I will never forget the year I was about twelve years old. My mother told us that we would not be 1 Christmas gifts because there was not enough money. I felt sad and thought, “What would I say when the other kids asked what I’d 2 ?” Just when I started to 3 that there would not be a Christmas that year, three women 4 at our house with gifts for all of us. For me they brought a doll. I felt such a sense of 5 that I would no longer have to be embarrassed when I returned to school. I wasn’t 6 . Somebody had thought enough of me to bring me a gift.
Years later, when I stood in the kitchen of my new house, thinking how I wanted to make my 7 Christmas there special and memorable, I 8 remembered the women’s visit. I decided that I wanted to create that same feeling of 9 for as many children as I could possibly reach.
So I 10 a plan and gathered forty people from my company to help. We gathered about 125 orphans (孤儿) at the Christmas party. For every child, we wrapped colorful packages filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies, 11 with a child’s name. We wanted all of them to know they were special. Before I called out their names and handed them their gifts, I 12 them that they couldn’t open their presents until every child had come forward. Finally the 13 they had been waiting for came as I called out, “One, two, three. Open your presents!” As the children opened their packages, their faces beamed and their bright smiles 14 up the room. The 15 in the room was obvious, and it wasn’t just about toys. It was a feeling –the feeling I knew from that Christmas so long ago when the women came to visit. I wasn’t forgotten. Somebody thought of me. I matter.
A.sending B.receiving C.making D.exchanging
A.found B.prepared C.got D.expected
A.doubt B.hope C.suggest D.accept
A.broke in B.settled down C.turned up D.showed off
A.relief B.loss C.achievement D.justice
A.blamed B.loved C.forgotten D.affected
A.present B.first C.recent D.previous
A.hardly B.instantly C.regularly D.occasionally
A.strength B.independence C.importance D.safety
A.kept up with B.caught up with C.came up with D.put up with
A.none B.few C.some D.each
A.reminded B.guaranteed C.convinced D.promised
A.chance B.gift C.moment D.reward
A.lit B.took C.burned D.cheered
A.atmosphere B.sympathy C.calmness D.joy
Many Tuesday mornings.I have coffee with my father.Although my fatheris a man of few words.I really the time along with him.
One recent Tuesday, I found it a bit when I rang the doorbell, no oneseemed to be home.I climbed in through the window, noticing the lights thatshone from the kitchen, and that my dad must be there, but he wasn't.I through his home, checking every room.I tried not to _.Yet.upstairs.downstairs, no Dad anywhere.
I was worried. , my father was seventy-one years old.Anything could have happened to him.Then, I got in my car and drove to my mother’s aerobics(有氧运动)class.
On the drive, I thought a lot about my father and our together.Suddenly, I was three years old and he was me up to the living room window to see the Christmas lights.In his , I was safe and secure.At age ten, he used to wake me up with warm breakfast in bed.Then I was twelve and my dad was ___ all the kids at my birthday party with his magic tricks.I was so of my father for being so and talented.He’d made my party a .
As I entered my mother’s class, I was nervous.My mom looked at me in .
“Mom, where’s Dad?” I asked, “He’s working in the on the side of the house!” she answered.
And I hurried to my car and back to the yard.“Hey, Dad!” I yelled out and told him about my fears of the last half hour.My dad laughing his typical laugh that was always .I was so thankful that I still had my daddy.And so , as I the door to my father’s house, we went inside for our usually cup of coffee.
Thanks, Daddy, for all the and more importantly, for all your love.
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The journey of water as it flows upon the earth can be a mirror of our own paths through life.Water begins its _____ on earth as it falls from the sky and streams down a mountain into a stream or river.In the same way, we come into the world and begin our lives on earth.Like a river that flows within the ____ of its banks, we are born with certain defining characteristics that ____ our identity.We are born in a specific time and place, within a specific family, and with certain gifts and ____.With these limitations, we move through life, ____many twists, turns, and barriers along the way just as a river ____.
Water is a great teacher that shows us ____ to move through the world with grace, bravery, determination, and ____.When a river ____ at a waterfall, it gains energy and moves on, as we face our own waterfalls, we may fall hard ____we always keep moving on.Water can inspire us not to become rigid (死板的)with fear or stick to what’s familiar.Water is ____ and does not waste time sticking to its past, but flows onward without ____.At the same time, when there is a ____ to be filled, water does not run away from it in ____ of the dark; instead, water modestly and bravely fills the empty space.In the same way, we can face the ____ moments of our life rather than run away from them.
____, a river will empty into the sea.Water does not hold back from ____in a larger body, nor does it fear a loss of ____ or control.It gracefully and modestly falls into the vastness by contributing its energy and joining without ____.Each time we move beyond our individual characters to become part of something bigger, we can try our best to _____ the lead of the river.
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Most parents, I suppose, have had the experience of reading a bedtime story to their children.And they must have how difficult it is to write a children’s book.Either the author has aimed too , so that the children can’t follow what is in his (or more often, her) story, the story seems to be talking to the readers.
The best children’s books are very difficult nor very simple, and satisfy both the who hears the story and the adult who it.Unfortunately, there are in fact few books like this, the problem of finding the right bedtime story is not to solve.This may be why many of the books regarded as of children’s literature were in fact written for .“Alice in wonderland” is perhaps the most obvious of this.
Children, left for themselves, often the worst possible interest in literature.Just leave a child in a bookshop or a and he will more willingly choose the books written in an imaginative way, or have a look at most children’s comics, full of the stories and jokes which are the objections of teachers and right-thinking parents.
Perhaps we parents should stop to brainwash children into accepting our taste in literature.After all children and adults are so that we parents should not expect that they will enjoy the same books.So I suppose we’ll just have to compromise(妥协) over the bedtime story.
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Freshmen in high school can be cruel and we certainly were to a young man named Matt who was in my class.We teased(取笑) him about his .He was at least fifty pounds overweight.He felt the pain of being the last one to play basketball or football.Matt will always remember the endless that were played on him.
One day he sat near me in gym class.Someone him and he fell on me and knocked my foot quite .With the whole class watching,I chose to fight in order to keep my image intact (not spoiled).I , “C’mon, Matt, let’s fight!” He said he didn’t want to.But he had to come toward me with his fists(拳头)in the .I bloodied his nose with one hit and the class went .Just then the gym teacher walked into the room.He saw us fighting and he us out to the running track.
He followed us with a on his face and said, “I want you two guys to go out there and run that mile holding each other’s hands.” The exploded into laughter.The two of us felt beyond belief, but Matt and I went out to the track and ran our mile — hand in hand.
At some point during the of our run, I remember looking over at him, with blood trickling(滴) from his nose and his weight him down.I suddenly realized that here was a(n) , not all that different from myself.We both each other and began to laugh.In time we became good friends.
Going around that track, hand in hand, I no longer saw Matt as fat or .He was a human being.I found it after I was told to go hand in hand with someone for only one mile.For the rest of my I have never so much as raised a hand against another person.
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Don’t let Aurora’s small stature(身材)fool you—her spirit is strong. She is one of 140 chickens from a farm. When we saved her, she was tiny and sick and it seemed that she would survive. Having never got the right , many of the chickens were sick and some died.
At a young age, Aurora and her sisters and brothers were by their mom. Luckily, another mother their care. Aurora seemed the last to food and attention. She grew at a much slower than her brothers and sisters. Everything seemed her.
At the young age of seven months, Aurora had lost two moms and was to find a place with the other chickens.
Aurora found comfort with an old chicken named Margaret, staying under her wings during the cold nights, Margaret was so old that a few months later she died. Aurora, in her own way, thinks of Margaret. Every evening, you will find her in the spot where she kept Margaret company. when the other chickens try to her away, Aurora comes back.
As Aurora grew, we became at her love to simply live. Nothing her.
So remember, when life seems so that you can’t take it, think of Aurora. She has lost two moms, watched her sisters and brothers die, and from serious illnesses. Yet she enjoys the small, sweet life has offered—safety, food, warmth and good friendships.
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