In the early hours of 7 September 1838, one of the worst storms in history was roaring（咆哮）along the coast of England. The lighthouse keeper1at a ship. “It will be gone in a few more minutes,” he said sadly. His daughter, Grace Darling, looking from an upstairs window, found the great ship had 2 against the rocks and broken into halves.

     “Can't we save them?” Grace asked when she saw the3people on the ship. “Isn't there any way to help them?”

“No one can take a lifeboat out in that water,” her father answered. “The waves（浪）are too large.”

    Grace had great4.She simply did not know how to give up. Filled with pity, she ran to the lifeboat quickly. Her father5. With tears running down his face, he begged his daughter not to get into the boat, 6 she would not listen. Her father could not let her go alone. He climbed in too. The two of them rowed in a great hurry. Each wave seemed 7to throw them into the sea at any time.

    Suddenly there was a terrible roar. The storm had 8the ship in two. People were holding on to each half tightly（紧紧地）.They had to be saved soon.

    Grace and her father rowed faster. Soon they reached the ship and began filling the lifeboat with9. Then father and daughter brought their lifeboat safely to shore.

    As news of her brave saving action reached the public, the whole country considered her as a national hero. Grace and her father received the Silver Medal10from the British government. To this day a small statue stands above the grave（墓）of Grace Darling. People still respect the young woman who refused to give up.

    One evening last summer, when I asked my 14- year- old son, Ray，for help with dinner, his response(回答)shocked me. "What's a colander(漏勺)?" he asked. I could only blame 1. In the family, nobody else went into the kitchen except me. But that night, as I2to him that a colander is the thing with holes in it，I wondered what else I hadn't3Ray for.

    As parents，while we focus on our sons' confidence and character，we perhaps don't always consider that we are4raising someone's future roommates，boyfriends，husbands，or fathers5I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course. I was 6to find that he didn't say no. For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine.

    I knew that he would rather have been playing basketball with friends than7to mend socks with his mother，but in fact he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. "I appreciate(感激)what you do8a mom," he told me one day. Ray now realizes there's9masculine(男子气概的)about being helpless.

    Now，not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family. That's 10I call a man. I'm glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in-law.

    A little girl lived in a simple and poor house on a hill. Usually she would play in the small garden. She could see over the garden fence and across the valley a wonderful house with shining golden windows high on another hill. 1 she loved her parents and her family, she desired(渴望) to live in such a house and 2 all day about how wonderful and exciting it must feel to live there.

    At the age when she gained some 3 skill and sensibility(识别力), she begged her mother for a bike ride 4 the garden. Her mother finally allowed her to go, insisting on(坚持) her keeping close to the house and not 5 too far. The day was beautiful. The little girl knew exactly where she was heading! 6 the hill and across the valley, she rode to the gate of the golden house. As she got off her bike and put it against the gate post, she focused on the path 7 to the house and then on the house itself. She was very disappointed when she found that all the windows were plain（朴素的） and rather dirty. So sad and heart- broken, she didn't go any further. 

    She 8, and all of a sudden she saw an amazing 9. There on the other side of the valley was a little house and its windows were golden. Looking at her little home, she 10 that she had been living in her golden house filled with love and care. Everything she dreamed was right there in front of her nose!