1 . Recently we celebrated my grandmother’s 90th birthday. Family members traveled to my hometown to visit her. This was the first time in many years that I had seen so many of them. Though this was an opportunity to see family, many people did not make it. Honestly, living far from hometown, I had missed many family gatherings. But this one made me realize how much I was really missing.

It seemed strange when I was looking at the faces, realizing whom they were and greeting them with open arms. After chatting for a while, we caught up on each other’s news. Several relatives suggested having a family reunion soon if everyone wasn’t so busy. But my grandmother’s generation was much busier, yet still found time to gather. They understood the importance of visiting one another. They knew time is flying and that those you care about most won’t be here forever.

Today, we focus on our careers and raising our kids. Our extended family isn’t the center it once was. Besides, we keep in touch on social media. But what we really miss are the potato salad, the moments of laughter and sudden bursts of excitement when we hug someone we haven’t seen for over 10 years. Although the next get-together is always a year or so away, people aren’t goods and everyone has an expiration (到期) date.

I left my grandmother’s party with a much better sense of who I am and where I come from. I spent valuable time with people who contributed to who I am today. I had forgotten how much I love them and I was reminded how much I am loved.

Jenny was the only child in her home. She had a quarrel with her mother that afternoon and she ran out of the house angrily. She couldn’t help weeping (哭泣) sorrowfully when she thought of the scolding (责骂) from her mother. Wandering aimlessly in the street for hours, she felt a little hungry and wished for something to eat, but it was not possible for her, since she had nothing with her. She stood beside a stand for a while, watching the middle-aged seller busy doing his business. However, with no money in hand, she sighed and had to leave.

The seller behind the stand noticed the young girl and asked, “Hey, girl, you want to have the noodles?”

“Oh, yes. . . but I don’t have money on me…” she replied.

“That’s nothing. I’ll treat you today,” said the man. “Come in.”

The seller brought her a bowl of noodles, whose smell was so attractive. As she was eating, Jenny cried silently.

“What is it?” asked the man kindly.

“Nothing, actually I was just touched by your kindness!” said Jenny as she wiped her tears. “Even a stranger on the street will give me a bowl of noodles, while my mother drove me out of the house. She showed no care for me. She is so merciless (无情的) compared to a stranger!”

Hearing the words, the seller smiled, “Girl,do you really think so? I only gave you a bowl of noodles and you thank me a lot. But it is your mother who has raised you since you were baby. Can you remember the times she cooked for you? Have you expressed your gratitude to her?”

3 . A teenager needs to have a sense of independence in their life to feel secure (安全的). To some teenagers independence means a lot to them, and I think that some parents don’t allow their teenagers enough independence.

Independence has something to do with freedom. Some kids are not allowed to go anywhere alone, and the only thing their schedule includes is going to school, coming home, going to sleep, and repeating the process the next day. Parents tend to be afraid that their kids can get hurt if they go outside into the world. But if parents control their kids too much, they may never learn to live on their own. The best way for a teenager to learn lesson is through experience. I think it is beneficial for teenagers to have freedom.

Teenagers’ lack of freedom can also stop them from having good friendship at school. Some might say this is a good thing, because it helps them focus more on their school work. I argue that this can only discourage them not to do their school work. Some parents do not allow their children to be around their friends outside the school, thinking that this will get them into trouble. But I don’t think so. Instead, isn’t this a good reason for parents to get their children a cellphone? Cellphones allow teenagers to stay in touch with their parents, and communicate with friends.

Privacy is another issue between parents and their teenagers. Teenagers tend to enjoy relaxation by themselves in their own room. This also gives them a sense of independence. It often annoys teenagers when their parents enter their room when they are not home. I know that my mom always goes in my room when I’m not home, and this has brought me to the point where I have asked many times to get a lock on my door.

4 . I try to be a good father. Cook my kids good dishes, and take them to photo shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, in marathons.

This love story began in Winchester Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled (缠住) by the umbilical cord (脐带) during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs (四肢). “He’ll be a vegetable (植物人) the rest of his life,” doctors told Dick and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.” But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room.

When Rick was 11, they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University. Equipped with a computer, Rick was finally able to communicate. After a high school classmate was paralyzed (使瘫痪) in an accident, and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick said, “Dad, I want to do that.” How was Dick, a man who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

That sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. They even decided to try marathons. “No way,” Dick was told by a race official. They weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years, Dick and Rick joined the massive field and ran anyway. In 1983, they ran another marathon so fast that they made the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon the following year.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons and 85 marathons. “My dad is the Father of the Century,” Rick typed.

5 . My father never kept anything for emotional purpose—except once. I was the only one in my family who cared about baseball and I always _______ watching my favorite players at Yankee Stadium. One winter, I wrote down a _______ of the summer dates and dreamed every night. To my surprise, one evening I saw my father examine it before going out to work.

The following Sunday, he told me, “Let’s put away some money into a _______ each week, and maybe we can go to Yankee Stadium this summer.” I immediately washed out a jar and _______a label: YANKEE STADIUM FUND, 1960.

Each of us _______ to the jar weekly. _______, we still hadn’t gone to a game because my father had to work every Saturday. So one day, I _______ him of the remaining time, and then he _______ me, “Don’t worry and we’ll have a free Saturday.”

On the morning of the last game, I sat waiting hopelessly with no reply of my father who had been to work suddenly appeared and yelled, “I got two tickets!”

I could hardly _______ when we finally sat together, father and son, ________ my New York Yankees. I sat cheering but for my father, all I could see is a face ________ tiredness from working all week.

In 1963, my father died suddenly while working. In his bedroom, I noticed a ________ ticket in his yellowed book, which ________, October 1, 1960, General Admission. My father, who ________nothing for emotional reasons, had decided to keep this, a(an) ________ of our afternoon together.

7 . In my childhood, my mother spent her evening hours doing something for someone else. Sometimes she knitted hats for babies, and at other times, she cooked chicken soup for sick neighbors. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised when one evening my mother announced she had undertaken a new project.

“I am going to telephone seniors,” said my mother. “Every night? But you don’t even know these people.” “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “What’s important is that I listen.”

I was sixteen years old and couldn’t understand why my mother was willing to spend her evenings talking to strangers. She had friends and my two older sisters to call if she felt lonely. “They will talk your ear off. Some people didn’t even stop to catch breath,” I said.

My attitude didn’t stop my mother’s enthusiasm for the project. That evening, she settled on the sofa and dialed. When she finished the call, I said, “Why do you care whether she had cookies or rice pudding for dessert?” My mother grasped one of my hands and said in a proud tune, “I’m the only person she talked to today.”

It took me more than thirty years to fully understand the meaning of that statement. Now, as my mother is nearing eighty, I find myself thinking about those nightly calls she used to make. I am often the only person who telephones my mother, and sometimes I’m the only person she speaks to all day. I ask her what she cooked for dinner, but mostly I just listen as she describes a walk she took, or how her dog Lucky stole foods from the refrigerator. I realize that my mother’s calls were life lines that ensured housebound seniors remained connected to the world. Without her, their world would have been empty.

8 . Recently, I have been struggling to connect with my dad because our conversations have seemed unimportant to him. In a half-hearted attempt to find something that _________him, I pulled out my phone and showed him a few_________of Jay, my new pet rabbit.

“Did mom tell you I got a bunny?” It was an unusual question. To my surprise, my dad’s_________were lifted. “A black bunny!” he called out, getting closer to_________the photos. He wanted to know more, I hurried to find more photos, holding on to this_________opportunity.

I shouldn’t be_________that it was a bunny that_________the fog between my dad and I. Growing up, we never talked much. Instead, our time together centered around animals, like catching crayfish at the river and caring for turtles and crabs._________animals has always been our _________.

A few months later, I came up with more photos and videos of Jay on my laptop so my dad could see them more ____________. I had been____________that his initial interest in Jay was a one-off event, but he____________again when I showed him the new stuff.

Our love for animals is the____________that connects us. There was no ____________to start having deep conversations if that had never been our style, just finding ____________together in a photo of a bunny was enough.