It's December 28th. New Year's Day is 1. Ma Li is in a 2 shop. She wants to buy a blouse 3 her mother. She is happy because she 4 a blue blouse. It looks pretty. She thinks it 5 her mother's trousers well, so she asks the shopkeeper what the 6 is. “198 yuan,” says the shopkeeper. Ma Li is surprised (吃惊的), “Too 7! What's it made of?” The shopkeeper tells her the blouse is made of silk. “Good things always 8 much,” he says.

  “But I have only 190 yuan. Can it be cheaper (更便宜)? I buy it for my mother. ”

  “9. 198 yuan is the last price. But I will lend you 8 yuan.”

“10? We don't know each other.”

  “Because I love my mother, too,” says the shopkeeper with a smile (微笑).

    An old man was in a bank. He was arguing    1 how much money he had in the bank.   2 he was arguing, a young man came into the bank and said to the old man, "I've just come from your son. He gave me a letter and this piece of silver for you."

    He then gave the silver to the old man. Because the old man had weak eyes-he asked the banker to read him his son's letter.

    The banker read," I have  3  you a piece of silver that weighs 4 kilos."

    The old man was very 4 and asked the banker to give him some dollars for his silver. But when the banker weighed the silver, he  5 that it weighed 5 kilos.

    "The old man will never know," he thought. So he only gave him dollars for 4 kilos of silver.

  Later the banker examined the silver  6  and discovered that it was not silver. It was tin(锡).   7 he ran after the old man and shouted, "You have  8  me. You gave me tin,   9  silver."

  The old man then asked the banker to weigh the piece of tin. It weighed 5 kilos.

  "I am not robbing you, "said the old man. "You are trying to rob me! The piece of silver I gave you 10 weighed 4 kilos!"

    In a far-away place, there was a village. The village was1 in potatoes than anywhere else in the country. At the end of every growing season, 2potatoes were dug out of the ground, and readied for market. In each home, men and women would3divide the potatoes into three groups, large, medium and small.

    One year, there was a young man4received his share of the potatoes. As the other villagers5, he walked around the village laughing and talking.6villagers thought he was lazy, and they worried that this man would never get7potatoes ready in time. When it was time for the villagers8to market, they were greatly surprised to find that the man's potatoes9perfectly into three groups.

    After 10the man how he did it, they understood he was not lazy, 11very clever. He had put all his potatoes in a cart and pulled it along the village's rough dirt road. As the cart moved up and down over the road, the potatoes moved12. The small potatoes moved to the bottom, the larger potatoes rose to the top and the medium potatoes rested13 the middle.

    Life14like this too. The rough roads we travel along can also15us.

    Last October, I told my pupils in Pompton School about my plan. "I'd like you to do jobs to make some 1 ." I said. "Then we'll buy food for someone in need."

    I wanted them to experience that it's 2 to give than to receive. I hoped they could experience a sense of their own ability to make a change.

    Early in Thanksgiving week, the children couldn't wait to 3. Before paying for the turkey and other food we chose in the supermarket, Kristine cried.

    "Flowers!" And the group all ran toward the holiday 4.

    "You can't eat flowers!" I said 5. After all, it was helpful to buy more food.

    "But Mrs. Sherlock," came the loud 6," we want flowers."

    In the middle of the plants, there was a pot of unusually purple mums."7 will like this one," the children agreed.

    8 the address of a poor grandmother who had lived alone for years, we set off. An hour later, we stopped in front of a small house. A thin woman with a 9 face came to meet us.

    As the kids carried all the food in, the old woman oohed and ached—much to her visitors" pleasure. When Amy put the mums on the table, the woman seemed 10. "She's wishing it was a bag of food," I thought.

    11 is your close friend in the woods?" Michael asked.

    The woman brightened. "The birds. They often fly over for food 12 I share my bread with them." She said.

    Then we returned to the car. Through the window we saw her walk past the turkey, straight to the 13. She put her face in them and looked up with a big smile. She was 14 before our eyes!

    In that one short moment, the children had seen for themselves the 15 they owned to make a change. Sometimes a person needed a pot of nice purple flowers on a dark November day.

    Hello! I'm Mary Brown. I'm 1 English girl. Look! Here 2 a photo 3my family. This is 4sisters. 5 name is Mona. 6 is in Class One, Grade Eight. 7 is my uncle. His8 name is Bill. His 9 is Tony Brown. He is a student, too. Oh, Tony is my 10 .

    Last Monday afternoon my classmates and I went to eat in a small dining place near our school.

    It wasn't {#blank#}1{#/blank#} good time for us to get there as there were so {#blank#}2{#/blank#} people. So we {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to wait for a table. We waited for about half an hour before we could sit down and started to {#blank#}4{#/blank#} some food. Later our potato and mutton noodles came. However, there {#blank#}5{#/blank#} only a little mutton in the noodles! The waiter said, "I know the mutton noodles are short of mutton. But it is not as {#blank#}6{#/blank#} as before, right? A large bowl was 15 yuan before and now it is only 12 yuan." Then one of my classmates found a fly(苍蝇) in his noodles. "Wow! How can your restaurant be so unclean?!" My classmate asked the waiter. "Don't worry, boy. The fly is free. You don't need to pay {#blank#}7{#/blank#} it," said the waiter.

    {#blank#}8{#/blank#} terrible the place is! We were so angry {#blank#}9{#/blank#} we couldn't say a word! Then we took some photos of the noodles and put {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on our WeChat Moments(朋友圈). Now fewer and fewer people would like to eat there.