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！

   It was Christmas evening. I just _______ home from the nearby grocery store with all kinds of things. The kitchen was _______ with brown bags and boxes. On seeing me coming back, my youngest son, Isaiah, reached me and _______ if I would play a game with him.

I took Isaiah's _______ . He stood there and his green eyes were _______ . “Here is a Christmas _______   for you. Please find it. You can look for something silver. ” he said. I began to do it. I _______ the table in the corner and some other places.

After a few seconds, I saw there was a _______ snow globe on the top of the piano. It was silvery and beautiful. I held the cool _______ in my hands. Isaiah said to me that it was to ________ the one that he had broken the year before. I was puzzled completely. So I bent(弯曲) my ________ beside him. He added how he ________ enough money and asked his elder brother,Logan, to help him buy this one to ________ the broken one. They just wanted to give me a (n) ________ .

Logan nodded and smiled. When I ________ the key on the bottom of the globe, the quiet room was full of music. Isaiah said,“Mum, do you remember how I by accident ________ your snow globe? It broke on the ground ________ the music was still going on. I was so,so sad. ”His face turned a little ________ . But the truth was that I did not quite ________ the broken snow globe after a long time. But Isaiah had been sorry for his ________ all the time. I was sure I would keep this snow globe in my mind forever.

   I was surprised when I received a short message from my father wishing me a happy birthday.

I had _____ to hear from my mother，my grandmother and my other relatives，but never from my father. Lying in bed，_____ of my father flooded back.

When I was a little boy，I regarded my father as a（n）_____  able to do anything. _____ ，things slowly began to _____ .The more I learned，the more I doubted what he said. The gap between us _____ and，at last，I didn't even like communicating with him.

My father，in my mind，had no _____ in talking with me. Dinner was the only time we were together. He had no time to watch TV with me. He would tell me to ask my mother _____ I needed something. He even refused to answer my _____ when I phoned from school. I got ______ the changes. I thought that perhaps my father no longer ______ me.

Over time, however, I began to wonder whether my ______ was right. One day, my mother told me that each time I called, my father was always ______ beside her. Suddenly, I hated myself for my ______ behavior toward him.

I planned thousands of times to ______ to my father. In the end, however, I was always too embarrassed about what I had done.

But that Saturday, I was so ______ by his short message. I ______ then that my father's love for me had never disappeared. I decided to send a ______ “Thank you, my dear father.”

Two days later, when I returned home, my mother told me that my father had been so ______ when he received my reply. She said he had ______ from morning till night. At that moment, I felt truly happy.

   Super-dad Alan Lawrence，a photographer from Utah，has posted some amazing photos of his son flying in the air.

Lawrence said his two-year-old _____ Wil was born with a terrible disease — Down Syndrome，_____Lawrence is determined that this won't _____ him back in life.

When Wil was little，he would lie on his stomach and _____ his arms and legs like he was flying. “It wasn't something any of my other _____ did. My family would always _____ that he was trying so hard that one day he would start _____ ，”Lawrence told USA TODAY.

He decided to make Wi's flight a _____ by using Photoshop to create images of Wil hovering（盘旋）_____ places the family had visited.

The series of ______ ，called“Wil Can Fly”，is part of a 2016 calendar，with half the earnings from sales donated to two Down Syndrome funds.“The series ______ a reminder that people with Down Syndrome can do ______ they set their minds to，”Lawrence said.

Though appearing happy，Alan admitted that he and his wife didn't always feel so ______.“After the doctor informed us that he had Down Syndrome，we had ______. We weren't quite sure what the ______ held for our family，and we were ______ and knew very little about what to expect.”

However，these fears soon ______ once Wil was born. Alan explained:“In the short two years since he ______ ，he has helped our family grow in ways we didn't realize we needed. Our family with Wil is happy.”

And now they' re on their way to ______ this love and knowledge, saying“We want to show the world that you can have a ______ life with a child with Down Syndrome.”

   I grew up on a 10-acre farm in the small rural community of Catawissa，Missouri，as the sixth of seven children. My parents，Archie and Altha，often _________ during meals how everything on the table came from the _________.

Besides running the farm，Dad was also a _________. in the fall of 1970，he was working on a house when the ladder broke all at once. His back was fractured（折断）in two places and _________ needed rescue.

He stayed in the hospital for three weeks，_________his back to be treated correctly so the bones would _________ perfectly.

On Thanksgiving Day，Dad was still in the hospital. We always _________ pigs the day after the holiday so that we had enough pork _________for the next year，and that year my uncle _________ with a couple of cousins to help my three older brothers prepare our year's supply.

After Dad returned home，he was in a back brace and saddened for __________ to work. Worse still，the doctor told us his chance of complete recovery was __________. I was too young to realize our family had no __________ coming in as Christmas approached.

One night we heard a car coming up the long driveway. Always __________ about company（客人），we kids were curious about who was visiting.

Peggy Phelan was at the door，holding an envelope __________ with money which，according to her account，she had __________ in the community. And she was there to __________ it！

Dad tried to __________ but Peggy would have none of it. I can still hear her saying，"Archie，whenever someone's baler（压捆机）is broken，you bale their hay. Every time someone passes away，Altha is cooking. It's our __________."

That evening，I understood what being a good neighbor was，and that __________ my parents were good neighbors, their __________ would be paid back.