From the time I lined up my dolls on the sofa in playschool, I wanted to be a teacher. “Open your books.” I would _____ my teddy bear and dolls. Then I would ______ teach them whatever new things I had just ____ at school.

For me, dream was one thing, and ______ was quite another. My family was too poor to ______ my further education. Finally, with others’ help, I attended a state university. However, I ______ needed more money to pay for my other expenses, so I found a part-time job, ______ test tubes in the science department. At then I believed that every dirty test tube I washed meant I was one step closer to my _______.

When working as a substitute (代替) teacher in the local area, I learned they were planning to _______the biology teacher I had substituted for. I was sure the _______was meant for me. However, the headmaster said, “You’re too ______. This last teacher had a lot of discipline problems because of his age. We want someone older -- with more ______.”

I cried all the way to work, disappointed and _______. Suddenly, a stranger who I met by chance asked me what had happened. I told him how much I wanted to _______and how sad I was ______ because of my age. Then I also shared some of my thoughts with him. He _______ me, “Never lose heart. I believe you can make it.” The next morning my phone rang. It was the headmaster calling to offer me the _______position. I was very ______ and asked him why. He explained, “You made quite an impression on the chairman of our Board of Directors. He ______ that you should have this position.” A few weeks later, I stood by the door of my classroom, welcoming my ______ on their first day of school. When they were settled, I said with a smile, “Open your books.”

When my aunt’s children were small, she decided to get them a puppy. Her neighbor’s dog had given _______ to a couple of puppies a few weeks earlier and so my aunt arranged to _______ one of the puppies once they had been weaned(断奶).

The day came to bring home the little puppy and the children were_______; they named it Shorty happily and _______ welcomed it, preparing its food and a comfortable _______ in a basket. The next day the children gave it some milk before kissing it goodbye and_______ for school. When they returned, they were _______   to discover that Shorty was missing. They _______ the whole house inch by inch, _______ it was nowhere to be found. A few hours later, the ________ who sold them the puppy came over carrying Shorty,________. He explained that the mother dog had slid into my aunt’s house and carried the puppy back to his home.

For a number of days my aunt and her neighbour tried ________ to keep the puppy in his new home, because each day the mother dog would________ it from the tiny bed. Finally, my aunt’s neighbour gave up and offered her a refund.

I came to realize that mother’s love is flowing all over the places you can imagine, ________ in the kingdom of animals. By the way, if you would like to keep a puppy as a ________ you might as well keep the mother dog at a distance.

After a whole week of rain we finally had a comfortable, beautiful summer day outside. My family and I were driving to a nearby town when my daughter _________ a yard sale. Then, a few miles down the road, we saw another, and another, and another, We saw tables full of knickknacks. We saw plates, glasses, and silverware. _________, we saw lots of smiling people talking, laughing, sitting, and standing in the sunshine.

Seeing all of this brought back _________ of my childhood. Most of the clothes in my closet back then came from _________. My mom was a talented yard sale-shopper. When I was little, she would drag me along with her. I used to _________ going to them, until one special day when I saw that they also sold old _________. After that, I always browsed through the books until it was time to _________. Sometimes mom would _________ me one too. Soon, a large part of my home library came from yard sale books. For me, these books were more _________ than their first editions.

Why do we have yard sales? It certainly isn’t for the ____________. For all the time and ____________ people put into them, they would hardly make minimum wage from the sales. I think, rather, it is yard sales that ____________ us together. We ____________ our old things and we buy “new” old things. We talk and ____________ old friends and new neighbors. We get a ____________ to give and share. We ____________ through kindness and love among all the old stuff. It’s all about ____________, both in goods and between people.

I think yard sales teach us something about ____________ too. We can’t really ____________ anything here, after all; all we get is ____________ possession of our stuff, then it comes time for us to let it go and pass it on.