Financial trouble had distanced us from the life that was. We decided to _________ our home. But first, we’d have to deal with two hugely _________ hollies (冬青树) that have overtaken the front of the house.

We called landscapers (园艺师). The news wasn’t _________. 20-plus years of neglect left us with only two _________: Let them be or tear them out. The idea of cutting off all that life just for a better view _________ us. We have never owned any green thing that grew well, except for those crazy hollies. But we still scheduled the _________.

Over the two weeks before cutting, though, the trees _________ me. So I emailed one last landscaper. I pinned my hopes on that. Daria came to our front lawn and said, “These can’t be trimmed (修剪).” “The trunks are too _________,” she added. “I can cut them down to about 2 feet of trunk and see if they’ll grow.”

See if they’ll grow? Months? Years? I said nothing, but Daria could read our _________. “If nothing happens,” she said, “we’ll get you some new ones.” We gave her the green light.

But weeks later, I __________ the front bed. Three or four bunches of tiny leaves __________ from one trunk. It was the __________ of small, good things arriving.

Each day, they made us smile, __________ us to have patience and gave us hope that all of us have the __________ to heal. For that, we thank those quiet, strong hollies, now __________ to the spring, as we look forward to starting fresh.

I tried to play with some kid at recess(课间休息) and one of them pushed me away. So I _______ played by myself, my daughter told me after her first day at primary school. For most people it was no big deal, but I felt quite _______

I never really _______ school. It didn’t help that my family moved around a lot so it felt like I was always moving to a _______school.This also _______ that I spent much time as a child playing by myself.I _______ most children don't like playing by themselves.A _______ child is not usually a happy child.

Despite this before my daughter started school , I wasn't worried I'd chosen a local public school for my daughter and many people said the school was a(n)_______ one. And yet only two days in she'd been by herself at recess-I was close to losing my _______I found myself at midnight searching for the local private schools. A look at fees, however, put an end to that________

It was then that I stopped and gave myself another reality ________my daughter had only been in school for two days and I was already considering________ schools. I needed to give her a ________ to work things out before I made any rash(轻率的) decisions. I told myself that the start of school can often not be a(n) ________ one, and like every new beginning it takes ________to get used to it