1 . Young Heroes for the Planet

Nowadays, people around the world are working to help our planet. Check out how the three young adults made a difference.

Zhang Ning was a volunteer at the Winter Olympics in 2022. When she was interviewed (被采访) on the radio, she shared her stories and ________ with the audience (观众). “I was 10 years old ________ Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008. As I was watching TV and ________ the amazing shows, I was excited.”

She came to know that holding the Olympics was a chance (机会) to ________ China’s stories to the world, showing the world a more beautiful China. “It’s a wonderful experience to be a ________ at the Winter Olympics 14 years later. It made my childhood dream _________,” said Zhang Ning. “I learned a lot, ________ I was busy and tired.”

In order to ________ better service, Zhang Ning and her team were trained seriously. They worked hard in the face of ________. One of the most difficult things was the cold weather, as some of the work was outside. ________ more than 300 other volunteers, she might have worked for about 1, 000 hours, like ________ temperatures and tickets carefully at Wukesong Sports Center.

“I ________ for our athletes (运动员) when they were trying their best; I felt truly proud (骄傲的) when I saw our national flag (国旗) rising high, tears in my eyes,” she said. “Volunteering is unusual. I’ll do such jobs again. I hope more people will ________ us.”

President Xi Jinping once said at a meeting, “I hope the volunteers, volunteer service organizations and volunteer service work staff will make new ________ in the new era (时代), push forward the volunteer ________ of dedication (奉献), friendship, mutual (相互的) help and progress, and carry on their good deeds (行为).

I work in a cleaning company.     1     people call us, and we give them house cleaning service. One day, I got a call from a man     2     Jim. “I want to help an old man. He just had surgery (手术). Can I pay for it without     3     him know?” he asked. Then he explained to us why he was     4     about the old man. This old man is Jim’s neighbor, Mr. Brown. He lived alone and just came back from the hospital. There was still something wrong with his leg. His house was in     5     mess, but he couldn’t do any housework. Even folding the clothes was difficult for     6    . So Jim offered to help Mr. Brown and he said he didn’t want to bring the old man any     7    .

The next day, we went to Mr. Brown’s house.     8     we promised Jim not to tell his name, we didn’t tell too much to Mr. Brown. He was moved by the gift from someone he didn’t know. Sometimes we can’t depend     9     others, as we are afraid of making them get into trouble. However, there is always someone who     10     for you and tries his best to help you.

4 . We need some volunteers. We are looking for fifteen students to contribute (贡献) your free time. You should be patient and open-minded.

You can choose one from the following:

The orphanage(孤儿院). We will go to the orphanage on Sunday morning.

You can bring flowers or some interesting books. If you can sing or dance, that will be better.   

The library. We will help move books from the old library to the new one on Sunday afternoon. It seems boring but it really helps the librarians a lot.

The park. We will go to the park on Saturday morning. We will pick up some rubbish and water the trees. We can have free bread and some bottles of water.

If you want to be a volunteer, please call Miss Liao at 0825-7822977. And go to her office to fill in a form before Wednesday.

5 . Everyone admire heroes. When we are asked who are our heroes, someone well-known like Yang Liwei or Zhong Nanshan may come into mind. They make a big ________ to the world. However, there are “every day” heroes in our daily life. They may not be so ________ to the public, but these common people are also working hard to build a better world. Among them is Sun Jun.

Sun Jun comes from a poor village. The villagers used to have no enough food. He knew much about the ________. He learned to save food at an early age. When he was a college student, he found that the problem of food waste was more and more ________. He started to collect unsold food from restaurants and stores for homeless people.

After graduating, Sun Jun joined a volunteer organization called Green Food Bank, which was ________ to build a bridge between people who are ready to help others and those who are ________. It works by collecting and ________ free food for the poor, the disabled and so on.

So far, Sun and his team have done something meaningful to the society. They’ve not only saved a lot of food but also helped some people ________. More volunteers and restaurants join them now.

Why does Sun do all these things? He says, “Thanks to Grandpa Yuan Longping, we are almost no longer short of food. We need to think about how to ________ wasting. There’s a long way to go, but I won’t ________ halfway. It’s just the beginning. We still have much to do.

6 . International Volunteer Day is on December 5 every year. It started on December 17, 1985. It is a day to honor (尊重) volunteers all over the world.

Every day and every minute, lots of volunteers around the world work out of their own kindness and love to make the world a better place. They take care of the environment, build schools, teach kids, care for animals ... Most volunteers work without getting paid, and many do so using their own money. We should all appreciate (感谢) their work. International Volunteer Day gives us an opportunity(机会) to do so.

Celebrating International Volunteer Day also lets more people know about the work of volunteers and inspires (激励) them to join the volunteer team. When people see how volunteering is changing things for the better, they may want to give away their time and play their part.

There are many problems in the world. No one has answers to all the problems, but when we face them together, we are able to find good ways to solve them. The things we care about today will help build a better world tomorrow.

My two little daughters and I usually go out and help others on Thankful Thursday.

Last Thursday we were going to buy lunch for the beggars (乞丐) in the street. Then we went to the nearest McDonald’s.

I ordered 15 lunches from it and drove my car to hand them out. We gave the lunches to the beggars. They were excited. We were happy to see that. Then we noticed a small, old woman, asking for pocket money. We gave her our last lunch bag. Before we got into the car, she started to speak to us, “No one has ever done anything like this for me before,” she said with a smile. “Well, I’m glad that we were the first,” I answered. “So when will you eat your lunch,” I asked. She just looked at me with her big, tired brown eyes and said, “Oh, dear, I’m not going to eat this lunch. You see, I have a little daughter. I usually can’t buy her favorite food, but today she will be so happy!”

I don’t know if the kids noticed the tears in my eyes. I have asked many times whether our actions of kindness were too small to change anything. Yet at that moment, I realized the truth of words: “We can do small things with great love.”

10 . Last year, I worked in a middle school near my mother’s house. I stayed with her for a month. During that time, I helped her ______ some housework and buy some food.

After the first week, I noticed that the food was eaten up very ______. Then I began keeping an eye on my mum. ______ my surprise, I found that she would put some of the food into a paper bag and go out with it ______ about nine every morning. And finally, I decided to follow her. I saw her taking the food to the street children. Then it ______ me—why wouldn’t she want to tell me about it? Was she worried that I would stop ______ food if I found out?

When my mum got home, I told her she didn’t need to keep it a secret from me. And she told me ______ about the children. Some of them lived with ______ old lady in a small house. ______ slept on the street. For years, she was helping the poor street children by giving them food. I was so moved by ______ selfless (无私的) she was.