My father was a self-taughtmandolin（曼陀林琴）player. He was one of the best players in our town. He could not (1) ______ music, but if he heard a tune（曲子）a few times, he could play it. When he was young, he was a (2) ______ of a small country music band. They played at local dances and the radio station.
At home Dad often got out his mandolin and played for the family. We three children sang along. (3) ______ played the mandolin like my father. He could (4) ______ your heart with the music that came out of that old mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his (5) ______ in his ability to play so well for his family.
But Dad had to find another (6) ______ in a factory later because the money he made at the band wasn’t enough to (7) ______ the family. Unluckily he had an (8) ______ one day and lost one finger. He couldn’t play as (9) ______ as before. From then on, every time we asked him to play, he would make up reasons to (10) ______ down our request. However, we missed his performance so much. (11) ______, he agreed and said “Okay, but remember, I can’t hold down on the strings（琴弦）the way I (12) ______ to”. When he played the old mandolin, it carried us back to a (13) ______, happy time in our lives.
Dad was that kind of man. (14) ______ was what he was doing all his life. If he could give (15) ______ to others, he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing（牺牲）his time to see that his family had enough in their life.
Do you know that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? You can find the NaNoWriMo
Young Writer’s programme at ywp.nanowrimo.org. It is a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.
The programmebagan in 1999 in San Francisco with only 21 members. Last year, more than 400,000 took up the challenge. The writers can choose what they want to write about. On November 1st, writers visit the website and start to update (更新) their word count. They can communicate with other writers there as well. All the writers have to stop writing on November 30th.
Itis okay if you have never written a book before. The website provides lesson plans and workbooks for beginners. You can use them to improve writing skills in your novel. Then you can start planning what your novel will be about.
Are there any books published from the NaNoWriMoprogramme? Here are a few:
●The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
●Water for Elephants by SaraGruen
●Entrychats by Cecile Duquenne
Are there any young readers who want to join in this programme? If you want, we hope you can write the best novel. If you have not heard of NaNoWriMo, but you have a good story in mind, join us!
M： Well，Linda，we're coming to the end of this week．I almost can't wait for the holiday．
W： Me，too．Tom, (1) ______
M： I'm going to climb the hills with my classmates．(2) ______ and have a good rest．How about you?
W: (3)．You know he has a big farm in the countryside．
M： It's great．Do you often go to see him?
W： Yes．Once I am free，I will go there．The air is so fresh and everything is so quiet and clean．Will you be free next weekend? (4) ______
M： I'd love to，but I'm afraid I won't have time．(5) ______ and repair the roof of our house．I have to help him．
W： I see．Maybe you won't be free until summer vacation．
| A．Would you like to go there with me? B．My father is going to paint the wall. C．I think I can forget about all the hard work. D．Would you like to say something about it? E．what are you going to do this Sunday? F．I'm going to visit my uncle. G．Mr．Brown will give us the lesson at four in the afternoon． |