It was a very cold evening. The old man's beard was almost icy. He was waiting for a 1 across the river. The wait seemed 2. The old man sat on the ground waiting for quite a long time.

    3, he saw several horsemen coming. He watched them silently and let the first one pass by without even asking. Another passed by, and then another, till the last rider came near the old man. The old man caught the rider's 4 and said, “Sir, would you 5 giving me a ride to the other side?”

    6 his horse, the rider replied, “Of course not.” But it was so cold that the old man's body was almost 7. He could not get 8the ground. The horseman helped the old man onto his horse. He took the old man not just across the river, 9to the old man's home.

    As they 10 the old man's house, the horseman asked, “Sir, you let several other riders pass by without even asking. Then I 11 and you asked me for a ride at once. Why? 12 I had said 'no' and left you there?”

    The old man looked the rider straight in the eye, and said, “I looked 13 the eyes of the other riders. I quickly saw that they didn't 14. It would be 15 even asking them for a ride. But in your eye I saw 16. I knew that you would help me.”

    The words 17 the rider deeply. “Thank you for what you've said,” he told the old man. “I hope I will never leave others 18 simply because I'm busy, and every American citizen does 19 in my heart.”

    With that, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US, turned his horse around and made his 20back to the White House.

    During World Space Week(October 4～10)，you may learn about some of the space's myths. One is: “The Great Wall of China is the only man­made object1from space with the naked eye.”

    You might be2of this claim, but it's not true. In fact, astronauts say that the Great Wall is just one of many man­made3can be seen from space. From an orbit 217 kilometres4the earth，it is5to see highways，airports，bridges, dams and even large6.

    Cities can even be seen clearly from the International Space Station ( ISS, 国际空间站)，7circles about 400 kilometres above the planet. “You can see the8pyramids from space with a pair of binoculars(双筒望远镜). They are a little difficult to9with just your eyes，” said Ed Lu, a US astronaut10the ISS.

    “With binoculars  you  can  also see  roads, harbours and even very large11in the ocean. From the moon, astronauts cannot12any man­made features on earth and the continents are very hard13. On Mars，the earth would appear to the naked eye as14but a bright 'star'. ”15what about the Great Wall? “You can see the Great Wall from space，”Lu said. “But it's a lot16than a lot of other objects. You can only see it in radar images，17in ordinary photographs.”

    No one knows who18the Great Wall story. The earliest reference to it comes in a book by a US writer Richard Halliburton，published in 1938. He wrote，“Astronomers say that the Great Wall is the only man­made thing on our planet visible to the human eye from the moon.”

    Halliburton's books19quite well during the first half of the 20th century. So，if he didn't20the story himself，he certainly spread it widely.

    For fans of Emma Watson, it's quite exciting that she perfectly plays the role of Belle in Disney's fantasy film Beauty and the Beast. In most fairy tales, it's the woman who 1her prince to rescue her from danger, but in this movie, Belle, independent and active, with 2and kindness, saves her love and 3him from a fearsome beast back into a charming prince.

    Watson, in real life, is 4 with her famous roles. She is 5 for fighting for equality for women all over the world and is always proud of her feminist（女权主义）thoughts. Actually, her early 6 affected her decision to be so strong in her.7. She claimed in one speech she 8 on gender（性别）equality: At age 8, she was called “bossy” by boys only because she, a girl, wanted to direct plays. She then started to focus on gender equality. Afterward, her enthusiastic and wise public speeches have 9 many miserable women, for which she 10 credit.

    On March 8, Watson 11 a live Question and Answer about gender equality for the UN's HeForShe campaign. During the12, Watson emphasized that gender equality doesn't just 13 women. “I've got four brothers. Gender equality is having an effect on them just as 14 as me. My brother once said he just couldn't 15 some of his male friends, 16the rude way they talk about girls.”

    When Watson was17as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joked that he hoped Watson used her magic stick to 18 violence against women. And the19 young woman is doing and will 20to do so.

    One year my children came home from school asking where we were going on your summer vacation. It seemed that all the other kids were1 where they were spending the summer. I couldn't 2to take them anywhere but I didn't want to tell them that so I just said, “It's a surprise!” They were3. That bought me a little more 4.

    I called several amusement 5to see if there was a half-price event during the summer but no such 6 . I tried everything, with no success, so I called some of the other moms to find that most were in the same7that I was. We decided to 8something fun for our kids to do. We had a meeting, all five of us, and9 what is now called a “playcation”.

    One mother was a 10 , so on Mondays the kids would all go to her house. They would play games using plants and 11. They also planted vegetables and12them grow over the summer.

    Another mother had Bible13on Tuesdays. She asked some questions about Bible. The kid who answered 14got a penny, which they all turned in at the end to buy their goodie bags(礼品袋).

    At our house on Wednesdays, I made an outdoor 15training with my spare tires. The kids also walked a balance beam and raced through large cardboard boxes taped together.

    On 16they had arts and crafts across the street. Fridays were17by a wonderful single dad with a metal detector(金属探测器)who took everyone out treasure18 .

    The summer was a big 19. Okay, it wasn't Disney World,20the kids didn't miss anything. My son actually asked me, “Can we do this again next year?”

I still remember my kindergarten teacher Mrs White, although I don't remember much about what we learned in her class. My mother once told me that we used to1a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she could see there were so many2. But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes3a "Good"，which would make my heart soar (高涨）with4, But it worried my mother, so one day when she met Mrs White, she asked her why she never5the wrong spellings of words.

Mrs White replied, "The children are just beginning to get6about using words, about forming sentences. I don't want to7that enthusiasm with red ink. Spelling and grammar can wait. The wonder of words won't…"Maybe she didn't say it8like that. It was long ago. But I did grow up learning to use words with loving9like that.

I10now and think Mrs Whites was a rather11teacher. She encouraged the joy,12and excitement of expression-however faultily-like that. I used to13"beautiful" a lot. Never could I quite remember that the "e"went 14the "a".15my teacher in high school very much.16eventually the e's and a's settled into their17places. I am glad I didn't 18on them though. "Pretty" is 19to spell but it doesn't hold as much as you mean sometimes. And thanks to Mrs White, I had no20about writing what I meant even if I couldn't quite spell it out. Because life isn't Pretty. It's Beautiful.

    My family were on a vacation in Dubai and having a good time. One day, we were visiting Abu-Dhabi, 1 with a few passengers in a bus. At our first 2, we got out to take some pictures. At our second stop, we noticed that we had 3 our shoulder bag at the first stop. The 4 part was that our passports, visast hotel booking papers-everything was inside that bag and we 5 at the thought of having to return to India in two days.

    During this process of 6 our bag, we came into contact with so many strangers whom we found to be really concerned and helpful with our 7: A tour guide and a bus driver helped us to 8 the position of a taxi and then called it for us, so that we could travel back to the first 9 to find our bag. Finally, we got there and we saw a tourist who was standing there 10 his friend's car. Obviously, he had to go somewhere, but instead, he decided to 11 us and showed us a way to call a free police station number for a(n) 12.

    An officer on the phone said a local woman actually found our bag. He 13 the bag and found a number to a travel agency. He 14 the travel agency and asked his driver to send the bag there. The driver placed it at a 15 place to us, from where we could get our bag back easily.

    On that day, at first there was real 16 inside me and I was 17 thinking of what would happen next. In such a state of mind, I was not able to say 18 to all those persons who helped us in such a (n) 19 situation. And I don't even know their names. But I'll never be able to forget their 20 and their kindness.