3 . A Game of Light and Shade

It was a sunny day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. In a moment, he disappeared up the stairs. I looked at the sign that said “To the Tower”, and decided to _______ him.

I caught up with him in the ticket office. There I was _______ to see the attendant (工作人员) selling him a ticket as if he were any other visitor. Then, with the ticket in one hand and _______ the wall with the fingers of the other, the blind man reached the stairs _________ to the hallway.

“That man is blind. What would a blind man climb up the tower for?” I said to the attendant, expecting him to show some _______, but he didn’t answer.

“Not the _______ certainly,” I said. “Perhaps he wants to _______.”

I bought a ticket and _______ up the stairs. The man hadn’t gone as far as I _______. A third of the way up the tower, I heard his ________. I slowed down and followed him at a little ________. He stopped from time to time. When he got to the balcony, I was a dozen steps ________. As I reached it, I saw him at the corner of the tower.

At last, after ten minutes, I ________ him. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could, “but I am curious to know ________ you came up.”

He smiled. “Coming up the stairs, you will notice how not just light but sun ________ into the tower through the narrow windows here and there, so that you can feel the ________ —the cool stairs suddenly become quite warm—and how up here behind the wall there is ________, but as soon as going opposite a window you can find the sun. There is no ________ so good as this for feeling the difference between light and shade. It is not the first time I’ve come up.”

The blind man seemed quite ________ just like a child who was enjoying his favorite games. He told me the truth that blind men can also find the beauty in life ________ they cannot enjoy the sights of the world.

4 . "Mum, can I invite my classmate Brett over to stay tomorrow night, please? It's Friday, and we don't have any _______.   Can I, please?" Mum was sitting at the kitchen table.   Dad was _______next to her, resting his head on his arms.   Mum could _______that James wanted so badly to have his friend over.

"I'm so sorry, James," she said.

"I'm never allowed to have friends come to the house? Why, Mum?" James asked sadly, almost in _______.

"I know it's _______for you," Mum said softly.   "But I'm just worried other people might think we're a little. . .   strange.   And then they would make fun of you. "

"No, they wouldn't, Mum," James protested.   "We're not _______at all.   We're just ordinary people. "

Mum sighed heavily.   "To tell you the truth, James, my neck has been so painful that it's given me a heavy _______.   And your poor father — he doesn't feel _______.   He really needs a rest. "

"I can help, Mum!" James said.   " _______I can make you and Dad feel better, can Brett come over? Please?"

"Well. . . " Mum began.

"Great! Thanks, Mum!" James almost shouted.   "Just sit there, don't move. " He rushed over to the kitchen drawer and ________what he needed — two spanners(扳手).   "Hang on, Mum," he said.   "This won't take a second. " After some ________, James was finished.   With a smile of ________on his face he said, "There! How does that feel?" "Oh, James," Mum said.   "That's much better! How did you do it?"

"Easy," James said ________.   "Dad had tightened your neck bolts(螺栓) too much! I just________them slightly! I learned that in robotic science at school. "

"What about your father? Can you ________him?" asked Mum.

"I'll try," James replied.   He ________up Dad's hair at the back of his neck, and plugged the electric wire into Dad's head.   Then he turned the ________on.   Dad opened his eyes and ________immediately.   "He just let his ________run too low, that's all," James said.   "Shall I tell Brett to come over straight after school tomorrow?"

"I guess so," replied Mum.   "Your friends will just have to ________that we are a very unusual family.   Thanks, son!"

7 . When our restaurant business failed, we headed north in a camping truck to Texas, hoping to have a “fresh start”. At the entrance of Palo Canyon State Park, I _________ a job advertisement hiring park hosts. The position offered a _________ permanent campsite in the park, and in return, the _________ served as a link between the park’s guests and the rangers (护林人). It was the perfect _________ for the hopeless me: a rent-free place to _________ our lives. We entered the park and I made an _________ for the following day.

The park was crowded, so it took us some time to find a(n) _________ site. That evening, after finishing dinner, my wife saw two skunks (臭鼬) walking toward our table. We _________ climbed onto the table and, for the next four hours, waited for them to _________ our camp.

Having __________ that night, we were confident that everything else would be __________. The next day we met with the people who ran the park. They explained our __________ and gave us a beautiful campsite. __________, that evening, we learned about the canyon __________. They were strong and cold, rocking our little camping truck __________, and we lay shaking in the dark until the winds __________ away.

During the weeks that followed, we learned to survive in our __________. There we sat closer together reading and talking. For a time after our business __________ I thought I might lose my family as well. Now I found myself thankful for all the __________. Building a successful business and then losing it had left very little time for building a successful __________. We had walked the trails and climbed the can yon walls. And we had become a family!

8 . Elsa Desmond knows she is not going to win a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. But she is ________ as the first women’s luge (无舵雪橇) Olympian from Ireland. She was the 26th to ________ the line in the first run of the women’s race on Monday night, ________ than any of the other athletes, which did not ________ her. She celebrated with a large smile on her face.

Although she did not win in Beijing, she has already won some ________. She had been given many reasons why she could not compete: she is too short, she did not start ________ at a young age, and she could not balance a(n) ________ job with competing in a sport. The biggest difficulty simply might have been that Ireland did not have a luge organization. So, she ________ one herself; she had to ________.

And now, ________, she is a luge Olympian. “I’m a doctor in general surgery, I have all these really visible challenges, but I think everyone has worked as ________ as they can to be here.” She has delayed parts of her job to compete in the Olympics, but her ________ gave her the time off. And her co-workers are becoming big luge fans, extremely proud of her.

Desmond has ________ two demanding jobs: sliding a few months out of the year and living a life in medicine. There was a(n) ________ last season when she had to take important medical examinations in hotels in Germany where other sliders were staying. “I had to ________ signs on my door saying ‘Do not disturb, exam in ________’ in about six different languages.”

Desmond got the ________ of representing her country in Beijing, and being one of two people ________ Ireland’s flag during the opening ceremony on Friday. “I don’t think I can ________ words how excited I was to lead out the team. I really hope that I can make my country ________.”

10 . The first time my grandma came to visit us in Canada, she was a little upset. She ________ that there was nothing to do.

Before my grandma arrived, I used to tend the flowers in our garden. But while I was at school and my parents were at work, my grandma, feeling ________, came down upon the little piece of land. She pulled out the annuals (一年生植物) and ________ those with orderly rows of green onions and other ________. I told her to stop, to keep the flowers. “They’re pretty, but they’re ________,” she said matter-of-factly. I was annoyed until I learned something about her past.

Grandma was ________ at the time of a severe famine (饥荒). She lost her parents and did everything on her own. ________ , she never cried about it to anyone.

Different times ________ unique characters. My grandma was shaped by the ________ of her family members and the difficulties in China’s recent history. Those who experienced the famine are, ________, unwilling to use valuable land to plant flowers. Her ________, responsibility, diligence and frugality (勤俭), helped her through those difficult years, some of which were laid down by the hands of time, and to change them now would ________ her. She is a(n) ________ link between my family’s past and future — she ________ her times’ challenges to support the next generation. Someday, I will be like my grandma and ________ my small part to human’s moving on.