Most people wrongly believe that when people reach old age, their families place them in nursing homes. They {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (leave) in the hands of strangers for the rest of their lives. Their grown children visit them {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(occasion), but more often, they do not have any regular visitors. The truth is that the idea is an unfortunate myth — an {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (imagine) story. In fact, family members provide the most care {#blank#}4{#/blank#} elderly people need. Samuel Prestoon, a sociologist, has studied {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the American family is changing. He has reported that by the time the average American couple reach 40 years of age, they have more parents than children. Moreover, because people today live longer after an illness than before, family members must provide long-term care. More {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (psychology) have found that all caregivers believe that they are the best people for the job. Social workers interviewed caregivers to find out why they took {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the responsibility of caring for {#blank#}8{#/blank#} elderly relative. Many caregivers thought they had obligation {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (help) their relatives, stating that helping others make them feel more useful. Most hoped that by helping someone, they would deserve care when they became old and dependent. Caring for the elderly and {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (take) care of can be a mutually satisfying experience for everyone who might be involved.

    Jin Hanmiao,a first grader from China,received a reply letter from Buckingham Palace{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(recent) after writing to introduce the China-Britain express railway service.

    The letter is based{#blank#}2{#/blank#}the 19-day journey of the first China-U.K.freight（货运）train.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(see) the news of its return to Yiwu,Jin's mother encouraged him to write about it and then send the letter to Queen ElizabethⅡ.

    In his letter,Jin introduced{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(he) and Yiwu,as well as his hope{#blank#}5{#/blank#}the Queen would appreciate{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(tradition) Chinese culture.He also expressed his interest in the U.K.,after mentioning some British famous persons and places including Isaac Newton,Charles Darwin,and the British Museum.He then sent his letter to the Queen.

    Jin's mother helped translate the letter into English,and sent both the original letter and the translation to London on May 8.Two months{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(late),a reply from Buckingham Palace{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(receive).The letter talked about the living and working conditions of the Queen at{#blank#}9{#/blank#}early age,and included a detailed{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(introduce) of the Palace.

    Silence is unnatural to man. He does all he can {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(make) a noise in the world, and he fears silence more than anything else. Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence. If he{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(introduce) to another person, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as{#blank#}3{#/blank#}failure, and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox (喋喋不休的人).He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(mean) no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure (蜡塑人像).

    The aim of conversation is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz; there is even a buzz that is as{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(annoy) as the continuous noise made by a mosquito (蚊子). But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito {#blank#}6{#/blank#}a quiet person. Most buzzing, fortunately, is pleasant to the ear, and some of it is pleasant even to the mind.

    Those{#blank#}7{#/blank#} hate to pick up the weather as a{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(conversation) opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(learn) anything new. Some of them are content if they are {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(mere) allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears.

    A young man, while traveling through a desert, came across a spring of clear water. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}water was sweet. He filled his leather container so that he could bring some back to an elder {#blank#}2{#/blank#}had been his teacher. After a four-day journey, the young man{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (present) the water to the old man. His teacher took a deep drink, smiled{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (warm), and thanked his student very much for the sweet water. The young man went home {#blank#}5{#/blank#}a happy heart.

    After the student left, the teacher let {#blank#}6{#/blank#}student taste the water. He spat it out, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(say) it was awful. Apparently, it was no longer fresh because of the old leather container. He asked his teacher, "Sir, the water was awful. Why did you pretend to like{#blank#}8{#/blank#}?"

The teacher replied, “You tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of kindness and love. Nothing could be{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (sweet).”

    We understand this lesson best {#blank#}10{#/blank#}we receive gifts of love from children. Whether it is a cheap pipe or a diamond necklace, the proper response is appreciation. We love the idea within the gift rather than the thing.

    Many Americans put away their white clothes on Labor Day {#blank#}1{#/blank#} do not wear them again until the following May.

    One reason for the clothing custom relates to the season. In the United States, the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (month) between June and September are summer. The weather is usually hot in northeastern cities. Many people there historically wore light-colored clothing in the summertime {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (keep) cool.

    Judith Martin is an expert on manners, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} spoke to Time Magazine about the history of wearing white in summer. She said Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s wore formal clothes all year long. Wearing white clothes in the summertime may make people more {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (comfort). Then, in about the 1930s, wearing white clothes in the summertime became fashionable. That is because some wealthy Americans went on vacation {#blank#}6{#/blank#} weeks or months in the summer. The white clothes then became connected with ease, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (beautiful) and money. But at the end of summer, they put those white clothes away and {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (return) to their lives in the city, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (wear) darker and heavier clothes. {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (eventual), not wearing white clothes after Labor Day became a bit of a fashion rule.