【推荐1】There’s no doubt that beauty involves（包含）more than just what you look like. Here, stars like Demi Lovato, Jennifer Lawrence and Beyonce drive home a key point: There are many ways to be b    1    , and you should celebrate the aspects that make you so unique.

Demi Lovato:

I think the most powerful piece of advice I’ve learned — I’ve been given it before but I had to learn it myself to really u    2     it — is I had to stop comparing myself to other people. That’s something almost every woman does. You know, is she prettier? Does she have a better body? Is she more... whatever it is! You have to stop comparing yourself to other people. There’s a    3     going to be someone who is probably prettier, but you’ve just got to be excited about what you’ve been given. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you look like; it’s just about what p    4     you serve on earth.

Jennifer Lawrence:

D    5     your inner beauty. Truthfully, beauty is really in the eye of the beholder（旁人）and there are so many versions of what beauty is, so it’s really about loving yourself, being good to yourself and being h    6     — what you put inside of your body, what you put inside your mouth and what you put inside your ears. All of that is very precious.

Beyonce:

We all have our imperfections（瑕疵）, and you know it’s important to concentrate on other qualities b    7     outer beauty.

Do you like to try something new? Do you always try hard when you meet with problems? Here     1     two reasons for young people to try hard.

It helps us to do well.

We often look at people     2     are successful and wish we could be like them. Perhaps we think these people do well because they have a special talent or are clever or even just lucky. However, it’s reported that people who only depend     3     their talent and stop trying their best hardly succeed.

It teaches us how to solve problems.

Trying hard is not something we have to do alone. We can always ask for help. If we have a big     4     the best thing is to ask a parent or a teacher. Of course, we also can solve problems on our own. Trying hard means putting an effort in even if we don’t get things right the first time. But remember, we learn     5     our failures (失败).

【推荐3】A strong rainstorm spread across Alabama last weekend. Before the storm, Ben helped his dad make full preparation for the coming bad weather. While Ben’s dad     1     (put) pieces of wood over the windows, his mom was checking the flashlights and radio. When the rain     2     (begin) to beat heavily against the windows, Ben’s family were enjoying their dinner. The following morning, the neighborhood was in a mess-fallen trees, broken windows and rubbish were everywhere. They joined the neighbors to help clean up the neighborhood together.     3     the terrible storm broke many things apart, it brought us closer together.

Two months ago, I wanted to run for class monitor. I needed to speak in front of the class. But I     1     (be) afraid that my classmates would not like me if I lost. I wrote for the talk, and checked carefully     2     (make) sure there weren’t any mistakes. Every day I asked     3     (my) to practice hard. I felt that I had a great chance of beating others.

When the final day came, the situation wasn’t what I had pictured, I spoke as much as I could. However, few people really listened. Saylor spoke after me, quickly but clearly. We could see her nice plan to build a better class. My words were much     4     (boring) than hers. At last. I lost. I felt so bad that I stayed outside the classroom after every class. But later, I found that everyone forgot about it. Nothing changed.

I understood that no one     5     (real) cared about it. Things wouldn’t always go the way I hoped. I grew stronger and became more confident.

“I really want to, but I can’t because...”, this usually     1     （appear）when we give up doing something. In     2     （I） opinion, this is more like an excuse for our inaction. We always talk a lot about our     3     （dream）, but when it comes to realise them, we use this sentence to explain     4     we stop trying.

When I was a kid, I wanted to leave my home town and see the amazing world,     5     I couldn’t. Living in     6     poor country, I hardly had the chance to get in touch with the outside world. Even so, I decided to use the few resources I had to create the future I dreamed of.

I wanted to study in Japan.But the     7     （big）difficulty was that I had no money. At that time, getting a scholarship was the best way I could think of. In order to do this, I should be good     8     Japanese first so that I could communicate with Japanese.     9     （make） that happen, I studied Japanese until midnight every day. However, the fact was that I tried, but I got nothing.

Hearing this, many people may think that I must have felt sad, but I didn’t.     10     （luck）, the experience has taught me how to speak Japanese and enriched my life. I have got a lot along the way.

Think back to a time in your life when you tried something new.

When I was a teenager, I     1     (volunteer) to pass water at a local race. I was so excited to see all the different runners     2     passed by and quickly took a cup of water. Some ran past, some walked past and a few wheeled past.

I     3     (see) so many types of people doing it before. I thought maybe I could do it too! The next year I decided to run for the race, but I had little running practice. I just wanted to finish.

On the day of the race, it was     4     (terrible) hot. After running for about 5 miles, I was thinking, “I must be crazy. Why did I want to do this? What was I thinking?” And at one moment, I said to myself, “I am never doing this again!” That first 10-kilometre race was quite     5     experience. I jogged and walked. At times, I didn’t know     6     I could finish.

Near the end, a 70-year-old man ran past me, very fast, and I felt a little embarrassed that I was more than 50 years     7     (young) than him and that I couldn’t even keep up with him. But then I realized something. He was running his race and I was running mine. How often in life do we compare     8     (we) to others when we really shouldn’t? I decided that I would not give up on running races, and that one day I would be one of those 70-year-old     9     (man) who were still running.

As I crossed the finishing line, I was proud     10     myself and having such an experience.