A week ago, my daughter said, “Mom, I don’t think I’m very athletic.”

I’ve observed her in various sports, and she is just like me: two left feet. But even knowing it, my first instinct (本能) was to snow her with some________ “Oh, you’re actnally good at sports!”

I held back, however, and after thinking twice, I told her the________: “No, you’re kind of not.”

And I could see it hurt a bit. So I________: “Dear, everyone may have a natural talent for something. Like you and________: You’re a 5^th grader and read Charles Dickens. But we also have things we are not________. If we want to reach a satisfactory level at those things, we have to________twice the effort and if we want to________we need to try even harder.”

She was nodding. She totally________it. Why? Because it’s the truth. Sometimes I wonder why we run around telling our kids some rubbish that don’t even________when they can actually accept the truth. Besides, when they realize we are lying, we________our credibility.

I want my kids to have a_______understanding of themselves so they won’t be________when things get tough. They can be Olympians, but nobody is going to band it to them and________may work against them. They will understand that many things________a nearly huge amount of WORK. They can’t just expect something to happen. They________it happen.

Mrs. Oren, with her family, lived down the block from us. We were four kids living with our parents happily.

Our happiness _______. I was 14 and my youngest sister was 4 when our mother passed away suddenly. _______, Mrs. Oren always stayed by our side. I was already an “independent” teenager, but she _______ my youngest sister every day while our dad was _______ and the rest of us were at school.

My morning _______ on school days included getting up with the alarm clock as Dad already went to work, and _______ the “kids” to get them ready for school. One morning, I felt so _______ while making breakfast. The next thing I _______ was that I was lying on the floor in the _______, with the world spinning around me.

It was heartbreaking that I soon ________ my sisters crying and throwing up. But I could do nothing, feeling so ________. Suddenly, the door opened and Mrs. Oren came in! We were ________ to the hospital in her car. It turned out that she came to our house that morning ________ to look after my youngest sister, only to find the frightening ________. Later, Mrs. Oren told us we all got gas poisoning.

What would have happened to us but for a caring ________ who kept an eye on us every day?