Valuable Gifts
When my mother told my father she was pregnant (怀孕), the first thing he did was to buy a TV. It was 1957 and TVs were new technology. He thought that with a baby, they would go out less and he would need to find entertainment at home.
That was the first 1 he gave me.
But when I think of other gifts my father has given me, the first would be a love of 2. He is always found reading in our study. He has been totally deaf in one ear since he was two, so we rarely listened to music. In my childhood, storybooks were king, not songs.
The second is 3all. He treats everyone the same—CEO or cleaner, child or adult. Even when I was little, the conversation around the dinner table was noisy but adult-level. He always said my age didn't matter. If I voiced an opinion, I had to argue the case and give evidence (证据).
The greatest gift to me, however, was that he took interest in my 4and never my looks. Most successful women had fathers who 5their intelligence. My father said that my mother was the most intelligent person he had ever met. He still says that.
They met at a dance in the early 50s when she was a teacher. Wanting to show off, he told her she reminded him of Jane Austen's Emma, then misquoted (错误地引用) the book. My mother 6 corrected him and he was in love from that moment.
Over the years, my father taught me never to stand 7and never to accept the way things are; I should find for change. I will continue to follow his 8.
