1 . In 1954, Eleanor - my grandma - in great need of income, walked into the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. There she convinced some of the greatest scientists that she was the perfect person for their ant collection.

As a teenager, Eleanor spent hours wandering around the halls of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, flipping through gift shop books about insect mounting (固定于载片上). But that was all her experience in the field.

During her job interview at Harvard, when Philip Darlington, an influential zoologist at that time, asked Eleanor about her specialty, she replied, “Oh, I like everything.”

“He probably realized right then that I have nothing special,” she says. She once worked in a hardware store in New York, and she had no typing skills to be a secretary. She had dropped out of the Tyler School of Fine Arts to marry. But that artistic background was a selling point for the Harvard Job, and she was hired on the spot.

Now artistic background are common for researchers. At that time, however, hiring a woman who had dropped out of art school was certainly a risk. It paid off, Eleanor’s job as a technician required the same quality that art school had demanded. She began each day at the museum mixing glue (胶水). Then she pulled the dead ants from the containers and set them out to dry. Some ants were small-barely 3 millimeters long-requiring patience and a careful hand. Eleanor needed to fix the ant bodies with a spot of glue and write a label for each of them.            

The job required her to work quickly, yet correctly. “The average person never really hears about the expertise and the effort that goes into it.” said Wilson, an expert at the Museum. Rushing would risk ruining a rare specimen (标本), but Eleanor could process ants as quickly and many as 200 a day. Wilson said that she was the best technician who ever worked for him.

“I have some good news for you! ”My husband’s promising words on the phone stopped me from setting the table for dinner.

“What?” I barely waited for him to finish. I really waited for him to finish. I really expected some good news. I was so tired. My infant opened his eyes at 2:30 in the morning and kept crying. I could self-diagnose: sleep debt.

“We’ll have a dinner next Thursday.” His words brought hope and happiness to my tired soul. This event would take place in a music building. The more I heard, the more my heart longed for the evening. I hung up and called my parents to ask about babysitting. Five minutes later, the baby was arranged well. Then reality took over. I felt very upset. What would wear? Post-pregnancy pounds left few options. I had neither the time, money, nor the energy to stop for a new dress. Three days before the dinner, I built up enough courage to open the closet door and find something to wear. First, I tried a blue dress but it was too tight. Then, I held my breath, and tried a green one. I couldn’t believe it. It almost fit! Then, I dug through my drawer for something with the words “tummy control (收腹)”.

When that Thursday came, I walked down the stairs wearing my green dress, high heels and jewelry, and my two-year-old son asked in amazement, “Mommy, are you a fairy?” Those words wouldn’t leave until we got in the car. My husband leaned over and said, “Husband and wife, not mommy and daddy.”

At the dinner, there were cloth napkins. Waiters in white shirts and bow ties served us. My husband said, “Thanks for your hard work. You are as beautiful as ever. Sometimes you just need some time that belongs to yourself.” I was moved to tears. I always complained that no one understood me, but actually, my husband knew everything and helped me out.

3 . Not long ago, Linda was sitting by a hospital bed, feeling anxious. Beside her lay her 88-year-old father. His heart was ________ and he needed an operation.

What ________ her almost as much as his health was the fact that all day the two of them had engaged in nothing but ________ small talks. She and her father had always had good ________, but now all he talked about was the awful hospital food and the ________ outcomes of his illness. His once wide-ranging interests seemed to have ________ to the size of the room.

That day in the hospital, Linda’s eye fell on the ________ that people had brought as gifts and left on the table. Her father had always been a passionate reader, but lately he didn’t have the ________ or focus. She ________ a book, and started to read it out loud.

It ________ changed the mood and atmosphere. It was a ________ and a pleasure for both of them. Reading gave the daughter a way to connect with her father and help him in a situation that was ________ out of her hands. ________ allowed the father to travel on the sound of his daughter’s voice, up and out of the bed and back into the world of mature, intelligent engagement, where he ________ himself again.

In fact, almost any kind of reading to another person can be ________ to both parties, providing a joyful shared experience.

4 . My 23-year-old son Dan packed, ready for the journey to work abroad for a year. It was a milestone, _________ the transition from his school days to adulthood.

I looked _________ at his face when we were to say goodbye, trying to remember every feature, meanwhile, _________ to say something that had long buried deep in my heart. However, not a sound came over my lips.

This wasn’t the first time I had let such an opportunity _________. On his first day in preschool, I accompanied him to the bus stop. His _________ and curiosity filled all the way. But even still, he boarded the bus and disappeared, I was _________. There still were many other _________ like this.

Now I stood in front of him, trying to recall all the times I had let go of. How often has that not happened to us all? A son graduates or a daughter is married. But at those ceremonies, we don’t seize the _________, telling them what they _________ to us.

Here and now, I knew it really mattered; but I still found myself nervous and uncomfortable. Why does it have to be so __________?

I gathered all my courage. “Dan,” I __________ stammered out (结巴地说出), “If I had the choice myself I would have chosen you.”

I was not sure whether he __________ what I meant. But then he stepped __________ me and put his arms around me. For a short while the world and everything was gone, there were only Dan and me.

What I told Dan was clumsy and commonplace. Yet it was __________.

Then he __________ the airport with his girlfriend in a taxi.

5 . The Healing Power of Music

Since Mom died and Dad lived alone, he was often angry, and lately he was getting more and more confusing. Today _______ to be worse than usual. He had a new aid named Linda, from our home country of Lithuania. The _______ of a stranger was bound to make Dad even more _______ .

Sure enough, Dad started _______ as soon as I got in the door. “This new girl doesn’t know anything,” he whispered with dissatisfaction.

“It’ll take some time for her to learn how to help you,” I _______ him.

The three of us sat _______ in the living room. I wished I could think of something to say. Lord, please help us feel more comfortable with this arrangement.

Linda _______ to her feet. Walking over to Dad’s record player, she _______ a Lithuanian folk record onto the turntable (转盘). The familiar accordion (手风琴) music played. Dad started _______ along to it. Liuda smiled.

The music seemed to drive all the ________ from the room. We chatted about Lithuania. It was one of the ________ visits Dad and I had ever had.

When I left, he hugged me good-bye and asked me to ________ old photos with him and Linda next time. ________ , I had a look at the old Dad, the man I’d always loved ________ time with.

I’d come to Dad’s house expecting the ________ . But with Linda’s help and a little music from the old country, I’d found what I would always love.

7 . Many people admired my neighbor. One day a delivery truck dropped off a large ___________ system at her house. And the kids discussed the new sound equipment my neighbor had just gotten. Meanwhile, we were living in a house decorated ___________ and dressing our kids in second-hand clothes. We lived in ___________.

My poor mother-in-law, in town for a visit, got to hear my ___________ that night. “I feel so bitter sometimes,” I told her, as we cleared the table after dinner. “I know we’re doing the right thing, living frugally (节俭的), saving money, _____________ it feels so hard. There’re so many things I’d like to ___________, so many things I’d like to do, but we just can’t.”

She nodded as she folded a cloth napkin in silence. Then she ___________ me and said, “When you make a ___________ between yourself and others, it’s easy to focus on what you don’t have. But there’s one thing you two do that many other couples may ___________ to do. You two often go out together and take time to focus on your ____________. And that’s a very important thing.”

I stopped wiping the table and ____________ for a minute. I thought of the movie my husband and I had seen a week earlier. I ____________ the bike rides, the hikes and the picnics. Most of all, I remembered how ____________ we were together, even after twenty years. How many people can say that?

I looked around my home from a new ____________. Our refrigerator was too small for a family of six, but it was ____________ filled with delicious food. Our kitchen was small and we had no big TV, but we’re happy! And that’s enough!