I was so sad that __________________________________________________________________________

Looking forward to your early reply.

Your friend,

Li Hua

   Parents feel that it is difficult to live with teenagers. Then again, teenagers have_____feelings about their parents, saying that it is not easy living with them. According to a recent research, the most common ___between parents and teenagers is that regarding untidiness and daily routine tasks. On the one hand, parents go mad over ___rooms, clothes thrown on the floor and their children’s refusal to help with the ___. On the other hand, teenagers lose their patience continually when parents blame them for ___the towel in the bathroom, not cleaning up their room or refusing to do the shopping at the supermarket.

The research, conducted by St. George University, shows that different parents have different ___to these problems. However, some approaches are more ___than others. For example, those parents who yell at their children for their untidiness, but ___clean the room for them, have fewer chances of changing their children’s ___. On the contrary, those who let teenagers experience the ____of their actions can do better. For example, when teenagers who don’t help their parents with the shopping don’t find their favorite drink in the refrigerator, they are forced to ____their actions.

Psychologists say that ____is the most important thing in parent-child relationships. Parents should ____to their children but at the same time they should lend an ear to what they have to say. Parents may ____their children when they are untidy but they should also understand that their room is their own private space. Communication is a two-way process. It is only by listening to and ____each other that problems between parents and children can be settled.

   I now remember the day as if it were just yesterday. It was the early morning hours and I had _____ to my dad several hours before. We hung up the phone and I _____ my night time routine, getting my daughter ready for _____ and doing the same for myself. I went to sleep that night and the phone rang around 1:30 a.m. I saw that it was my brother _____ I thought he had probably been drunk so I hung _____ up. My brother gets drunk and calls me _____ Then the phone rang again and I answered. He asked me if I knew what was _____ because our cousin had called him and told him to call our aunt because she _____ to talk to him. She said there was no _____ at my parents’ house. At that point I started to ______ but I had to stay strong for my brother. I called the hospital and I asked if they had a ______ by the name of Ray Green. They said yes and nothing else. My mother called me back after a few minutes and told me that my father had ______.

I’m still so lost that sometimes I pick up the ______ to call my dad and then I remember he’s not there for me to make a phone call to. ______, I see something that would have made him ______ and I laugh twice for him too. My mother is so much ______ than I am. She is back at work and going on with her life and I’ve done the ______ but not like her. I know she ______ my father dearly but she is strong and keeps on so that everybody else can ______ her lead. So that is what I’m trying to do: stay strong and keep my ______ up.

   Years ago my three-year-old son, Jeremy, and I walked to our car. He _______ me with excitement. I found he was holding a _______ in his little hand. I hadn’t given it to him, so I asked, “Where did you get that?” He _______ to the store we’d just _______. But we hadn’t paid for it.

I had a lot of things to do that day, but taking _______ of this moment to teach character to my son just moved to the _______ of my to-do list. I sat him in the front seat next to me in the car without _______ it, so the two of us could talk. I _______ to him that we couldn’t just take things from stores without _______ them. When he realized he’d done wrong, tears ________ up in his eyes. I looked at my ________ boy and said, “Here’s what we have to do. We have to go back to the ________. I want you to tell the manager that you took it, and you’re sorry.” We walked back to the store, and I asked for the ________. “My son has something to tell you,” I told her. Jeremy ________ the toy and said, “I took this, and I’m sorry.” The manager ________ it beautifully, and a little boy learned an important ________.

My son is now 40, with children of his own, but he still clearly ________ that day. And, now, I’m so ________ that those character traits I tried to teach him took ________ in his heart and life. He’s now teaching them to my beloved ________.

We can impact our world by teaching our children character-by being examples of them.

Grandpa’s Investment Pays Off

When I was a student, my family went through a few rough financial years. We _______, but with much effort and many worries.

I had a pick-up truck that was _______ breaking down and the thought of the 600 km drive to school in it was a（n）_______ one. As I drove away from home one day, my uncle walked up. I stopped and he _______something onto my dashboard（仪表板）.

He leaned against the window, speaking softly. “Years ago,” he said, “when I was a _______ student myself your grandfather once did this to me. I _______ one day I would return the _______. And now I have.”

Then he _______ without looking back, and I _______ he did so in order to hide his emotions.

A few miles later I opened the __________. It contained a few bank notes. It was a gift __________ more than two decades later to a second generation; it is almost like a full circle, __________ I’m the only one who bears my grandfather’s name. The amount（金额）was not large. Twenty years ago it had been __________ to buy a full trolley of groceries，or a few tanks of fuel. At this moment it was just a（n）__________, something to express his good intentions. But my uncle was jobless at the time and I almost had no money. Therefore for both of us, it was a（n）__________ amount.

I paid it forward some years later to another poor boy with an old car, __________ the amount for inflation（通货膨胀）. As far as I can __________ that boy has been the only one I’ve told this __________ to-until now. I can only __________ that one day he will pay it forward too.

I couldn’t help but feel that Grandpa made a good __________ all those years ago.