1 . A team of senior women in Southwest China’s Chongqing serving as “shared-grandmas” to help working parents pick up their children from school, stay with the kids and help their homework, has received a lot of likes and comments online lately.

The team of “shared-grandmas” from the Shipingcun community in Chongqing’s Jiulongpo District is made up of 9 female retirees (退休者), mostly empty-nesters. They take on the duties as volunteers taking care of 25 pupils in the community. The program started in April and the size of the team is still increasing.

Working parents of the children who are not able to pick up their kids from school at 3 p.m. are in great need of help. The volunteer can spare the time and energy for the family and reduce their loneliness by taking part in the job.

Deng Lihong, 66, is a public-spirited member of the team. Every workday, she picks up the children from school, and stays with them while they finish their homework and play in the community room until their parents pick them up. “I feel young with the kids and my retire life’s meaningful,” she smiled.

The retired senior women in the community are encouraged to take part in this public service. The feeling of achievement and happiness means a lot to “shared-grandmas”.

The “shared-grandmas” program began in the Jifu community in Wuhou district of Chengdu, Sichuan Province in 2019, and has created a new type of public welfare—taking care of the your and lifting the spirits of older citizens. “The positive (积极的) way of retirement”, for a retiree is thought to have practical, psychological and sociological importances.

Mr. Smith is seventy years old. He lives     1     because his two children are both in America. His neighbor, Sarah, is a kind girl. She’s always ready to help the people in     2    . One morning, Sarah knocked at Mr. Smith’s door to give him some dumplings made by     3    . She knocked and knocked, but nobody answered. “How strange (奇怪的)! Mr. Smith always comes to open the door for me. Though he’s old, he hears well. There must be something wrong with him today,” Sarah thought. So she asked several neighbors to help open the door.

When they went into the room, they found Mr. Smith     4     on the floor. He had a heart attack (心脏病发作). Sarah and her neighbors took Mr. Smith to the nearest hospital. After three days’ treatment, Mr. Smith got well again. “I can’t     5     what would happen if nobody found me. I’m so lucky to have so many good neighbors,” said Mr. Smith with tears in his eyes.

3 . Be What’s Missing

Where was the cashier (收银员)? Impatient, I quickly looked at my watch. I _______ had enough time to eat a sandwich and rush back to work.

I looked _______ the almost empty restaurant, but the cashier was nowhere in sight. A woman stood wiping (擦) the far end of the counter. She looked at me with sad cold eyes.

I _______, getting angry. I’d been standing there for at least three minutes!   

Controlling _______, I remembered Mom’s words. “Whenever you find yourself in an _______ situation, just think about what is missing. If someone is unkind, then kindness is missing. If someone is hateful, then _______ is missing. If we will be what’s missing, then we’ll provide whatever the situation needs.”

And here I was in an unpleasant situation. _______ should I “be what’s missing”? What was missing was _______. Maybe I should just jump behind the counter and take my own order.

Just then the woman walked slowly towards me. “May I help you?” she asked, still _______. She looked so tired. No doubt, she was overworked.

I took a deep breath. With Mom’s words ringing in my head, I gave the woman my order ... and _______. “How are you today?”

My question seemed to _______ her. She eyed me for a second before answering. “Not too good.”

“I’m sorry.” I said. “I hope it gets better starting right now.”

She almost smiled _______ she looked at me. “Thanks. I hope you’re right.”

I thought to myself when I ate my _______. We’re all the same, really. We have problems and angers, we get tired and we hurt. We need to be _______ to each other.

After _______, I wiped the table cleaner than usual, and put the tray (托盘) back nicely on the stand. The woman was watching me, a big smile on her face.

“Be what’s missing.” It worked.

During the holiday, many people want to search for dazi (搭子) or activity partners for doing things.    1     Everyone has his or her own opinion. In some ways, finding dazi is a new form of social contact for young people.

A girl called Mu Qing, a high school student from Hangzhou, enjoys talking with her meal dazi when she is having lunch. “We love to share our ideas about the food and find other fine food    3    ”

Also, dazi sometimes may give you some big surprises. “Once, my game dazi and I did something wrong when playing the game.     4     We were both very happy. By playing the game together, I find I do better in communicating and working with others now, ” said another girl.

    5     People may lie on the Internet. For example, a young and beautiful girl on the Internet may be an old, short and heavy man in real life. Therefore, think twice before finding dazi.

7 . A simple honk (汽车喇叭声) from the bus is one part of a secret code (秘密代码) between the driver and students living in a faraway village in Wanzhou, Chongqing.

Seeing a schoolbag hanging from the door of an old house along the road, the bus driver drives toward the roadside and makes a honk to answer the “code”. Then a boy called Zhu Ming runs outside, takes the schoolbag and gets on the bus.

Zhu Ming’s parents work far from home, leaving him in the care of his grandmother. The boy is in the ninth grade this year. He comes home every Friday and goes back to school in the city every Sunday. To make the journey easier, he and the driver, Cheng Lin, have developed a special “code”. When the boy’s schoolbag is hanging outside the house, it “tells” Mr. Cheng, “Today, it’s time to goback to school. I need to catch the bus.”

The boy’s parents are deeply touched when they know this. They show their thanks to Mr. Cheng and feel happy that there is someone taking care of their son while they are away.

Mr. Cheng has been driving the bus for many years. There are many left-behind (留守的) children on this bus line. Realizing the importance of his role in their lives, Mr. Cheng has paid more attention on Fridays and Sundays.

The driver’s kindness to the boy touches the hearts of many people. One wrote online, “He is a good driver. The schoolbag is their code, packed with love inside.”

8 . Loneliness is a growing problem all over the world. This is ________ true for old people. To deal with the problem, a Dutch supermarket planned to create a “chat checkout (聊天收银台)” by the end of this year.

As the name suggests, a chat checkout ________ customers to have a short conversation with the cashier. Actually, the idea isn’t ________ to the local people. The company (公司) opened its first chat checkout back in 2019. “It really worked,” said the company manager. “And the best part is that it’s ________ among people of all ages.”

That’s ________ the company decided to introduce the idea across the country. What’s more, it will also spare space for “chat corners”. Customers can stop to talk with each other in these corners after shopping.