1 . When you left us, it was the end of a long, painful road. Since then, I was_______my favorite memories of you.

I remember us taking our family dog for walks together on the _______ sand dunes (沙丘). I remember sitting on your knee, watching candlelight _______ inside. Once I bought you a gift — a _______ printed on a glass board, titled “Walking With Grandpa.” _______, you wrote me your own poem, too. I imagine how you must have taken time finding the right words, how you printed it out and cut the paper to _______ before placing it in the frame.

However, Alzheimer began its _______ through your life. In your last few days of life, I was _______ when sitting by your bedside silently, feeling very worried and afraid. I didn’t know what to do or how to _______.

Now, I am an adult, I wish I had been ________ — that I had come close to you and told you how deeply I loved you, how you filled the ________ which was the absence of my father in those 10 years of my life, so that I didn’t realize anything was ________. It’s only now that I am aware that when I ________ a relationship with my father, the reason why he fell short of ________ is that he wasn’t you. I really hope you know how much you ________ to me.

2 . Everything changed when I entered high school. Among all the freshmen, I never saw an acquaintance. At home I was just as ___________.

Mom was shouting again. “Karole, your bedroom is a disaster. Why can’t you keep it_________?”

The last thing, I needed was, mother’s_________. Clean your room. Finish your dinner. What happened to the mother who___________ me with complete acceptance? However, instead of explaining my _________, I just holed up in my bedroom.

Clearing off some space, I pulled out my math textbook, turned to a fresh page and started___________the first problem. Almost immediately, I made a_______! “Wrong again” I thought. “You can’t do anything___________!”   I tore the paper from my notebook, balled it up and_________it on the floor.

When I finished my homework, the floor was__________with crumpled(皱的) papers. It gave me a kind of satisfaction to see the___________ I’d made. Like it was proof of all my flaws(缺点). I kicked the papers under the   ___________.

One day, when I came home and entered my room, I___________. It was neat as a new pin. Mom had___________cleaned it. All the papers under my bed had___________, except one. I picked it up and unfolded it.

I___________Mom’s handwriting immediately: “Dear Karole, I’ve been too___________with you lately. Sorry. Now I only_____________you are to be your same, sweet self. Love, Mom.”

At that moment, a weight seemed to lift from me. It was_____________with something as soft as an angel’s wing. After that, everything changed in high school. But that heartfelt note remained ____________for the rest of my teenage years.

3 . A couple of weeks back, my darling wife had been asking me to come over to my son’s school (where she teaches) and teach the pupils “Origami”, a Japanese art of ________paper into different objects. My 7-year-old son had no ________of my coming and that makes it ________for me.

We were about to take the ________when I got my first “starring moment”. “Who is this daddy? Why is he walking in a funny way? How is he going to climb the stairs?” ________these, my wife helped me with one of my crutches(拐杖).

Little did I know that the first class she’s taking me to ________to be my son’s. On opening the door, with no warning, and to the ________of his classmates, came that unique but ________ scream “Daada!!!”and he practically ran out of his classroom to give me a bear hug. His mates couldn’t help staring with envy and ________!

I sat down, made my introduction and gave   ________on paper-folding. They all clapped and ________their thanks even as I made my way to the next class.

I left that school feeling ________.What more do I want but to continually be ________to God for everything? My wife has always seen me as a physically fit person who can ________any task and now I find my 7-year old boy is actually ________ of me!

4 . My father and I have always had a difficult relationship. He thought I wasn’t what a good daughter should be. Whatever I did was never good enough in his eyes. So when I tried to look for approval, I was _______ disappointed.

My mother was gentler and when my father would _______ me, she’d have my back. Five years ago, she died from a disease and, _______ her there, my relationship with my father became _______. I felt like he was trying to control me and this caused _______ and panic in me. I realized that I couldn’t continue the _______ with him, so I left home eventually and _______ contact with him.

About a year later, I was out campaigning and I saw him alone. I _______ him and asked how he was. He was hesitant, but I could see in his eyes that he was _______ I’d come over. He said he was proud that he had a daughter who went to the House of Lords to talk about women’s rights. I realized that, having decided I didn’t need his ________, I finally had it.

Our relationship isn’t ________ now, but we see each other every few months and I value the time we have together. Last year, on his birthday, I sent him a card and he ________ phoned me to say thank you. I’ve realized that if you want to have somebody in your life, you have to ________ them as who they are. And I’m proud of myself. I don’t need anybody else to give me that sense of ________. And because of that, our relationship is no longer a ________.

5 . I was cleaning out a cupboard the other day when I made an amazing discovery. Inside I _________ the manuscript (手稿) for a novel. It included an outline of the _________ and a pile of typed pages telling a story. It was written, to my _________, by my father who has been dead for more than 50 years. It isn’t _________, as novels go, perhaps fifty or sixty typed pages, but without my _________ it has somehow accompanied me through my years of _________, several jobs, a marriage, the birth of my children and grandchildren, retirement and even a relocation across the country where I live.

Yet there it was, resting under a lot of paper to be recycled. I might have _________ my father’s legacy (遗产). I was truly _________ by my discovery.

I’m in the middle of reading another book _________ my dad’s novel has a place on my bed-side table. I want to have some __________ time for it so I haven’t __________ examined it yet. I’m going to spend a whole afternoon to give it the __________ it deserves. As yet I don’t know what the story line is about and I don’t even know if it is complete but I __________ a highly emotional process of finding out.

I find it fascinating to think that this could happen; that after more than fifty years my father could __________ his only son through the mists of time. It’s one of those things that we don’t see coming and that make life so __________.

6 . My younger brother has a strange relationship with birthdays. One year, he sent me an unexpected birthday card, which turned out to be a double _________ as it arrived four months after my birthday.

“You should just _________ when you feel like it, and not be restricted (限制) to a specific day,” he said.

“So basically, that means it doesn’t _________ when my birthday is. You just get to celebrate the day I was _________ any time you like, even though I _________ to celebrate it on the actual date?” I asked.

“You’ve always been a little over the top about _________,” he said.

“Fine. But I always remember yours,” I said. I would _________ forget the day he was born.

The first year my daughter was away at college, he missed her birthday. By then, we both knew her _________ had many great attributes (特征) except remembering birthdays.

Her birthday is in September. In January of the following year, she _________ a letter. It was from her uncle. No card. Just some __________ and a note that said, “Buy whatever you want.”

She later told me the special gift from her uncle __________ made her happy. The idea of surprising her when she was least __________ it was amazing.

And it continued. Once he __________ us with several stylish hats and it was no one’s birthday. He had described our __________ to the saleswoman and she had __________ what she thought each of us might like. And she was right; we all liked our gifts.

So this year I was a bit __________ when he called me the day after my birthday. Was his __________ attitude towards birthdays disappearing? Had he been dragged (拖) down by societal expectations to behave __________?

“I’m __________ I missed your birthday yesterday,” he said.

“You’re __________ to do that. It’s what makes you my brother,” I replied.

7 . During the last few years of his life my Dad lived just up the road from me in a tiny home that used to _______ my Nana. He had been a widower for over 20 years by then, _______ my Mom when she was only 55 years old. Recently his Mom, my Nana had _______ too. He just lived with himself and spent a lot of time _______.

Several times a week, though, I would take a walk up to his _______. We would sit in the living room or on the front porch, sip tea and talk. It wasn’t anything _______. We just talked sports, gardening, weather and occasionally _______ a laugh over old memories. It was a simple sharing a real _______ between a father and a son, an hour spent just enjoying each other’s _______. Those afternoons ________ some of my happiest times ________ with my Dad. It allowed us to gently ________ any old wounds we had given each other when I was ________. It allowed us to ________ give each other the time and love we hadn’t before. It ________ us with sweet chances to grow closer together ________ he left this world. And I thank God for that time.

I know too that when my own time in this world is done, when my own ________ on Earth is finished I will get to spend another afternoon with Dad. And we will make that afternoon last an eternity.

If there is one thing that I ________ from those afternoons I spent with my Dad during the last years of his life, it is this: It is ________ too late to spent time with those you love and tell them that you love them. Because love ________ anything, even death. Begin today then! Spend an afternoon with those you love and those afternoons will become a lifetime.

8 . When Amanda Moore noticed that the new student from Mexico always sat alone at lunch, she decided to befriend Rafael Anaya. She also noticed that he________ to understand English. Then she used the Google Translate app to hand-write a letter in Spanish asking him to________her for lunch. Her action________her the “Student of the Month” award for October at school.

Actually, Rafael always________ because he felt so lonely. “He always ate lunch alone and I felt ________ about that，” Amanda said. She knew he spoke Spanish and he seemed lonely. She spent the whole afternoon ________ writing the letter, using the app to help her.

The next day Amanda handed the letter to Rafael and waited for his________.It wasn’t until their math class that he said “yes”. The two had been________together for lunch ever since. The letter helped Rafael feel more comfortable and encouraged him to________his English harder. “I think for Rafael it made a huge________，”said their teacher. “He really wants to learn English to talk to Amanda. The two used hand gestures and Google Translate for ________now but they hoped it would become ________ when Rafael's English improved. And, Amanda was learning some________.

Amanda’s mother felt________moved by her daughter’s action. “It is just so sweet，”she said. I think this ________ is special.”