Bob and Mary from NO.3 Middle School give up several hours each week to help others.

Bob loves animals and wants to be an animal doctor. He volunteers at an animal hospital every Saturday morning. Mario believes it can help him to get his future dream job. “It’s hard work,” he says, “but I want to learn more about how to care for animals. I feel satisfied when I see the animals get better and the look of joy on their owners’ faces.

Mary is a book lover. She could read by herself at the age of four. Last year, she decided to try out for a volunteer after-school reading program. She still works there once a week to help kids learn to read. “The kids are sitting in the library, but you can see in their eyes that they’re going on a different journey with each new book. Volunteering here is a dream come true for me. I can do what I love to do and help others at the same time.

Two students in the UK     1     to do some volunteer work during the school holidays. They wrote the following reports.

Mark: There are many homeless children. My mother and I visited nine of these children. We played     2     with them and taught them to tell stories. One child said, “I am not getting along well with my friends. They don’t     3     me.” I talked with him for a long time. After that, we spent some time with a girl called Vivian. Her parents died in a car accident. She does all kinds of housework by     4    , such as cooking and     5     the floor. She is unhappy and very     6    . She needs friendship.

Annie: I want to help     7     children. They have     8     in walking or moving. I taught them to sing because music can bring them joy and peace. I met a boy called Tim. He     9     his legs in an accident, but he is very     10    . We need to help children like Tim and raise their spirits.

4 . I really love volunteering, for example, volunteering at old people’s homes. It’s one of my favorite _________.

At my school, I often helped my classmates. It was really fun to _________ their studies. I didn’t always get _________ grades, but I could explain to them _________. Now when I’m _________, I often volunteer on my town’s main street. Every weekend, other _________ and I make a lot of dishes to feed everyone who crosses the street. There are always about 500 people. The long day makes me tired, _________ it also brings me great joy. The looks of joy on those people’s faces would make my tiring day into a _________ day.

From my volunteering, I _________ that helping others not only makes others happy but makes __________ happy, too. And maybe one day, the people once you helped would help you back.

5 . On the evening of February 17, 2021, the winners of Touching China were announced. Mao Xianglin, the party secretary(党支书) of Xiazhuang, Chongqing was among them.

In 1997, 38­-year­-old Mao started to work in this village. Around the village are 1000­-meter­-tall cliffs(悬崖峭壁), and there was only one way to get out of the village for many years. It took villagers three days to walk to the nearest town. Mao decided to build a road. “We can’t stay poor forever. I’ll lead us as we try, even though it will be hard.” Mao said.

He led more than 100 villagers to build the road with their hands. They hung from ropes and used different kinds of tools to build the road. It took them seven years to build an eight-kilometer road. But their work has improved people’s lives. It takes just one hour to drive to the nearest town now.

Mao then encouraged the villagers to grow oranges. Last year, their orange yield(产量) was nearly 40 tons. Young people have returned to the village to sell oranges online. By the end of 2019, 269 villagers had got out of poverty(贫困).

Mao, who will retire(退休) in five years, said, “Although the conditions are better, the spirit of the Xiazhuang people can’t be lost. It has to be passed down.”

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.”

8 . 周末是我们生活中重要的一部分，合理利用周末时间对青少年至关重要。某校英语杂志社就“如何让周末生活更有意义”开展征文活动。请你根据提示，用英文写一篇短文投稿。80 词左右。（短文的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。）

Life on weekends is an important part of our daily life. How can we make our weekends more meaningful?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In short, let’s make good use of our weekends!

My mother told me we would have a yard sale this weekend. Yesterday I ________ lots of old things from my bedroom. I had to ________ five things I no longer use. I was quite ________ at first. Although I have not played with my old toys for a long time, I ________ wanted to keep them. For example, I have ________ the toy car since my sixth birthday, and I played with it almost every day ________ I was ten. And I didn’t want to lose my toy bear, ________ . It was one of my favorite toys. It came from my grandmother. I have ________ it for five years. I wanted to keep them ________ they brought back many sweet memories. “Maybe some kids need the toys more than you. They don’t fit you anymore. But they can bring ________ to the kids,” my mother said. In the end, I gave away the toys to the kids in need happily.