The Benefits(益处)of Doing More than You Are Paid for

One rainy afternoon an old lady walked into a Philadelphia department store.Most of the clerks ignored(忽略)her,1only one young man asked if he could help her.She replied that she was just 2for the rain to stop.He told her he wouldn't try to3her anything she didn't want.Instead he brought her4.

When the rain stopped,the lady5the young man and asked for his card.A few months passed,the owner of the store received6inviting this young man to Scotland to get orders for providing goods for a large company!The letter was7the old lady for whom the clerk had provided a chair.She happened to be owner's mother of the large company,8

When the young clerk had his bags packed for Scotland,he had already been one of the9in that department store,all because he had shown a little10to a stranger when no one else would.

    It was a cold snowy morning after the winter vacation. And it was my first 1 at my new school. I was walking alone slowly and 2 about lots of things. It was early and there weren't many people on the road. Suddenly a girl who was 3 a bike on ice fell down. She was trying hard to get up but fell again. 4 thinking, I went over and helped her. She said “5” with a smile and then rode away. Her words warmed me a lot.

    Finally, I got to school. The teacher led me to the 6 and introduced me to the class. Then he asked me to sit down beside a girl. I felt so 7 that I didn't dare to look at her. Soon the first class, 8, started. Their textbooks were different from those in my old school. As I was wondering 9 to do, an English book appeared in front of me. “Let's share,” the girl beside me said, “Hi, I'm Carrie.” I 10. It was the girl I helped this morning. Later on, we became good friends.

    From that I learned: to help others is actually to help ourselves!

    The dogsled（狗拉雪橇）race was about to begin. Julie's team of dogs was lined up at the 1 gate. Julie stood behind them. The air was so cold that she could see her 2. Other teams were lined up too, and the dogs were 3. Julie kept her eyes on the clock. At ten o'clock, she and the other racers shouted, "4!" The race began! All the dogs tried their best to run after each other.

    Now, they ran over snowy hills and down into frozen valleys. They 5only to rest and eat. They wanted to stay ahead of the other teams. The racers had to go a thousand 6across Alaska. Alaska is in the north of US, bordering Canada. It is one of the 7places on Earth. The dogs' thick fur coats helped 8 them warm in the cold wind and weather. In many places along the way, the snow was deep. Pieces of 9 were as sharp as a knife. The ice could cut the dogs' feet. To keep that from happening, Julie put special booties on their feet.

    10, the dogs seemed to pull the sled very slowly. They were still getting used to the race.11 on the third day out, they began to pull more quickly. They worked as a team and 12 many of the other racers. During the period, they met many 13. Once, one of the sleds slid into a hole and broke. Julie wanted to 14 then, but she didn't. She fixed it and they kept going.

    When they finally 15the finishing line, they found out that they had come in first place! It was a great day for Julie and her dogs.

项中，选择最佳选项。

Building Our Community

    "Mom, I hope Steve can take me to the park next weekend, "I said.

    "Sorry, Lucy, "Mom said, "your brother is volunteering next weekend to help 1 a house for a family."

    I remembered Steve's eyes had lit up when he first told me about the community home-building project. He was good at building and fixing things, so he was 2 to do something. Now that he was seventeen, he was finally old enough to take part in it.

    "It's not 3 ," I complained. "Steve can change a family's life, but what can I do? I'm only ten."

    Mom put on her serious look." Don't think about it like that, Lucy, "she said, "people make a 4 by thinking about what they can do, rather than what they can't do."

    Mom's words echoed in my head later that day. Maybe she was right. I might not be able to physically build a house, but I could  5 money to help.

    The next day before class, I talked to my teacher, Mr. Brown, about my idea. "Well, we can brainstorm about it, "he said, "I bet your classmates will have some good ideas. 6 will be the best way to make this happen."

    After I explained my idea in class, Brason raised his hand." My uncle owns a T-shirt shop. Maybe he can print some T-shirts that we can 7 .

    "Great idea!" Mr. Brown said. Then, after a lively discussion, we decided on" Building Our Community" as our slogan(口号)to print. Marla, our class artist, agreed to draw the design.

       By Friday, the T-shirts had been printed, and I had posted details about the sale on our class Web page. Our Saturday sale was a success. We earned ＄125. After the sale, we went to the community center. I 8 handed over the money.

    Mom and Mr. Brown had both been right. Everyone can do something, and together we can achieve something great.

    Every year, our school has a dance for all the students. It's a little funny seeing friends in clean shoes and trousers or colorful dresses, instead of the usual school uniform.

    Most of us think the dance is great fun-even the teachers enjoy being there. 1, two weeks ago someone said that there would be no live band this year-only CDs.

    "I don't believe it！"Amy cried out during the lunch break, "Someone said the school couldn't2a band, and they think it's too noisy anyway," added Daniel.

    "Well, I don't think it's good enough without a band!" said Angela, "and I'm going to see what can be done."

    Angela was as good as her word. In the afternoon she went3to see the school headmaster who agreed to give the situation some more thought. And he suggested that one possibility for having a band was to increase the price ticket from $ 5 to $ 10. Angela had to find out whether the students would like to do that.

    "I need all of you to help me," she told our group before school the next day.

    "Mr Berry gave me a list of all the names, and suggested we ask each other their4about the band and the extra cost." During the day we asked around as Angela suggested and wrote down people's feelings about the band and the cost.

    We were amazed how much support there was for the band and5agreed to pay the extra $5, "I'm surprised." smiled Mr Berry, when we gave him the results. "I really thought that only a few people wanted their band and that the cost would be too high. OK. Angela, your next task is to find a good band and line them up for the dance."

    Angela jumped6and broke the news to Amy and Daniel. "You're amazing, "smiled Daniel to Angela as he thought how close they came to having a less than perfect dance.