The other day I was offered two tickets to a special preview of the latest movie for free. I wasn’t interested,   ___ I knew my two boys would be.

That evening, we were a bit ____ for time. So instead of having dinner at home, we had fast food near the movie theater Oscar. There went the ____ of eight movie tickets.

Then I met up with a friend and we sat around ____ for a while , and another movie ticket went into a cup of coffee, After that, we figured we might as well ____ around until the movie ended to pick up the boys. To help ___   the time, I bought snacks. However, the ____ went for an hour longer than expected. To watch the free movie, we always have to ____ an hour of ads.

Oh, did I ____ parking and fighting my way through the ____ to get to the right theater? I could have sent the ___ to a movie theater in walking distance and had enough ____ left over to watch ten mare movies!

Next time I’m offered something free, I’ll ____ refuse it.

I should have known better. ___ in 2004, I built my own business. One of my marketing strategies is that I often offer free gifts, I said “probably” because “free” is just the most irresistible ____ in your marketing language. And it always ____.

If you don’t believe me, next time when you do a promotion, ____ this test: one with and one without the free ___. You will be amazed by how many people will ____ hundreds of dollars to get   something for ____!

Christmas was near a season that we took seriously in our house. But a week or so before the 25th, my father would give each of his children $ 20. This was the 1970s, and $ 20 was quite a bit of money.

But I saw it ___. My father trusted me to have the ________ to spend money wisely. Even better, he gave me the ____ to get it. On a very basic level ,my father was giving me a shopping spree（狂欢）every year. But he was also giving me charge over my own fun, trusting my ability to ____ money and making me feel like a/an _______. He didn't buy me Sherlock Holmes, but he gave me the means to walk into the bookstore and choose it for myself, so it felt like a gift from him.

My mother had a/an____for giving me what I needed, usually____at the moment I needed it most. This was when I was 25, I _____at being an adult on my very first try. I had quitted my ___job but had no new one. But when my mother____me a visit, I____a good show, telling her I had started my own company.

My mother knew that I was trying hard and failing at that time. It wasn't until____she left that I noticed at the foot of my bed an envelope thick with _________. She knew how _______ I needed it. She knew that had she just shown up with groceries, or____to pay my rent, she would have made me feel much __________ . The cold, hard cash meant she was helping me. And, funnily enough, the____with which she gave the gift felt like she was giving me space to ___my life and preserve my dignity. My mother and father both did the same thing. One was giving me the means to take my own ____ ,and the other was giving me a second ____ when those decisions had cost me dearly.