1 . When I was small, my grandfather used to wheel me through a local garden nearby. Looking up at the trees helped me fall asleep. I've spent all my adult life working with trees, and the past 14 years working in the garden. Recently, our money-raising team was looking for different ______ to raise money to help ______ the redwood (红杉) avenue at our site. Some of the staff suggested I do a sponsored tree-hugging charity (慈善) event. I wasn't ______whether people would be interested in an old man hugging trees to ______ money. But my colleagues thought it was ______ . So, I agreed to hug 350 trees, of as many different ______ as I could find, in a year.

My tree-hugging technique is based on making a maximum ______ , which means putting my arms as far around as they'll go and leaning (倚靠) on the tree. I'd head out with a photographer. It was ______ a tree-hugging fashion shoot with us going on a hike ______   the next tree that spoke to us. I was struck by how different the ______was with each tree. The most touchable ones stood out, particularly the small redwoods. That was in June, when we'd had weeks of dry weather. You were getting an almost Californian smell from them, which ______ me. My dream tree ______ is going to California to see the large redwoods. I wouldn't be able to hug those, so I would just ______ and wonder at them.

If you've ______ hugged a tree, I strongly recommend it. Getting up close to one makes you appreciate their   ______ structure. If you were to ______ humans to create such a wonderful structure, they would never be able to do it.

Tree hugging is a wonderful way of ______ with nature on a deep level. That's something I think we all need more of, considering the ______ pace of modern life. Tree hugging can help us ______ to appreciate the small things in life. Above all, trees can teach us patience. Their life is longer than ours, so they help us to connect with a different feeling of ______ .