Mary’s dime（一毛錢）
It was Sunday afternoon. I decided to clean up the room nicely so that my parents would feel   1  when they returned from a long ride! Then, I sat in the room, having nothing to do.
　　 What else could I do? Then, with no reason, I suddenly  2  the pale face of that little beggar(乞丐) girl. I could see the glad light   3  her eyes when I put the dime in her little dirty hand.
　　  How much I  4  that dime, too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs, but those sugar apples looked so attractive, and were so   5  — only a dime a piece — that I wanted to have one.
　　  I could imagine the little girl stood there in front of the  6  in her old dirty dress, looking at the   7  that were put all in a row in the window. I wonder what I should say, “Little girl, what do you want?” I gently asked. She felt   8  and looked straight at me, just as if（似乎）nobody had spoken so   9  to her before. She realized what I had meant, so she said seriously and sadly. “I was thinking how good one of those delicious hamburgers would  10 . I haven’t had anything to eat today.”
　　 Now I thought to myself, “Mary Williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good lunch today,   11  this poor girl has not had a mouthful yet. You can give her your  12 . She needs it a great deal more than you do.”
　　 I could not run away from that little girl’s sad,  13  look — so I dropped the dime right into her hand. How  14  the girl was! I am so glad I gave her the dime,  15  I had to go without the apple lying there in the window.

On a cold afternoon in winter, Robert was walking on the bridge. There was hardly any   1   on the river. Near the bridge, however, there was a small canoe(獨(dú)木舟), with a boy in it. He was not    2   many clothes. He was going to walk when he heard a cry, “Help!” He looked down and saw the boy was in water and his canoe was far away.
Robert was a good   3 . Taking off his clothes, he jumped into the river. The cold water made him tremble(顫抖)all over. Soon he 4  the boy and started to swim towards the river bank. Just then he saw a motor boat under the bridge. There were some people on it, all 5 in his direction. Robert 6  to swim towards the boat.
“Help me,” he shouted   7  he got near the boat. He looked up into a row of faces. “Why?” he thought. “They look so    8 .” Silently they helped the boy into the boat. But they did not move to save Robert.
“Aren’t you going to help me  9  , too?” Robert asked.
“You!” said one of the men, who was standing next to a large camera, “Why, we were making a film and you spoiled (攪亂) the whole afternoon’s work! You can   10  in the water.”

The little boy entered the house unhappily. His mother was  1 cakes in the kitchen. She smiled as she  2 ,but stopped when she saw his face.“Tyler,  3 happened? Is everything okay?”
“Nothing is okay,Mom,” said the boy.” Today, in our science lesson, Mrs Green talked about the 4 .The whole world is getting dirtier and many animals and plants are dying, She wants us to think of something we can do to help. I thought all the way home, but there is  5 I can do to make a difference.”
“Let me tell you a  6 ,”the mother said after thinking  for a while .“ One morning a man was walking down a beach, there he saw thousands of dying starfish（海星） covering the beach, they were pushed up by the   7 . and it was too far for them to make their way back by  8 . The man shook his head as he walked along,“What a pity!So many starfish will die on the beach.” The man felt very  9 for those starfish . He went on walking and just at that time he was  10 to find a boy in front who was throwing the starfish back into the sea as  11 as he could. “How silly you are! My  12 ,” the man said.“There are so many starfish, and can you throw all of them back?” The boy didn’t stop but kept throwing. “  13 I can’t help them all, I can make a difference to this one, and this one, and this one,”said the boy.“Thinking for a moment, the man  14 to help return the starfish to their home. He smiled and said to himself, “Sometimes the biggest lesson in life comes from the   15 person.”

Madison Stump is a 13-year-old entrepreneur (企業(yè)家) in the USA. To save our planet, she has  1  a green business, PaperAgain.
Madison lives in a “green” family. She is   2  trying to be 100% earth friendly. One day, Mandison was thinking over what else she could do to help the environment.  3 , she thought, “Why not  4  those used boxes and paper to create beautiful notebooks? And I can sell them to help people in need.” That night, Mandison made her first notebook with scrap paper (廢紙), and she used an empty gum box for a 5 . It was the  6  of her green business.
Mandison’s first customer was her sister. She, of course, never   7  it! However, Mandison didn’t mind because she got to see her use it. Before you know it, all Mandison’s school friends were asking to buy the amazing notebooks. Then, Mandison’s dad came up with the   8  idea of starting a website, PaperAgain.com, so that these notebooks could be bought online.
Now Mandison is the   9  of a real business! Her notebooks are selling at the store in her hometown. And she is often  10  on the local television news!

Bill, a thirteen-year-old boy, thought he had grown up to be a man. But his parents told him, “You won’t be a real man until you begin to  1  helping others.”
One morning, his parents gave him some money to  2  some milk for them. Outside a shop he saw a homeless old man who looked very sick. Bill went to him and asked, “ What’s wrong with you?”
The old man answered, “I’m 3 . I haven’t had any food for two days.”
At the thought of his parents’ words, Bill said to the old man, “Let’s go to the 4 .”
When they got there, Bill asked the 5 to bring out bread and coffee to the old man. The old man finished the meal quickly. After the waiter 6 the plate and the cup, the old man said, “Sorry for giving you too much  7 . I’m fine now. I’ll   8 forget your kindness! You are a very good young man”
Bill was 9 when he heard this. Just when he wanted to pay for the meal, the waiter came. Bill and the old man learned  10  that he food was free because it was the birthday of the boss, and they were the first customer that day.

A poor woodcutter and his wife lived in the forest in a small hut.   1  was so small that there was space only for him and his wife to sleep.
One cold night, somebody knocked  2 the door. The woodcutter asked his wife   3 the door and let the stranger in. She said, “ But there is no space.” The man laughed   4 said, “ Two can sleep well, three can sit.” And then the woman opened the door. The stranger  5  to come in, and they all sat telling stories to each other.
Then came   6 knock. The woodcutter told the stranger, “Friend, open the door.” And the man said, “But there is no space.” The woodcutter said, “If three persons can sit comfortably, four persons can sit a little  7 than before.”
The stranger opened the door, and a man entered. Suddenly, a strange knock  8 did not seem to be human’s! The woodcutter said, “Open the door. I know who   9 .  It is my donkey.”
Everyone said, “  10 is the donkey going to stand?” The man said, “Right now we are sitting, when the donkey comes in, we will all stand.”

A man was walking along the street when he saw a woman struggle（奮力）with a large box. It was half in and half  1  of her car. He was a helpful man, so he went up to the woman and said, “Let me give you a hand with that box. It looks very   2 . ” “That’s very kind of you,” the woman said. “I’m having a lot of  3  with it. I think it’s stuck（卡住）. ” “Together we’ll soon move it,” the man said. He  4_  into the back seat of the car and took hold of the other end of the box. He said, “I’m ready. ” And he began to_ 5  hard. For several minutes the man and the woman struggled with the box. Soon they were  6  in the face. “Let’s rest for a minute,” the man said. “I’m sorry, but it  7  stuck. ” A few minutes later, the man said, “Let’s try again. Are you ready?”  8  of them took hold of the box again. “One, two, three!” the man said, and they went on with their struggle.
At last, when they were very tired, the man said, “You are  9 . It really is stuck. I don’t think there’s any way we can get it out of the car. ” “Get it out of the car!” The woman cried. “I’m trying to get it  10 !”

One day something went wrong with a man’s bicycle chain(鏈條). The man could not repair it, so he looked    1   for help. The only house nearby belonged to a woman who had    2   there a few months earlier. The man knocked at the door, but the woman did not answer. The door had clear glass in it, and the man    3  see that the woman was at home. He decided to knock again. Finally the woman came to the door. The man immediately explained his    4 . “I can fix the chain,” the woman said. Later when the bike was   5  to go, the man said, ‘Thanks. I hope I can help you some day.” “I never need help,” the woman said.
The following week the man was riding his bike    6 he noticed the woman walking down the street. A strong wind suddenly lifted(拾起) her hat and sent it into the branches(枝) of an old tree. The woman tried to get her hat with a stick, but she failed. She seemed   7  because she clearly was not dressed for tree-climbing. The man hurried over, quickly climbed up to the hat and   8  it into the woman’s waiting hands. When she put on her hat, she   9  the man as he climbed back on his bike. ‘I think I told you I never need help,” the woman said, “I’m glad you didn’t  10  me. Thanks.” Then they both smiled.

A young woman   1  alone through the country. It was getting dark and raining. Suddenly she saw an old woman by the side of the road ,holding her hand out as if she needed a lift .
“I can’t leave her out in this weather”, the woman said to herself, so she stopped the car and opened the  2 .
“Do you want a lift?” she asked, the old woman nodded (點(diǎn)頭) and   3  the car. After a while she said to the old woman, “Have you   4 for a long time?” The old woman shook her head. “Strange,” thought the young woman. She tried again, “Bad weather for the time   5  year.” She said. The old woman nodded. Although the driver tried some more, the lady said   6  except for a nod of the head or something else.
Then the young woman saw the lady’s hands, they were very large and with thick hair. Suddenly she knew the lady was a   7 ! She stopped the car. “I can’t see that mirror   8 ,” she said, “Would you mind cleaning it for me?” The lady nodded and opened the door.
As soon as the lady was out of the car, the young woman drove off quickly.
When she got to the next village she  9 . She found that the old lady had left a  10  behind. She picked it up and opened it. She gave out a deep breath(呼吸). Inside the bag was a gun!

Miss Brown would never forget the night when she met a robber(搶劫者) many years ago.
That evening, she went to a birthday party which   1  until two o’clock in the morning. Miss Brown walked in the  2  street alone. Suddenly from the back of the dark building a tall man with a sharp knife in his right hand ran out at her. “Good morning，lady.” the man said in a low voice, “I don’t think you wish to  3 here!” “What do you want?” “Your earrings. Take them  4 !”
Miss Brown suddenly had a   5 idea. She tried to cover her necklace with the collar(衣領(lǐng))of her overcoat while she used the other hand to take off both of her earrings and then quickly   6 them on the ground.
“Take them and let me go,” she said. The robber thought that the girl didn’t like the earrings at all, only trying to   7 the necklace. The earrings would cost   8 , so he said, “Give me your necklace.”
“Oh, sir. It doesn’t cost much. Please let me wear it.”
“I am not that   9 . Quick!”
With shaking   10  , Miss Brown took off her necklace. As soon as the robber left, she picket up her earrings and ran as fast as she could to one of her friends.
The earrings cost 2000 pounds and the necklace which the robber had taken away cost only six pounds.