I quietly placed my ear against the kitchen door. Mom had a male visitor! I peeked(偷看) around. Sitting there was a gentleman, the most handsome man I'd ever seen.
Mom was a young widow then with three children. My sister was ten, my brother four and I six. I1having a daddy. And I knew he was the one. Then I walked right into the2.
"Hi! I'm Patty. What's your name?"
"George."
Looking towards Mom, I asked, "Don't you think my mom's pretty?"
"Patty!" Mom scolded with3. "Go and check on Benny."
George leaned forward and4, "Yes, I do. I'll see you later, Patty. I think we will be good friends."
George started5 Mom more often. He always seemed happy to see me and never grew6 of my endless questions.
Soon they entered into a7. For George, who'd never been married before, coming back from World War Ⅱ and into a ready-made family took some adjusting. One evening was especially bad. Benny was crying on the kitchen floor. Annie was8loudly it wasn't her place to look after that spoiled child. And I spilled a whole pot of butter milk. With a vacant(茫然的) look, George muttered(嘟囔), "I must have been9to marry a woman with three kids."
Mom fled to their bedroom in10, and George walked out. I hurried to the porch (门厅). "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time. Please don't11!"
12 wiping my tears, he said, "We're friends, and friends never13 the people they love. Don't worry. I'll always be here." Then he went to14 Mom.
Over the years, George has always been there for me. I still turn to him with my15though he is 85.
First Snow
It is the first fall we (have) here this winter.
The first fall of snow is not only an event it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find (you) in another quite different world. The very secrecy and (quiet) of the thing makes it more magical.
When I (get) up this morning the world was a cold place of dead white and pale blues. Then the sun came out. The dining-room window had been transformed a lovely Japanese print. The little plum tree outside, with the faintly flushed snow (line) its branches and artfully disposed along its trunk, stood in full sunlight.
An hour or two later, the world had (complete) changed again. The little Japanese prints had all disappeared. Now it has changed again. From my study, is apart from the house and faces it, I can see the children flattening their noses against the window, and there is running through my head a rhyme I used (repeat) when I was a child and flattened my nose against the cold window to watch the falling snow.
