1 . When I was young, I was a terrible student. I didn’t ________ talking with my grandmother on the phone, because she would ask me about school and about what I was reading.

Each Christmas, I would get a package from Grandmother. “Another ________. Just like every year!” I would think and then put it aside. I would ________all my latest toys on Christmas morning and for days and even weeks after.________, I would open Grandmother’s gift. I would read the book and sometimes ________ the text, but I didn’t find this interesting.

Although I was not interested in ________, I had great patience with younger children. Seeing how I ________her kid with homework, my neighbor said I should become a teacher when I grew up.

During my second term in college, I ________ in my Children’s Literature class. Our teacher________ a list of classic children’s books. It was then that I wanted to ________. I raced home and ran to the basement (地下室). There on the dusty shelf sat the most amazing collection of children’s books any teacher could ________ to have. My grandmother didn’t ________ me what my little girl mind wanted, but what she knew I ________ — a gift for the soul that would last a lifetime.

I ________ to water the seed my grandmother planted so long ago. I graduated from college, received my master’s degree and became a ________ , trying my best to plant those tiny seeds in all my students.

2 . The winter skies are grey and it’s cold outside. The nights come early and we spend a lot more time _______ and alone. Many people _______ winter: so cold, so dark, so boring. But I like winter because I have more time to read.

For many students reading means school; it means _______. Reading is something your teacher assigns and it’s something you’re _______. Reading is something you have to do, not something you want to do. But for me and many other people, reading is the most _______ thing we can imagine. Getting lost in a good book can _______ a cold winter evening disappear. Dull grey skies are no _______ for the fantastic adventures of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings (《指环王》), or for romantic trouble-making of Jane Austen’s Emma (《爱玛》), or for the youthful problems of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye (《麦田守望者》).

All of those books are studied in North American high schools. They are interesting and well written books that _______ young people. _______, even there, many high school students don’t enjoy reading the books because they are ________ their school work: “Oh, my God! Two hundred pages! I’ll never be able to read ________ much.” But sometimes a funny thing happens. They begin to read and they begin to follow the ________. Suddenly, the world inside the book becomes more exciting and more wonderful than the world they ________. At the moment the thought ________ reading is work disappears and reading becomes ________.

Reading anything is ________ but reading good books is a terrific way to improve your English. Good writers write English very well and ________ you with good examples to follow. And good books will tell you more about English ________: what people think, how they talk, how they interact with each other. But don’t let me ________ it by telling you that reading is good for you. Just think of it as a good way to ________ on a cold winter evening.