It was the middle of the winter 30 years ago. I struggled to live as a young father with two little children _________ on me. My college education, however, _________ helped me find a good job. I worked in a sawmill (锯木厂), cutting, packaging and sending wood. The job was _________, but the pay was low. Cutting wood for eight hours a day extremely _________ my fingers, which were bleeding at their tips in the cold, dry winter air.

One day, I drove my old car in the _________ to the sawmill. The work was harder than normal. The machines kept _________. We had to repair them once in a while. We were worn out and out of _________. All the heaters didn’t work, but we spent hours in the cold air packaging the hard wood to be _________ across the country in the trucks.

When the work day finally ended, I felt really _________. I took off my gloves and checked my __________. They were bleeding again, and I felt more __________ than ever. The snow was still falling. I got into my car, started the __________ and drove back home. Looking at the aching fingers, I tried to hold back my tears because I knew it was no use __________. I believed that everything would get better with effort.

Then I tried to put a __________ on my face as I opened my door. My children ran up to me, calling out, “Daddy!” My wife had prepared a rich meal. My heart was suddenly filled with happiness and warmth. I realized that it was __________ to work for my family.

The arrival of spring always means a trip to the bamboo forest for Kaitlyn Hennacy and her family, followed by an afternoon making bamboo buns (包子). This ________ started when Hennacy’s mother and grandmother discovered ________ bamboo growing near the University of Maryland, where her mom was studying in the early 1990s. Hennacy said her grandmother immigrated to the U.S. from Zhejiang, China, where she ________ cooking with bamboo often.

The trip to ________ bamboo usually happens in late April. Each person in the group has their own bag to ________ as they get each bamboo shoot out of the ground. However, no one picks more bamboo than Grandma. The entire ________ of picking the bamboo and making the buns reminds Hennacy of how ________ her grandma is — and it ________ her own work ethic. “She turned 80 this year and still hikes up a hill,” Hennacy said.

To make buns, the bamboo has to be cut into small pieces and ________ with other fillings. Hennacy learned how to make the buns by ________ her grandma, but she had to work to measure everything and write it down because her grandmother cooks from ________.

Hennacy said she and her family are ________ to have Grandma living with them. She ________ everyone’s favorite foods and routinely ________ healthy meals. “That’s how ________ a person she is.”

Hennacy said. “She shows her love through cooking.”