Napkin Notes of Love

湖南岳阳华容二中 张明波

精彩导读

Callaghan患了癌症，但是为了给女儿留下点什么，也为了激励女儿，他每天在女儿上学所带的食品中都放进一张带有激励性的语言的餐巾纸。这在激励女儿的同时，也激励了他自己。

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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（肿瘤） growing on his kidney （肾）．

“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(餐巾纸)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（触发） 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有点儿4.give up放弃

Ⅲ.Difficult sentence

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

“我之所以开始给她写字条的原因就是我想在她的生活中占点分量。”Callaghan说。

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

【点石成金】表达“……的原因是……”可使用“The reason why...is/was that...”句型，其中why引导定语从句，在定语从句中作原因状语，先行词为reason；that引导表语从句。当reason作主语时，表语从句只能由that引导，不能用because。

The reason why I was sad was that he didn’t understand me.我难过的原因是他不理解我。

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