the store posted a photo of what he’d ________ on Twitter.

But ________ was never what the officers sought. As Sojo responded, “When you see that someone needs you and they’re actually hungry, it’s ________ to walk away from something like this.”

【推荐2】“Whenever I am in a group of people, I feel like everyone knows what to say except me. When I try to join in, I get anxious and have a struggle _______ words. This happens at parties or meetings and I feel _______ — as if I were being interviewed for a job. People think I am a loner. Maybe I am?”

Individuals experiencing this type of social _______ often avoid eye contact, because it makes them feel _______ and judged. The feelings of awkwardness and not fitting in with others are often frustrating. It prevents these individuals from defending and _______ for themselves in social environments, though they may be _______ at holding on to their opinions in environments that are focused on a task rather than _______.

Fitting into groups of people requires _______. You need to be interested in the topics that others in the group are interested in and talk about them the way they do. Becoming a part of these groups requires that you _______ some of your individuality in order to accept others’ __________ and values.

Some individuals are like chameleon (变色龙) in that they __________ pick up the patterns of different groups and __________ themselves accordingly. For them, this is automatic and they don’t even come to the __________ that they are changing themselves to fit into groups. If you are one of those people who feels __________ in most social group settings, it may be because you __________ changing the way you think in order to feel part of a group and this shouldn’t be a weakness or a failure.

【推荐3】Honest Thanks

I sat down at my desk and started writing. I wrote an emotional letter of gratitude. I put the note card into the ______, sealed it and stuck the stamps on it, but when it came to actually placing the letter into the mailbox... I ______.

The letter was to a schoolmate with whom I kept in contact via Facebook ______. She had inspired me to live a different life—for example, by ______ more.

Her volunteer efforts weren’t ______—she wasn’t building wells in Uganda, but instead she was doing small, local good deeds, such as serving as a crossing guard. These were things I could do, too. She made me ______ I could make a difference here at home. I felt I should let her know how her example positively influenced my life. I could have easily sent her an e-mail, ______ that seemed a bit lame for such an important thank you. That’s why I ended up ______ the letter. But now I stood before the mailbox, unable to place the envelope inside. What was ______ me? Why was this so ______ to do? I guessed l felt strange because it wasn’t like she was my best friend. I just knew her. “People don’t ______ do this,” I thought to myself. However, after thinking it over, I still felt a(n) ______ to let her know how grateful I was. Finally, I put the envelope into the mailbox.

Weeks later I received her reply. She was ______ a tough time and my letter meant the world to her. She didn’t know she had such a(n) ______ on others. Not only did this letter make her happy, but her response to it increased my ______ of happiness. I decided to write a gratitude letter to someone each month. Cultivating gratitude is a great skill to practice. Life is too short not to do it.

【推荐1】A Hero in Pajamas

It was late, about 10:15 pm when Janice Esposito jumped into her car and began the 20-minute drive home to her husband and seven-year-old son. Out of nowhere, a car ______ hers on one side, pushing her backward some 100 feet onto the railroad ______. She sat in the car, injured and ______ by the impact.

Pete DiPinto, a volunteer firefighter and ______ teacher, was getting ready for ______ when he heard the loud noise and ______ glass coming from not far outside his bedroom window. Without ______, DiPinto, 64, ran out of the door with his pajamas (睡衣) on. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said later. “We’re always on ______.”

The first car he came upon was the one that had hit Esposito. Once DiPinto ______ the driver was OK, he looked around and spotted Esposito’s car ______ the railroad tracks. Suddenly he heard a loud roar signaling an on­coming ______. He even saw the headlight of the train. DiPinto ran to Esposito’s car and knocked ______ on the driver’s side window. But she just looked at him, her ______ unfocused.

“Honey, you’re on the railroad tracks,” DiPinto ______. “We have to get you off right now!” He pulled on the handle, but the door was out of ______ and couldn’t open. The train, traveling at 65 miles per hour, was ______ toward them. DiPinto ran to the passenger side and opened the door. He ______ the airbags, seized her arms, and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and walked her to ______. Within six seconds, the train ______ into the car. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto said.

The next morning, a report of CBS said, “Last night, the ______ arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.”

【推荐3】If you have a watch, don't repair it! I know it____. Once I had a beautiful watch. And this watch____perfect time. But one night it happened that I forgot to____it up. Next morning I went to a watchmaker as I wanted my perfect watch to____by the exact time. The watchmaker examined my watch and said: “The regulator is to be pushed up____your watch is four minutes____.”

I tried to stop him, tried to____him understand that my watch kept perfect time, but he did not listen to me and pushed the regulator.

My beautiful watch began to gain time. It____faster and faster day by day. By the end of the second month it____all the clocks and watches of the town far behind.

What did I have to do? To take it to another watchmaker to be regulated. I expected him to regulate the watch immediately____he asked me to come in a week's time. When at last I took my watch from him it began to____down. And I began to be late for trains, business appointments and even missed my dinners.

Now I went to____watchmaker. While I waited for him to repair my poor watch,he____it to pieces and said that he could finish this work____three or four days. I could do nothing but____. That time my watch went for half a day and then stopped.

So I kept____my watch from one watchmaker to another for a considerable period of time. And as a result of it the cleverest man in the world could not____the time by my watch. The thing was getting____. My watch had____two hundred dollars originally but I paid for repairs more than two hundred. At last I decided to buy____watch,which I did.