【推荐1】Colin walked out of the shopping center with his head down. There were many wonderful Mother’s Day gifts there, but they were too _______ . He had only saved four dollars. “Why don’t you make her something?” Colin’s older sister Whitney asked. “Remember the poem(诗)I wrote for Mom last year? She _______ it so much.”

Colin knew that was _______ . The poem hung right above（在……上面）the fireplace. But Colin wasn’t good at writing poems. “It doesn’t have to be a poem,” Whitney said. “It could be anything that makes her _______ you whenever she sees it. That’s why homemade gifts are _______ .” “But I don’t know how to make anything Mom would actually want,” Colin said. “Yes, you do! You’re _______ drawing those funny little comics（漫画）. Why don’t you do a comic of Mom? She would love it!” Colin thought about the _______   the whole way home.He spent the next two days _______ in his room. Finally he finished it.

On the morning of Mother’s Day, Colin gave it to Mom. He held his breath as his mom looked at it. “This is the best _______ you’ve ever given me, Colin,” his mother said tearfully. “I know just where to put it,” his dad said with a smile. He ________ it next to Whitney’s poem above the fireplace. Colin looked up at the comic. It really was the perfect gift.

【推荐2】My family has moved a lot, and about a year ago we moved again. But this time the ________ we were moving was the biggest shock of all: my father had lost his job. What’s worse, he had cancer, so now he had a terrible illness and no job.

My mom had to give up her job to be with my dad while he got the ________ he needed to get well. I can’t imagine how we would ________ if neither of my parents could find a job again.

I cried a lot and for the first time I started to ________ school. I kept to myself so much that most people thought I was selfish and ________. I didn’t even try to make friends. Luckily, there were ________ girls at my school who reached out to me. They asked me questions about my life. When I finally started to talk, it was such a relief to share all the pain and ________ I’d been holding inside. And Melissa and Nicole seemed to understand what I was going ________. They really listened. Their caring ________ my hope so much that pretty soon I had a whole group of friends. I stopped hating school and my ________ became much easier to bear.

I’m happy to say that life is back to ________ now. My dad did get better and my parents eventually found work and a new home for us. The day we all moved back in together was one of the happiest days of my life.

It just goes to show you that ________ a door closes, a window opens, letting sunshine back in. I met the best friends I’ve ever have, and I also ________ something important.

You don’t have to go through the bad times ________. If you shut yourself off, it just makes ________ painful. When all you want is to be left alone, asking for help may seem like the hardest thing to do —but it’s also the best way to help yourself.

I know that now, and the next time trouble comes around, I won’t forget it.

Spring came, most of the little girls in the school wore pretty new clothes. The little girl still wore the same dirty dress, although she had worn it all winter. The teacher sighed. The little girl was so nice! She always worked hard at school and she was always polite and friendly, __________ her face was dirty and her hair was untidy.

One day the teacher said, “Will you wash your __________ before you come to school tomorrow morning? Please do that for me.” The teacher could see the girl was pretty __________ the dirt.

The next morning the child’s pretty face appeared. Her hair was clean too. __________ the little girl went home that afternoon, the teacher said “Dear, please ask your mother to wash your dress.”

But the little girl still wore the dirty dress. “Her mother probably doesn’t __________ her, “ the teacher thought. So she bought a bright __________ dress for her. The child __________ the gift and hurried home as fast as she could.

The next morning she came to school in the new blue dress and told the teacher __________, “This morning I tried on this new dress. My mother was __________ when she saw me. It’s a pity that my __________ went to work. But we will meet at dinner this evening.”

When her father saw his girl in the new blue dress, he looked at her for a long time and hugged his pretty little girl. When the family sat down to eat dinner he was so surprised to find a __________ on the table. “What’s happening today?” he thought. The family had __________ used such a thing before. “What is it for?” he asked.

“We’re going to make here tidier with it,” his wife said. “It isn’t nice to have a house that is dirty and untidy when our daughter is so __________.”

After dinner the mother started to __________ the floors. Her husband went outside into the back yard and began to repair the broken fence. They decided to try their best to keep the __________ in the house.