1 . One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap (包装).

On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is.” What an honour! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!

One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it.Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”, and “dying”, which sounded ominous.

Christmas was coming. “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room.“If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I’d never seen him cry before.

The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!”

“Thank God!” I heard Mum cry.

From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

5 . It was the final part of the 2016 World Triathlon Series in Mexico. With jus700 meters to go, Alistair Brownlee was in third place and his younger brother Jonny, was in the lead. Alistair pushed himself towards the finish line in the burning heat, but as he came round the corner, he saw his brother about to fall onto the track Alistair had to choose -brotherly love, or a chance to win the race?

For Alistair, the choice was clear. His brother was in trouble. He had to help. Alistair ran towards Jonny, caught him and started pulling him towards the finish line. Alistair then pushed his brother over the line. The move put Jonny in second place and Alistair himself in third. It was an unexpected end to the race, but Alistair did not want to discuss it with the media. He just wanted to see his younger brother who had been rushed to the medical area.

The Brownlee brothers have been doing triathlons since they were children “Obviously, when your older brother is doing it, you think it’s a cool thing to do,’says Jonny. Alistair says that they encourage each other as much as they can where they train. Despite argument s over “stupid things” now and then, Alistair agrees than having a brother is an advantage. “Throughout my entire life, I’ve had my brother trying to beat me at everything I do. It has been a fantastic driving force.”

Watched by millions, the ending to the race has varied opinions: should the brothers have been disqualified or highly praised for their actions? But for Alistair his decision was easy to explain: “Mum wouldn’t have been happy if I’d left Jonny behind.” At that moment, he was no longer an athlete aiming for a me dal - he was just a brother.

Yours,

Li Jin

8 . Life was easy for my family 15 years ago. My mum, now 51, had ____ her modelling career to start a family while my dad was the only breadwinner. Our family was _____, with mum, dad, two daughters, and three sons, including me.

Life took a ____ turn one day. My dad had suddenly passed away for some unknown ____ on a business trip to Jakarta. At first we were not _____

When my father was alive, my mum lived a ____ life: she had two maids looking after her as a stay-at-home mum. After my father’s death, she selflessly accepted a total lifestyle ____ , so our lives would not be different completely. She ____ different jobs, working tirelessly from home, sewing curtains and baking cakes. As we got older, she worked even harder to ____ our education. She began to work in her canteen from 6 am and ____ home to monitor our homework.

We may never understand what ____ our mum has gone through to provide us with the basic necessities. From living a fascinating lifestyle as a fashion model to working as a waitress in a restaurant, it requires humility that could have only been ____ by love.

While providing for us financially was _____, providing emotionally was even harder. My mum’s mental health was ____ damaged after my father's death. We knew she was struggling, ____ she always managed to put up a strong front. My mom’s ____ has rebuilt this family, kept it together and even put me through school.

Fifteen years on, we still spend weekends as a family and have managed to ____ stereotypes (模式化形象) associated with a single-parent family. ____ her, this family portrait is still picture-perfect.

10 . It is generally assumed that one can’t have too many friends. But it seems that there is a natural limit to the number of people we stay in touch with. A study found that when we make new friends, by starting a new job or going to university, we downgrade or even drop old ones. And while the friends may change, the number stays almost the same.

Oxford University researcher Felix Reed-Tsochas asked 24 students in the final months of school to list all their friends and relatives and say how close to them they were. The pupils filled in the questionnaire (问卷) twice more after starting work or going to university. They were also given free mobile phones and agreed that researchers could use their bills to work out who they called, when and for how long.

Putting the two pieces of information together showed, unsurprisingly, that most people have a small circle of close friends, who they spend most of their time talking to. This inner circle is surrounded by group after group of ever more distant friends. As the volunteers’ lives changed, this overall pattern, including the number of best friends, remained almost the same, meaning that some close friends from childhood were dropped or downgraded as new friendships were built.

Dr Reed-Tsochas said, “Maybe my best friend is no longer the same person but the amount of time I allocate (分配) to my best friend is still the same.” He added that this finding suggests that even with the coming of modern technology we are only capable of forming a limited number of true friendships.

Chester University researcher Dr Sam Roberts said, “Our results are likely to reflect limitations in the ability of humans to keep emotionally close relationships both because of limited time and because the emotional capital (情绪资本) that individuals can allocate between family members and friends is limited.”