2 . My earliest memory of dad is grabbing his hand while we walked together. As I _______ older, I remember my father and I listening to basketball games on the radio. I always fell asleep_______ the game was over. When I woke up in the morning the score sheet with the _______ score on it would be lying next to me. I’ll always remember that.

On cold mornings my father would bring his bread truck by the house. I used to ride on the floor of that bread truck as he delivered the bread to the stores. The _______ and the warmth from the bread made my mouth water and kept me warm. I’ll always remember that.

My father would _______ all my games. One night before an important game my father told me _______ that he wouldn’t be able to watch the game because he had to deliver the bread far away. The next day as the game time approached I thought about my dad. I happened to look across the field and _______ saw his bread truck pulling into the stadium. He managed to _______the game. I’ll always remember that.

Years later I had become a teacher. I’ll never forget the voice on the phone early one morning telling me dad had just been _______ in a traffic accident. I could hear my heart beat in my ears. I hung up the phone and went back to my bedroom. After that nothing really ________to me. I still taught in school ________ I couldn’t focus on my teaching. One day I was on the playground ________ a little boy walked up to me and grabbed my hand. His hand held mine the same way I used to hold my father’s by the last two ________. At that moment I found my ________in life again. You see even though my father was gone, he left something with me. He left me his smile, compassion and touch. From that day on I started. I’ll always remember that!

3 . 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.

5 . 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.

7 . Sports are important in our family. Both of our sons were high-school athletes. So, I shouldn’t have been _________ when Lauren announced she was going out for the girls’ basketball team. But I was, because she has Down syndrome(唐氏综合症). My wife and I never told Lauren that she was _________. We treated her like our other children. We didn’t want her to feel disabled.

“I’m gonna play basketball, Daddy.” Lauren ran to meet me when I came in from work. She flew into my arms and lingered long in my embrace. “That’s _________, honey,” I patted her shoulder and walked into the kitchen. My wife spoke slowly, her tone steady. “What Lauren’s trying to say is that she’s joining the girls’ high-school basketball team.” Her words _________ in. Everything that could happen flashed through my mind. But what could we do?

Mid-November, the season’s first basketball game arrived. It got off to a good start, but soon Verden, Lauren’s team, was behind. Lauren _________ followed the movement on the court and reacted to every shot. Even though she wasn’t playing, she looked as if she were having the time of her life.

Just less than two minutes were left, and Verden was down by seventeen points when Lauren was called in for the game! She _________ the others fairly well. From her agile movement and eager expression, I knew she was desperate to score for her team. Then they passed Lauren the ball. She _________ it. She shot. She scored! A few minutes later, Lauren joined us in the stands. “Did you see? I scored! I made a _________!”

For sixteen years, I’d tried hard to _________ Lauren from feeling like she was different. But watching Lauren in the game, I saw that she really was different—not physically or emotionally, but __________.

10 . My son Nile has left for university. Even Mother seldom _______ now that her grandchild is no longer around. My home has become so _______ in less than one month.

As a concerned mother who had little to do, I _______ Nile whenever I could. At first it was through emails. Occasionally I _______ the page of the university to learn about Nile’s campus life, and was filled with _______ to see his greetings: “Hi, Mum! So you’re on the net as well!” Since then I’ve been visiting the website regularly hoping to_______ my child.

Recently, our communicating way had another_______. Nile sent me all kinds of articles through instant messaging: novel, modern, funny... I read them _______, like a well-behaved pupil. Meanwhile, I had _______feelings about that. The kid was ________ to learn something from me not that long ago, but he now becomes my teacher! After ________, I responded with the following email:

“Thank you, my son, for all the interesting articles, though I feel confused about the change of our ________. Despite that, I’ll take it as a loving son’s ________of his mother. He must be thinking his mother is still young and ________ enough to accept new things. That makes me feel proud. ”Now in this way we share ideas, with the instant messages________ each other.