A new school year started. Usually at the beginning of the school year, each student would be given a special ________, for which they would be responsible for the whole term. Rita, a quiet girl, hoped for an exciting task. Instead, she received a small box with sand and a small ant. ________ Rita could not help feeling down, she decided to do her best with her new responsibility.

She began to study and ________ the ant, learning about its habitat (栖息地) and needs. She made the box a comfortable home for the ant, and it grew much bigger than anyone expected.

Rita’s efforts caught her science teacher’s attention. He turned her work into a class ________, and Rita became the class expert (专家) on ants. Her hard work helped the whole class learn a lot about ants. In order to study the ants ________, they even built a small ant farm in the classroom.

As the school year passed, Rita’s classmates became more and more ________ in the ant project. They started asking her questions. Rita felt proud to use her knowledge to help them. She even gave a report to ________ the findings of their class project during the school science fair.

At the end of the year, the school praised Rita for turning a small task into something ________. Rita learned that every job, no matter how small, could lead to big success.

Amy was a little girl, but she was always wasting time getting prepared to do things, instead of doing them at once as she should do.

In the village, Mr Thornton kept a store where he sold all kinds of ________, including berries (莓子) when in season. One morning, he said to Amy, “Well, Amy, I noticed some fine, ripe blackberries on Mr Green’s farm today. He said that anybody was ________ to them. I will pay you 13 cents a kilogram for all you pick for me.”

Amy was excited about the thought of making some money to help her mom, ________ she quickly ran home to get a ________ to hold the berries. Then she thought she would like to know how much money she would get if she picked five kilograms. After finding out that she would get 65 cents, she started to dream big, “Supposing I should ________ a dozen kilograms, how much should I make then?”

“Dear me,” she shouted ________ after calculating (计算) a while, “I should make a dollar and fifty-six cents!”

It took her a long time to dream bigger. Not until 11 o’clock, did she realize that the farm would close at 12. So she took her basket and ________ to the farm. Some boys had been there before lunch, and all the ripe blackberries were picked. She could not find half a kilogram to fill her basket. Then she ________ what her teacher often told her: “Do your task at once. One doer is worth 100 dreamers.” Her face turned red.

Ramu started a business excitedly last year. But after several months, his business ________. After that, he didn’t start any new work. His teacher knew about his ________ and called him to come to her home. The teacher asked him, “Why don’t you work?”

“I once started a business and worked hard, but it didn’t succeed,” Ramu replied. “That’s life. Sometimes we succeed in what we do and sometimes we don’t. This doesn’t mean we can ________ working,” the teacher said.

Then the teacher took him to a room and showed him a dead tomato plant. When seeing the plant, Ramu was very ________. He asked, “It’s dead. Why are you showing it to me?”

“I once planted it and took great care of it, but it still died. Working is the same. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to ________ what will happen in the end,” the teacher replied.

“But if there’s no guarantee (保证) of success, what’s the use of working hard?” Ramu asked.

“Follow me,” the teacher said. She took Ramu to another room. There were some big tomatoes there.

“These tomatoes are the ________ of keeping working. After my first plant died, I did’t ________. Instead, I grew some new plants and took care of them. This time they grew well. Similarly, if you keep doing the right things ________, you’ll succeed someday. But if you stop trying because of a failure, you’ll never succeed.”

Ramu understood what he should do next. He thanked his teacher and left happily.

4 . As the saying goes, “Without a family, a man is like a ship without a port.” There’s no doubt that loving _________ is important in life.

In my family, we all love each other. But even so, misunderstandings happen among us. One day, I was doing my homework when my sister ran into my room. I was _________ with my homework, so I didn’t talk to her and just kept working. But during break time, I found that my _________ was in a mess with different kinds of drawings.

“You are really a troublemaker. I hate you.” I was full of anger and _________ my sister. Hearing the words, my sister began crying and tried to _________ herself. But I didn’t want to hear her talk. The “silence” lasted for a long time between us.

To solve the problem, my father asked, “Have you seen _________ the drawing is on your notebook?” I shook my head. Then I looked at it _________. It said, “Happy Birthday!”

At that time, I realized I made a mistake. Though drawing on my notebook wasn’t right, my sister’s love was _________. I said sorry to my sister, and she smiled back at me.

After this, I knew that sometimes families might have conflicts (冲突). But you shouldn’t take them to heart because they are the people who love you most.

An Older Brother’s Gift

It was the Christmas season of 2022. Nine-year-old Jaron and his six-year-old brother, Parker, were excited. They had entered a reading _________ sponsored (赞助) by a store in their hometown. The two students who read the most books would each win a new bicycle. All they had to do was to have their parents and teachers _________ for each book they read. Two bikes were to be awarded (颁发), one for the first-to-third grade levels and one for the fourth-to-sixth grade levels.

Parker was especially excited because this was a great way for him to earn (赢得) a bike by reading books. He really _________ one. So he started to read books as fast as he could. But no matter how many books he read, someone in his grade level had read more.

Jaron had not been all that enthusiastic (狂热的) about the competition. When he went to the store and checked the chart (排行榜) with all the readers listed and how many books each had read, however, he could see that his younger brother had _________ chance of winning the competition.

Touched with the true meaning of Christmas, the joy of _________, he decided to do for Parker what he could not do for himself. He read and read. He read as much as eight hours a day. The excitement of perhaps having such a wonderful gift to give kept him going.

The _________ came when the final lists were to be turned in. Jaron’s mother took him to the store, and he turned in his list.

By reading 280 books, Jaron had won! With his parents’ help, he _________ the bicycle in his grandma’s basement (地下室) until Christmas Eve. He could hardly wait to give Parker his gift!

On Christmas Eve, the whole family gathered (聚集) at Grandma’s home for a special family home evening. They talked and laughed. Then Jaron ran to the basement where Grandma had moved the bike. The rest of the family _________ smiled while he wheeled out the two-wheeled treasure he had earned for his younger brother. Parker ran over to the bike, and the brothers hugged (拥抱) over the top of it.

I once gave a lesson to a group of primary school students for a TV program.

I ________ that we created small gardens.

First, I asked the students to look for their favorite place in the school. Once there, I let them try hard to empty their minds. Then I had each of them ________ their experiences of nature in a small garden.

In a box of about one and a half by two feet, they were ________ free to organize — soil, stones, leaves and grass. Even as an active garden designer, I was impressed with their imagination. The gardens they made were really ________.

One child created “water” that flowed into a “lake”; another child put grass in a way to represent “wind”; and yet another child tried hard to create shade ... These children were ________ because of their schoolwork. That was why they took great interest when they created their small gardens. They spent a wonderful time together with ________.

Try spending time with nature yourself. If you notice a stone lying on the ground, ________ it up and hold it. When you see beautiful flowers by the side of the road, stop and enjoy the pleasant smell. Then, inside your ________, create a small garden of your own. It will relax you.

8 . Do you think children need to learn how to do chores and help their parents ________ housework? Busy Kid is an app (应用程序) that makes doing ________ for children easier. Parents can set the chores and the money. When kids finish the chores, they click (点击) “I did it!”. Then on Friday, kids can get the ________ for doing the chores.

Many students spend too much time watching TV or playing computer games after school. They may want to know, “Why do I have to do chores?” Nancy ________ the app with her children. She said, “I just tell them that’s the way your parents raise you and we want to teach you responsibility (责任).” Margie Zitko couldn’t agree ________. “Children should have chores at home,” she said. “We shouldn’t do ________ for our kids. We have to help them learn about real life. Home is ________ kids learn.” Zitko advised children to start doing chores at a young age. The earlier kids learn to be ________, the better it is for their future. She also said the best way to help kids do chores at first is to work with them.

Alice used to be a good student. She studied hard and always got good grades. When she was 14, Alice had to enter a new _________ because her parents found jobs in a new city and they moved there. However, her parents were too busy to have much time to _________ her. And Alice didn’t like her new school. She changed a lot. She hated studying and sometimes disliked her family.

Her mother, Holly, was a _________ lady. When she found these, she began to change the way she got along with her daughter. Every day after Holly went back home, she first went to Alice’s room to _________ with her. Besides, she tried to understand her daughter’s hobbies and thoughts. Little by little, Alice thought to herself, “My mother is again back to my side.”

Another thing Holly did was to support her daughter. When Alice didn’t do well in her studies or exams, Holly always _________ encouraged her not to give up instead of criticizing (批评) her. When Alice got a good grade, she bought her a small gift. Gradually, Alice felt her mother’s _________ and studied harder and harder.

Holly agreed that teaching for a better future was really necessary. But she thought a child should learn something _________ besides studying. After Alice finished her homework, Holly often asked her to help with cooking, cleaning and washing. _________ Alice was doing these, she thought she played an important role in the family.

Every child needs care and love. Never let misunderstandings lie between parents and children.