My father was one of the most intelligent people I knew, but his mind was so focused on big issues that he often forgot about daily matters. He’d have to be ________ to buy birthday and Christmas presents, but he would sometimes ________ out of the blue with silver earrings for Mom or stained-glass keepsake boxes for my sister and me.

He was so thrifty (节俭的) that he never ________ out anything, including clothes, and he was color-blind——a(n) ________ combination, as far as his clothing was concerned. Despite our best ________, my mom and I never managed to cure him of his ________ for pocket protectors. When he went to work each day, he always wore one in his shirt pocket, ________ with pens and mechanical pencils. He also never noticed when his curly, mad-scientist-looking ________ grew higher and higher, so my mom would have to ________ him into a kitchen chair to cut it herself. “It looks fine,” he’d protest.

One year on Halloween, my ________ and I dressed him in a pair of too short plaid (格子花纹) pants that he’d kept since high school, ________ them with a shirt in mismatched colors, added a full pocket protector, and ________ tape around the middle of his heavy framed glasses. His hair had grown so long and ________ that it looked like Einstein’s. Apart from the tape on his glasses, he thought he looked like he was dressed for a ________ day at work.

Just imagine how ________ my dad was when his nerd (书呆子) look won him the prize for best costume.

My mother sewed dresses. She worked in a factory by _________ and brought home dresses at night. She had to _________ my brother, my sister, and me. My father had died when I was ten.       

Every night when she _________, I would meet my mother at the train stop and help her carry home a lot of unsewn cloth. She’d start to _________ as soon as she got home. She’d stop to make us _________, and after that, while we kids read or listened to music, she would _________ over her sewing machine again to continue sewing dresses. Sometimes she’d get her thumb caught under the sewing _________. She’d cry out in pain but _________ a bandage and go back to work. Watching her made me _________ to be so good at something I loved that my mother wouldn’t have to work again.

I sat next to my mother as she ____________. Every now and then she’d ____________ up pieces of new cloth to be sewn, feel the dress between her fingers, and set it aside ____________. She’d say, “I only work on quality dresses.” Our family needed ____________. But my mother would not sew a ____________ that was not up to her ____________. She showed me that people should take ____________ in what they do.

I thought of my mother years later as I began my career, enjoyed ____________, and faced setbacks. I was determined to be so successful to make up for all my mother had ____________ for us. But when a producer told me to record a song I considered silly or ____________, I’d think of my mother and tell him, “Sorry, I only work on ____________ material.”

Five boys, aged 11, were playing at Clove Lakes Park. Then they _________ an open drain(排水管)and decided to get in. After _________ for about 10 minutes in it, the boys realized that they were _________ and decided to call 911.

“We’re _________ in the drain. We can’t find the way out,” one boy said to the 911 operator.

Following this call, firefighters were immediately sent off to the area where the boys said they’d entered the drain. Rescue teams found the boys’ _________ backpacks and jackets at the mouth of the drain.

Rescuers _________ to enter the drain. But the tunnel’s 40-inch opening _________ to about 30 inches further in, making it too small for the _________ to get in. So they decided to find another _________ .

While the rescuers were searching, the 911 operator instructed the boys to scream as loud as they could to catch their __________ .

Luckily,this strategy proved __________ , and rescuers were able to locate and enter a manhole(检修孔)to the boys’ __________ . Rescuers used ropes to __________ themselves down into the drain and found all five boys. __________ , none of the kids were injured.

In total, the boys spent roughly an hour in the drain, moving a quarter mile through the dark with a __________ for guidance.