English practice 7
and his father had grown up to tell. Old lighthouses can be dangerous, with rickety stairs and rotting floorboards.
My love of history has only grown over the years. History18 was always so real for me, not the dull, dusty stuff other people seemed to think it was. My trips19 with my grandmother made me feel as if I were shivering with George Washington at Valley Forge, where the Revolutionary Army endured a brutal winter, or hearing the words to the Gettysburg Address from Abraham Lincoln himself. 20 How could that ever be boring?
One day when I was visiting her, my grandmother took out a big, flat box. "This is for you. I thought we could begin a new project," she told me, handing me a pamphlet to read.21 The U.S. Mint was starting a project, minting brand new quarters for each of the 50 states bearing images significant and unique22 to each state's history. The box contained a map of the country, and each23 state had a space where we could insert its quarter.
My enthusiasm caused laughter for a "quarter collection"24 project, my friends didn't understand my eagerness when I eagerly tromped to the bank every couple of months when a new quarter came out. I was so excited when the first three were released Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.25 My grandmother and I would insert each quarter in its proper place and look up the story behind each new image we saw. Amusingly, as time progressed,26 even my friends liked to look at the growing collection of quarters on my map, asking27 reason for the party was a smashing success. Now, my grandmother says we'll have to start planning to visit all 50 states. I wonder where28 we'll go first!
