1 . No Time

With a broad smile on her lips, 15-year-old Sirin rushed to her mom to show off her new painting. But Mom spoke in an _______ tone, “No time, baby. Right now, I am busy with an important talk. Just wait for some time, OK?”

Holding her oil painting, she frowned(皱眉), and then _______ her dad. “Dad, see what I have done,” Sirin announced aloud in a thrilling _______. Her dad turned around while adjusting his tie, smiled at her, and showed his thumbs up! Immediately, Sirin replied _______ , “Dad, you haven’t seen it yet.”

“No time, baby. I will see it _______ .” He just patted her back lovingly, kissed her forehead, and rushed for his office.

Sirin was not a kid to be _______ with simple gesture or smile. She stood there for a few seconds, and then stormed off to her own bedroom. “Why is everybody so busy?” She _______ thousands of incidents that hurt her in pre-school, middle school and even in high school too! She assumed at least her own family members would give some values to her thoughts, but they were no _______. Unconsciously, her eyes were filled with tears.

When it was time for dinner, Sirin deliberately came late to join them. She kept silent and didn’t look at anyone, scratching the table mat with her nail. Her mom was _______ at the unusual behavior. Confused, she asked, “Honey, did I do anything wrong?”

Hearing this, Sirin could no longer ________ her anger. “Why is everybody so busy? I hate you!” she roared, grabbing the painting on the table and ________ it into pieces. So shocked was Mom that she rushed to hug Sirin and said “Baby, I am so sorry! I promise we will try our best to make it right.”

When back from school the next day, Sirin was ________ to see her beautifully-decorated painting on the wall. It was beautifully framed(装裱), ________ by the touching words: “We are so proud of you, our little angel!” On seeing it, Sirin burst out crying. Recalling her parents’ stress from work and daily life, she ________ her previous behavior. She looked up with watery eyes and apologized to her parents. In a family, it was proper attention and mutual(相互的) ________ that help build a strong bond.

2 . As a little kid I always asked to be held up in the air. So I could ________ down upon my mom’s washing machine and was attracted by clothes swimming in ________ in the soap water. I loved watching clothes being ________ so much. My mom and her mother ________ my passion by taking me shopping, involving me in fine clothes, and teaching me how to ________ them.

My love of washing clothes only ________ as I grew older. I learned how to wash and dry my own clothes properly before I was ten. In my ________ , I taught myself how to iron ________ , creating razor-sharp lines in my trousers. As time went by, with a love of dry-clean-only clothes but on a tight ________ as a college student, I asked my textiles (纺织品)professors if I could wash my wool sweaters myself rather than pay to get them dry-washed. To be ________ , I suspected I could. People had been wearing wool clothing since long before the invention of dry cleaning, ________

What I learned from my professors were not just the ________ but “love languages”—ways to ________ and experience love. Caring for your loved ones’ clothes shows them love. When their ________ are clean, smell wonderful, and look great, they are going to feel as if they can take on the world, and their days are going to be all the ________ .

3 . My 23-year-old son Dan packed, ready for the journey to work abroad for a year. It was a milestone, _________ the transition from his school days to adulthood.

I looked _________ at his face when we were to say goodbye, trying to remember every feature, meanwhile, _________ to say something that had long buried deep in my heart. However, not a sound came over my lips.

This wasn’t the first time I had let such an opportunity _________. On his first day in preschool, I accompanied him to the bus stop. His _________ and curiosity filled all the way. But even still, he boarded the bus and disappeared, I was _________. There still were many other _________ like this.

Now I stood in front of him, trying to recall all the times I had let go of. How often has that not happened to us all? A son graduates or a daughter is married. But at those ceremonies, we don’t seize the _________, telling them what they _________ to us.

Here and now, I knew it really mattered; but I still found myself nervous and uncomfortable. Why does it have to be so __________?

I gathered all my courage. “Dan,” I __________ stammered out (结巴地说出), “If I had the choice myself I would have chosen you.”

I was not sure whether he __________ what I meant. But then he stepped __________ me and put his arms around me. For a short while the world and everything was gone, there were only Dan and me.

What I told Dan was clumsy and commonplace. Yet it was __________.

Then he __________ the airport with his girlfriend in a taxi.

4 . Earlier that evening, my mother called, telling me that my brother died in a car crash. I stumbled (跌跌撞撞地走) around the house _________ what to put into the suitcases. My husband, Larry, and I had been packing for moving to New Mexico. The house was in (a) total _________.

I tried to hold my tears. I _________ picked things up and put them down. I couldn't _________. What I'd heard on the phone echoed (回荡) through my head.

Larry phoned a few friends. _________, someone asked to speak to me. “If there is anything I can do, let me know.” “Thank you,” I replied. I didn't know what to _________.

The doorbell rang and I rose slowly for the door. It was Donna.

“I've come to clean your shoes,” she said. _________, I asked her to repeat. “When my father died, it took me _________ to get the shoes cleaned and shined for my father's _________,” she said. I hadn't even thought about shoes.

Shoes were gathered. Donna __________ herself on the floor and got to work. The love in the act __________ my tears. Watching her __________ on one task helped me pull my __________into order. Laundry first, I told myself. One by one, the jobs fell into place.

Now whenever I hear of an acquaintance's loss of a loved one, I think of one __________ task that suits that person's __________. If the person asks, “How did you know I needed that?” I'd reply, “Because someone did that.”