1 . Several years ago, I spent most of my time at a mental hospital (精神病院) in our town. I found much joy there. At first it was a little scary to be there, but I stayed on, because I had a reason for doing this.

I volunteered in a locked-up (封闭的) environment. To my surprise, I found that a friend of my parents’ was a patient in this hospital. I knew, when I was a baby, this woman wanted to keep me because she had no children. I looked after this woman and showed my old photos to her. Finally, she was able to remember some old things, and she said to me one day, “Dear, you should not come here.” But I wanted to bring something happy into this woman’s life. I learned that because she had no family, she couldn’t leave here and go home. So I brought her to my home twice and I still remembered the happy smile on her face.

I have never forgotten this volunteering experience. This woman later passed away. I can’t see her anymore, but I’m happy that I have done something to make a difference in another person’s life.

When I was eleven years old, my life changed forever when I got a serious disease. My life was _______ with operations and treatments. I felt stressed because I was really uncertain _______ everything that was happening.

One day, I was receiving my thirteenth operation in the hospital. Being away from my friends and school was causing me almost as much _______ as the operation itself.

During that hospital stay, I received a card from a volunteer. That simple _______ meant much to me and gave me hope again during my time of need. I’ll never _______ the way I felt after that small act of kindness. I started creating an organization called Cards for Hospitalized (住院的) Kids.

The charity began with a simple dream of giving _______, joy and magic to those kids. It later _______ a national organization that sent cards to over 5000 sick kids at more than 50 hospitals across the country.

It is hard to believe that an act as simple as a card can do so much good, _______ it does. Seeing a picture of a child _______ one of our cards with a huge smile makes us keep this wonderful charity alive.

________ might provide medicine for these sick kids, but we provide that little bit of hope and magic that’ll go a long way.

6 . 假如你是李华，请你给美国笔友David写一封信，讲述你班同学王红回家路上做的一件好事，并谈谈感受。

How are you? I’d like to share a story with you.

Last Friday, _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a story to tell? Hope to hear from you.

Yours,

Li Hua

8 . I almost messed up “big time”.

My 5-year-old son and I were coming back from school when we saw a(n) ________ man on the side of the road. I wanted to give the man some money, but I didn’t have any cash(现金). My son Justus noticed the man as well. And then it happened...

Justus insisted on giving the man the 30 cents he had in his pocket. I was more than happy that he wanted to do this with ________ . But honestly I was hesitant(犹豫不决的), I didn’t want to give this man who clearly needed all the help he could get, just 30 cents. My own pride and thoughts of the homeless man’s unknown reaction(反应) to ________ just two coins were standing in the way.

I quickly realized that I was the only problem in this situation. I almost told my son what he had wasn’t enough by my inaction. I almost showed him that what he saw as a good thing, and was in fact a good thing, wasn’t good enough to make a ________ in someone’s life. I almost taught him that pride was more important than helping another human. Thank goodness I quickly dropped that foolishness.

I then rolled down the window and said, “I’m sorry, man. I don’t have any cash on me, but my son back here wants to give you everything he ________ right now. He just turned five.”

The smile on that man’s face lit up the crossroad and he said to Justus, “Thank you so much!”

The only thing that ________ the brightness of that stranger’s smile after that moment was... the bigger smile on my boy’s face!

I also believed that a chain reaction of ________ started behind us that day, as other people rolled down their windows to help him, too.

My little boy, without even ________ it, reminded me once again by his actions that it was always about the heart. It doesn’t matter how much you have or how little; giving in love and sincerity is very important.