1 . After long hours of waiting for my friend at the bus station, I got tired and wanted to just leave and plan another meeting.

As I was still deciding, there came a man selling shoes and started showing them to me so that I could buy or something. I just smiled and said “thank you”. I don’t know if it was the smile or what but the young man stepped closer and stood beside me and started talking to me. “You know I didn’t just end up like this, selling shoes. I had a life… had a family but one day life just turned upside down and all was gone just like that,” he said. In short, his wife stole all his money, sold his car and house. It was really a hard time for him and he was psychologically anguished. A lot happened and then he decided to pick up the pieces of his life. That’s when he started making and selling shoes to earn a living.

As I stood there listening to him pour out his heart and story of his life. I was still surprised how in the world can someone be so open to a total stranger like that and it occurred to me that some people get relieved that way. You see, a lot of times we meet people and most of them have burdens in their hearts and some of them don’t even have a person to talk to, so I’ve learned to be good to all people and always give them my time to listen to what they have to say. By doing this it will not only help that particular person but also the one who listens since you get to learn something and see the other side of life.

2 . One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap (包装).

On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is.” What an honour! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!

One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it.Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”, and “dying”, which sounded ominous.

Christmas was coming. “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room.“If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I’d never seen him cry before.

The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!”

“Thank God!” I heard Mum cry.

From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

4 . “Don’t worry. Those are just age spots (老年斑),” the doctor said. “Are you ______ that these are age spots?” I questioned, pointing to the dark spots on my hands. Angie, the doctor, smiled warmly and ______, “I’m 100% sure.”

I let out a scream of ______. “You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited for these to ______,” I said. Angie looked slightly ______, and I realized there was no possible way I could explain my excitement. What Angie didn’t know was that I shouldn’t have ______ to see age spots! At age forty, there was not much hope that I would live long enough to see any signs of ______. I was in the battle of my life—fighting lung cancer.

After the five-year mark of being cancer free, I started to have hope. When I got my first white hair, I quickly pointed to my husband, “look, honey, a white hair.”

______ I was taking a trip down the memory path, Angie ______ my thoughts. “Here’s the fade cream (增白霜) that you can ______ your hands twice a week before going to bed,” she reminded. And then she mentioned another _____ , “of course, you can always have the spots removed with lasers (激光).”

“Remove them?” I questioned. “ ______ would anyone want to do that?” Angie stared at me, not understanding the meaning of those words, while I explained, “I’d like to ______ them.” As I walked out of the hospital, I was ______ that I had such wonderful age spots!

Later that year, I celebrated two milestone (里程碑)—my sixtieth birthday and twenty years of being ______ from cancer. I’m excited to be growing older with white hairs, wrinkles (皱纹) and now age spots. And I can see the beauty in all of them!

One day, when I was a first-year student in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kris. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd (书呆子).”

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a gang of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up, and I saw terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So I jogged over to him, and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw tears in his eyes. As I handed him his glasses, I said, “They are bad guys! They really should be punished.” He looked at me and said, “Hey, thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to a private school before. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before, but we talked all the way home, and I carried his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.

We always hung out on weekends, and the more I got to know Kris, the more I liked him.

8 . My great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father are all farmers. My father expects me to become a farmer and _______ them all but I don’t agree with my father.

Three years ago, my father took me to an airport to visit one of his friends. His friend _______ a small airline. It was the first time I had seen a _______ airplane. After my father’s friend discovered I had never been in an airplane, he _______ me to fly with them. When we took off, I felt excited. While we were in the air, I almost forgot I had to _______ the ground. All I could think of was flying would be my _______ in life and how I wanted to fly again and again.

Since then, if I had time, my father’s friend would teach me how to fly. He _______ let me fly alone once. I wanted to become a pilot but I would have to go _______ my father.

At the age of 18, I had to tell my father what I wanted to do but I didn’t want to make him _______. As he walked ahead of me and I ________, I didn’t know what I could say to help him understand my ________ for flying. I took my courage and said, “Father, I have something ________ to tell you. I want to go to college and become a pilot. I have talked to the schools and they agreed to give me financial (金融的) help. “I felt nervous in his ________. Then he spoke,” I was wondering when you would tell me. I have been ________ money for you. ” When I heard this, I couldn’t help crying. For the first time, I really understand his ________ love for me.