Do you hate to get your hands dirty? When I see my 10-year-old son1the dirty plates  in the sink or my 8 year-old daughter cringing(畏缩) at the wet sand clinging(黏住) to her hands, I am reminded of a time when I was 2to get my hands a little dirty.

    My parents owned a 500-acre 3 n Montana when I was young. I'd often come home from school to find a/an 4lamb or a calf being bottle-fed in the basement.One exceptionally cold day, I was the5sheep with my mother in the ranch when she spied a ewe(母羊)6.The poor thing was trying to7 her baby lamb and needed our help.My mother calmly held the ewe's head and8 me to grab hold of the two protruding(突出的) legs.

I hesitated, and must have had quite a look of 9 on my young face.The slimy little things were 10not something I wanted to touch.But I worked up my 11and wrapped my fingers around them.I can still recall the feel of 12the delicate legs and their sharp little hooves(蹄子) as of it happened yesterday.

    My heart beat in fear and excitement as I 13with all my strength.The lamb was delivered with an outpouring, and I'd never seen14so beautiful.I was no 15to see ranch animals being born, but to have a hand16it was something I cherished then and will cherish forever.

    Looking back, I'm so glad that I didn't 17to get my hands dirty.18I had, the miraculous moment and the precious memory would have been lost.These days I try to instill(灌输) that life lesson into my own 19 .Sometimes you need to get your hands a little dirty to experience something 20 and pure.

    Most people in school liked Gloria. So when she got sick, some boys 1 to visit her. But none of them wanted to 2 any money for a gift to bring along.

    Then Willie said, “We can 3 some flowers from a 4.”

    Gloria will not know 5 they come from, and the dead man will not 6 them.

    Everybody was afraid, 7 Willie. So he went alone and 8 some beautiful flowers. Then they went to Gloria's 9, and the boys acted as if the flowers were from all of them, but 10 did not mind.

    After their visit, Willie 11 the other boys, “It is a good thing that I was not afraid. Gloria 12 the flowers.”

    The other boys laughed. Gloria would not have liked the 13 if she had known they had come from a grave.

    That night, Willie was reading a book 14 his mother came into his room. “Willie, did you and other boys buy some flowers today 15 Gloria?” she asked. “There's a man 16 asking for you,” she added. “He says that you didn't 17 the flowers.”

    “What does he look 18?” Willie asked.

    “That's hard to say,” Willie's mother answered. “He is all 19 with mud.”

    Willie, all of a sudden, turned 20.

    Armed with a bachelor's degree in medicine, I left Jammu, my hometown, for Delhi hoping to find a good job. Those were testing time — I was 1 my resume at every hospital and clinic in the capital, and facing upsetting 2responses. These big-city folks seemed too busy to care about a 23-year-old, jobless girl. Then a friend told me about the “Technical Recruitment Cell”,3 near the Income Tax Office (ITO), where I could 4 for a government job.

    The next day I reached the ITO area and 5 in the sun for an hour asking everybody for the Technical Recruitment Cell, but no one had any idea 6 it was.

    It was 7 and the heat unbearable. I then reached a big book shop, full of books on law and finance. Maybe I'll 8 inside, I thought as I walked in and found a man aged about 40 busy at his PC.9him, I asked if he knew the address. Seeing me drenched in sweat (大汗淋淳)，he asked me to take a 10 and offered me a glass of water. He then googled “Technical Recruitment Cell”, but without 11. I must have looked frustrated.

    “Don't get 12.” he said, as he continued his search. “We'll find it.” He'd spent several minutes searching when an older man who also 13 in the shop, came by and asked us what we were looking for.

    “Beta, it might be the Delhi Subordinate Board,” he suggested. “They 14 people for government posts.” We searched for that and found it 15 — actually the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board. They then gave me a printout of the 16

    “What do I 17you for the Internet time and the printout?” I asked the first gentleman.

    “Oh, nothing. Good luck!”

    “Thank you,” I said to the pair. The older man then told me the 18 of the bus that would get me there, the fare, even the best 19 to take, finally saying “God bless you!” as I walked out.

    I was happy in the discovery that not all city folks are too 20to help other.

    When Pat Jones finished college, she decided to travel around the world and see as many foreign places as she could1she was young. Pat wanted to visit Latin America2, so she got a job3an English teacher in a school in Bolivia. Pat spoke a little Spanish4she was able to communicate with her students even when they didn't5much English.

    A sentence she had read somewhere stuck in her mind: if you dream6a foreign language, you have really mastered it. Pat repeated this sentence to her students and7that some day she would dream in Spanish and they would dream in8.

    One day, one of her9students came up and explained in Spanish that he had not done his homework. He had10early, but had slept 11 .

    "What does this have to do with your 12?" Pat asked.

    "I dreamed all night, Miss Jones, and my dream was in English."

    "In English?" Pat was very13, since he was such a bad student. She was14 secretly jealous (嫉妒的). Her15was still not in Spanish. But she encouraged her young student. "Well, 16me about your dream."

    "All the people in my dream17 English." the student said. "And all the signs were in English. All the newspapers and magazines and all the TV programs were in English. "

    "Great. That's18, " said Pat. "What did all the people say to you?"

    "I'm sorry, Miss Jones. That's19I slept so terribly. I didn't20a word they said. It was a nightmare (噩梦 )!"

    There was a woman in Detroit, who has two sons. She was 1 about them, especially the younger one, Ben, 2 he was not doing well in school. Boys in his class 3 him because he seemed so 4.

    The mother 5 that she would, herself, have to get her sons to do better in school.

    She6 them to go to the Detroit Public Library to read a 7 a week and do a report about it for her.

    One day, in Ben's 8, the teacher held up a rock and asked if anyone knew it. Ben 9up his hand and the teacher let him 10. "Why did Ben raise his hand?" they wondered. He 11 said anything; what could he possibly want to say？

    Well, Ben not only 12 the rock; he said a lot about it. He named other rocks in its group and even knew 13 the teacher had found it. The teacher and the students were 14. Ben had learned all this from doing one of his book 15.

    Ben later went on to the 16 of his class. When he finished high school, he went to Yale University 17 at last became one of the best doctors in the United States.

    After Ben had grown up, he 18 something about his mother that he did not know as a19. She, herself, had never learned how to 20.

After 49 years on the job, Marge Moore still mops and sweeps her bus every day and washes it on weekends. Every winter is a1for Moore, just because she needs to2her kids on time. Besides, she has to drag her blow-dryer to3 the transmission (变速器) when4 cold.

Even with vacations, Moore still gets 5 to work as a bus driver for Virginia Beach public schools. She's seeing some6students grow up and have kids, whom Moore also took to school.

"Moore's absolutely7. There's a reason she hasn't8 a day," people said," she's just 9by her love for kids." She is earning a little 10as her term of service inches closer to the half-century mark.

The COVID-19 has seriously interrupted her school11. When learning is virtual, Moore works to deliver food to 50 families, who wouldn't12 have it. Her consistency is13, and she was nominated (提名) for the " Recognizing Inspirational School Employees Award". The14 will be announced in the spring.

Moore isn't sure when she'll quit. "If I didn't 15it, I wouldn't be doing it," she said.