After my son, Scott, graduated from high school, he took a job in North Carolina.Two thousand miles suddenly separated me from the person who’d been the focus of my life for 18 years.As the days went by, I missed Scott more and more.I’d always been able to take care of myself, but now I seemed to need Scott’s help constantly, like getting a tool from the top shelf, or moving something heavy.Most of all, I just missed having him to talk to.I was lonely.I knew this day would come.But why does it have to be so hard?

However, a mother spider(蜘蛛) taught me a lesson.

On my way out from my storeroom, I noticed a spider building her web across the top corner of the doorway.I reached for a hoe (锄头), tore down the web, and watched the giant spider run away in the grass.She was back the very next morning, in the exact same spot, busily rebuilding.I stared for a moment, and then reached for the hoe again.Then I twisted the hoe round and round, catching the spider in her own web.I carried her far into my backyard, shook the hoe and watched her fall to the ground and disappear in the bush.The third morning, I stopped short as I entered the storeroom.The spider was back in the same corner, her web almost completed again.I reached for the hoe, but stopped.I thought her persistence (坚持) in building her web should pay off.I stepped back and watched her long legs busily knitting the web.

For the next few weeks, the spider and I were close neighbors.One particularly boring day, I was feeling so down that I didn’t even glance up at my spider as I entered.Suddenly I found a hundred tiny creatures on the floor.I realized that these were baby spiders and the web the mother had built was to protect her young.

As the mother watched from the corner of the web, her young were making their way to the ground safely.

I decided that I would leave this web as a reminder.

2 . One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the rural areas with the purpose of showing him how poor people lived. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a stream that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.”

“Our courtyard reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? It makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

3 . One day, the sewer line (污水管道) under our house burst. My first _______ was to call the plumber (水管工)．I expected the man to _______ of such a miserable job._______, he simply asked, “The address?”

An hour later, Steve arrived in his truck. I _______ anxiously as he walked down into the damp depths. A few moments later he_______, saying, “It’s broken.”

“Can you fix it?” I asked with a mixture of doubt and _______.

Steve looked at me as if scolding me for my lack of   _______ saying, “Sure.” Then he told me that he had to get a backhoe (挖土机) and   _______the street to the main sewer line and that it wouldn’t be done until evening.

I felt somewhat_______upon driving off in my clean vehicle, leaving Steve to such a(n) ________task. I went into town and visited a few friends.________, around 6 p.m., my curiosity got the better of me. I went home and saw a sweeter________: the newly-paved street and a covered-up excavation across my front garden.

I sat down, lost in________. I was taken by the very idea that, sometimes terrible things might happen to an unlucky homeowner, ________ there is always somebody who is ________in its solution.

4 . Lee Hee -ah was born in 1985 in Seoul, Korea. She has no bones in her left thumb(大拇指). However, as a pianist, she is bringing_________around the world. What does not stop is her_________will.

Hee- ah began learning to_________the piano when she was 6 years old. She could not_________hold a pencil, but her mother thought the lessons might_________her hands. The girl did more than strengthen her hands. She became a concert_________traveling in many countries.

When she plays to sold out concert halls, she includes_________ by Beethoven, Chopin and others in her classical programs. At a 2010 concert in New Zealand, she_________Canada was her favourite country for touring, _________by New Zealand, She did not say what she__________about Canada, but in New Zealand it was the respect to the people with disabilities.

The__________ performer does more than share her love for music. She shares her__________for life. Her body may be incomplete, but her spirit is__________. She is full of belief in her own abilities and is a(n) __________for anyone trying to climb over or__________their own difficulties.

8 . On my third birthday, we moved to this neighborhood. Arlene and her husband, Bill, lived next door, who had no children. There weren't any_______my age nearby, so I mostly played in the yard alone. Arlene and Bill spent a lot of time working in the _______, and I was always talking to them from our yard. They were never tired of listening to me. I think what _______ me to them is that I also think they saw a lot of themselves in me — we were all lonely kids. It was a wonderful _______.

When I was about five, I had an idea _______ I took Bill and Arlene into our family as my grandparents. My parents made the _______ that I should ask them directly and so I did. They started crying and _______ accepted. It is truly wonderful for a child _______ her love and adults being so overjoyed to accept it. Every child in this world _______ enthusiastically repaid love.

From the day I accepted them, I called Bill and Arlene Grandpa and Grandma and my parents called them Mom and Dad. Over the years, Bill and Arlene ________ me in all my dreams. They encouraged me to ________ college, even though I didn't have the money to go. And when I was ________ to a university, they presented me with their savings. They told me they’d been ________ money since the day I called them grandparents. Four years later, I ________ and now work as an official.

Arlene passed away in 2013. Bill told me that Arlene thought the greatest ________ of her life was me, her granddaughter.

9 . It was a painful time for me, for I suffered from an illness and might never be able to have a child. As my 40th birthday approached, I began, for the first time, to notice babies and their happy, smiling mothers wherever I went.

One night, I came to a cafe to kill the boring time. An elegantly dressed, sightly older woman was seated next to me.

“Would you like to see a picture of my daughter?” she asked me, handing me a photo of a smiling Chinese girl. The child was about seven years old and was wearing a Snow White costume. That's Melanie, now in the first grade," she said. I could hear the motherly pride in her voice. “She's pretty,” I said. "I love her costume." The woman explained that she felt strongly about teaching her daughter about Chinese customs and maintaining ties to her shoes. “What made you decide to adopt her?" I asked. "I didn't want work to be my whole life," she said.

I'm not sure if she saw the tears in my eyes as I replied, I don't either, but I'm afraid it's too late." I was 51 when I adopted Melanie, she said. "And it's the most rewarding, exciting thing I've ever done."

When my husband and I returned from China with our nine-month-old daughter, Madeline, in November 2017, Jill was one of the first people I e-mailed. I did it!" I wrote. “I’m a mother and she's beautiful"

“Congratulations,” she wrote back. We recently reconnected on Facebook, and I told her, “You changed my life.”