1 . I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling (天花板). I hadn’t been able to sleep _________ since Richard passed away a month ago. I was full of pain and _________ at not ever having told him how much I loved him.

Richard was my stepfather. When I was nine, Richard _________. Richard was a big guy with huge hands. But he was the gentlest _________ I’d ever meet. On weekends, we’d work together on home improvement projects and the three of us were _________.

One day, while working in the barn, Dad got a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. When we took him to the _________, they told us it was internal bleeding from the blood thinners (稀释剂) he was on. It was only a (n) _________ of time. All we could do was make him _________.

I sat alone with him that day. He was _________, and we spent time talking about the barn, the horses and his truck. There was so much I wanted to say, and so much I wanted to hear from him __________. But it was hard for us to be open with our __________. It was the last time we ever spoke. Dad __________ a few days later.

As I was grieving (悲痛), suddenly, a birthday card from Dad __________ my eye, which was written for my birthday years ago. It said he loves me. Holding that, in tears, I assumed Dad knew how much he __________ to me. For the first time since Dad’s passing, I felt a heavenly peace, and finally I could __________.

2 . Months ago someone gave us a dish-washing machine as a gift. We already had a part-time worker who cleaned our bowls and _________ at home. There was no doubt that we _________ touched the new machine.

Alice, our neighbor was _________ the next week to a new house and I went to ask her whether the machine might be something she could _________. It turned out that she immediately said _________. She had a big family and her daughters had asked if they could get a dish-washing machine. And then she didn’t have to spend money to _________ one!

I couldn’t tell you how overjoyed I was to see her daughters’ _________ looks when they came over to get it. And they were even more excited about the _________ seeds (种子) I gave them. I hoped they would plant more flowers in their new home so that they would always have a piece of our _________ with them. Of course, I would miss them, too.

I __________ a pink heart on the front of our house while they were having their going-away __________. We also joined in their dinner and dance. I haven’t had the “heart” washed off yet either. I told her that maybe after they __________, I would wash it off or maybe not—I liked being reminded that our hearts would be __________ forever.

The __________ thing is that my neighbor’s daughters will still work in our town, and I’d like them to come to our house often. I want to tell them our door is always __________ for them here.

3 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the ________ but we knew how much this band meant to her.

The night before she was like a ________ at Christmas. Every so often she got up and came to ________ with us, because she couldn't ________ . On the night of the concert it was good to see her so ________ and excited, as she and her boyfriend set off.

Needless to say when they ________ after midnight, with T-shirts and lots of pictures of the band, ________ her telling about how fantastic they had been, we knew the money had been well ________ . This will be a memory she would never forget, and nor would we.

________ full of excitement from the night before, the following day they ________ to go shopping on the other side of the city. My husband and I laughed, loving the fact that she had not ________   that quality as she grew up.

Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a ________ each. On each present were the words "Because you are the ________ mum/dad in the world. "When we expressed our thanks and told her she didn't have to, we asked her why she had bought us gifts. Her answer was simply "Just because I love you."

This wasn't something ________ from our daughter; she had always given us gifts when she wanted to express her ________ , and each gift was always a welcome surprise. It could have been anything, it wouldn't have mattered, and it was the act itself and the feelings behind it.

4 . “I knew when I saw you, I wanted to take you home,” my dad says to me when I visit him one Saturday. There is a deep-seated _________ of a father seeing his daughter when she was born.

My father has Alzheimer’s (老人痴呆症). He does not _________ express in words, so the sudden accuracy of his words _________ me.

Another Saturday, he points to a photo of me and says, “She’s smart.” Does he know the _________ person, 30 years older, is sitting beside him? It does not matter. At that moment I can feel his _________.

Now I bring a spoonful of yogurt to his lips. With a _________ hand, he touches me and says, “You’re very good. Thank you.” He totally forgets it was he that _________ me in lifting a spoon to my mouth.

These words are all he can give now. But they make me understand more _________ my generous father.

His door was always _________. Drop-in visitors were welcomed with a drink. He would not ____________ to give money to a family member in need. In the community, he ____________ his time to preserve the historical buildings.

Time, advice, money. There were many ways he ____________.

And he gives, still. The ____________ has taken much from my father. What’s ____________ are his words. It’s ____________ for him to find the right word and say it out loud. Yet he keeps going.

5 . When I was a little boy, my parents and brothers would often play cards in the afternoons. It was a (n) ________ way to pass the time and after watching countless games, I started to ________. I was only five but I learned________ and was soon winning as often as I lost. When I started school, I found out the hours of playing cards had made me good with ________. I was getting full marks on my math tests until high school when I ________ they had a thing called Algebra   (代数) . I was ________to see letters mixed in with the numbers and I struggled to ________ it. Then one day I opened a Calculus (微积分) book. One look was all to know that I would not major in math.

Instead I found ________ studying literature, history, psychology, and philosophy, which all put me on a path that I am ________on today: it is a journey of learning all I can about life and________ . One thing I did learn was that love has its own unique math that isn’t logical yet makes________. In the Calculus of Love the more love you________, the more love you have. Sharing sorrows means subtracting (减去) them. Sharing________means multiplying them.

Love like life is often more than we can ________. But our soul can. May you choose it, share it, and learn it. Only then will your life add up ________.