The back door of the ambulance was suddenly shut and the driver ran to the front, jumped into his seat and started the engine. Inside were the worried parents, Mr. and Mrs. Green. The mother was holding their baby daughter, Ellen. The girl had some food stuck in her throat and could     46     breathe.

The driver, Mr. White, turned on his siren (警笛) and flashing light, and started speeding towards the nearest hospital, fighting against time. The cars     47     him pulled out of the way as he drove through the busy traffic. From the back of the ambulance, the parents were shouting at him to     48    , since Ellen had almost stopped breathing. In front of him he saw some traffic lights with the red “Stop” light shining. Mr. White knew he had no time to lose, so he drove     49     past the traffic lights.

Coming     50     him from his right was a taxi. The driver was listening to his radio. He did not hear the ambulance. The     51     were green, so he drove straight on into the path of the ambulance.

Mr. White tried to stop his ambulance, but it was too late. It hit the taxi. Everyone was    52    , but no one was hurt. Mr. White looked back to see how Ellen was.

“Look!” cried Mrs. Green. “She is breathing again.”

Ray’s wedding (婚礼) was successful. Everyone seemed to have had a good time. All evening, no one looked after the gift table. Who would steal anything, Ray thought. But his best friend Aaron didn’t think so. He walked away regularly from other guests to check on the gift table, making sure no one suspicious (可疑的) was hanging around it.

Ray and Julia went on a three-week honeymoon right after the wedding. When they got back, they opened all the gifts and sent out thank you notes. But there was one problem. A married couple, Walt and Marry, had given nothing. This surprised Julia. Ray didn’t care if they hadn’t given a gift. He just needed to know whether to send a thank you note. Ray called Aaron.

Aaron asked Ray if he had looked everywhere for Walt’s gift. Had he called up the wedding site to see if anything had been left behind? Ray said that he had looked everywhere and made a lot of calls that were fruitless.

Ray didn’t know what to do. “What would you do?” Ray asked Aaron. Aaron said he would call Walt up and tell him the problem. “You can’t go wrong with simply being honest,” Aaron said.

Ray called Walt and told him the problem. Walt said that yes, he had given an envelope with $500 cash (现金) in it.

“$500?!” Ray said in surprise. “That’s a lot of cash, Walt!” Walt admitted that it was, but he had gotten a fat raise early that year and Ray’s wedding was the only one he’d been to in quite a while. Ray thanked him and also apologized, Walt told him that it was “only money.”

When Ray told Aaron about Walt’s gift, Aaron laughed. “The only thief at the wedding was Walt! I have already stopped playing cards with him because I caught him cheating. And it was only a $10 pot (赌注总额)! I’m sure I told you about that.”

“Yes, you did tell me,” Ray said. But, of course, he had to send Walt a thank you note anyway.

In northern Europe, there is a small town where many buildings have an international border (边界) running through them. This unusual town is named Baarle. Half of the town belongs to Belgium（比利时）and the other half belongs to the Netherlands (荷兰). This border is ______ white crosses on the pavement with “B” on one side and “NL” on the other.

Local residents have more choices in their lives because of the special ______ of the town. For example, they can go shopping any day of the week. Shops in Belgium are closed on Sundays while those in the Netherlands are not. Therefore, when the Belgian shops have to close on Sunday, people can ______ buy anything they need in the Dutch (荷兰的) shops. Some shop owners, whose shops are divided by the border, take advantage of it by installing a front door on the Dutch side, so that they can do business seven days a week.

However, there are ______, too. For example, the Belgian Baarle and the Dutch Baarle have to seek permission from each other to build a road if the road runs right on the border. Besides, a house may have ______ street numbers if it sits on the border, which is confusing sometimes.

Baarle certainly attracts tourists. People think it is funny when they and their friends are in the same restaurant, but eating in ______ countries. Next time you travel to northern Europe, don’t forget to visit this town.

In the age of digital printing (数字印刷), almost all newspapers articles are typed with computers. But The Musalman, the oldest Urdu-language daily newspaper in India, is still being published as the world’s l    81     hand-written newspaper.

The newspaper has four pages. The front page is for national and international news. The second and the third pages are for local news. The fourth page is for sports news. Some s    82     is left blank at the bottom right corner of the front page, in case there is breaking news.

Every day, it takes three calligraphers (书法家) three hours to write a page before the paper is printed and sent to its 21,000 readers. These calligraphers must be very c    83     not to make any writing mistakes, because even a small mistake can lead to a whole page being rewritten.

The newspaper makes so l    84     money that costs are hardly covered. But for Syed Arifullah, who took over the newspaper from his father, it is his duty to keep the paper alive as a way to protect the Urdu language and especially its calligraphy. He says that calligraphy is the heart of The Musalman, and if someone removes the heart of the paper, there will be n    85     left.

People working for the newspaper also feel very p    86     to be part of it. They are really devoted to (致力于) their work and believe that their work helps preserve a dying art.

First published in 1927, the newspaper is l    87     to exist for another 90 years. Let’s wait and see.

Once upon a time, there lived a generous and kind-hearted king. But, the people weren’t happy with their king because he was too lazy and wouldn’t do anything other than eating and sleeping. He spent days, weeks and months in his bed. The king became a couch potato and the people started to worry about him.

One day, the king realized that he couldn’t even move his body. He invited famous doctors from various parts of his country and offered them generous rewards to make him fit. Unfortunately, none could help the king gain his health or fitness.

One morning, a man called Rishi visited the land of the king. He heard about the illness of the king and told one minister that he could easily cure the king. Hearing these promising words, the minister became very happy.

Since he couldn’t move his body, the fat king asked the minister to bring Rishi to the palace, but Rishi refused and ordered the king to come to meet him. After a lot of effort, the king met the man. Rishi encouraged him and said he was good and very soon the king would gain his health. He asked the king to come for treatment every day from the next day on. Also, Rishi told the king that he would treat him only if he came on foot to his place.

The king was unable to walk even a few steps on the road, but accompanied by his followers, he reached Rishi’s place. Unfortunately, Rishi wasn’t available there and his friend said the king could come and meet him the next day for treatment. This was repeated for two weeks and the king never met Rishi and never had any treatment. Suddenly, the king realized that he was a lot lighter, lost a lot of weight and felt more active than before. He realized the reason why Rishi asked him to reach his place by walking.

Very soon, the king regained his health, and the people were very happy in his kingdom. The king had a lot of wealth, but no amount of wealth could make him healthy.