4 . In a village lived a milkman, who owned a few cows. Though his family wasn’t very _______ , they had a self-sufficient life (自给自足). One day, his son asked him what the secret of his life was. He used the opportunity _______ his son. “The secret of my life this: The cow doesn’t give milk,” said the father. The boy asked his father in     _______ , “What are you saying?” “As you hear it, son, you must know the cow doesn’t give milk _______ , and you have to milk it. If you don’t milk it every day, it will _______ giving milk. And I won’t be able to support our _______ . When you search for _______, remember what I said,” said the father.

The milkman continued, “I have to get up at 4 o’clock every day. First, I need to clean the waste on the farm. Then I need to _______ the legs of the cows and start to milk them. After that, I have to try my best to _______ the milk.” Hearing this, the son was ________ , and he decided to go to the ________ to help his dad.

Yes, what one ________ is from what one does. Happiness is the result of efforts. A cow doesn’t give milk on its own, and neither do all the things that one ________ to have. Thus one has to work hard to get whatever he needs, and it can lead to new ________ in life, and one may be ________ one day.

5 . When I was driving on the highway, a big storm came. The rain began to beat ________ against my car windows. I had to stop and ________ my car along the roadside. Sitting in the car with boxes of clothes in the back seat, I was ________ of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina hit Houston when I was fourteen years old. I was ________ that it would destroy my neighbourhood. ________ it missed ours, while leaving many parts of the city in ruins. From the TV, I saw a reporter ________ the homeless people inside the Houston Astrodome. Many of them were in dirty and ________ clothes, and some had no shoes on their feet. I noticed a little boy behind the reporter hugging an old teddy bear. Suddenly, I knew I had to do ________.

The next day, my friends ________ me at our volunteer club and we came up with a plan to ________ some used toys and give them to the kids at the Astrodome. I hoped they would bring some ________ to those homeless kids. We spread the word to our schools and other organizations. Three days later, our club was flooded with new toys! When we ________ the Astrodome with our gifts, children ________ towards us from all directions.

Bzzzz... My cellphone brought me back to the present. To my joy, the storm had ________. “Hector, we have had more victims because of the tornado.” “Well, I’ve brought a lot of clothes for them. The storm kept me late, but I’ll be there soon!” I turned my car into the suddenly heavy traffic. I knew that any small act of kindness would make a big ________.

6 . Fatima has been the only woman working as a tour guide in Afghanistan. The 22-year-old grew up leading _______ through the countryside, and now she leads tourists through the streets of Herat, the third largest city in Afghanistan.

She grew up in rural Gohr Province, where there was no schooling   _______ to girls, but she convinced her family to let her take _______ if she brought in enough of an income from sheep herding. She practiced her English by listening to BBC radio, which she could _______   when high enough in the hills.

“I thought a lot during these years,” Fatima says. “My brothers and sisters were _______to get married. I decided that I would not continue in the _______. That was how I decided to work.”

She signed up for Facebook and began joining groups for people interested in history._______ that people only knew Afghanistan as a place of war and conflict, she started writing regular posts about places in her country that foreigners might not know about.

After she began writing her _______, everything changed. Fatima started getting comments and responses from her new online friends. In 2020, one of them — a man known as “Big Tom” — _______ out to her saying he was going to be traveling in Afghanistan and if she would be interested in ________ him around in Herat? She said yes.

Tom recommended her to someone else, and Fatima continued to get work by word of mouth. Eventually she came to the ________ of Untamed Borders, a boutique (精品的) travel agency that specializes in trips to more inaccessible areas. The company hired her in late 2020, and the young self-taught woman became her country’s first female professional tour guide.

Of course, being a pioneer is never ________. Fatima says many people in her life, including some of her family members, have told her that it’s too dangerous for a woman to work,________ if it means interacting with men one-on-one. Sometimes children throw stones at her while she’s guiding tourists through the local market. Other people have shouted profanities (污言秽语) at her.

Fatima says that the________of her employers and the people she has met through giving tours is what keeps her motivated. “Challenges are always a part of my life. If I give up, then other women will never________,” she said.

7 . I was working in a store three years ago. I remember one girl who started ________ there a few months after me. I remember always meeting her. I don't know ________ but for a strange reason we would never talk. We would just see each other and smile.

She would ________ smile in a really happy way until one day when we got to work in the same department again. She ________ as if she was the happiest girl in the world. But I had a ________ feeling. So I went up to her and asked, "What's wrong with you? " She answered, "Why? " I said, "I could feel you're very sad today and you're trying to hide it. "

She was shocked as if I had ________ her deepest secret, so we started talking. She told me why she was feeling like that and why she was ________ to hide it and we had a good time together. Time ________ and we became good friends. She'd always tell me I had changed her ________ in so many ways, but I could not imagine how it had happened. I would just smile, not understanding what she ________ by that.

Today this girl is one of my best ________ . I really don't know what I would do without her. She has been there for me in every possible way a friend could be.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you ________ know when you're helping yourself. I ________ this girl never knowing that at the same time I was helping myself by finding a（n） ________ friend.

So the next time you see a stranger and he looks as if he needs ________ who will listen to him, listen to what he has to say. You never know, you might just end up helping yourself.

9 . I was out in my fields, spade in hand, planting trees this morning. I feel good when I do it, knowing that long after I am gone, these trees will _______ high above the land, providing oxygen for humans not yet born and _______ the carbon dioxide from the air.

Each spring, as I am _______, my mind goes back to a _______ I have of my grandfather, walking with him on the land, listening to his _______ and learning about nature. He often told a story which has _______ in my imagination all these years.

It was in the early 1900s, a man lost his wife and daughter to a terrible disease. Filled with _______, he decided to take up the _______ occupation of shepherd in the hills. He was about 55 years of age at that time, and as he _______ his sheep, he looked around and saw the land was ________. Then the old man felt he needed to do something to help the land________, for it had once been a splendid green forest.

He collected some ________ of oak trees from other places, ________ watered them and cared for the young trees that sprouted the next year. For the rest of his life, he planted every day. No one knew his story until he was 90 years old. Yet he ________ to plant, perhaps only five trees a day. At that time, the hill had become a green forest, ________ as far as people could see.

10 . A couple of days ago, my 9­year­old son and I were shopping at a grocery store (食品杂货店). At the checkout, a mother was trying to understand her bill. She didn't have enough _______ for her milk and cheese. The manager _______ the items (商品) from her cart and carried them away to the fridge section.

There had been _______ when I myself didn't have money to buy groceries my family needed, but today was _______. It was payday so there we stood in line with our groceries.

I whispered to my son and told him to run and get the _______ back with the items. He was confused. He didn't understand me. I was trying to do an act of kindness, but it went _______.

The lady left with her son and _______ groceries than she had planned. I told the checkout guy to _______ me for her milk and cheese and that we'd run to the parking lot and _______ her up. He said “You'd do that？” and I said “Yes, I want to make sure they have what they ________.”

He quickly called the manager back. I paid for my items and hers and my son and I ran to the parking lot where we ________ we would find the lady. But the mom and her son were ________ and with them went my opportunity to gift these small but ________ items.

I felt ________ for not speaking up and telling her what I wanted to do for her. If I had told her about it, I wouldn't have ________ the chance of doing a good deed. Perhaps because of this our future acts will be delivered with speed, as it is intended and necessary for love and kindness.