Cooking in my backyard and having a group of people around here would be the best way to spend a lazy summer Saturday. But this Saturday I was turning 50 and my wife, Julie, ____________a party.

Normally I love parties. ____________everyone I know say, “Happy birthday, old man!” and hand me_____________

To tell the truth, I wasn’t____________to turn 50.There were so many dreams I wished I’d____________that I hadn’t got enough time to try, businesses I’d dreamed about starting and some places I’d planned to____________I’d wanted this day to pass as____________as possible. But that wasn’t decided by me. When Julie makes her____________to something, it’s best not to argue. She’d got up early____________.

Guests showed up. I tried not to flinch (退缩) ____________someone said, “Hey, old man”, and touched me on the back. Then, Julie____________quietness to the guests. “I have a surprise,” she said to me, “I’ve asked everyone to share their____________memory of you.“You and I built a business together,” my dad said. “A business I am ____________of.” My daughter Jamie said,“ I will never forget the day you ____________our little cat from under the car. That little cat was the love of my life.”

“You saved me on Highway 78,” my mother-in-law____________ “It was a hot day and my car broke down.” “You taught me how to fish,” my son, Thomas   said.“And how to kick a football.”

“My softball games,” my daughter Katie added. “You never missed one.” ____________I heard their praise. Age 50, is that a time____________men start crying? The meat was done. I put it onto a big plate, cut it and filled the waiting plates. “Man, this smells good,” my uncle David said. That____________me of how my Andy and I had experimented with this recipe (食谱)till we got it just right.

I looked around the____________ Here I was surrounded by family and friends, by love and wonderful memories. Fifty years of happiness was worth____________ “Thank all of you for coming,” I said. “Now let’s eat!”

“Mum, you’re always on the computer!” Laure complained.

“No, I’m not.” I _______.

“Every day I come home from school you’re working on the computer.”

“Well, at least I’m here _______you!”

My daughter was right. Day after day, in my home office, I would stare into space as my_______typed out the thoughts of a speaker or research completed for an article. It seemed that my work as a writer and speaker _______ my fingers to the keyboard and my mind to valuable ideas. What Laure did not _______was that during her day away, I’d also be doing a lot of housework. It was only around three in the afternoon that I’d _______seat myself at my desk for a few _______moments of deep thought. Then she’d come in from school.

I was _______of myself on being available to my children. After all, I am a speaker on child behavior and parenting. But Laure’s observation _______my heart. In her eyes, I must have been a mom who was __________but unapproachable. I wouldn’t make such an image (形象) before her. My relationship with my children is more__________than any other work.

“Laure,” I called, “come here a minute.”

She wandered to my doorway. I had decided to have her __________me when I was too devoted to work. I wanted her to have the __________to let me know when she thought I was cold.

After I explained my __________and the fact that I chose home office to be accessible to her and her sister, I offered Laure the following __________.

“Whenever you feel I’m ignoring you or you need my __________,I want you to __________me, I said, “just come up and give me a little hug, that’ll be our signal that you__________me.”

Years later we still have that __________sign. I’ve become much more sensitive to my daughters’comings and goings.__________ she always gives me a little hug to remind me of the real reason I work at home.

Tiffany Hammond and her son Aidan communicate in some familiar ways, like hand gestures and body language. But when Aidan wants to ______ himself with words, he uses a tablet (平板电脑).

Aidan is autistic (患孤独症的) and does not speak, so when his mom asks ______ , he can press a button on the screen to answer them. The family has designed routines around his autism, but people outside the household don’t ______ .

“Every single time we go outside the house, there’s something bad happening. There’s a______ , and there’s a mean stare,” Hammond said. “And he feels lonely a lot.”   However, that loneliness and those reactions from outsiders ______ Hammond to find a way to ______the ways in which people with autism can express. They just communicate in a(n) ______type of way. The result of this experience is a children’s book from Hammond titled A Day With No Words. The book followed Aidan through a regular day, showing his ______routines.

Hammond also wrote about the ______ of the book to want people to give kindness and the goal she hoped to ______ with the writing.

In an interview, Hammond said,   “I want to ______ all the things that I see in him. He loves being outside and swings, and he loves life. He is ______ like other people. I want to______ the regular life that I have with my son, and it is supposed to ______ a loving letter to him.”

______, a day with no words can be full of meaningful communication.