1 . Once there lived a farmer in a small town. He made a living by ______ butter. Every day, his neighbour, a baker (糕点师), would buy a pound (磅) of butter. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see ______ he was getting a pound. After the baker weighed it, he found that he wasn’t. ______ the baker took the farmer to the judge. The judge asked the ______ if he had any way to weigh the butter. The farmer ______, “I am so poor that I do not have enough money to buy ______ to weigh it, but I do have a kind of scale (天平) .” The judge asked, “Then ______ do you weigh the butter?” The farmer answered, “______ the baker started buying butter from me. I had bought a pound of ______ from him. So now every time I bring home the bread from the baker, I put it ______ the scale and give him the butter of the______ weight.”

Dishonesty can become a bad habit. Some people who are not ______ can lie without a red face. Those ______ lie so much do not even know what the truth is any more. But who is it bad for? As a matter of fact, they will hurt themselves by ______ own dishonest behaviour.

We ______ what we give to others in life. Whenever you take action, ask yourself this question, “Am I honest?”

2 . I was driving down the highway, enjoying the freedom of the open road when suddenly, I heard a loud noise. My car shook _______, and I knew something was wrong.

I carefully _______ to the side of the road, as far away from the traffic as possible. I got out of the car and looked at the damage, with a rising sense of fear. The tire(轮胎) was completely flat, and I had no _______. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no one to help.

I tried to flag down passing cars, but no one seemed to notice me. They drove past me at high speed, as if I were _______. I began to feel frustrated and _______.

As the sun started to set, my _______ turned to despair. I felt like I was stranded(滞留) in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of _______. I thought about how long it would take for someone to notice me, and how dangerous it was to be stranded on the side of the road at night. I felt _______ forcing their way out of the corners of my eyes, but I tried my best to hold them back.

Just when I was about to give up, I heard a car _______. I tried to flag it down, but it seemed to be about to speed past me. I felt my heart ________, but to my surprise, the car slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. A tall man got out of the car, and I felt a sense of ________ wash over me.

As expected, the man helped ________ the flat tire with his spare one. Before I expressed my gratitude, he ________ into the night. What a silent but warm-hearted ________. The road might be challenging, but the ________ of the stranger lit it up.

4 . When I was little, my mom put her love into making traditional Chinese soups for me. I’m talking Ching bo leung (清凉补), with a lot of herbal(中草药的) ingredients that give the soup a _______ taste.

As a kid, I never _______ drinking them because the taste made me sick. But my mom would try her best to _______ me to drink her soup.

First, she would state all the health benefits that the soup has.

“How can this strange water improve my _______?” I’d roll my eyes.

Then, she’d tell me it tasted _______ this time because she added chicken to make it taste more restaurant-style.

Lastly, she’d bribe (贿赂) me with a piece of candy.

And somehow that would _______. I’d take a deep breath and drink it without stopping. After I finished, my mom would _______ eating the Chinese soup ingredients (Tang Zha in Chinese).

I _______ why she did this. I could just _______ the soup but how could she eat the soup ingredients?

She’d always say, “I ________ eating them.”

When I was young, I ________ believed her.

But as I got older, I ________ she was only saying this because she wanted the best for her daughter.

Recently, I recalled (回忆起) this ________ while feeding my daughter a mango (芒果). I cut the mango into two halves and then ________ the seed (果核).

My daughter was ________ and asked me why I ate the seed.

I told her, “Because I love eating them.”

5 . Our family moved to Texas in 1996, when my husband Jerry got a job in a factory as a pipe-fitter. We lived in a small mobile home. When the job in Texas ended, he was out of _________. Months went by. Rent was _________ on the mobile home.

“At least we would have a nice _________,” I thought as I drove the girls to the supermarket on Christmas Eve to buy some food. Amanda was two years old and Kimberly was five years old. In the supermarket, I was _________ by different items. The _________ wrapped with shiny paper looked especially beautiful. I wished the girls weren’t _________ by them. Kimberly _________ alongside the cart with excitement. “Maybe she forgets this Christmas,” I thought.

_________, we got to the checkout counter. When we wheeled the cart out, we saw a wall of Christmas trees, each waiting to be _________ so its branches could __________ in a special spot at home. “Look, Mom!” said Kimberly. “Sweetie, we can’t get a tree this year,” I replied. Amanda was too young to have any __________, and Kimberly seemed to be calm, but I felt terrible. We pushed our cart through the parking lot. Halfway to the car, Kimberly stopped and pointed, “Look, Mom! That can be our tree!” At first, I wasn’t sure what she was pointing at. Then I saw a pine __________ lying on the ground. I couldn’t say no again. “Okay.”

I said. “We will bring it home.”

Back home, I found a coffee can to __________ it in. Kimberly collected some rocks and filled the can. While I made dinner, the girls colored some stars and bells. Jerry __________ their artwork for the tree. We set the display on the table in our tiny kitchen. “That branch was a lucky find,” Jerry said when we sat down for dinner.

__________, it was luck. My family and I celebrated many other Christmas holidays with real trees later, but it is the Christmas in the mobile home that we all remember most.

8 . Brandon Leseberg and his sons, Louie, 6 years old, Everett, 3 years old, headed for their farm one afternoon. When the sun set, Brandon_______ feeding his cows and decided to go back. His two boys ran ahead of him. Louie_______at a water tap on top of an old well to drink water. However, the board on the well had grown fragile(易碎的) over time. When Louie stepped on it, it was_______. Louie fell into the well! Brandon didn’t notice the_______until Everett told him. Brandon ran to the well with worry and jumped in, and luckily, he_______Louie.

Knowing they couldn’t stay in the ice-cold water for so long, Brandon put his own legs against the narrow walls to_______himself when he lifted his son, _______his body was still partly sliding down. Though tired, Brandon shouted to Everett, “You have to be_______. Run to the road and stand by the mailbox until someone stops. Tell them we need _______.” Everett did as he was________.

Minutes passed like hours for Brandon. He’d been hoping for the________of strangers, but there was no sign of anyone. ________, about 15 minutes later, Christi and Mark, their neighbors, were coming to rescue them when they heard Everett crying for help. Finally, Brandon and Louie were________by the neighbors. Brandon was________for all the rescuers’ action. “If there is a(n)________in this story, it’s three-year-old Everett. He’s a real lifesaver”, the neighbors said.

9 . Torbjorn Pedersen is a Danish traveler who recently finished a trip around the world. But this wasn’t just any trip. Mr. Pedersen spent nearly 10 years ________ every country in the world.

As he began to plan his trip, he made a few ________: no flying, no visiting home, and spend at least 24 hours in every ________ . He hoped that he could ________ about $20 a day, and finish his trip in about four years.

It took him far longer. The first part of his trip was pretty easy. He ________ across Europe and North America, where his biggest ________ was not spending too much money. But as he ________ on to other parts of the world, things began to get much ________ . Mr. Pedersen says he had many difficult experiences. He was once ________at gunpoint and thought he might be killed. He also became ________ ill with malaria（疟疾）.

But he also had many good ________. Mr. Pedersen says that one reason he didn’t ________ was the help he got from people all over the world. “You might have to try 1,000 closed doors,” he says, “But there is always a（an）________ door somewhere. Never, ever give up.”

On July 26, 2023 Mr. Pedersen arrived back in Denmark after a 33-day boat ride. He was ________by about 150 people, including friends and family members. Mr. Pedersen says he plans to write a book and ________ what he learned in his travels around the world.

10 . A two-year-old girl in Newberry County had last been seen at about 3: 00 p. m., but she was missing later in the day. The situation took a _________ turn around 6: 00 p. m. when a hunter in the area heard the cries of the missing child. Reacting immediately, the hunter _________ an emergency call telling authorities the child’s location.

The operators _________ immediately, applying advanced mapping technology to locate the position. This crucial information was then _________ sent to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division(SLED)and the county’s first _________.

With the location data in hand, a search team was quickly _________ to the wooded area. The tireless efforts of these rescue workers ultimately _________ a heartwarming reunion. The missing two-year-old was found in the forest, safe and sound except some slight injuries. Despite her _______ experience, she was found to be in surprisingly good _______, except her understandable tiredness, thirst and fear.

The ________ rescue was the result of the _______ between different departments and the community as a whole. The Newberry County Sheriff’s Office expressed their ______ for the efforts of everyone involved, including citizens, and those ______ their thoughts and prayers during the search. And they showed their relief at the _______ of the little girl in the care of family. Their heroic actions will be ______ as a heartwarming success story in Newberry County for years to come.