The other day I was talking to a stranger on the bus; he told me that he had a good 1 in Chicago and he wondered if, by any chance, I 2 to know him . For a moment, I thought he might be 3 , but I could tell from the expression on his face that he was not. He was 4. I felt like saying that it was ridiculous (可笑的) to think that out of all the millions of people in Chicago I could possibly have ever bumped into his friend. But, 5, I just smiled and reminded him that Chicago was a very 6 city. He nodded, and I thought he was going to be content to drop the subject and talk about something else. But I was wrong. He was silent for a few minutes, and then he 7 to tell me all about his friend.

    His friend's main 8 in life seemed to be tennis. He was an excellent tennis player, and he even had his own tennis court（网球场）. There were a lot of people with swimming 9, yet there were only two people with private tennis court; his friend in Chicago was one of them. I told him that I knew several 10 like that, including my brother, who was doctor in California. He 11 that maybe there were more private courts in the country, than he realized but he did not know of any others. Then he asked me 12 my brother lived in California. When I said Sacramento, he said that was a coincidence(巧合) 13 his Chicago friend spent the summer in Sacramento last year and he lived next door to a 14 who had a tennis court in his backyard. I said I felt that really was a coincidence because my next-door neighbour had gone to Sacramento last summer and had hired the house next to my brother's house. For a moment, we stared at each other, but we did not say anything.

    “Would your friend's name happen（碰巧） to be Roland Kirkwood?” I asked finally. He laughed and said,“Yes. Would your brother's name happen to be Dr Rey Hunter?” It was my 15 to laugh. “Yes,” I replied.

    There was once a boy called Joseph Webb who always loved to show off how many friends he had at school. One day his 1 said to him, “Joseph, I 2 you a big bag of popcorn that you don't have as many friends as you think. I'm sure many of them are nothing more than companions.”

    Joseph 3 the bet at once. However, he wasn't sure how to 4 whether his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandfather. The old man answered, “Wait a minute.” Then he left and 5 soon as though carrying something in his hands, but Joseph could see 6 there.

    “Take it. It's a very 7 chair because it's invisible (看不见). It's rather 8 to sit on, but if you take it to school and 9 to sit on it, you'll activate (激活) its 10 and it'll be able to tell who your real friends are.”

    Joseph, brave and determined, set off for 11 with the strange and invisible chair. At break time he asked everyone to form a(n) 12, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. Having difficulty seeing it, Joseph tried to sit on it but he 13 the seat and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone around him had a pretty good 14.

    Wait! Let me try again, Joseph said. But again, he missed the seat, 15 more surprised looks and a few catcalls (尖叫,喝倒彩). Joseph didn't 16 and kept trying to sit on the magic chair. But he kept falling to the ground…until, suddenly he tried again but didn't 17. Looking around, Joseph saw three of his best friends holding him up. 18, many others he had thought of as friends had done nothing but make fun of him. And there, the show came to an end. Joseph understood that 19 friends were those who care for him, and not just the 20 that happened to be passing by. And someone who took joy in his misfortunes (不幸) was even less of a friend.

    My father was born in a small town in the US. He wasn't sure what he wanted from1, but something told him to2and begin a new adventure.

    He began that adventure traveling to cities in the US before going on to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.  He took my mother and us three daughters with him and went wherever the road3him.

    It's easy to feel4when you're on the road. We made lots of new friends on our trip - most of them are mechanics, since we often5hours in repair shops. But that was a way much6than sitting by the roadside while waiting for the engine to7when it was 40℃ outside.

    Getting along well sometimes seemed8. There were always a lot of9, especially among us back-seat passengers about who had to10in the middle. But even if it was hard, we learned a lot about11. When we were traveling in the Philippines, we drove to Quezon City one day. It should have been an hour's drive but was nearly three thanks to bad roads and12traffic. "Did you put our suitcases in the car?" my father asked my mother as we arrived there. From the back seat, we saw her13turn toward my father. "No," she said. "I thought you did." That was how a seven-hour car trip turned into a 16-hour one, which was mostly spent in14.

    On occasions like that, we had to learn to let go of our anger because we were15in a rolling box with the same people for the rest of the16. Even if I sometimes felt like opening the car door and17one of my sisters out, I kept my feelings to myself.

    This is why road trips were like18universities to us. We19our PHDs(博士学位) in how to get along with other people just by traveling in our old car.

If we were20given a second chance at life, we would do it all over again. Only this time would I put the suitcases in the car myself.

     For a long time, I thought a present and a gift were no different. I grew up in a household where presents 1 special occasions, say there were always presents for Christmas and our birthdays.

     So when I married Gary who did not give presents on a 2 basis, I had to make an adjustment. Gary did not wholly avoid gift-giving, though. 3 noticing how many hours I spend on the 4. he brought home a shoulder pad (垫肩）for the telephone receiver. But mostly, he 5 holidays, let alone shop for earrings to 6 to me showing his affection.

    I tried to change Kim 7. I bought books for his birthdays and knitted him hats and sweaters for Christmas. 8I began to tell him what I wanted, giving 9 instructions, but got nowhere.

    Last year when the snowstorm 10 our town and he was on business, I used his present—road scraper (铲土机)to11 both our drive and our neighbor's, thinking how12 earrings would have been. Gary had wisely chosen not the thing I 13, but the thing that he knew I would need.

    I 14 began to understand the difference between a present and a gift. A present is just a thing. But a gift is broader and often cannot be 15. It is a small act of kindness, the 16to bend to another's needs, the sacrifice of time and effort.17 is a gift. Any expression of it, freely given, is a(n) 18 from the heart that is immeasurably better than a present.

    My insistence on presents must have seemed to Gary a lack of 19 for the gifts he had been giving all along, but he never stopped giving them.

    Gary will be home this Christmas, but I don't 20 a present. I already have the greatest gift.

    Sarah grew up on a fishing boat. Her father,1to make enough money to buy a house, had 2 her within their only small boat since his wife died.

    One morning, Sarah saw a 3above the sea, which was close to them, and the boat began to rock as waves grew. 4 a mountain of clouds approaching from the south, she rushed below deck(甲板), 'Dad, 5.

    "What?" her drunken father asked 6.

    "Dad, a big storm is coming. We need to get out of here. "She grabbed his shoulders and 7 him. He got angry, shouting, "What are you doing?"

    "Dad, we have to 8the boat. There's a big storm coming. "

    Her father 9her at last. He walked to the deck, saw the10and fired up the engine.

    "Dad, what are you doing?"

    "Sarah, 11we stay here, we will die. We need to get out of the sea. We must ride the waves; that's our only 12."

    Their boat headed into the storm 13. Above them were black clouds and in front of them were dark waves. It was so 14.

    Hours passed. The dark day turned into darkness totally. They held each other for 15, but the experienced fisherman needed no 16 because he had fought many such battles.

    Eventually, the waves 17 and the sky brightened. Sarah was 18 and hugged her father, "You did it, Dad."

    They sailed back into the port. Other boats had been destroyed. Their boat was the only one to 19 the storm. Sarah hugged her father again. "Dad, you made it. You 20 us."

    "No, Sarah," he held her by his arms, "we did it together."

Hummingbirds (蜂鸟) are a very important part of Mexico's ecosystem, but because of the ever-spreading city landscape, they face all sorts of serious dangers. That's where 73-year-old Catia Lattouf de Arida comes in. As a self-taught hummingbird care-taker, she devotes most of her free time and resources to nursing the tiny birds back to health. Her home in Mexico City has become known as a hummingbird hospital.

Catia's story as a hummingbird nurse began in 2011, at a very difficult moment in her life. At that time, she focused on her battle with cancer and fell into a depression (抑郁) . She was walking on the street one day when she noticed a hummingbird that had suffered a serious eye injury. The kindhearted woman took it home and named it Gucci. She managed to nurse Gucci back to health, but she said it was Gucci that saved her. Why? Because the hummingbird managed to pull her out of the sadness and loneliness that had taken over her life. 

Word of her success spread among Catia's friends, and before long some of them began bringing her injured hummingbirds. She didn't repulse them at all. She began to study the bird and their habits in order to better take care of them, and after 11 years of experience, the 73-year-old woman is considered an expert on hummingbirds. 

In order to raise awareness of the difficult situation of hummingbirds in Mexico, Catia Lattouf de Arida started posting videos of the patients in her Mexico City apartment on social media, and many of them became popular. That's when the need for her nursing services really blew up. She has cared for hundreds of hummingbirds in her 11-year career, when she has had as many as 50 of them in her apartment at any one time. She spends pretty much all her time looking after the tiny birds.