1 . Sammie Vance, 14, knows there’s nothing worse than feeling left out. For years, she’s been helping kids who feel lonely _______ friends. What she was doing was running the Buddy Bench program. The _______ was that anyone at school who was feeling lonely could sit on the “buddy bench”. That let other kids know someone needed a friend. “It’s really helpful to have other people be able to _______ you,” Sammie says.

Sammie got the idea for the Buddy Bench program at summer camp in 2017. She thought it would be _______ to have a buddy bench in her school, so when she got back, she _______ the idea to her principal (校长). Getting approval for the project was just the first _______.“There have been a lot of small challenges, like money,” Sammie says.

To reduce _______ and be eco-friendly, Sammie decided to make the bench out of recycled material. So she asked her community to gather bottle caps. Word of the project _______, and soon Sammie was getting caps from people all around the country. She even got them from people in other countries. In the end, she _______ more than 1,200 pounds of bottle caps. A company called GreenTreePlastics was able to make these into three benches.

Before long, Sammie was helping other schools acquire benches. Her work continues to ________ kindness far and wide.

2 . The next day would be Christmas. Jim was shopping for a gift for his wife Della. With an income of twenty dollars per week, life was really _________ for the couple, but Jim wanted to buy a perfect gift for Della. He thought of the beautiful set of _________ Della had wanted for so long in one of the shop windows on Broadway. Tomorrow, Jim decided, he was going to make Della’s dream come true.

Jim and Della _________ two things they were both proud of. One was Jim’s gold watch, and the other was Della’s beautiful _________. Jim looked at the gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. _________, Jim knew what he had to do: he would sell his watch.

That afternoon, Jim _________ the watch, went to the shop for the combs (发插) and returned home with a package in his pocket. He was sure that they would be the most wonderful gift for Della. He was _________ about what Della was going to think when she saw the gift the next day.

The door opened and Della walked in. Jim looked at her with a puzzled _________. “Jim,” Della cried, “don’t look at me that way. I sold my hair to buy you a watch chain. Give me your watch. Let me see how it looks on it.”

Jim smiled. “Della,” he said, “I sold my watch to buy you a gift.” Jim _________ the package from his pocket and __________ it on the table. Della opened it. There lay the set of combs that she had always wanted. Now they were hers, but her hair was gone.

3 . Alice was at her home on Christmas Day when she heard someone shouting on her street. When she looked outside, she saw a man _______ for help in the cold. She brought the man, 64-year-old Joe White, into her home to _______ but she feared it was too late. His hands had frostbite (冻伤) and his body was looking worse and worse the longer he stayed in her home.

In search of _______, Alice took to Facebook Live. “We gotta get some help,” she said on the livestream. “He’s going to lose his fingers. I don’t know what else to do. I have fed him. I have _______ him.” “I’m going crazy because I’m scared. His body has changed rapidly every _______.”

Alice said she made a(n) _______ call but due to the snowstorm, emergency workers were unable to respond to calls for hours over the weekend. Ambulances (救护车) were getting _______ in the thick snow.

_______, her request was answered. A group of men arrived and took Joe to the hospital on Christmas night.

Joe is now _______ in the ICU with fourth-degree frostbite, his sister June said. June has expressed her thanks to Alice. “We were all trying to help each other and it was ________,” June said. “He was in a mess. And Alice clearly saved his life.”

5 . The Chongyang Festival is a traditional Chinese festival. It is celebrated ________ the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (阴历). It’s also ________ the Double Ninth Festival.

The festival started as early as the Warring States Period. It has a ________ of more than 1,700 years. Among the numbers from zero to nine, ________ is the highest odd number (奇数). People believe that two “ninths” meeting together stand for a ________ life. So it is a special holiday for Chinese people to ________ love and respect (尊重) for their elders. They hold many kinds of activities in ________ of old people to wish them good health and a long life.

The festival comes during the golden time of ________. On the day, people traditionally drink chrysanthemum (菊花) wine, eat Double-Ninth Cakes and ________ mountains. They also carry a kind of plant, dogwood (茱萸). People in ancient times believed that the plant could drive away evil (邪恶的) spirits and ________ them from catching an illness in winter.

6 . From the fourth grade, I was in very low spirits. I never really had any friends during that time. My only friend had just ______ to another city with her parents at the end of the third grade. What was ______, my pet dog and my cat had just died. It almost seemed as if my life was slowly ______for me, and I always felt ______ because no one and not even my family would talk to me. I didn’t think they knew what I was ______. It was a really hard time for me. I’d always ______my feelings and just put a nice, fake smile for them. That’s all they ______, right?

During the end of my seventh-grade year, I started to make a friend or two. That is when my depression ______started dying down. But, I was still ______myself, calling myself fat or ugly, and my friends knew this! They tried their best to help and it did ______in some way but not fully. Eventually, I found this song called “Beautiful”. There was one line that said, “We are beautiful in every way, yes, words can’t bring us down.” I now realize we are all beautiful.

7 . Last night, on my way home I stopped because of being attracted by some hamburgers at a fast food restaurant. On my way in, a(n) _______ man approached me and asked, “Do you have any bottles lying around?” I knew he would _______ them for a few cents, but I didn’t have any, so I said no. And again he asked, “Can you spare some _______?” I smiled, and said no again. He was very _______; he smiled back and said, “OK, thank you.” Even though he didn’t have anything, he was still in good _______. From the way he spoke I could tell he was _______.

Then I bought one hamburger and enjoyed my meal, but in the back of my _______ I wondered whether the homeless man was hungry. After I finished my _______ I decided to order another one for him. At this point I didn’t know if he was still around, but I _______ anyway.

At the ________ I ordered a hamburger and also a hot chocolate, because it was cold outside, and I thought it would help warm him up.

10 . It was raining.I went into a cafe and asked for a coffee.While I was waiting for my drink, I realized that there were many people in the place,________ I sensed loneliness. I saw their bodies, but I couldn’t feel their ________ because their souls belonged to the Intenet.

I stood up and walked between the ________. When I came to a corner I saw a young man sitting in front of a computer. “I’m Steve,” he finally answered ________ asked him a couple of times what his name was. “I ________talk with you. I’m busy,”   said.To my ________, he was chatting online and at the same time,he was playing a computer game — a war game.

Why didn’t Steve ________ to talk with me? I tried again to speak to him, but no word came out of his mouth.I touched his shoulder, still no reaction.I was ________ and put my hand in front of the sereen. This time, he shouted.

“Leave me alone!”

At that moment, I realized that the people there were having a nice conversation with their ________, not with people. They were more interested in having a relationship with the computers. I couldn’t imagine their future ________ they preferred sharing their lives with machines instead of with people. I was worried and I lost myself in thinking.