阅读下面短文,按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求,在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空,并将答案填写在答案卷上。
Everyone has his own attitude       getting old. The night before her eighth birthday, I found my daughter Lizzy sat on her bed _______ (weep). “I love being seven,” she cried. “I don’t want to be eight!” I held her in my arms and explained that  was going to be even better to be eight than being seven. I told her how much I loved her and           a wonderful birthday she was going to have. Eventually she was comforted. It’s always strange ________ (tell) that you are a year older, even when you aren’t very old. Now I’m in my early 60s, and I don’t always recognize the face in the mirror, ________ something has changed the way that I think. The process of aging _____     (increasing) interests and amazes me, annoys and irritates me, and sometimes still makes me ______(frighten), too, but much, much less than it used to. There is _______ ongoing sadness at the absence of the friends and family members_______ have died before me.