1 . Bringing Books

Alice has always loved reading. “Growing up, I was really shy, so I always turned to books.” she says. In 2022, Alice was in high school when her dad _______ got a serious illness. Books became an even bigger comfort. She started thinking about families in similar _______. Alice came up with a plan to help others _______ her dad got better. “_______ idea came from just the great thanks to the doctors who saved my dad.” she says.

Alice started collecting books in her hometown. She wanted to get books for sick children in local hospitals. Her father was not _______. “She is always interested in books.” he says. “And she always wanted to do _______ for the neighborhood.” She called the book collecting for Love&Buttercup. She’s collected more than 10,000 books.

Alice started by posting on social media. She asked people in her hometown to _______ books. “I was expecting maybe two or three replies from neighbors.” she says. “_______ it got really big.” News stations began reporting it.

Alice _______ to run the book collecting. She gets help from her parents. “We do the driving.” her dad says. She hopes to one day spread the project to reach more kids. The memory of the first time she visited children who had received her books sticks with her. “It was the best day of my life.” she says. “I ________ I wanted to do this kind of work forever.”

Yuan Ke works as a food deliveryman (外卖员) in Changsha, Hunan Province. He is a little different from most other food deliverymen. When busy lunchtime comes, he doesn’t pick up paid orders. _________, he goes to a community canteen (食堂). He picks up food there and delivers it for free to three _________ people who are living alone.

Yuan has been voluntarily delivering food to the three old people for months. “I know they will be waiting for me,” he said. He doesn’t just bring them _________. More importantly, he keeps them company (陪伴).

“I remember the first time I delivered food to Grandpa Hu, he was just sitting there _________. I could feel his loneliness,” Yuan said. “So I decided to talk with him for a while when I bring him food.”

Grandpa Hu said he is _________ for Yuan’s deliveries and visits. “Every time Yuan comes and tells me that my _________ is here, I ask him to put it on the table. These are the first words that I say every day,” Hu said. “I didn’t have anyone to talk to and felt lonely. Now, with Yuan talking with me every day, I feel much better.”

Grandma Shen is another old person Yuan _________. She reminds Yuan of his grandmother. “Grandma Shen often gives me apples and asks me to ride slowly. It makes me _________ warm,” Yuan said.

Yuan also brings garbage bags (垃圾袋) with him to help clean up the waste after the old people finish eating. Yuan has left them his mobile phone number in case (以防) they need help. “It’s not safe _________ old people to live alone. If they fall, no one will know. I’m delivering them food, and I want to help _________ them as much as I can,” he said.

3 . A man in Quanzhou, Fujian caught many people’s eyes. He is a 34-year-old takeaway deliveryman (外卖小哥). He not only delivers ________ but also helps people find their way home. His name is Hong Chengmu.

Hong rides to deliver food every day. On his way, he always keeps an eye out for people in need. He often takes some ________ along with him, so he can write something on it.

Hong’s special service ________ in 2019. One morning, he saw a photo of a missing person who is 34 years old on the Internet. And that night, he saw a ________ like the missing person. Hong spoke to him and knew that he was the person in question. With the help of the police, he sent the man back to his ________. Seeing how happy the family was, he decided to do more. He ________ a program and volunteered to help.

Some of his friends ________ that Hong’s volunteer work will make his deliveries late. It does happen, but people understand him after they know the ________. Hong has helped many people find their family. His daughter says Hong is just like a superman. And last year, Hong also became one of “Fujian’s most beautiful takeaway deliverymen”.

“I know how ________ a family is. If we all keep an eye open for the missing, there will be ________ broken families.” he said.

We may not pay more attention to the volunteers in our daily life. In fact, some activities can’t work on well ________ volunteers. This month, I ________ at the Color Run in Melbourne, Australia. Although I didn’t have as much fun as the runners, I ________ learned something important.

My job was to give a high-five to every ________ at the finishing line. At the beginning, we thought it was a (an)________ job. When the first runner passed, we reached out our hands and shouted “Good job” ________. However, as more and more people ________ the finishing line and touched their hands with mine, my arm got painful (令人疼痛的).

Even worse, the weather got hotter and hotter. We felt so ________ and thirsty but we had no time to drink water. At that time, I almost ________ my patience (耐心).Soon we saw a group of kids running towards us. They were about 6 years old. Although they could hardly catch their breath, they still kept going with big ________ on their faces. They ________ their hands and said, “High-five!” At that moment, I was quite touched-they were so young, but they didn’t choose to give up.

________, I felt myself be full of strength. I clapped ________ hands. “Well done, little guys!”

It is difficult to be a volunteer. ________ they are trying to help others, they don’t care much about themselves. But that’s the meaning of it. People will feel the kindness of the world, and the ________ will pass on.

It all started with a simple question: “Can I paint your portrait (肖像)?”

In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson, an artist, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. Outside his apartment, a homeless man was often shouting on the street corner, sometimes keeping him ______ at night. Peterson, would pass the guy on his way to work, but they never spoke. What could they possibly have in common?

One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading the book Love Does, when he was interrupted by the homeless man outside. Encouraged by the book’s heart-warming message, Peterson made an unexpected decision: He was going to go out and _______ himself.

In that first conversation, Peterson learned that the man’s name was Matt Faris. He’d moved to California from Kentucky to realize his dream in music, but he soon _______ on hard times and ended up living on the street.

“It was the strangest thing to me,” Peterson recalled. “I saw _______ on the face of a man who hadn’t had a shower in close to a year since his story and the life inside of him encouraged me.” And Peterson asked Faris if he could paint his portrait. Faris said yes.

Peterson’s connection with Faris   __________   him to form Faces of Santa Ana, an organization focused on painting portraits of the unhoused. He sells the ________ , putting the money into a “love account” for his models. He then helps them use the money to get back on their feet.

Faris used the money from his portraits to record an album (专辑), fulfilling his musical dreams. Another subject, Kimberly Sondoval, used the money to support her daughter.

In the eight years since Faces of Santa Ana was founded, Peterson, has formed a new organization called Faces of Mankind, a group of artists who are creating portraits of people experiencing ______ around the country.

Peterson has painted 41 of these portraits himself. But there’s more to the finished products than the money they bring to someone who’s down and out.

“People often tell me, ‘I was the one that would cross the street. But I see homeless people ________ now, ’” Peterson says. “I didn’t know that would happen.”

It was a busy morning. I saw an old lady, maybe in her 70s, standing close to the side of a busy road _________ I was walking to my office.

I thought to _________ that I should warn her not to stand so close to the busy road, so I went to her. But she kept pointing to the middle of the road. Then I realized that she had dropped her _________ in the middle of the road.

The traffic was busy with drivers in cars as well as school buses rushing with school children. It was the _________ time of the day to cross the road without a traffic light. I asked the old lady to stay away from the traffic. Then I waved (挥舞) my hands to show the drivers that I was coming through and stepped onto the road _________. Just then a school bus came and had to stop _________ me, opposite the place where the keys had fallen. I quickly _________ the keys and went back. Although the bus driver looked impatient (不耐烦的), the school children who were _________ my actions from the bus let out a cheer.

The old lady _________ me to her side and gave me a big warm hug. I felt so happy to help this old lady. I hope the school children who were cheering would help others when they meet _________ like this in life. But anyway, safety comes first.

Tang Guoliang is an 85-year-old retired professor of Jiangsu University in China. Recently he gave 100, 000 yuan to the university’s library to promote reading.

Over the past years, Tang has already ________ 167 medical books. This time, he gave all of his collection to the library, including 15 medical notebooks. However, he still lives a ________ life himself now. Tang said he wanted to do more meaningful things in the rest of his life.

“I hold ________ feelings for poor students,” Tang said. Over the past 25 years after he retired, he has been ________ students with difficulties in their studies and life at the university. Ten years ago, Tang heard that a girl in his hometown was experiencing financial (金融的) ________. He managed to get in touch with the girl and gave 1, 000 yuan to her.

“I was from a poor family ________ I understand how hard life is for poor people. And I know the importance of reading,” Tang said. “________ my own experience, I know that reading can build one’s future. I ________ hope that young people can read more excellent books.”

Tang enjoys reading books very much. As a regular (定期的) ________ to the university’s library, he still borrows about 50 books every year from the library in recent years. He also developed the habit of taking notes while reading. The old man wrote about 15 medical notebooks, which he gave to the library. “These notes include many important medical cases I ________. I hope that they are helpful for medical teachers and students,” Tang said.

When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my ________. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) by others at school. I was completely ________ in my small town.

But by working as a ________ when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion (热情) for helping others. The chance to be a volunteer made me feel like my life had a greater ________. I realized that my purpose in life would be to help people, especially teenagers, and helping them makes me feel less ________. The more positive (积极的) energy I shared, the more kindness I ________.

Books were my true friends back then. I was so ________ that the writers wrote those books. ________ books offered me the kindness and saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become a writer, ________ I could write books and help other teenagers.

Kindness saved me when I needed help most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone’s life. You never know ________ someone else is going through (经历). But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect (缔造者) of positive change.