2 . My father brought home a sailboat when I was ten, and almost each Sunday in summers we would go sailing. Dad was quite skilled in sailing, but not good at ______. As for me, I ______both before twelve because of living close to Lake Ontario.

The last time Dad and I set sail together is really ______. It was a perfect weekend after I graduated from university. I came home and ______ Dad to go sailing. Out we set soon on the calm lake. Dad hadn't sailed for years, but everything ______ well with the tiller (舵柄) in his hands.

When we were in the middle of the lake, a ______ wind came all of a sudden. The boat was hit violently. Dad was always at his best in any ______, but at this moment he ______ .

“John! ______!” he shouted in a trembling voice, with the tiller still in his hands.

In my memory he could fix any ______. He was the one I always turned to for strength and security. Before I could respond, a wave of water got into the boat. I rushed to the tiller ______ it was too late. Another huge wall of water turned over the boat in a minute. We were thrown into the water, and Dad was struggling aimlessly. At that moment, I felt fiercely ______ of him.

I swam to Dad ______ and assisted him in climbing onto the hull (船壳) of the boat. Upon sitting on the hull, Dad was a little awkward about his flash of ______. “It's all right, Dad. We are safe now,” I comforted him.

That was the first time Dad had counted on me in a moment of emergency. More importantly, I found it was my turn to start ______ for my father.

3 . We lead very busy lives and we too easily forget how hard it was for us to focus on homework when we were in school. Now that we have jobs to do, food to buy and cook and other errands to run, even I sometimes think it would be a welcome change to have to sit down and quietly read and write with no distractions. But, in case you don’t remember — homework is pretty much every child’s least favorite thing to do. In the age of Netflix, Snapchat and wifi, the distractions are almost endless. It can sometimes almost be too hard to even keep up with all the new tech advances our kids are using, so how can we make sure that those advances take a back seat to our children’s education? Here are some ideas.

There’s no point in stopping the reality that young people are going to focus on their phones and tablets instead of other things at times. Your best way is to accept, actually the tech sector continues to be the most profitable and fast-growing industries and that’s unlikely to change fast. There are ways to use technology to help your kid do homework. Ask your teacher and school staff what apps and websites they’re using to teach lessons and supplements them with at-home activities as well.

Even though technology has changed, the basics haven’t. If you want to read, write and think properly, you need to have peace and quiet and the ability to focus, right? Well, your kids are just the same. Try and find a space in your home to enable your kids to do work away from televisions, the Internet or other distractions. Let me be clear: this shouldn’t be a prison. I feel like I’m my most productive working alone in an office or at a busy cafe with my headphones on. Getting lost in other realities helps my creativity grow. Placing kids in isolation can often have a harmful effect and doesn’t always equal being more productive.

I feel like “getting engaged” is always a big part of my advice for parents on just about everything. How can you make sure your children are being successful if you have no idea what they’re doing? How can you be sure they’re doing it right if you don’t know what is the correct answer? What do they need? You should be in touch with their teachers, have a sense of where the lessons are going, what kinds of tasks are being given and what success looks like in the classroom. Knowing all of that is key to your child’s success, especially when matched with some encouraging praise and helpful tips on how he can keep going. Thinking about how your child is best   motivated by other things and using those methods here reasonably isn’t a bad idea.

And if by chance you’re having trouble solving that Math problems or understanding a sentence, don’t fear — you’re not alone. Use the school staff, other parents or friends as your support. Better to seek help than do nothing.

We all know that homework isn’t exactly the most entertaining way anyone spends their time. And sometimes we can’t help but feel that since we left school, we’re done with homework forever. But the circle of life plays out in all times and it’s up to us to make sure that we pass on the lessons we’ve picked up and that while homework might seem dull, it’s how we build skills, learn real lessons and get on the road to greatness. That greatness is on the inside, it’s up to us as adults to enable the young people to bring it out. The key to achieving greatness is to take a lifelong learning.