When we got ready to go to the rink (溜冰场), Mom always helped me tie up my skates. Then she _____ her own. Mom and I had been coming to the rink every _____ since my lessons began. That was our deal. I went to _____ on Tuesdays, and we skated together on Sundays.

When we were ready to _____ on the ice, Mom took my hand and put an arm around my shoulder. I looked up at Mom and smiled. She seemed _____ but still smiled back. I took a short gliding (滑行) step, and she stepped with me, holding my hand tight. We went across the rink very _____ After a few minutes, we _____ in the center of the rink. I gently took my _____ back from Mom’s and glided slowly away.

While Mom stood still, I _____ the move my teacher taught me this week. I put one foot on the ______ , leaning forward a little. I slowly raised my back foot as ______ as I could behind me. I stopped and ______ a moment when some bigger kids skated quickly by. ^“OK, Mom. It’s ______ for you to skate alone,” I said. “In fact, there is ______ to be afraid of. Skating alone is no ______ than skating with me.”

Then I did what my teacher did when he was teaching a ______ skater. “ Watch my face, Mom,” I said. “Not your feet. Now, step.” She took a baby step and ______ We stayed until Mom could skate across the rink three times by herself. When she was ______ , she glided over to me and gave me a big hug. “I ______ you could do it,” I said.

She smiled and said, “I couldn’t have done it without my excellent ______.”

   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.

   The moment Aleeya opened her eyes from sleep, she knew it was Mom’s birthday. She _______ quickly and ran to the kitchen. There was no birthday _______. Then Aleeya went to the refrigerator, _______ its door and looked inside. There was no birthday cake in the refrigerator and no birthday cake _______.

She could not _______ that; she opened the door of the refrigerator again and put her head all the way in. Maybe there was a birthday cake _______ somewhere. But there was none, and she felt very _______. Just then she saw the apple butter-Mom’s ________! Aleeya took the jar of apple butter and ________ it on the table. She got a plate, a spoon, and a piece of bread. She opened the jar, took some apple butter and spread it on the bread the ________ Mom liked-not too thick, and evenly（均匀地）to the sides.

Aleeya became happy then and a gentle smile ________ over her face. It became bigger and bigger as she _____ to Mom’s room with the ________ bread. “Happy Birthday to Mom. Happy Birthday to Mom,” she _______.

Mom was ________. She took the plate and held her daughter in her arms.

“Pretend（假装）there are ________ ,” Aleeya said, “and blow them out.”

Mom closed her eyes and ________ a wish. Then she blew out the imaginary candles.

“Was it a good ________?” asked Aleeya.

“It was the best one ever in my life, my baby,”said Mom.

   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.

   Shortly after the war，my brother and I were invited to spend a few days with an uncle who had just returned from abroad. He had rented a cottage in the country，although he rarely spent much time there. We understood the reason for this after our arrival: the cottage had no comfortable furniture（家具）in it；many of the windows were broken and the roof leaked（渗漏），making the whole house terrible.

On our first evening，we sat around the fire after supper listening to the stories which our uncle had to tell of his many adventures in distant countries. I was so tired after the long train journey that I would have preferred to go to bed；but I could not stand missing any of my uncle's exciting stories.

He was just in the middle of describing a rather terrifying experience he had once had when there was a loud crash from the bedroom above，the one where my brother and I were going to sleep.

"It sounds as if the roof has fallen in！"cried out my uncle，with a loud laugh.

When we got to the top of the stairs and opened the bedroom door，we could see nothing at first because of the thick clouds of dust which filled the room. When the dust began to clear，a strange sight met our eyes. A large part of the ceiling had fallen down，falling right onto the pillow（枕头）on my bed.

I was glad that I had stayed up late to listen to my uncle's stories，otherwise I should certainly have been seriously injured，perhaps killed.

That night we all slept on the floor in the sitting room downstairs，not wishing to risk our lives by sleeping under a roof which might at any moment fall down on our heads. We left for London the very next morning and my uncle gave up his cottage in the country. This was not the kind of adventure he cared for either！