Be Like Dad

Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.

I was in my study on a cold Sunday in May 2020 when I glanced out the window and saw my dad’s car parked in our driveway. He was walking from my front door to his car, about to leave. Why would he drive all the way to my house, only to turn around and leave? Had the doorbell stopped working? I raced downstairs, opened the door and yelled “Dad! What are you doing?” I shouted.

My dad lives forty minutes away, and I hadn’t seen him since COVID-19 because we were following the health-department guidelines to self-isolate and not leave the house, so it’s strange that he would show up.

He smiled and pointed beside the door, where I could see a bright yellow begonia (秋海棠) plant.

“I know it is Mother’s Day, but... I’m not a mother,” I was puzzled.

My dad smiled. “But I think you should get flowers, too, my dear son.” With that, he winked and drove off.

That evening, I called to thank him and told him how touched I was that he had driven such a long round trip just to leave begonias on my doorstep.

That’s when he let me in on his little secret. It turns out I wasn’t the only receiver of an act of kindness from him. To keep away from the loneliness during epidemic he decided to do acts of kindness to remove the social isolation (隔离，孤立), and it made him so happy to see the smiles on people’s faces.

“But why?” I continued.

It just had started a couple of weeks before, when a friend of his was having a tough day and called him to talk about it. He knew she loved ice cream, so after ringing off, he went straight to the grocery store, bought a huge ice cream, drove to her house and left it on her doorstep. Then he called from the driveway to tell her to look outside.

“She just beamed when she saw it. I don’t think leaving her a million dollars would have made her happier.”

After listening to story after story like this, I was inspired.

No amount of begging (乞求) would change my father’s mind about getting a pet. No matter how desperately I begged, his answer was "No! " Finally, I accepted that he was not going to change his mind. I did the only thing that I could. I spent as much time as possible around other people’s pets and I often spent time at a place called Best Friends, an animal shelter near my house. Animals ended up there when their owners could no longer care for them.

Whenever I visited the shelter (收容所), I dreamed about taking one of the dogs home with me. One day after school, I stopped off at Best Friends like I usually did. Suddenly, I saw a large, shaggy, yellow dog standing in the corner, and when he saw me, he wagged his tail and began whining (哀鸣).

“That’s Fenway,” Renee, the woman at the desk, said. “He whines continuously. His owners brought him here when they moved overseas.”

“He must be lonely,” I suggested.

“Your parents won’t let you have a dog?” Renee asked. I didn’t answer, but my look must have said everything, because then she said, “That’s too bad. These dogs need good homes and good people to take care of them.” On my way home, I had an idea to assist shelter pets like Fenway. I wrote a touching story as if Fenway were writing it. I told all about his family and why he had no home, shedding light on (解释) his longing for a loving family. With the shelter director’s approval, I proposed sharing more stories in newspapers and online to attract potential adopters.

The next weekend, the shelter was flooded with families who wanted pets. They were all drawn by the heartfelt stories of animals like Fenway. Fenway’s tail wagged so fast that I was afraid it might fall off. I stood with Fenway as people admired him. His playful nature and hopeful eyes won over many visitors` hearts, leading to a rise in adoptions.

Suddenly, I saw my parents walking into the shelter towards Fenway.

I was confused why my father changed his mind.

3 . When you're a kid, theme days at school are a big deal. They're a chance to dress up in something special and   _____________from your regular routine. So when you can't participate in one, it is sad. That happened to a first-grade student named Levi recently. _____________his bus driver stepped in to _____________the day.

As the driver, Larry Farrish noticed the boy was   _____________. When Farrish asked what was wrong, the boy   _____________he didn't have pajamas (睡衣) for Pajama Day. Farrish knew he should do something. After   _____________his job, he headed over to a store. There, he   _____________a pair of pajamas that might _____________ the boy and drove back to the school.

He asked the office to call Levi down, and that's when their days took a major   _____________ "I can tell Mr Larry is   ________________" Levi said. "When he got me the pajamas, I did a   ________________ cry.”

As a driver, Farish feels that his   ________________allows him to connect with kids more and he takes the job seriously. Doing so can influence how kids ________________. Not only do kids learn by   ________________, but when they know they're   ________________, they do thrive (成长).

4 . In 2015, Aldo Amenta had just started classes at Florida International University when something incredible happened. One day, while he was out ________, he dove into a shallow pool and got his neck injured ________.

Doctors told Aldo he’d never ________ again, and his life changed completely in an instant. But Aldo was not ________. He insisted on studying. Meanwhile, with the help of his ________. Guy Roman, he worked for his recovery and struggled to ________ the tough times. In 2018, Guy successfully trained him to walk across the graduation stage to ________ his college diploma by using an exoskeleton (外骨骼). The crowd ________ as he went up the steps to the stage. People were greatly inspired by Aldo’s courage and ________.

Aldo never stopped trying to take the next ________ for a bigger goal. He ________ it again! In 2021, wearing his exoskeleton, he walked on his own two feet with Guy’s help to accept his master’s degree in biomedical engineering. He called it one of the unforgettable ________ in his life, and he hopes to use his new degree to expand and develop technologies to help people with special needs like him gain ________. Aldo also wants to ________ others not to stop working toward their goals, no matter how ________ they may seem.

5 . Once there lived a farmer in a small town. He made a living by ______ butter. Every day, his neighbour, a baker (糕点师), would buy a pound (磅) of butter. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see ______ he was getting a pound. After the baker weighed it, he found that he wasn’t. ______ the baker took the farmer to the judge. The judge asked the ______ if he had any way to weigh the butter. The farmer ______, “I am so poor that I do not have enough money to buy ______ to weigh it, but I do have a kind of scale (天平) .” The judge asked, “Then ______ do you weigh the butter?” The farmer answered, “______ the baker started buying butter from me. I had bought a pound of ______ from him. So now every time I bring home the bread from the baker, I put it ______ the scale and give him the butter of the______ weight.”

Dishonesty can become a bad habit. Some people who are not ______ can lie without a red face. Those ______ lie so much do not even know what the truth is any more. But who is it bad for? As a matter of fact, they will hurt themselves by ______ own dishonest behaviour.

We ______ what we give to others in life. Whenever you take action, ask yourself this question, “Am I honest?”

6 . Family quest brings joy and tears

Li Yong reunites with his family in Liyang, Jiangsu, on Dec 31, 2023.

When Li Yong took the train to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, more than 1,500 kilometers away from his hometown — Liyang, Jiangsu province, he was just 2 years old. He was among about 3,000 children from the southern China, who were adopted by herdsmen in the late 1950s, when the country was _________ by natural disasters and the government of Inner Mongolia took the initiative to take care of these children.

Over the past six _________, these adoptees learned to adjust to their new environment and families, but they haven’t stopped digging into their past and exploring their _________. Li _________ learned that he was adopted when chatting with villagers. After his foster parents (养父母) passed away, Li _________ the idea of looking for his biological mother. _________, it was not easy for him as he didn’t know his biological family or even his birthplace.

Although _________, the journey for some has been realized _________ the application of the DNA technology. The _________ point came in 2021, when Li’s daughter told him that the Ministry of Public Security was helping people find their parents through DNA comparison with the __________ of a national DNA database. After having a blood sample taken at the local police station, Li waited for two years. Late last year, he got __________ that his mother had been found.

On Dec 31, Li finally reunited with his mother, 97-year-old Shi Bamei, in a village in Liyang. Bursting into tears of __________, Li hugged his mother, who kept __________ for the long separation. At Shi’s home, Li served his mother a spoonful of tangyuan, a sweet dumpling symbolizing reunion, on Dec 31.

“With the support and cooperation between the police and __________ groups, I believe there will be more good news for people with long-lost relatives. There will be new reunions and new __________,” he says.

Tripod’s story started one spring morning as I was finishing a morning surgery at the veterinary clinic (兽医诊所) I owned. I was writing up medical records of the surgery patients when my receptionist (接待员) stuck her head into my office. She told me there was a big cat lying outside with a seriously injured front leg. What’s worse, nobody knew whom it belonged to.

Then I sent two of my pre-vet students to pick up the poor cat while I went back to my record-keeping. But it wasn’t long before I heard the students returning with this newest patient who seemed to be in pretty bad condition.

I carefully checked up the injuries which seemed to be caused by the pressing of a heavy object. With the extremely horrible smell, I knew from years of experience this cat didn’t have an owner. “Well, then,” I sighed, “I’m not sure whether we are able to bring this cat back to life, but let’s give him our best shot anyway. Afterwards, let’s see if we can find a home for him. ”

Just then, when one of the students began touching the cat’s head gently, somewhere deep in the cat’s throat, a weak purr (呼噜声) began. As the student continued to pet the cat, I noticed the cat’s breathing became less laboured (缓慢而困难的).

When I performed the complicated operation, I whispered, “You’re a fighter, aren’t you, boy? You deserve a chance to live.” However, after the surgery, he lost one leg, and still struggled with life and death. Over the next few weeks, Tripod, the cat, went through many ups and downs, but I was sure about his resilience (快速恢复的能力). News about Tripod spread. A number of customers stopped by regularly to check on the progress of his recovery, including Mrs Melson, a pet lover.

The day finally came when I decided Tripod had really recovered.

Though unwilling to part with Tripod, we were happy to see Mrs Melson come for him.

10 . In 2019, after retiring from her career as a social worker, Ane Freed - Kernis decided to build a home workshop and devote all of her free time to stone carving. “I might be covered head to to e in dust but I’m happy — it was something I needed more of in my life when I hit 60,” she says.

This appeal has its origins in Freed - Kernis’ childhood. Growing up on her father’s farm in Denmark, she used to wander through the fields with her eyes fixed on the ground, looking for stones to add to her collection. “I’ve always been drawn to the shapes and textures (质地) of stones,” she says.

After moving to England in 1977 and training as a social worker, Freed - Kernis soon became occupied with her busy career and the demands of raising her son. Stones were the last thing on her mind, until her father died in 2005. “He took a stone carving course in his retirement, and I always thought stone seemed so fun but never had the time to look into it myself,” she says. “After he died, I became determined to learn in his honour.”

Signing up for a week-long stone carving course at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Freed-Kernis began to learn how to turn a block of rock into well-designed shapes. “It was really scary at the start because you would spend hours just hammering (锤打).”

Now 65, Freed-Kernis has a thriving small business built largely through word of mouth. She creates 12 to 15 pieces a year that can take anywhere from a few days to three weeks to complete, while her prices range from £ 200 to £ 3,000. “I’m making smaller ones,” she says. “I don’t have to depend on the money much, so I want to keep prices in the range that people can afford, mainly just covering costs and labour (劳动力).”