There was a woman in Detroit, who has two sons. She was worried 1 them, especially the younger one, Ben, 2 he was not doing well in school. Boys in his class 3 fun of him because he seemed so 4.

    The mother 5 that she would, herself, have to get her sons to do better in school. She 6 them to go to the Detroit Public Library to read a 7 a week and do a report about it for her.

    One day, in Ben's  8, the teacher held up a rock and asked if anyone knew it. Ben 9 up his hand and the teacher let him 10. “Why did Ben raise his hand?” They wondered. He 11 said anything; what could he possibly want to say?

    Well, Ben not only 12 the rock; he said a lot about it. He named other rocks in its group and even knew 13 the teacher had found it. The teacher and the students were 14. Ben had learned all this from doing one of his book 15.

    Ben later went on to the 16 of his class. When he finished high school, he went to Yale University 17 at last became one of the best doctors in the United States.

    After Ben had grown up, he 18 something about his mother that he did not know as a 19.

    She, herself, had never learned how to  20.

    Heaviest snow in half a century hit the south of the country. It snowed continuously for half a month, 1the railways, highways, and runways in the airfields. Ice wrapped and paralyzed（使瘫痪）the power and communication system. Many people were2in railway stations, bus stations and airports, and3in cars, buses and trains. Governments and people did everything they could to fight the snow4, resulting in the good news that no one was killed from5and hunger. Gradually, trapped people all went back home6. While fighting the snow, people forgot their7until a moving story of a swallow couple was widely8on the Internet.

    Being hungry and cold, the swallow couple tried to fly9people's home to warm themselves, but every house was closed10. They jumped and flapped their wings to11the attention of the people inside the house, but failed. The wife's body was12, she could not move any longer. The husband came near and wrapped his wife with his wings. He lost his13soon because of his opened wings. The couple died in the end.

    The next morning, the housemaster went to the balcony to14his flowers because of concern and saw a15swallow outside the window pane. Touching it, he found that they were two16together. Moved to tears, he took them in, giving them some17, but in vain. He found a small cardboard box, laid them in and18them in the back garden.

    In my hometown, in the countryside, a swallow family lives in the19of my house. I wonder if they will come back this spring20they did.

    Just before Christmas, my daughter Katie and I went over to my dad's place to decorate. While we worked on the tree, grand babies Decie and Johnny 1their great-grandfather Papa Cox. Their laughter and2arguments must have reminded Papa of the past days when my brother and I were just their 3because I saw a twinkle in his 80-year-old eyes.

    Hanging the 4decorations on Papa's tree, I couldn't help gently touching the very oldest of the glass balls. Those I made sure to5from the uppermost branches, safely out of reach of tiny hands. When the tree was beautifully dressed and glowing, we bid my dad goodbye with lots of hugs and kisses and6for home. Later that night, in the quiet darkness, I pulled my 7up close and lay down to rest and remember.

    The Christmas I turned 16, while decorating the tree with Mama, I 8dropped and broke a decoration. The old glass ball was blue and its surface began to fall9 it had been on our tree for as long as I could remember.10 I bent to pick up the broken pieces and was surprised to find a tiny sheet of paper among the pieces. Unfolding it, I recognized my father's penciled writing. Lifting my eyes, I saw my mother's 11expression.

    “Your daddy wrote that and12it in that blue ball during our first Christmas together, just before you were born,” she said with a smile. I wouldn't have believed it13the proof there in my hands. The daddy I knew always looked upon getting the tree decorated as a chore he wanted 14part in. In fact, sometimes he could be a bit of a lazy and mean man around the holidays! And yet this bit of15paper proved that long ago my daddy had done something apparently romantic at Christmas.

    Carefully laying the note aside, I cleaned up the broken pieces, wishing I could somehow16the pieces. “ It's OK , ” Mama said , encouraging me with a hug. “Just pick out another of the17ones and folded the note back inside.”

    18 as we celebrate the holidays without Mama, who we lost to cancer, my19becomes more bitter. Each year as I decorate Papa's tree, I relive the moment I shared with her that winter afternoon and tears of a sadness welled out.

    As I carefully handle those old decorations, I love knowing that one holds a 20between Papa and Mama—one that was obvious to all who knew them. The note inside one of those old glass balls on Papa's tree holds the heart of my parents' marriage in three little words: “I love you.”

    One fall in the mid-1950s, I took some time off and got a train ticket to visit relatives in Cleveland. I was 1 out of school and had begun working as an office clerk. On my return trip, I noticed a couple across the aisle (通道) — a(n) 2 and a young woman — having a conversation.

    3 I realized the two of them weren't traveling together after all, but had just met on the train. The woman finally got off at Rochester, New York, leaving the soldier 4 I couldn't help noticing his good looks out of the corner of my 5

    He asked 6 he could look at the train timetable I was holding, and then if he could 7 next to me so we could chat. He's a fast mover, I thought. I'll have to 8 for this one. I invited him to 9the too-large lunch my aunt had 10 for my trip, and we 11 all the way to my stop in Oneida, and we 12 addresses and he said he would be in 13.

    After a week, I still hadn't heard from him and had begun to think he'd forgotten about me. Then, on Saturday, the phone rang and a 14 voice asked if I would like to see a movie with him that evening. He'd come to Oneida, and we 15 seeing On the Waterfront at the Kallet Theatre.

    We had a few more 16 during his Army leave, and then he was 17 overseas. For the next few years, we 18 and he visited me on other holidays. Today we've been together more than 55 years, raising three daughters who now have daughters of their own.

    Before taking my trip to Cleveland all those years ago, I was warned never to speak to 19 on a train. I'm certainly20 I didn't listen.

    In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed 1but one with quite a2 story to tell.

    My grandma, an amazing woman,3from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that 4. But one year after I started college, she 5cancer. I made the choice to stop learning at college to 6her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to7.

    Then I got married with another dream: building my 8with adopted and biological (亲生的)ones. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was9— and very exciting. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then 10son No. 3. In 2003, I 11birth to another boy.

    You can imagine how 12occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8! Our home was a complete zoo — a joyous zoo. Not surprisingly, I 13did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream, either. I 14 only one choice: to find a way. That 15taking as few as one class each semester.

    The hardest part was feeling16 about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to17, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

    In 2007, I finished my study in the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to 18my college degree!

    I am not19, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you're inside, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't arrive in your life in a day. It's a20 . Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

    Months ago, I heard from a friend about a young lady who had just moved to our area. She was a 1from another country with only her small scholarship to make a 2and had just rented a small apartment. My friend told me she had few 3. I got the young lady's telephone number and called her, 4that I was a friend of a friend and I heard she might need some household 5She said, "Yes, thank you!" and6that she had slept on the floor of the apartment with only her coat to cover her and that it was a bit7.

    As every mother knows, when our children are away we 8 worry about them, and, everyone's child is my child too! So, I9a couple of my friends about her. One cleaned out her kitchen and10pots and pans, some glassware, a blanket. Another even11brand-new dishes and glasses in the supermarket.

    When we arrived at the girl's12, we saw there was no furniture. Someone had given her a sleeping bag, otherwise it was a(n) 13apartment. After unloading our 14 we took her back to campus. She 15me over and over again and could not16that these people gave her all these things. I explained people liked to help and that others had17us before. She asked if there was anything she could do to 18 us. I told her, "Yes, there is one thing you can do for us: when you are in a 19 to help others, please remember to20and help." With a smile on her face she promised me that she would.