One day a rich man wanted to sell some goods (物品) in another town and buy some things there. He decided to ____ ten servants (仆人) with him. They would carry the goods and also some ____ to eat on their way. The rich man said to ____ of his servants, “Ali, you are the ____ and the weakest one. You may ____ the lightest load (担子) to carry.” Ali thanked him and chose the ____ load. It was their food-bread. The rich man said, “How foolish (愚蠢) you are! That’s the heaviest one.” But Ali was ____ to lift it up. And so they set off. Four hours ____ they stopped for a rest. They all ____ some of the bread. Then there was ____ bread for Ali to carry. Each time they ate some, the load became smaller and lighter. At last the clever servant had nothing to carry.

Can we live without salt? No, salt is very important to us. We need salt in our food. Animals need it, too. Most of the salt in our country comes from the sea. People dig very big pools and let sea water in. When the sun dries up the water, people can get salt from the ground. The salt is white, clean and beautiful.

There are lot of salt wells (井) in Sichuan. Salt well is much like water well. People bring the well water up to the ground and then dry it in big jars over fire. In this way, they get salt.

We can also get salt from salt mines (矿). Salt mines may be found under the ground. Some years ago, people in Jiangxi found a big salt mine and soon opened it. People there don’t need salt from other places any more.

In the north-west of our country, there are many salt lakes. Some of these lakes are very big. The salt even in one big lake will be enough for our people for centuries.