Grandpa moved in with us in 1983, after Grandma passed away. I was 9. He came to Canada from China, where he was a school head teacher.

Although we spoke _________ languages, we still communicated well in our own way. One way we bonded (增进感情) was over a game of Monopoly (《大富翁》). Grandpa didn’t really _________ the rules or much of what my little brother and I said, but he got a kick out of (从……中获得乐趣) staying with us. He also knew that we could enjoy ourselves from this interest.

I always think of Grandpa when I play the card game Yu-Gi-Oh! with my _________. I don’t care if I win or lose these games. What matters is spending time with my children and knowing their _________ better.

Grandpa would spend his days sitting on the couch (沙发或睡椅), staring out the window and singing _________. I often thought he was _________, but as I grew older, I find peace in taking moments to stare out the window. Maybe I got that from him.

One of my biggest regrets (懊悔) is not spending more time with Grandpa. He passed away the night before his 80th birthday. What I learned from my grandpa was to enjoy simple _________ in life: to see the beauty in the colors of the rainbow, to see a single leaf fall from a tree and to play _________ with my sons just as he did with my brother and I.

When I was young, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never shouted at us for playing in his yard. When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t _______ lives in the hospital, he was planting as many trees as possible in his yard. And his life’s goal was to make it a _______.

The good doctor had some _______ ideas on planting trees. He believed in “No pains, no gains”. He never _______ his new trees, which was different from many people. Once I asked him why. He _______ that watering plants spoiled (宠坏) them and that if you water them, each following tree generation will grow _______. He talked about how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots (根) in _______ of water.

However, I didn’t buy his words then. A few years later. I planted a couple of trees and I took good care of them. Two years’ caring had resulted in trees that expected to be waited on hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blew _______, they trembled (颤动) their leaves and branches. The funny thing about those trees of Dr. Gibbs was that the lack of water seemed to benefit them in ways comfort and ease never could.

Now I am the father of two sons. I used to wish that my sons’ lives will be easy. But lately when I think of Dr. Gibbs and his trees, it reminds me that it’s time to change my attitude (态度). I know my children are going to meet hardship, and they can’t be too dependent to live on. _______ I need to do is to pray for deep roots, ________ when the winds blow, they won’t be swept away.

My father was born in a small town in the US. He wasn't ______ what he wanted to get from life, but something told him to get out and begin a new adventure(冒险).

He began that adventure traveling to cities in the US,______ going on to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Philippines. He ______ his wife and three daughters with him and went wherever the road took him.

It's easy to feel lonely when you're on the ______. As my mother said repeatedly, “We made lots of new friends on our trip—most of them were mechanics(机修工)”, since we often spent hours in ______ shops. But that was better than sitting by the roadside while waiting for the engine(发动机) to cool when it was 40℃ outside.

Getting along well with each other sometimes ______ impossible. There were always a lot of arguments, especially among us back­seat passengers about ______ had to sit in the middle.

But ______ it was hard at that time, we did learn a lot about forgiveness(谅解).

When we were traveling in the Philippines, we drove to Quezon City one day. It should have been a one­-hour ______ but was nearly three, because of bad roads and worse traffic. “Did you put our suitcases(行李箱)in the car?” my father asked my mother as we arrived in Quezon City. From the back seat, we saw her slowly turn ______ my father. “No,” she said. “I thought you did.”   That was ______ a seven­-hour car trip turned into a 16­-hour car trip, which was mostly spent in silence.

On occasions like that, we had to learn to ______ our anger because we were stuck(困在)in a rolling box with the same people for the rest of the journey. Even if I sometimes felt like opening the car door and pushing one of my sisters out, I kept my ______ to myself.

This is why road trips were like mobile universities to us. We earned our PHDs(博士学位)in how to ______ with other people just by traveling in that old car.

And if we were somehow given a second ______ at life, we would do it all over again. Only this time, I'd put the suitcases in the car myself.