1 . A young man was about to go to the office when he received a phone call from a nurse who told him his father was injured and in hospital. So he ______ to the hospital by taxi. He had gone into the hospital when he found he ______ his cell phone in the taxi. What’s ______, he had forgotten to ask the nurse which ward his father was in. He had to run hurriedly around in the hospital ______ his father. Seeing a nurse, he asked her with ______, “My father is in hospital. He...”

The nurse ______, “Oh, my God. It’s you. Come with me!” She ______ the young man to the bed side of an elderly man. “Your son is here,” she ______ to the elderly patient several times. The old man was too weak to stay awake, only to look ______ at the young man standing beside him.

Throughout the night the young man ______ to the old man, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. The dying old man said nothing. The nurse ______ the young rest for a while but he ______ her advice.

Sunrise ______, the old man peacefully died. The young man placed the lifeless hand on the bed and informed the nurse. After the nurse did what was ______, she just found the young man had left, leaving a letter ______ “Thank you, lady! My father is fine. I knew right away the old man was not my father. But I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. So, I stayed.”

2 . Joe and Della were a new couple. They were both interested in art--one in painting, the other in music. They lived in a small flat. They loved each other and they were happy.

But one day they found that they had spent all their money. One afternoon Della told Joe that she had found a _________ and was to give her three music lessons a week. For that she could get fifteen dollars a week. But Joe was not _________ because he didn’t want to stay at home, playing with his art while Della was at work. He wanted to earn some money too.

Every day they parted in the morning and _________ in the evening.

A week _________ , Della brought home fifteen dollars, but she looked a little _________. Joe took eighteen dollars out of his pocket. They were both _________ to have so much money at hand.

The next week, Joe _________ home another eighteen dollars but Della came home with her right hand in a bandage (绷带). Joe asked Della what was the _________. Della said, “It was because of an iron-- I mean a plate of soup spilled on my _________.”

“What do you do every day, Della? Do you __________ give music lessons?” Joe asked. “Tell me the __________!”

Della cried. She told Joe that she was working in a laundry (洗衣店), __________ shirts. A girl accidentally __________ an iron on her hand and she got a __________ burn. But Della asked Joe how he had guessed that she wasn’t giving music lessons.

Joe told Della that he worked in the engine-room of the same laundry where she worked. They both let out their __________ and laughed.