One day a poor farmer was taking a bag of rice to the town. Suddenly the bag fell down from his horse on the road. He didn't know what to do about it because it was too heavy for him to lift (举起) it by himself. He only hoped that somebody would soon pass (经过) by and help him.

    Just at this moment a man riding a horse came up to him. But the farmer was very disappointed(失望的)when he saw who he was. It was the great man living nearby. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man like him for help.

    But to his surprise, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came near. He said to the farmer, "I see you need help, my friend. How good it is that I'm here just at the right time！" Then he took one end of the bag, the farmer took the other. They together lifted it and put it on the horse.

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

    "It's quite easy, " the great man answered with a smile, "Wherever (无论在哪里) you see anyone in trouble, do the same for him. "

As you walk down the street, an object falls from a tall building and {#blank#}1{#/blank#}you. Who should be responsible for this? Or maybe you try to help someone in danger, but you accidentally hurt the person. Will you get in trouble for this? China's Civil Code(《民法典》) will give you the  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

On May 28, the National People's Congress (全国人民代表大会) agreed China's first-ever Civil Code. With 1,260 articles, it is a collection of laws that is about personal issues, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}property (物权), marriage, family, personality rights, and inheritances (继承). It's like an encyclopedia (百科全书) for social life.

China does have laws that cover these issues. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} , all kinds of these laws are not unified. The Civil Code gathers them into one unified document and makes improvements. With the Civil Code, China hopes to set up a country under the rule of law with {#blank#}5{#/blank#} protection for civil rights.

One special thing about the code is the part about individual (个人的) rights. It's a major innovation (创新) to form the individual rights into one part alone. This part includes laws{#blank#}6{#/blank#} relate to one's body, health, name, image (肖像), and fame.

Some of the laws in this part deal with how new technology is{#blank#}7{#/blank#}.For example, people who use AI face swap (调换) tools to make videos may go against {#blank#}8{#/blank#} image rights. The laws also provide data protection rights relating to possible data leaks by tech companies.

As we know, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were several attempts to draft (起草) a civil code in 1954, 1962, 1979 and 2001. But the conditions {#blank#}9{#/blank#} not good enough. In 2015, China started to work on the present code and{#blank#}10{#/blank#} it after 5 years. This year, the code took effect on Jan. 1.

Amy wanted a mobile phone as her birthday gift, because most of her classmates had one, but she knew her parents couldn't afford it.

One day, when she woke up, she found a new mobile phone on her desk. How excited she was!This was the phone that had appeared in fashion magazines.

She played with the phone on the way to school. And the teacher was already there when she arrived at school. Amy was very embarrassed （尴尬的）. She looked at her new mobile phone and whispered （低语）, "I didn't want to be late …"

Everything changed with her thought. She went to school on time with her new mobile phone.

She was surprised at that. She turned on the phone and found there was a sentence on the screen, "Every dream will come true. " Since then, she always asks the phone for help. As a result, she has become lazier and lazier. Her teachers and parents were very disappointed with her and her classmates didn't like her any more.

When the term exams came, Amy asked the mobile phone for help again, but things turned bad. She got the lowest mark in the class. She wanted to throw it away, but when she did, the phone would come back into her hand. Amy was so scared （恐惧的）that she cried out, "I don't want the mobile phone any more. "

She woke up to find that the terrible experience had been just a dream.

Turning Garbage into New Earth

My father is a quiet and shy man. He has his own creative ideas, but he 1  keeps them to himself. Don't get me wrong. If you ask him for advice, he is always glad to 2  his ideas with you. He goes about his business without too much excitement. There is one thing that really gets him 3 . Just mention the word "rubbish" to him! He is especially interested in 4  the rubbish problem. "We've become a throwaway society. We buy something, and then we throw it away. We shouldn't5  doing this, " he said. 

Last year, my father decided to do something about the wasted 6  we were throwing away. A family 7  nearly 500 pounds of food waste each year. Don't 8 , though. There is something that we can do about it. Food waste is also known 9 "organic matter(有机物)". If it is properly 10 , it can be changed from rubbish to compost(混合肥料) which can be added to vegetable gardens to make the plants grow really well. 

"We are going to start composting our food waste, "11  decided one night at dinner. "I bought a compost bin today. From now on, we should put all our food waste in the compost bin 12  throwing it away. Nature will slowly 13  it into compost. In a few months, we will have rich compost to add to our 14  . "

 It took a while to get used to it, 15  soon, we all got into the habit of taking our food waste to the compost bin in the backyard. Three months later, we were excited to find the bin full of rich compost!

The volleyball match is about to start, Kate{#blank#}1{#/blank#} her sport suit and goes to the centre of the stadium. Look! The girl{#blank#}2{#/blank#} blue is Sherry. She is Kate's teammate. Sherry has big eyes and she{#blank#}3{#/blank#} glasses. Hope they do well in the volleyball match today.