Mrs. Green is going to hold a birthday party for Mary. Mary is her daughter. She is going to be thirteen years old. Mary's friends are going to come to the party. They are all girls.

    Mrs. Green is getting ready for the party. Mrs. White is helping her.

    "That's a nice cake," says Mrs. White.

    "Thank you very much," says Mrs. Green.

   Mrs. Green is going shopping now. She's buying fruit for the party. She buys a lot of pears, apples, oranges and bananas. Then she goes home.

    It's three o'clock in the afternoon. Now the first girl comes, then another. The party is going to start after thirty minutes.

    Martin is a fifteen-year-old boy. He used to be a "problem child", but a recent 1 with his mother changed his life. He didn't use to give his mother many problems. 2 , after his father's death a few years ago, Martin's life became 3 more difficult. His mother couldn't afford to pay for her child's education. To do this, she 4 work, and so she was often not at home. His mother looked after him as 5 as she could. Unfortunately, Martin still caused problems. He was not 6 in studying and he often got into trouble. Luckily, his mother was very 7 and didn't give up trying to help him. In the end, she 8 a difficult decision: to send him to a boys' boarding school. Martin hated it and used to cause a lot of trouble. One day, he told his teacher he wanted to leave the school. The teacher said it was necessary for Martin to 9 with his mother. Martin called his mother, but to his 10 , this phone call changed his life. "It was exactly 11 I needed," he said. "My mother helped me to understand how much she had given me. She also told me that even though my father was no longer with us, he was 12 me and would always take pride in everything good I do. That's when I decided to change. I realize that 13 my father died, I have been afraid of being alone, and have tried to make my mother pay more attention to me." Now Martin has 14 changed. He has been working hard and is now one of the best students in his class. How was he able to change? His mother's 15 helped him to feel good about himself.

    It's five o'clock in the afternoon. School1and the students from Class 3 are going to Grandma Liang's house. Grandma Liang has no2or daughters. So the children often go to help3do some housework.

    Now the children are at Grandma Liang's4. Grandma Liang is very5to see them. Look! Lily is6with Grandma Liang in the living room. Betty is cleaning the7. Jane is washing clothes outside the room.8is Ann? Oh, she is in the kitchen. She is making9for Grandma Liang, Jim is next to Ann. He is10her.

A boy and his family left their country because of war. They lived in a small room. They had no toys or books, and 1 food. One night, Father went to the market to buy 2 . When he came home, it was nearly dark. He carried a long roll of paper under his arm. 

"I bought a map. " He said happily. 

"3 is the bread?" Mother asked. "I bought a map. " He said again. 

 Mother and the boy said 4 . 

"I had enough money to buy only a small piece of bread, and we would still be 5 , "

Father said, feeling very sorry. 

" No dinner tonight, " Mother said 6 . " We' ll have the map instead. " The boy was very angry, but he had to go to bed hungrily. 

 The next day, Father 7 the large map. The map was so large that it took up the whole wall. Their dark room was full of 8 . 

" What a colorful map!" It surprised the boy and made him very 9 it. So he began to spend long hours looking at it and studying it carefully and drawing on any small piece of paper that he 10 find. He learned many different names of places on the map. He even traveled to faraway countries without 11 the room. 

 The boy landed in deserts. He ran on beaches. He climbed snowy mountains. He saw birds singing on the top of temples. He went 12 forests with lots of fruit trees, eating as many fruits as he liked. He drank fresh water and 13 under tall trees. He came to a city of tall buildings and counted thousands of windows, falling asleep 14 he could finish. 

 So he spent many hours far, far away from his hunger and 15 days. He understood that his father was right at last. 

Ye Lianping is a 96-year-old retired teacher from a village in Anhui Province. He has been teaching left-behind children there for free during the past 24 years.

Teaching has always been an important part of Ye's life. After he retired, he began offering free English-language classes to left-behind children. He first set up a classroom in his own house. Later, with the help of the government, he got another two classrooms. To provide education for more children, he also set up the Ye Lianping Scholarship Fund with almost all his money and the donations (捐赠物) from others. So far, it has helped hundreds of left-behind children.

Ye is quite generous to these children, but he spends very little money on himself. He lives a very simple life. He lives with his wife in a house built over 30 years ago. He never buys any drinks. And he has been wearing the same jacket for over 40 years.

Although he is getting older, Ye is never tired of teaching. In 2018, he got hurt while riding a bicycle to buy vegetables. Instead of resting in bed for recovery, he quickly returned to class with a walking stick.

Ye is racing against time to spend as much time as possible on left-behind children's education. People call him "the candlelight of the village". But he said, "I'm just a firefly (萤火虫), making little light, not as much light as a candlelight can give."