I grew up in a small town. There was a man named Joe, who was uneducated and couldn’t talk _______. He was good-natured but not very smart, _______ everyone teased him.

One day when I was sitting on the porch, he came walking by. I was about 12 and thought it would make me _______ grown-up to play jokes on him as some _______ did.

He asked what I was doing. I told him that my father had _______ his job and that we were short of money. I could see my friends nearby _______ so I went on with the _______. From his _______ expression, I was convinced that I had fooled him ________

I knew he lived a ________ life with low income, so it was ________ when he asked whether we needed anything. I told him that we didn’t know if we would have enough to ________, and he replied, “You poon thing.”

That night I heard the door ________ softly. I thought it was the wind whipping against the door, so I ________ it. The next morning I found a small box of food outside my house. I knew it was from Joe. I looked into the box of canned food with ________ in my eyes. I felt ashamed of taking advantage of his ________ for me. Later I ________ the whole story to my father and said I wanted to return the box. My father scolded me and ________ that I keep the box; otherwise it would hurt Joe’s feelings.

Although the food was not ________, I knew Joe gave the best he had. I did not ________ the gift.

   My little daughter, you taught me how selfless the real love is!

My wife called, “How long will you be with that _____? Could you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?” I threw the paper away and _____ to the place. My daughter Sindu sat there, tears welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a big bowl of rice.

I _____ the bowl and said, “Sindu, why not take a few mouthfuls of the rice?”

“OK, Dad. I will eat — not just a few mouthfuls, _____ the whole lot of this. But…” Sindu hesitated. “Dad, if I eat the whole rice, will you give me what I _____?”

“Promise,”I _____.

After eating the rice painfully, Sindu came to me, her eyes wide with _____. Now I became a bit _____. I said, “Dear, you shouldn’t insist on _____ a computer or any such ______ things. Dad does not have that kind of money right now.” ______, “I want to have my hair shaved off (剃掉), this Sunday!” was her requirement, which was far ______ my belief.

On Monday morning, I ______ Sindu at her school and watched her walking towards her classroom. She turned around and ______. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy, who just got out of a car, shouted, “Sindu, please wait for me!” What ______ me was the hairless head of that boy.

“Sir, your daughter is ______ indeed!” Without introducing herself, a lady standing beside me continued, “That boy is my son, who lost all his ______ because of a disease. He ______ to come back to school for fearing the unintentional (无意的) but ______ teases (取笑) of the schoolmates. Sindu visited him last week, and promised him that she would take care of the teasing problem. But I ______ imagined she would cut her lovely hair for my son!”

   54-year- old Abdul has a special job. He has been working as a living statue (活雕像) for over three decades, standing perfectly still for six hours a day and resisting people’s attempts to make him move or smile, anything that proves he is a living person.

Abdul, known as “India’s Statue Man”, has been performing his daily routine ever since 1985, soon after getting a job as a security guard. His boss had ever traveled to the UK, where he was so impressed by the statue-like members of the Royal Guard outside Buckingham Palace that he wanted to do something similar back home. So he had his guards receive three months of training, where they would sit perfectly still for around four hours. They weren’t allowed to talk, smile, eat, drink, or even shoo away a fly if it sat on their faces. In the end, Abdul proved the best of the group, so he got the strange job.

Abdul isn’t the only person in the world acting as a living statue, but what makes him special is the fact that he can do it for as long as six hours without even blinking his eyes. Once, a $155 prize was put up for anyone who can make him move a muscle. But try as they might, no one had ever succeeded. Actually, Abdul tries to move about as much as he can in his spare time, and only eats healthy home-cooked food to keep his body in shape. But he claims yoga has been the biggest help. In the 12 years, Abdul has become a celebrity in India and other Asian countries. Many Bollywood celebrities have come to witness this living statue and try to make him move, but none have succeeded finally.

Abdul earns about 10,000 rupees ($156) a month, which is enough to support his family, but definitely not enough to encourage his children to follow in his footsteps. It’s just too stressful and taxing (费力的) on the body. “Despite all the hardship and health problems, I love my job and I am thankful to people for the love and respect they have showered on me,” he says. “When the time comes, I want to die playing a statue.”