I have been employed by a charity organization for less than a year now and I have the privilege of
finding foster homes for abandoned children. It has always been my dream to work with adopted children
because I myself was an adopted child.
     I was born in California in September of 1976 and was adopted in Ohio in March of 1977. I have no
memory of being told that I was adopted, however, I have always known. I have been told that I was
wanted and I was special.
     Even though my parents provided me with lots of love, I was always annoyed by the questions about
my origin and my feeling of being unwanted. I constantly scanned every crowd I was in for another human
that looked like me or laughed like me.
     I began searching for my birthparents in 1999 and I imagined every possible scene of my birth family.
     I went to a local agency for support and five days later I met my birth mother. The story unfolded. She
flew me to Los Angeles the next day and I spent the weekend connecting with another person who looked
just like me. We have had a worthwhile relationship over the past years although she could not give me any
information about my birth father.
     In June of last year a member of my birth father"s family contacted me. Now, he and I are just beginning
to get to know what it is like to be a birth child, Without the support of my parents who raised me I would
have never experienced the feeling of being truly wanted accepted. For that, I am forever grateful.

A. He feels that he can"t forgive his birth parents.
B. He understands his birth parents.
C. He misses his birth parents very much.
D. He is afraid of being hurt by them again.

     My 14-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat at the same time. It was hanging at a (an)   1   clothing
store. The coat had a black velvet collar, delightful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label (标签) and a (an)   2   price
of $ 28.
     We looked at   3  , saying nothing,   4   John"s eyes shone. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular just then
with   5   , but could   6   several hundred dollars now.
     John   7   the coat. He turned from side to side, eyeing himself in the mirror with a serious, studied   8 
 that soon changed into a smile. The   9   was perfect. John wore the coat to school the next day and came
home wearing a big smile. "How did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They love it."  He said, carefully  10 
it over the chair and smoothing it flat.
     Over the next few weeks, the   11   came over John. Quiet, reasoned discussion was   12   argument. He
became more thoughtful and eager to  13  . "Good dinner, Mum,"  he would say every evening. One day when
I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John said, "You are right, and I guess I will."
     When I  14   this to one of his teachers and remarked that I didn"t know   15   caused the changes, she
said with laughter, "It must be his coat!" At the library, we  16   to meet a friend who had not seen our children
for a long time. "   17   this be John?" he asked, looking up to John"s new height, assessing the cut of his coat,
and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
     John and I both knew we should never   18   a person"s clothes for the real person within them. But there
is something to be said for   19   a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practicing standards of excellence in thought, speech and behavior, and for  20   what is on the inside with what is on the outside.