【推荐1】Once a farmer got in fight with his neighbour. During the fight, the farmer got so angry that he said many bad and ________ things to his neighbour.

After some time, the farmer realized his mistake and wanted to take his words back but didn’t know ________ to do. Just then, he got to know that a saint (圣人) was visiting his village. So, he decided to go to the saint and ask for   _______.

He went to the saint and told him ________ and asked him to tell him a way to take his words ________.

The saint said to the farmer, “First, go and collect a lot of feathers in a(n) ________ basket and then keep them in the middle of the village and go home.”

The farmer did the same and the next day went to see the saint again.

The saint said, “Now go and bring those feathers to me.” The farmer went to get those feathers, but when he got there, all the feathers had flown away because of wind.

The farmer returned to the saint with his hands ________ and told him, “I couldn’t bring back those feathers because there were none left in the ________ as they were all blown away by winds.”

The saint told him, “The same thing happens to the words spoken by you. You can ________ say them but can not take them back even if you want to. Before saying something bitter and bad to someone in anger you should always remember that your words can not be taken back. Therefore, it is better to keep ________ when you’re angry.”

Words can hurt others too. So always think before you speak.

A man walked in the desert（沙漠）for two days. He ______ a sand storm during the trip. After the sand storm, he lost the sense of ______. While he was unable to hold on, he suddenly found a small old house. He pulled his ______ body into the house. There was only some wood inside. He walked to the corner hopelessly, but suddenly ______ a water pump.

Excitedly, he went to draw water（抽水）, ______ he couldn’t pump water no matter how hard he tried. He sat on the ground ______. Just at that time, he saw a small bottle with a cork（瓶塞）. There was a yellow ______ posted on the bottle, which read, “You must put the water into the pump before you can draw water! Don’t ______, before you leave, refill it with water!” He pulled the cork and found the bottle was really filled with water! He could hardly believe his ______.

At this moment, he thought, “If I only think about myself, as long as I drink the water in the bottle, I can be ______ to go out of this desert! If I do as the note told to put the only water into the pump and the water can’t come back, I will be ______ to death. Will I take the risk or not?”

Finally, he made a ______ to do what the note told him and began to draw water with his shaking hands. Sure enough, the water really ______!

After he drank enough water, he filled the bottle with water. He enveloped（封住）it with the cork and ______ his words after the note, “Believe me, it’s really ______. You should learn to pay before you get it!”

【推荐3】When my kids were young we bought them two pet parrots (鹦鹉). These beautiful, white birds would ______ all through the day, which sounded beautiful. We had a big ______ for them with toys, a mirror, food, water and dishes. We couldn’t let them live freely in the house ______ our dogs and cats, but it seemed that they didn’t ______ if they lived in or out of their cage (笼子).

One day in spring when the sun was bright and the air became warm, I opened the window to let the wind in. The songs of different birds outside our house ______ the air and our two parrots also sang with excitement. I went over to their cage to add some water, but as soon as I opened the door ______ of them came out and flew to the window. He couldn’t go out, but just flew around the living room. The cats ran after him, hoping for a big meal, and I ran to save the bird. It took me several minutes to stop the cats from catching the bird, and get him ______ back in his cage. After that day, however, I felt a little ______ the parrots. Although their cage was really comfortable, they ______ wanted to fly.

Many of us live in cages of our own. We close our minds, and limit (限制) our lives. We sit in our rooms day after day and never feel brave enough to open the door. Let ______ fly! Don’t just stay in your own cage.

【推荐1】I dreamed of being a football star when I was a high school student. During my first year there I was a very _______ boy. I was only 50kg. I joined in some football games but spent most of my time _______ on the bench (替补队员席). So I decided to do _______.

Drinking a lot of milk made me much _______. Before the football season started, I thought I could make _______ succeed in being stronger at last. But I was soon _______ when I saw that I was still smaller than most of the other boys.

During one of the games of the season, the teacher let me play first. I was happy and jumped up and down. But I still lost.

I lost many times. I hoped to be a football player. But finally I found that I couldn’t make it come true. For a long time I was really unhappy about this and thought about giving up. _______ as time went by, I knew that enjoying the feeling (感觉) of working hard was necessary. In fact, the _______ wasn’t the most important thing. Now, my friend is celebrating for me in a party because I _______ a football game this morning. I didn’t succeed before. I succeed after lots of ________. I never give up and fight on.

【推荐2】My mother has Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆). Not long ago, she didn’t feel well so we sent her to the ______ for some tests. My dad went with her from home and I joined them in the hospital. My poor mother didn’t know what was going on at that time. She was muddled (糊涂的) and maybe even a little ______. The nurse taking care of my mum wasn’t very kind. She hardly tried to calm (镇定) my mum or ______ with her. So, my mum’s ______ got even worse. Soon, she ______ even more muddled. Then, a new nurse came to take care of my mum. She communicated with my mum; she touched her and calmed her far more than my dad or I.

When my mum got better, I went to that nurse and thanked her ______ helping a poor and muddled woman feel calm and safe. Later, my sister, who’s also a nurse, told me that people now ______ say thank you. Nurses ______ do a very hard job. They ______ most of their time working with people who are ill. ______ they’re not perfect, most of them do an excellent job. Please don’t forget to say thank you to them.

【推荐3】It was Williams’ mother who got her interested in books. Her mother read to her three ________ every day until they went to college.

When Williams became a ________, she wanted her students to love reading as she did. But she realized that some kids had no books to read.

“The kids who are read to can learn a lot.” she said. To Williams, the best way was to give kids books. In 2017, she gave away 900 used ________ over three days. Most people would be ________ with that.

“Anybody could do that,” she said. “I wanted to do something that was going to follow my work ethic (职业道德).” So she set a new ________ for herself: Give away one million books. It sounds like a ________ number, but as Williams posted on Facebook: “Don’t complain if you aren’t willing to work hard out on the field.”

So she got to work, first by advising friends to ________ books or money to buy books. And more and more people started ________ books on her front porch (门廊). As the books came in, Williams gave them to local schools for free.

Now, Williams has ________ more than 78,000 books—only 922,000 more to finish her task!

And she’s not slowing down. It’s too ________ for kids with few books.