During the Qin Dynasty in China, there was a boy named Han Xin. He was born in a     1     family and was always hungry. An old lady     2     that the boy was very thin and looked hungry. She gave him a bowl of     3    .

“Thank you so much,” said Han Xin as he bowed down to the old lady. Since then, every time Han Xin met the old lady at the river, he never went hungry. Han Xin was very thankful to the old lady. “I will     4     a way to pay you back someday,” he said.

“Why do you promise so much when you have nothing?” she said. “I give you rice because I feel     5     that you don’t have anything to eat. I don’t expect you     6     me. If you are a real man, you will find a way to support yourself.”

When Han Xin grew up, he joined the army and then became a general. And     7     he became the “King of Qi” and the “King of Chu” in the Han Dynasty. He did many good     8     for people.

Han Xin never forgot the old lady. He went back to the     9    . Han Xin bowed down to her     10     gave her a bowl filled with gold. The old lady refused. “You have already paid me back by becoming a strong and     11     man,” she said. The Chinese idiom “A meal of kindness and a thousand gold rewards (一饭恩，千金酬)” comes from this story.

Did you read a book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place? It was written by Aron Ralston, a mountain     1    . There were many times when he almost     2     his life because of accidents, especially (尤其) on April 26, 2003 in Utah.

On that day, he was in a very     3     situation. His arm was caught under a 360-kilo       4     that fell on him. He couldn’t free his arm so he had to stay there. After his water ran out, he knew he had to do something to save his life. So he decided to use his     5     to cut off half his right arm. Then he bandaged it so that he didn’t lose too much blood. In the end, he climbed down the mountain to ask for help.     6     this experience was so terrible, his love for mountain climbing didn’t go away.

Aron’s experience tells us that we can’t give up     7     at any situations. We should have the same     8     as Aron before we are “between a rock and a hard place” which means being in a difficult situation that we cannot seem to     9    . He also tells us the importance of making a good     10    . If you are free, you can try reading the book.

I work in a cleaning company. Usually people call us, and we     1     house cleaning service.

One day, I got a call from a man named David. “I want to help an old man. He just had surgery (手术) and is still     2    . Can I pay for it without letting him know?” he asked. David was a very kind man. He called us because he was     3     about his neighbor, Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith just came back from the hospital. His house was in a     4     but he couldn’t do any housework. Even     5     the floor was difficult for him. He didn’t tell his children because he didn’t want them to     6     their time to take care of him. David wanted to help Mr. Smith without bringing him any     7    . And then we asked David what would happen if Mr. Smith refused to let us come into his house. “I have to at least try, and     8     I really want to help him,” he said.

Luckily, Mr. Smith let us in and our workers did a good job.     9     we promised David not to tell his name, we didn’t tell too much to Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was touched by the gift from someone he didn’t know.

Sometimes we don’t expect to     10     on others, because we are afraid of letting them get into trouble. However, there is always someone who cares for you and tries his best to help you.

Do you dream of travelling back to old China? Zhong Yetang “travels” back by reading many books of history. She always studied     1    .

Zhong began to get     2     in traditional Chinese culture at an early age. She liked the book Dream of the Red Chamber (《红楼梦》) best. She has     3     a lot about life in the past. In 2020, Zhong went to an American college. To her surprise, many of her American classmates learned harder and understood more about traditional Chinese culture. She     4     to go further study about Chinese culture. And she bought many books about it because it is always her     5    .

Now, Zhong makes     6     videos on the Internet. One of them is about the traditional clothing of China’s 56 ethnic groups (民族). The video is very popular with just only nine minutes. However, Zhong spent two     7     making it. She made many of the clothes by     8    . To do this, she read lots of books and asked others for     9    .

Zhong says she will make more videos to help us “travel” back to     10     China in the future.

Dong Yuhui is the most influential livestreamer of East Buy. He used to be an English teacher at New Oriental Group. As a livestreamer, he became popular thanks to his insightful (富有洞察力的) and     1     hosting style. He soon attracted a huge number of     2    . And the number of them on Chinese short-video platform Douyin     3     surprising. They bought     4     from East Buy just because of him.

Dong was     5     in Tongguan, a small county in Shaanxi province. He said his father was his role model. He always tries his best to buy and read newspapers     6     if he is a busy farmer. “I am just an ordinary person     7     vegetables on Douyin (China’s TikTok). I     8     hope that people do not pay too much attention to me. More focus should be     9     to many of the ordinary people’s lives like street vendors (街头摊贩) and farmers.” Dong said. In December, 2023, he made a speech in Tsinghua University and shared his experience of learning English. If you want to be     10    , you need to work hard and stay positive.

Once in a physics class, the teacher asked students, “Why do we have brakes (刹车) in our cars?” Soon, students gave different answers. A student     1     and replied, “Sir, to stop the car.” Another one said, “To reduce and control the speed of the car.”

However,     2     of the answers was the same as the teacher’s. Then he said, “All of your answers are right. But in my opinion, the brakes in the car make us able to drive much     3    .”

“If the car has no brakes, how fast are we ready to drive? It is the brakes in the car that give us courage to drive fast and     4    .” Listening to this, the whole class was     5     because no one had imagined this answer.

Similarly, there are many such “brakes” in our life, which seem to stop us. For example, our parents may ask us     6     progress or decisions in life. Their     7     or suggestions may be considered as “brakes” which stand in our way. But we can see them as our supporters which can     8     us while taking risks. Sometimes, we have to stop or even step back, so that we can take a big step.

In fact, it is the “brakes” in life that help us a lot. Without these “brakes”, we could lose our direction or     9     danger. So we need to understand that “brakes” in our life are not meant to push us back     10     to make us move forward more quickly than before.

Wang Ping is a cleaner. He has worked in a park for 5 years. He is also a good father. Nothing can make him     1     than playing with his little daughter in his free time.

Last Tuesday afternoon, while he was cleaning the park, suddenly, he heard a woman crying for     2    . He ran up quickly to see what happened. The     3     15-month-old baby girl choked (窒息) on a small piece of pear and her face turned purple. The baby was too young to save     4    , and the mother was so nervous that she didn’t know how to save her daughter properly.     5    , Wang Ping knew what to do. He took the baby in his arms without thinking     6    . With the mother’s help, Wang Ping held the baby upside down and     7     her a few pats (轻拍) on the back. After a short while, he succeeded (成功) in getting the piece of pear out of the baby’s     8     and she began to cry. Her mom was so thankful because her daughter was saved.

Wang Ping tried his     9     and saved the baby’s life. In his mind, helping others is just helping himself. He hoped     10     people could volunteer to help the people in need if possible.