Gift from a stranger

My local supermarket is always busy. The first parking space I found was convenient, but I'd noticed a woman in a blue car circling for a while. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I was in a good mood, I let her have it. On the edge of the car park I backed into the next available spot—it was a tight fit.

Pretty soon I'd made my way through the supermarket and was back in the fresh air. Feeling good, I {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (empty) my purse change into the hands of a homeless man and helped a struggling woman reverse park（倒车）.

Just as I approached my car, 1 saw the woman I'd let have my car space earlier. She was giving me {#blank#}3{#/blank#} odd look—half puzzled, half intent (热切的). I smiled and wished her a pleasant day. As I squeezed back into my car, I spotted the same lady {#blank#}4{#/blank#}  (look) in at me. "Hello," she said, hesitantly. "This {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  sound crazy but I was on my way to drop some of my mother's things off at the charity bins.” You are just so much{#blank#}6{#/blank#} her.” You helped those people, I noticed, and you seemed so happy.” She looked at me meaningfully and passed a box in through the window. “I think she would like you to have it.”{#blank#}7{#/blank#}  (shock), I took it from her automatically. She smiled and walked away.

After a pause, I opened the box. Inside was a beautiful gold necklace with a large grey pearl. It was{#blank#}8{#/blank#}  (nice) gift I'd ever received, and it was from a complete stranger. The necklace was around my neck, a warm reminder of human kindness.

    Have you ever seen the TV show Where Are We Going, Dad? It is now without doubt {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (popular) TV show in China, attracting over 600 million viewers each week. In this program, several fathers, who are all well-known in China, take care of their kids alone {#blank#}2{#/blank#} the help of the children's mothers. They also take part in different kinds of {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (active) with their kids together, such as cooking, fishing and selling goods.

    One reason why the show is so popular is {#blank#}4{#/blank#} it reflects social reality. In big cities, fathers are always {#blank#}5{#/blank#} busy with their jobs to spare time for their kids. Meanwhile, large numbers of fathers from the countryside {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (come) to big cities over the years, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (leave) their kids at home under the grandparents' care. Xu Canyong, a 33-year-old man {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (employ) in a company in Shantou, Guangdong Province, said, “I have a son and a daughter in my hometown. I miss them very much.”

    Xie Dikui, the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (direct) of the show, said that he was also moved by the program. “{#blank#}10{#/blank#} these fathers are busy, they manage to spare time for their kids. We can do as well as them.”

    The adobe dwellings(土坯房）{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(build) by the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest are admired by even {#blank#}2{#/blank#}most modern of architects and engineers. In addition to their simple beauty, what makes the adobe dwellings admirable is their {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(able) to “air condition” a house without {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（use）exact equipment. Walls made of adobe take in the heat from the sun on hot days and give out that her{#blank#}5{#/blank#}（slow）during cool nights，thus warning the house. When a new day breaks, the walls have given up their heat and are now cold enough {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (cool) the house during the hot day: {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the same time, they warm up again for the night This cycle {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (go) day after day: The walls warm up During the day and cool off during the night and thus always a timely offset（抵消）for the outside temperatures. As {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(nature) architects, the Pueblo Indians figured out exactly{#blank#}10{#/blank#}thick the adobe walls needed to be to make the cycle work on most days.

    She looks like any other schoolgirl, fresh-faced and full of life. Sarah Thomas is looking forward to challenge of her new A-level course. But unlike her school friends, 16-year-old Sarah is not spending half-term {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (rest). Instead, she is earning $6,500 a day as {#blank#}2{#/blank#} model in New York.

    Sarah {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(tell) that she could be Britain's new supermodel, earning a million dollars in the new year. Her father Peter, 44, wants her to give up school to model full-time. But Sarah, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}has taken part in shows along with top models, wants {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(prove) that. She has brains as well as beauty. She is determined to carry on with her {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(educate).

    She has turned down several {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(invitation) to star at shows in order to concentrate on her studies. After school she plans to take a year off to model full-time before going to university to get a degree {#blank#}8{#/blank#} engineering or architecture.

    Sarah says, “My dad thinks I should take the offer now. But at the moment, school {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(come) first. I don't want to get too absorbed in modeling. It is {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(certain) fun but the lifestyle is a little unreal. I don't want to have nothing else to fall back on when I can't model my more.”

Rise After Falling

    A father was worried about his son, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided to call on a Buddhist monk(僧侣) to train his boy.

The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father, “I insist that your son should {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(leave) alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, you can't come to see him during this period.”

    Three months later, the boy's father {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(return). The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(experience) boxer. Each time the fighter struck the boy, he fell down, {#blank#}6{#/blank#}at once the boy stood up; and each time a heavy blow knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked, “ {#blank#}7{#/blank#}do you think of your child?”

    “What a shame!” the boy's father said, “I never thought he would be so {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(easy) knocked down. I needn't have him stay here any longer!”

    “I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(fall) down, he stands up again instead of {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(cry)? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have.

This is where my kids grew up

    For years now, I've been wanting to sell our home, the place where my husband and I raised our kids. But to me, this house is more than just a building. In the front room, there's a wall that has hundreds of pencil lines. Every growth stage {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(mark) in pencils, with each child's name and the date.

    Of all the objects and all the memories, it's this one thing in a home that's {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(hard) to leave behind. Our kids grow in so many ways, but the wall is physical evidence of their progress. Friends I know have visited their previous home only {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(discover) their wall of heights has been freshly painted over. Over the years, I've talked about how much I would hate leaving that wall behind when I moved, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the last marks were made 10 years ago when my kids stopped growing. So one day, while I was at work, my children decided to do {#blank#}5{#/blank#} about it.

    They hired Jacquie Manning, a professional photographer {#blank#}6{#/blank#} work is about capturing the beautiful things in life. She came to our house while I was at work, and over several hours, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(take) photos of the hundreds of drawings and lines, little grey fingerprints, and old marks. Somehow, she managed to photograph {#blank#}8{#/blank#} we had experienced in all those years. Afterwards, she put all the photos together into one image, {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(transform) them into a beautiful history of my family.

    Three weeks later, my children's wonderful gift made its way to me —{#blank#}10{#/blank#} life-size photo of the pencil lines and fingerprints that represents entire lifetimes of love and growth.