People from every corner flooded into the streets that Christmas Eve. "Frosty the Snowman," and "Jingle Bells" 1 in stores; on the pavements, the street singers performed happily. Everyone was 2 by someone else, delighted and cheerful. I was alone.

    As one of 8 kids of a Brazilian family, brought up in America's crowded apartment, I'd spent several years searching for aloneness. Now,3, at 27, a college student after the 4 with my girlfriend, every cell inside me wanted to be alone,5  not at Christmas. My family had 6to Brazil and my friends were 7with their own lives. Dusk was approaching, and the fact that I had to return to my 8 home made me sad. Lights from windows blinked (闪烁), and I hoped someone would 9 from one of those homes to invite me inside with a Christmas tree decorated with shiny fake snow and 10 presents.

    At a market, I felt more 11 when people were buying lots of goods, which12 the gifts we received as children in my mind. I missed my family and wanted to cry for wanting to be alone and for having achieved it.

    Outside the church, a manger (小耶稣) had been set 13. I stood with others watching the scene, some of them 14 themselves, praying. As I walked home, I realized that leaving Brazil was still a painful experience as I struggled with 15 I had become in 15 years in America. I'd mourned (悲叹) the 16, but for the first time, I recognized what I'd gained. I was independent, 17 and healthy. My life was still ahead, full of 18.

    Sometimes the best gift is the one that you give yourself. That Christmas, I gave myself 19 for what I'd obtained up to now and promise to go forward. It is the best gift I've ever got, the one that I most 20.

    When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team.That meant1Miller King,who was the best2at our school.

Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out.I carried my football everywhere for 3.

    Just before September,Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm.I went to see him after he came back from4.He looked very5,but he didn't cry.

    That season,I6all of Miller's records while he7the home games from the bench.We went 10-1 and I was named most valuable player,8I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller's9.

    One afternoon,I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller10when he was going over a fence—which wasn't_11to climb if you had both arms.I'm sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept12form. But even that challenge he accepted.I13him move slowly ever the fence.When we were finally 14on the other side,he said to me,“You know,I didn't tell you this during the season,but you did15.Thank you for filling in for 16”

    His words freed me from my bad17.I thought to myself,how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated,he was18ahead of me.I was right to have19him.From that day on,I grew20and a little more real.

    The professor's house，big and untidy，stood alone at one end of a huge garden. The place was totally uncared for, quite 1 and overgrown with all sorts of useless things. I2my way through bushes and tall weeds to the front door and rang the bell.

    I was glad that I had found him. In twenty minutes, he 3 me right on all the 4 that had puzzled me. I was on the 5 of leaving when I looked out of his study window and said, “You're very fond of gardening, I see.”

    “No, I'm not,” he said. “ 6, I love this garden, though. It's 7 I always wanted it to be. I never touch it at all.”

    “It could be made lovely. It 8 a pity to let all this ground go to waste. But perhaps you don't 9 that way?” said I.

    “I don't. I lived here when I was a child, and I had 10 of gardening then. It was my father's hobby，you see. Unfortunately, he wasn't 11 enough to do it himself. My brother and I did all of it between us year after year. There was one right way and many wrong ways. Each blade (叶片) of grass was an enemy to be 12 by hand, not just cut off. I've spent a good part of life at work here.”

    “I see. You took a dislike to it, and now you're getting even!”

    “I dislike it. Then, of course, I didn't understand the 13 it had. It used to 14 me. It appeared in my dreams—a mistake here, something not quite straight here, the enemy showing its head in a place I was 15 to have cleaned. The work was too much. It seemed endless. The size of the place was itself a fight to a boy.”

    “And now it's yours，you're just letting it go to...”

    “16?” he said. “No，I don't agree with that. This garden and I are now the best friends. I like17 it grow18 its own way. I make no demands on it. I never disturb it, and it never disturbs me. It has19at last, and so have I.”

    “But the path is over grown. It's inconvenient for you，isn't it?”

    “That's part of my20” he laughed. “You can go out the back way. The weeds are shorter there because they don't get the sun.”

    “A bird with a broken wing will never fly as high.” I'm sure that John would agree with this saying1he felt this way almost every day in school.

    By high school, John was the most famous2in his town. He was always absent, didn't answer questions and got into 3He had failed almost every exam by the time he entered his senior year, yet was 4each year to a higher grade level. Teachers didn't want to 5 him again the following year. John was moving on, but definitely not moving 6

    I met John for the first time at a weekend leadership training program since John was one of 405 students who7At the start of the training, John was just standing 8the circle of students, against the back wall. He didn't 9 join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games 10 him in.

    The ice really melted (融化) when the groups started building a list of 11and negative things that had occurred at school that year. John12 some constructive ideas on those situations. The other students in John's group 13 his comments. All of a sudden John felt like a 14 of the group, and before long he was 15 like a leader. By the end of the training, he had joined the Homeless Project team. The other students on the team were 16 with his passionate concern and ideas. They17 elected John co-chairman of the team.

    John started18at school every day and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a second project19300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes for the homeless shelter.

A bird with a broken wing only needs20. Once healed, it can fly higher than the rest.

    The other night, I had to go to a meeting, which lasted past my daughter's bedtime. I 1  home and was brushing my teeth when I 2, and there on the bathroom mirror was a note in the  3 of a heart. It said, “Hi, Mom! I Love You. Laurel. ” 4, I cut a heart out of a piece of paper, and pasted(贴) a(n) 5 next to hers, saying, “I Love You, too, Laurel. Love, Mom”, which she  6 the next morning.

    Our family has 7 that by integrating(互相) writing into our 8 activities, we become more thoughtful of each other. Meanwhile, our daughter is learning to enjoy writing and becoming a(n) 9 writer.

    While teaching in a primary school, I 10 how influential parents can be as children learn to write. 11 when our daughter first began to scribble（乱涂）, I became 12 by her work. I offered praise for her 13, for I found that scribbling is far more complex and important than I had 14. It was obvious that her scribbles, 15 being lovely art objects, showed a lot about her 16 of the world of writing.

    Gradually, our family began writing a great deal. I sensed that writing helped Laurel learn 17 to read. As a matter of fact, by 18 my own child and her friends and by reading professional books, I became more and more 19 about how writing develops and how 20 can help children become eager writers.

    In the clinic, I asked if Michael could be retested, so the specialist tested him again. To my 1, it was the same score.

    Later that evening, I2 told Frank what I had learned that day. After talking it over, we agree that we knew our 3 much better than an IQ test. We 4 that Michael's score must have been a 5 and we should treat him 6as usual.

    We moved to Indiana in 1962, and Michael studied at Concordia High School in the same year. He got 7 grades in the school, especially 8 biology and chemistry, which was a great comfort.

    Michael 9 Indiana University in 1965 as a pre-medical student, soon afterwards, his teachers permitted him to take more courses than 10. In 1968, he was accepted by the School of Medicine, Yale University.

    On graduation day in 1972, Frank and I 11 the ceremony at Yale. After the ceremony, we told Michael about the 12 IQ score he got when he was six. Since that day, Michael sometimes would look at us and say 13, “My dear mom and dad never told me that I couldn't be a doctor, not until after I graduated from medical school!” It is his special way of thanking us for the 14 we had in him.

    Interestingly, Michael then 15 another IQ test. We went to the same clinic where he had 16 the test eighteen years before. This time Michael scored 126, an increase of 36 points. A result like that was supposed to be 17.

    Children often do as 18 as what adults, particularly parents and teachers, 19 of them. That is, tell a child he is “ 20”, and he may play the role of a foolish child.