When I was growing up, I had an old neighbour named Dr Gibbs. He didn' t look like any doctor I' d ever known. He never 1 at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.
When Dr Gibbs wasn' t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life' s goal was to make it a 2 .
The good doctor had some 3 theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional(传统的) wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants 4 them so that each following tree generation would grow 5 . So you have to make things 6 for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on.
He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren' t watered had to grow deep roots 7 water. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be 8 .
Dr Gibbs 9 a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I' d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They' re extremely tall, big since they have deep 10 now. However, the trees in my garden 11 in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.
It seemed that adversity benefited these trees in ways 12 never could. I stood there deep 13 .
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, 14 of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think it' s time to change my prayer because now I know my children are going to encounter 15 .
