1 . In March 1975, my mother brought my younger sister Cissy and me back to our hometown.

Cissy and I were ________ to moving. We had moved 23 times before I was 18. Altogether I ________ 19 schools. But at 13 and 11 years of age, we were ________ being the new kids in school.

Staying in a motel (汽车旅馆) for weeks, we ________ found a two-bedroom home for $80 a month, which was in the landlords (房东), Mr and Mrs Hendrix’s back yard. It was ________, but Cissy and I thought it was a palace. ________, in October my mother lost her job. November’s ________ went unpaid, so did December’s. Cissy and I knew we’d soon move ________.

On Christmas Day, Mrs Hendrix knocked on the front door. Mom was out, so I ________ it. I’d received eviction (驱逐) notices before, so I knew what to ________. Mrs Hendrix held out a ________ to me, smiling as she said,“I thought you girls might enjoy some bread. I bake it every Christmas.” Unprepared for such ________,I managed a “Thanks”. Closing the door, we ________ the box. There were bread, candy, and new socks and gloves for us three. No eviction notice!

We lived over five years in our twenty-fourth home. The Hendrixes gave Cissy and me something we had never known in our ________ lives: the comfort of belonging, and ________.

The 16th of September was my cousin’s birthday, He is 4 years younger than me and his birthday is just seven days before mine. Those seven days were the worst days of my life. I thought “Isn’t seven supposed to be a lucky number?” and wondered who came up with that idea.

That evening my mother sent him and me to get some stuff from the store so she could make him a cake. On every other Sunday at this time of the day I’d be on the soccer field kicking the ball around with my older friends, but instead this Sunday found me walking to the shop with my cousin.

On the way to the store my cousin spotted an apricot(杏) at the edge of a branch, It was as large as an apple and as yellow as a new crayon fresh from the box. The rule was whoever spotted it first owned it. Even if you climbed the tree to get it, it still did not belong to you. I decided to go to get the beautiful, delicious-looking fruit for my cousin, seeing that it was his birthday.

I started to map out my course of action as to how I was going to get this fruit. I could have hit it with rocks until it fell, but no, it was too beautiful to be bruised(碰伤) by the force of a stone thrown at it. I continued to climb on to a fence which was directly parallel to the apricot tree. At the top of the fence I paused a while to take a look around. “Wow! Cool view from 12 feet off the ground.” My cousin laughed and told me to hurry up and get it so we could go home. My next step was to jump from the fence, catch the main branch, and then climb to victory. Come on! I’d done this tons of times, and I didn’t even hesitate.

As I grabbed the branch, that juicy apricot met me eye to eye.

As we entered the house, my mother noticed I was covered in dirt.

Her big, brown eyes looked up at me with a pitiful sight, as the first tear began to roll slowly down her soft, six-year-old, innocent face. I was as shocked as she was.

I had been called to my daughter’s new school by the remedial teacher, who called me last night.

Was I aware my daughter had learning difficulties?

Yes I was.

Due to constant ear infections, my poor Elizabeth had lost her hearing for the best part of two years of her young life. In addition, her speech ability had been delayed and her reading skill was behind other children of her age.

This teacher, this person, who had been specially trained to help children, the very person who was supposed to help my daughter reach her full potential, had called me in to school to tell me, and my daughter, that she would be lucky if she ever managed to finish high school.

What are you supposed to do when even the remedial teacher doesn’t have any faith in your child’s ability? What do you tell your child when she has been told that she is doomed to failure before she has even finished primary school? That was the question I was struggling to answer even as I stood there in that room, listening to this insensitive teacher, who did not have a caring character, wishing I had never brought my daughter to this school. I wondered, if this teacher were a mother? I truly believe someone cannot have a child and not have a caring heart.

I took my child’s small hand as we left that cold office, to step outside into the sweet and fresh air. There, I bent down on one knee and, putting my hands on my daughter’s small but now heavy shoulders, I looked her straight in the eyes.

“Elizabeth,” I said firmly,” if you work really hard at school, I promise you, you can be anything you want to be.“

Of course, I knew that remedial teacher might not be working there anymore.

7 . Growing up I never wanted to be “just a mum”. I thought that when I’d have my own children I would take some time off but then ease back into the workforce fairly _________.

My twin girls entered the world as _________ premature babies. I’m not sure if that made me even more _________ of them, but when the time came to organise my re-turn to work I_________. I thought after twelve months of singing nursery rhymes, playing peekaboo (躲猫猫) and_________the baby food preparation I’d be_________ to use my brain again.

As it turns out, that’s not the case. I love staying with my daughters, being_________, cooking food, singing songs and reading books. Yes, some _________do become very repetitive, especially when they’re very young. But the older my two get, the more fun _________ them becomes.

A while back. I sat down with my partner and we discussed my __________ to work. As we don’t have any family in New Zealand we would have to rely on __________ , and with twins you have to earn a decent wage to make working __________.

But at the moment I feel that I’m the best person to__________with my girls. Why would I pay somebody to do a job I love? And in the end we let my __________ decide. Now I’m a proud stay-at-home mum.

When people who haven’t got long to live are asked if they have any __________,no one ever says spending too much time with their children, but many say working too much.

8 . People with similar body odours(气味)are more likely to “click” and become instant friends, according to several experiments.” When we first meet other people. We sometimes experience an immediate strong click that makes us feel as if we have already been good friends for years,“ says Inbal Ravreby at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

She wondered if this may have something to do with body odours, because previous re-search has found that we sniff (嗅) each other without awareness on meeting-for example, by lifting our hand to our nose after shaking someone’s hand. Ravreby and her colleagues took on 20 pairs of same-sex, non-romantic friends-half female and half male-who said they clicked straight away on first meeting.

An electronic nose-a device that senses the chemical components of odours-was used to sniff T-shirts that had been worn by each of the participants. The nose found that body odours were more similar between the friend pairs than between random pairs that were formed by mixing up the participants. A group of 25 independent adults who sniffed the participants’ T-shirts also reported that the friend pairs smelled more alike than random pairs did.

Next, Ravreby and her colleagues employed 17 people who had never met previously and used the electronic nose to analyse their body odours. Each individual then took turns playing a non-verbal game with other participants of the same sex. The results were consistent with the earlier experiments: the pairs that smelled more like each other were more likely to report feeling as if they had clicked during this game.

The findings make sense because research shows that we tend to become friends with people who are like us, for example, in terms of age, education, religion, physical appearance, personality and values, says Ravreby. Animals also use smell to help decide who is a friend or an enemy, such as dogs that sniff each other’s body when they meet in a park, she says.

9 . Lucy Flores teaches preschool students how to read letters and write their names. After school, Flores goes home and does the same for her dad. Flores’ father, Luciano Flores, stopped attending school after first grade.

She said she tried to teach her dad to read and write when she was younger, but it didn’t go well. She doubled down on her own education and became the first person in her family, on both parents’ sides, to graduate from college.

With her teaching background, Lucy Flores gave it——teaching her dad——another shot. And this time she said he was “excited” to learn. After four months of working together for two hours, three days a week after they are both done with work, Lucy Flores said, “My dad can now write his own name and is reading some books on his own.”

As she has taught her dad, Lucy Flores has shared their journey on social media, where nearly 100,000 followers are tracking their progress. “I don’t know to this day if he understands how many people are watching him and following him.” said Lucy Flores. “But I took it as an opportunity that would encourage him even more. I know that it has.” Followers on social media share lesson plan ideas and have sent school supplies and books to the family, according to Lucy Flores.

In addition to watching her dad’s progress and inspiring others to never give up on their dreams, Lucy Flores said the most pleasant part of teaching her dad was the change in their own father-daughter relationship. “In reality, he and I did not get along well,” said Lucy Flores,who described her dad as being quiet and not one to share his feelings or sit down and play with her as a kid.

Luciano Flores said that he was excited to continue to focus on learning letters and numbers and to spend time with his family.