That holiday morning I didn't have to attend school. Usually, on holidays, Mother 1 me to sleep in. And I would certainly take full advantage of it. On this particular morning, 2 ,I felt like getting up early.
I stood by my window overlooking the 3 , having nothing better to do. But as it turned out, I was soon to learn about something 4 in life.
As I watched several people go by, get into their cars and go off, I 5 an old man on a bicycle with a bucket on its 6 and a basket rags and bottles on its back-carriage. He 7 from one car to another, washing and cleaning them. From the water on the ground, it seemed that he had already 8 washing and cleaning about a dozen or more cars. He must have begun to work quite early in the morning.
Several thoughts 9 my mind as I watched him work. He wasn't well-dressed. He had on a pair of shorts and a(n)10 T-shirt. The bicycle he rode was not by any means the kind modern 11 would want to be seen riding on. But he seemed12 with life. There he was, working hard at his small business,13 at passers-by and stopping to chat now and then 14 elderly men and women on their way to the market nearby.
There was a noticeable touch of15 in the way he seemed to be doing things—16 the windscreen (挡风玻璃), then standing back to admire it; cleaning the wheels and 17 , standing back to see what they look like after the scrub.
It was a 18 to learn, I felt. At no age need one have to beg for a 19 if one has good health and is willing to work hard. For a while I felt 20 of myself. Young as I am—just sixteen, and there was this old man who must have been usefully engaged perhaps before the sun appeared above the horizon.
