3 . Now I finally understand how much my mother loves me.

Back home from the _________, during the first few weeks of my daughter’s life, it seemed like I was never doing anything besides _________ the baby. Life was little more than a thin stream of milk _________ any body to hers, _________ interrupted by a peanut-butter sandwich.

Of course I’d heard _________ were always waking up. But this now seemed like a joke. How did anyone get them to _________ in the first place? Every time I put the baby down, she cried and cried. She slept only when she was being held. So my husband and I _________ by turns. Usually I _________ her till eleven or so, my husband was with her until two or three or four, and then I got up to hold her again until morning. The Internet said babies _________ comfort at dusk because of their primal (最初的) __________ of being deserted in the dark. “Don’t worry, baby,” I told the crying baby in my arms. “I won’t __________ you in the dark.”

My mother finally arrived to help. I had __________ for her arrival every morning. Her __________ meant I could get some rest. Every few hours, my mother put a plate on my lap, loaded with __________. She said, “You need to eat.” She held my baby girl against her chest and __________ in her car, “You know how your mama loves you? That’s how I love her.”

Before seven o’clock one Saturday morning, a large crowd had already gathered at the stadium. David sat at the starting line, his gloved hands holding his wheelchair. With his heart beating, the boy wondered if he would be able to complete the race. His classmates were all there to support him. From a distance, he could see them holding up big banners (横幅) which screamed: WE ARE WITH YOU! ALL THE WAY, DAVID! Heartened, he smiled and waved back. He was not going to let them down.

Born with a severe condition that left him paralysed (瘫痪) from the waist down. At six, he underwent several surgeries to improve his condition. As a result, he was able to attend school and even took up sports to help strengthen his bones and muscles. Then, he fell in love with wheelchair racing. Unfortunately, he did not have a lot of coordination (协调) or strength but he had a will to keep going. Once, without warning, his condition took a turn for the worse and it almost destroyed his pursuit of his passion.

One day, David’s teachers encouraged him to compete alongside his non-wheelchair schoolmates. Unsure and yet grateful for the opportunity, he thought he should give it a shot. By the time the race was about to begin, the sun had risen. David was glad that he was well prepared. Adjusting the cap on his head and his gloves, David was all ready to protect himself from the heat and the strong strokes to his wheelchair. David’s eyes followed the starter who was waving a red flag. As soon as the gun was fired, David was off. The entire stadium erupted into thunderous cheers.

David pushed forward with all his strength, his hands holding the wheels the whole time for the long-distance race. His wheelchair rolled steadily out of the stadium, passing the shop houses. Despite doing everything he could to keep up with the other competitors, David fell behind.

Overhead, the sun continued to burn in the cloudless sky.

He was determined to overcome every single challenge.

Mama notices that there has been a rise in bad manners in the family lately, such as Sister taking things from Brother without asking, and Brother pushing Sister without saying “Excuse me”. It then turns into a shoving (推搡) match between the kids, with them calling each other names and making faces. Their table manners are getting worse, as instead of asking to pass items across the table, Brother and Sister stuff their mouths with food and use some of it to engage in a food fight and kick each other from under the table.

Mama tries to coax (用好话劝) the kids, then complains, and finally shouts. She also tries to ask Papa for help, but he is also part of the problem, as when Papa gets angry at the kids, he bangs (猛捶) on the table. Nothing for Mama works, so she decides to take out a big piece of cardboard and writes out her politeness plan. When she is done, Mama calls a family meeting and introduces the plan to Papa and the kids: if they do something rude such as forgetting to say “please” or “thank you”, the punishment is to sweep the floor. Brother and Sister object to the politeness plan, telling Mama that she’s not being fair. Mama, however, reminds the kids that they’re the ones who aren’t being fair to themselves or other people. She then explains what manners are and why they are important until Papa interrupts her.

While Mama is thankful for Papa’s comment, she notes that he breaks one of the rules. She hands him a feather duster and has him dust the room. Brother and Sister note how serious the plan is and both come up with the idea of being super polite to get Mama to call off the politeness plan.

They put their idea into practice.

Mama is pleased with the change.

8 . It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. My husband was taking care of our baby girl so that my six-year-old and I could do some yard work, just the two of us. It was sure to be _______. But soon, the clouds of mosquitos seemed _______ to our bug spray (喷雾). I was sweating, itchy, and arguing with my son about _______to pull weeds. I had told him the “right” way — getting those weeds out from the bottom, by the roots, removing them entirely.

However, my son went about things in his own way. He pulled the_______ of the weeds off, moving quickly down the line as he left the remaining part still in the soil. Somehow, I found this to be incredibly _______Why couldn’t he do it in my way and save me the time of having to_______ his portion (部分)? Why did he do it at all if he wasn’t going to do it properly?

“If you would do as told, we’d be done earlier and_______ a longer period before we would have to returm and pull weeds next time.” I said, trying to keep my tone _______ He went back to his work, shaking dirt from his handful of growing things and throwing _______stems into our shared basket. “People do things... __________, Mom.” He said innocently.

My fire soon faded, replaced by the__________ realization that I’d just received a valuable__________from the person that I was supposed to be teaching. While trying to__________my baby girl, my kindergartener, and the yard work, __________ was a lifeline for me, a coping mechanism. But my way was, perhaps, not the best way after all. His time shouldn’t be __________. His job was to be a kid and take his time, for as long as he was able.

I recently went SKYDIVING! It’s something I’ve been talking about doing since last year, but to be honest, it was planned super last minute… like within a matter of a few weeks.

It all started when I ran into a friend of mine walking home from a local festival earlier this summer. We started chatting about what we’d both been up to this summer and somehow got on the subject of both being interested in going skydiving someday. My friend, Denny, said he’d be onboard if I really wanted to schedule a jump and I was so excited to finally have someone to go with!

Later that night, we texted back and forth and decided on our jump date a few weeks in the future. When the very Sunday came, we were both FULL of excitement for our first skydiving experience. He had been bungee jumping before and I’d done my fair share of zip-lining, but neither of us figured that either of those of experiences would prepare us for what we had in store.

The drive there didn’t happen without a slight delay. As soon as we got off the through-way on to the exit towards the small town where the skydiving facility was, Denny’s car started to make a strange noise, forcing us to pull over on a busy interstate (州际公路).

Only 20 minutes away from WNY Skydiving (the place where we were going), we discovered we had a flat tyre (轮胎). At that point, I felt pretty defeated. Our scheduled time was 4 pm — the last appointment time of the day — so I figured they wouldn’t be able to wait for or delay the operations for us since we were racing against the light.

We called American Automobile Association (AAA) and hoped for the best.

We were informed we were the final jump of the night… the “sunset jump”.