She could have lived an easy, comfortable life. But _______ she chose to work hard and care for the _______.

Florence Nightingale was one of the _______ great nurses. Every year on her birthday, May 12, people celebrate International Nurses Day to remember the love and help that she gave to so many people.

Nightingale was born into a rich family in 1820 in Italy. When she was 24, she told her parents she wanted to be a nurse. But they _______ that idea. The family had a lot of money, so they thought it would be better _______ she didn’t work. But Nightingale went on with her _______. She went to Germany to learn to be a nurse.

During the war in 1854, Nightingale and a team of 38 nurses from England went to _______ soldiers near Turkey. She made the hospital much cleaner there.

_______, she would look after the soldiers. She carried a lamp with her, and the soldiers began to call her “The Lady with the Lamp”.

In 1860, after the war, Nightingale _______ the first nursing school. She also worked to make the hospitals better and make ________ for nurses. She died in 1910 in London, at age of 90.

Nightingale’s birthday became International Nurses Day in 1974.

Norman Bethune is one of China’s most famous heroes. But he wasn’t Chinese, he was Canadian. He gave his life to helping the Chinese people.

Norman Bethune was born in 1890. He saw a lot of soldiers die in the war, and later he invented new treatments to help soldiers, and medical tools to use outside hospitals. He’s remembered for his work as a doctor treating soldiers in different countries.

In 1938, he came to China to look after the Chinese soldiers in the mountains, north of Yan’an. There were few doctors, so he had to work very hard. He opened hospitals to give treatment to local people and soldiers and to train doctors and nurses. He also wrote books so that doctors were able to learn about new treatments.

Dr. Bethune worked very hard without stopping to rest. Once, he did operations for 69 hours without stopping, and saved 112 people. He continued working in spite of (不管) cutting his finger during an operation. In the end, he died because he did not stop to take care of his finger.

His work with the Chinese soldiers made him a hero in China. There are books and films about him, and he is still remembered in both Canada and China.