5 . If you have no special plans for your holidays, why not spend your time helping others?

Don’t listen to people who say the young people today often think only of themselves. It’s not true at all. More and more people in the USA volunteer to spend their school holidays working for others. And they don’t do it for money. Here are some of their stories.

Alice Hamilton, 17

I’m going to help the Forest Centre build new hiking paths in the mountains. It’s going to be terrific—I’ll spend the whole summer living in the tent and breathing the clean mountain air. I’m going to sleep under the stars. It’ll be a nice sport, and I’ll be able to do something good at the same time.

Jason Moore, 18

This summer, I’m going to volunteer with Special House Program. They build good, low-cost houses and sell them to families that are not very rich. They’ll teach me what to do, so I’ll help people and also have a chance to learn how to build houses.

Trish Anderson, 16

I’m going to teach kids who have trouble reading. I’ll work for a program called Reading For Life. Every day, I’m going to help kids choose and read books that they like. I want to be a teacher and I love children and reading, so this is going to be a great experience for me.

One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat near his feet. He put up a sign which said, “I am blind, please     1     me.”

There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was     2     by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the     3    . He then took the sign, turned it around, and     4     some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could     5     the words.

Soon the hat began to fill up with coins. A lot of people were giving     6     to the blind boy. The afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see     7     things were. The boy recognized (听出) his footsteps and asked, “Are you the man     8     changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a     9     way.” What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day,     10     I cannot see it.”

7 . 俗话说“人是要有帮助的。荷花虽好，也要绿叶扶持。一个篱笆三个桩，一个好汉三个帮。”作为中学生的你应该怎样来帮助他人？请以“How to Help Others”为题用英语写一篇短文。谈谈帮助别人的行为和看法。

How to Help Others

It’s important for human beings to help others in the society. In our daily life, there are a lot of people helping others. They try their best to help other people, which makes the society more beautiful.

8 . Three teenagers offered to do some voluntary work during the school holidays. They wrote the following reports.

Betty:

I did some voluntary work in a children’s hospital. The children there all suffer from serious illnesses. We organized (组织) a painting competition for them.

①girl, a, called, I, Cindy, met (.) She wanted to paint a picture of the park near her home. I went there and took some photos of it. Cindy used them for her painting.

Mark:

②There are many child without parents. I met some of these children with my mother. We taught them to tell stories. This helps them express their feelings. One child said, “My friends don’t understand my pain.”

We spent time with a girl called Vivien. Her parents died in a car accident, and she is unhappy and very lonely. She needs friendship. My mother and I will continue to visit her.

Annie:

I wanted to help disabled children. They have difficulty walking or moving. I taught them to sing because music can bring them joy and peace.

I met a boy called Tim. He hurt his legs in an accident, ③but he has lots of courage. We need to help children like Tim and raise their spirits. I will continue to do voluntary work in the future.

On a small hill in Huaping, Yunnan, there is a small school. Over the past 12 years, it has rewritten the fate（命运）of 1,804 poor girls _______ sending them to universities.

Zhang Guimei is the founder of this school. She began teaching in Huaping—one of China’s _______ areas twenty years ago. Zhang found many girls had to leave school and were forced to work or get married at a young age. “We often say that we want every child to have a fair start,” she said, “but these girls don’t even have the _______ to stand on the starting line.”

Zhang wanted to _______ this. She spent years trying to raise money. Finally, in 2008, she set up the Huaping High School for Girls. It’s China’s first and only free public high school for girls.

Zhang gets up at 5 a.m. every day to _______ the lights on each floor of the teaching building. “Many girls are timid（胆小的）,” Zhang _______. She wants them to feel safer on their way to classes. After years of tiring work, Zhang is now in poor health, but the school and the children _______ more than anything else in her mind.

Zhang’s _______ has inspired（鼓舞）many people to follow in her footsteps. Zhou Yunli was one of her _______. After she finished university, she immediately returned to the school to teach. “Without Ms. Zhang, I would be _______,” Zhou said with a smile. “When you become strong, you must remember to help others. This is what Ms. Zhang taught us.”

10 . Not long ago, President Xi Jinping signed the presidential order to award Zhong Nanshan with the “the Medal of the Republic” and awarded Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu and Chen Wei with the honorary titles of “People’s Hero”. The CPC Central Committee has decided to recognize a number of advanced people and organizations in the fight against COVID-19. “They are the role models of all Chinese people and the heroes of the country and the people,” said a netizen. The spiritual home of the Chinese nation is highlighted by a large number of advanced examples in the fight against COVID-19.

Zhong Nanshan is one of them. At the age of 84, he could have rested, but he felt the responsibility was on his shoulders and he had to shoulder it. “Wearing this uniform, I should do everything for the country,” said Chen Wei. Although Zhang Dingyu learned that his wife was infected(感染)with COVID-19, he fought in the front line of the epidemic(疫情)for more than 30 days. And he led the medical team to treat thousand of patients.

Although everyone has different position, industries, abilities and levels, he can create great achievement in ordinary positions. That is because he has heroic dreams and do heroic deeds. Everyone admires a hero. The heroic Chinese people will surely create newer and greater Chinese miracles(奇迹).