Long, long ago, there was a small village. This village had a(an)1tradition. At the beginning of every year, any boy who had reached the age of majority (成年) was given land and money to build a home. The boy had to2his home before winter. If his home failed to endure(忍耐) the cold weather in winter, the villagers could not3him in any way.

    One4, Paul and Marc reached their majority. They5their land and money and decided to search nearby villages for ideas on building their homes. In each village, they found the nicest6and talked to the owners. Each owner gladly offered7.

    After Marc saw several homes, he8the best ideas and went back to his own land. Paul,9, continued collecting more ideas. Soon he had so many great ideas that he began to10 some of them. But he always believed he could find even better ideas in the next village.

    Marc began building his home. He had several false starts,11his home gradually rose from his land. By fall, Marc had finished his home. It wasn't perfect, but it was strong and he could12it later. Paul enjoyed all the beautiful homes and13with home owners. The first snow came and Paul, realizing he was running out of time,14 back to his land. He built the best home he could in the time he had, but it was 15. The first winter storm destroyed his home and he froze to16.The villagers mourned for him.

    Marc17the winter. Each year, Marc searched for other good ideas he could use to make his own home look better. He became a leader in the village, 18 a family, and lived a happy, content life.

    We all build and improve our own mental homes. It's 19and fun for us to search for ideas from other mental home owners, but we only improve our own mental home if we actually 20the best ideas.

    The books in David's schoolbag felt like bricks as he ran. What he wanted to do was to play basketball with Eric, 1 his mother told him he would have to return his sister's books to the library first.

    He had 2 set foot in a library and he didn't like reading. He would just 3 the books in the outside return box. But there was a 4; it was locked.

    He went into the building, only a few minutes 5 closing time. He put the books into the return box. And after a brief 6 in the WC, he would be on his way to the playground to 7 Eric.

    David stepped out of the WC and stopped in  8 — the library lights were off. The place was 9. The doors had been shut. They 10 be opened from the inside, he was trapped in a library!

    He tried to11 a telephone call, but was unable to12. What's more, the pay phones were on the outside of the building. 13 the sun began to set, he searched for a light and found it.

    14 he could see. David wrote on a piece of paper: “15! I'm TRAPPED inside!” and stuck it to the glass door. 16, someone passing by would see it.

    He was surprised to discover that this place was not so unpleasant, 17. Rows and rows of shelves held books. He saw a book about Michael Jordan and took it. He settled into a chair and started to 18.

    He knew he had to 19, but now, that didn't seem to be such a 20 thing.

    My family and I were on our way to Pennsylvania and it was the middle of a snowstorm. We were almost there when we got stuck in a 1 traffic jam. Cars stretched (延伸)ahead of us and behind us as 2 as we could see. We sat in the same 3 without moving for seven hours. We 4periodically to see if the5 ahead of us were moving, which they had never been6there was a large 18-wheeler truck in front of us, my mom had to 7 the door to see around the 18-wheeler to get a 8 of the traffic jam in front of us. All we could do was sit and 9.At no time did any of us fall asleep or stop10 attention, because we were always checking up on the traffic. We sat for hours and heard11 about the cause of the traffic jam from the12and the only person we talked to was a truck driver13 us, who didn't know anything about it either.14after seven hours, the truck in front of us began moving slowly and we were happy to get moving, but when we15in front of the truck, there were absolutely NO cars to be seen, and NONE behind us16 one 18-wheeler. The only other vehicle besides those was the one of the trucker that had been next to us the 17 time. There were no signs of a traffic jam the entire 18 of our trip. It was as though the cars had all 19To this day we have no 20 as to how this could have happened.

    Over the last 15 years, as a doctor, I have had heart-to-heart conversations with countless patients near the end of their lives. The most common emotion they express is 1. And that's 2 I came up with a project to encourage people to write a 3 to their loved ones. It's a lesson I learned years ago from a memorable 4 patient.

    He was a retired 5 with a cancer. Every day, his 6 spent many hours watching him watch television. She explained to me he had never been much of a 7 in their 50-plus years of marriage. But he seemed quite 8 to share his ideas with me, 9 when it became clear his days were 10. He spoke of his deep regret for not having spent enough time with his wife, and of his great 11 in his son, who had joined the Navy in his father's footsteps.

    One afternoon, when I mentioned these 12 to his wife and son, they looked disbelievingly at each other. They thanked me for being so kind but 13 my patient was unlikely to express such feelings. To make sure his family could hear his 14, I took my video camera with me the next morning and with the patients' 15, recorded an open letter from him to his family. When I gave them the 16 letter, both his wife and son were moved to tears.

    The experience 17 my letter project, which can help people complete their life review tasks: remembering to those we may have hurt; 18 those who have hurt us and saying "I love you". It may take much courage to write a life review letter. For some people, it 19 deep and troubling emotions. 20 it may be the most important letter you will ever write.

    In 2011, a law was born. A kind of ladybug（瓢虫）became the state insect of North Dakota. When the governor 1 the bill into law, four kids stood behind him!

    Jaden, Logan, Megan and Isabel were in first grade 2 their idea for a law was born. Megan and Logan were farm kids and they had been 3 with the ladybug already. They knew that farmers had difficulty in 4 crop-eating pests called aphids and that ladybugs tended to 5 on aphids. The more ladybugs were around, the fewer 6 the farmers had to use.

    They decided that this ladybug should be their state insect. This ladybug was of great 7 to the crops on the farm and deserved a place of 8. But they had no idea how to 9 a law. So they asked help from their teacher, who happened to 10 their local state representative. When they all met, he told the kids they would have to present facts and reasons to 11 lawmakers that North Dakota was 12the ladybug as the state insect.

    The students spent much of that first-grade spring 13 ladybugs. There was no doubt that their research was hard work; 14 , they fell in love with it. "Even if we hadn't 15what we wanted," says Jaden, "even if the bill hadn't passed, I think it was really 16 a lot."

    In the fall of their second-grade year, they were invited to speak to a committee. In 17 , Megan wrote songs for the group to sing, they 18 more experts for support, and they practiced their presentation a lot! They showed up at the state building in ladybug costumes and presented their case. 19 , the bill passed!

    The students want everyone to know that kids can make a 20 . "Whether you are 20 or 80," says lsabel, "you have a voice in your community（社区）."

    For years, one teacher from a(n)1 village in Kenya(肯尼亚) has completely devoted his life to his job as a teacher and has made huge sacrifices (牺牲) for his 2. For the past 12 years, Tabichi has worked as a teacher in the hope that his lessons will give students a(n) 3 to improve their situations. 4 , working at the Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School hasn't been 5 .

    According to Tabichi, the school has no library or laboratory. What's worse, the teachers that work at the school have to 6 in crowded classrooms. Instead of 35-40 children per classroom, teachers are 7 to teach a group of 70-80 kids at one time. Therefore, the students aren't able to get the attention and guidance that they need. More 8, the school facilities (设施) are not the students' only 9. Most of the students in this school come from very poor families, so even 10 breakfast is hard for their parents. One of the other major 11 that Tabichi faces is keeping kids in school as long as possible. Many of the students in that area have difficulty completing their education because of poverty, 12 when Tabichi gets the feeling that a student is at risk of dropping out, he will work to 13 their families to put more value on education.

    14 his tireless work, his students have made lots of 15 in their studies. In recent years, his students have 16 many national and international science competitions. Tabichi is 17 that his students can be so excellent. In March of 2019, Tabichi was 18 by the Varkey Foundation and won a $1 million prize. He was 19 as "the best teacher in the world". The founder of the prize, Sunny Varkey, says he hopes that Tabichi's story will 20 more people to enter the teaching profession.