One day a poor farmer was taking a bag of wheat to town. Suddenly the bag 1 from his horse onto the road. He did not know 2 to do about it because it was 3 heavy for him to lift the bag by himself. He only hoped that someone would soon pass by and 4 him a hand.

    Just at this moment a man 5 a horse came up to him. But the farmer's heart6 when he saw who he was. It was the great man living 7. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man like him to come along and help him. He couldn't ask such a great man to help him. But to his 8, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came nearer. He said to the farmer, "I see you 9 help, friend. How good it is that I'm here just at the right time." Then he took one end of the bag, and the farmer the other. They together raised it and put it on the horse.

    "Sir," asked the farmer, "how can I pay you?"

    "It's quite easy." the great man replied with 10. "Whenever you see anyone else introuble, do the same for him."

    Do you ever watch old movies? Maybe you will see one with Carole Lombard. She was a famous 1 in the 1930s. She died when she was only 34. In her 2 life she made 70 movies!

    Lombard's real name was Jane Alice Peters. In 1921, she was playing baseball in the 3 near her home. A movie director 4 her and decided to put her in a movie. She was only 13 at the time. The movie was one of the last silent movies. She acted so well that she 5 the hearts of some people. At 16, she left school to act.

    In 1925, she had an agreement with a 6 studio, 20^th Century Fox. The studio gave 7 a new name, and she acted in several films. Then, at age 18, she was in a bad car accident. The accident left scars (伤疤) on her face. The studio broke the agreement, but she did not 8. She conitnued to act.

    It was Paramount Studio that made Lombard a 9. She made many movies for the studio. She also married two of their stars. Lombard was married to actor William Powell for only 23 months, 10 seven years later, she married the great love of her life, actor Clark Gable. It was a great Hollywood love story.

    A boy named Jack was well-down in his hometown because he couldn't hear anything. He was born deaf. Although people 1 him a lot, they also treated him much differently than other people. The other children worried they might 2 him while playing together. Adults acted like he was unable to understand them, as if he was a baby.

    However, this year, people got to understand Jack a little better. On Jack's birthday, everyone in town would 3 earplugs (耳塞) so that they couldn't hear anything either. This day came to be known as the Day of Silence. People became aware of how difficult life could be when you can't hear anything. They also 4 that Jack had many skills.

    On that day, no one thought of Jack as just a deaf person People saw a whole 5 side of him. They paid more attention to what he said. They were also surprised by his smartness and ability to find a solution to nearly any 6 that he faced. They realized that he had always been like that, and that he simply needed to communicate with others in a different way. In the end, he was 7 just like any other little boy.

    On the Day of Silence, people came to know Jack's true 8. They learned that although most of us are different from each other-sometimes in big ways—we are still mostly the same in our hearts and minds.

    Long ago, people did not need money. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    As time passed, people learned to raise animals and crops. Sometimes, families produced more than they needed, so they started to trade (交易) with other families. Later, people began to use money as a means of exchange. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}They used shells, rice, salt, large stones, etc.

    During the 600s BC, people began using coins as money. They soon found that coins were easier to carry than goods (货物) and lasted a long time. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The Chinese were the first to use paper money, probably as early as the eleventh century. The Italian traveller Marco Polo saw the Chinese using paper money when he visited China in the 1200s. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Today, we have many ways to pay for things. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Often, people prefer to pay for things by card. Paying with a card is easier and safer than carrying around a lot of "real" money.

Two months ago, my husband's hand was badly hurt after an accident at work. Then we had to, drive to the hospital to do the physical therapy(治疗)for his hand three times a week.

Today while we were driving to the hospital. We saw a young man standing in the strong and cold winds. We stopped and asked if he needed a ride. He gladly accepted and jumped into the back seat. His name was Dan and he wasn't going far.

As we dropped him off, we noticed he had many large piles (堆) of cut wood in his yard. We asked if he was interested in selling any. He said," Oh, you can just come by anytime, even if I'm not here and take all you want." We asked how much it would cost for a trunk load (一箱). He answered," It's free. We have more than we'll ever use. So just come by and get it anytime. Thanks for the ride and have a great day!"

We still wanted to pay for it and would only get it when someone was home, but he just kept saying what he already told us.

Dan just wanted to repay (回报) us with the wood, never knowing how much that would mean to us because my husband isn't able to chop any wood for us this winter.