Napkin Notes of Love

湖南岳陽華容二中 張明波

精彩導讀

Callaghan患了癌癥，但是為了給女兒留下點什么，也為了激勵女兒，他每天在女兒上學所帶的食品中都放進一張帶有激勵性的語言的餐巾紙。這在激勵女兒的同時，也激勵了他自己。

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Callaghan,the father of a teenage daughter,Emma,couldn’t understand why he had developed a disease which normally affects men twice his age．A routine CT scan showed a tumor（腫瘤） growing on his kidney （腎）．

“I was by myself,” Callaghan recalled．“I thought it was a kidney stone．I was in the doctor’s office for about 45 minutes that day and I didn’t remember anything more than one minute of it．The average life span for someone who has my condition is 12 months．” He would take pills every day,possibly for the rest of his life．

Callaghan began finding hope in a small act of love for Emma∶handwriting notes of love on a napkin(餐巾紙)to place in her lunch box;nothing extraordinary or life-changing,just some words of encouragement for Emma to think of during the day．His numbered days meant numbered napkins．“The reason why I started writing notes to her is that I wanted to matter in her life,” Callaghan said. “I see so many working parents today who kind of give up a lot of their parenting．I wanted Emma to be able to look at me at whatever age she was and say，‘My dad loves me．I need his advice,I need his love and I trust that my dad’s going to be there．’”

But what started out as a father’s way of showing his daughter his love quickly grew．His idea to share his inspirational napkin messages with friends and family on the Internet sparked（觸發） a book．His new book Napkin Notes shares each message he’s ever sent to his daughter as well as more about his brave battle with cancer and life lessons he hopes Emma and maybe even grown readers can learn．

Now Callaghan is still fighting for his life.“The act inspires me just as much as I hope it inspires my daughter,”Callaghan said.

Reading check

Read the text carefully and find the correct answers.

1.What can be inferred about Callaghan when he was diagnosed with cancer?

A.He was determined and got well prepared for the fatal disease.

B.He wondered why he could develop the cancer at so early an age.

C.He felt completely scared because he was alone at the doctor’s office.

D.He remembered a few things about the regular scan at the office.

2.Why did Callaghan begin writing notes to her daughter?

A.He felt lucky to have a lovely daughter.B.He desired to change her daughter’s life.

Language study

I.Words in the context

C.He wanted to find a way to bond together.

D.He decided to number his days in this way.

3.According to the passage,Callaghan’s new book Napkin Notes .

A.was lacking in what he did to struggle against cancer

B.was intended to set a good example to other patients

C.was supposed to earn some money for his daughter

D.was inspired from what he did to encourage Emma

Ⅱ.Phrases

1.develop a disease患病2.think of想起；想到3.kind of有點兒4.give up放棄

Ⅲ.Difficult sentence

The reason why...is/was that... “……的原因是……”。

“我之所以開始給她寫字條的原因就是我想在她的生活中占點分量。”Callaghan說。

“____________________________I started writing notes to her_____________I wanted to matter in her life,”Callaghan said.

【點石成金】表達“……的原因是……”可使用“The reason why...is/was that...”句型，其中why引導定語從句，在定語從句中作原因狀語，先行詞為reason；that引導表語從句。當reason作主語時，表語從句只能由that引導，不能用because。

The reason why I was sad was that he didn’t understand me.我難過的原因是他不理解我。

The reason for your failure in the exam was that you were much too careless.你考試不及格的原因是太粗心。