One bright Saturday morning, Mali and her mom walked around the neighbourhood. That is, her mom walked, but Mali ran, skipped, jumped over puddles and visited the neighbours’ dogs. Mali paused to look at the budding (发芽) trees on her block. “I can’t wait until summer,” she said, “especially for Mrs. Fair’s great tomatoes at her market stand.” She pointed.

Mali’s mom stood looking at the empty lot where the market was set up every summer weekend. She looked at Mali, “Honey, Mrs. Fair told me last week that she had to close her stand. She’s really getting too old to run it anymore.”

Mali turned, stared, and put her hands on her waist. “But Mrs. Fair’s stand can’t close!” she said. “It’s the only place in the neighbourhood we can buy fresh, delicious tomatoes.” Then she added, to show she wasn’t being selfish, “Everyone needs fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet.”

After they got home, Mali headed out to her backyard swing to think. “If only I could plant a garden,” she thought. “but our yard is way too small.” Just then, she noticed her neighbour, Mr. Taylor, looking at his daffodils. Mali knew he was thinking about how he had planted those flowers with his wife. This was the first spring since his wife had died, and Mali saw the sadness on his face. Then she had an idea.

Mali cleared her throat, and Mr. Taylor looked up. Mali decided to walk over to the fence. “Hi, Mr. Taylor,” she said. He waved, and turned away. “Wait!” Mali cried. Taking a risk while she still felt brave, she rushed to gather her thoughts. “Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Fair isn’t doing her tomato stand anymore because she’s getting old. So I’d like to grow tomatoes. I don’t want to get in the way of your flowers, but I really want tomatoes.”

Suddenly, Mr. Taylor smiled. “Mali, I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but you’ve made me smile. Reasons to smile have been scarce lately. What do you want to do?” Mali repeated, “I wanted to plant tomatoes, but I have no big land.” She sounded a little awkward.

Just then, an idea came to Mr. Taylor.

When the fruit ripened, there were more juicy, red tomatoes than even Mali could have imagined.

5 . It was a very cold day and the wind was blowing. But Li Yungang didn’t feel it. He even felt hot. After all, this 14-year-old student from Beijing Jingshan School was cutting grass for three hours.

This was the first time this city boy had done any farm work. “It was not that easy. My legs and arms were sore,” he said.

From now on, more Beijing middle school students will have a similar experience. 5,500 students from 13 city middle schools will take part in a one-week farm work program in the autumn and spring.

About 250 students from Beijing Jingshan School took part in it from Oct. 25 to 30. They dug peanuts (花生), cut grass, swept fallen leaves and did other farm work.

Lin Ruohan, 13, thought the work was hard, but she was very enjoyable. “When we dig peanuts out, we must be quick to pick them up. If not, they may be covered in the ground again. We must be patient and work as a team,” she said.

But when she tasted the fresh peanuts, she felt happy. “I had never eaten such sweet peanuts before,” she said.

Some of her classmates also learned what kind of fruits and peanuts grow in the ground. “We learned a lot about farming by seeding (播种) them rather than just reading about them in textbooks,” she said.

The farm not only gave them knowledge but also gave them a new view.

If you want to know more about farming knowledge, please click here WWW.>@farming.com

6 . While driving in a small Colorado town, I stopped as a group of people crossed the road. As I watched, I ______ a thin, poorly dressed old lady taking a(n) ______ suitcase.

She managed to carry it for a few yards before setting it down on the ground. After trying several times, she was still ______ with it when the traffic started to move again.

Having experienced similar ______ in the past when traveling, I ______ alongside her and leaned over to call out through the window, “Excuse me. Would you like a ______?”

She stopped, gave me a ______ look and then started to walk hesitantly toward me, pulling her suitcase hard. “If you want to tell me where you’re going, I’ll ______ you off. That suitcase looks ______ heavy,” I said.

“Well, all right,” she answered in a ______ voice. And after we had both lifted her luggage into the back of my pickup, she ______ herself without a word on the front seat. My attempts at conversation were a ______, except for directions to her destination. When we arrived there and got her suitcase down, she ______ her hand into a pocket, saying, “What do I ______ you? I don’t have much.”

Surprised, I said, “Nothing. I was glad to be able to help.”

Her expression changed immediately, and she stared at me unbelievably. “Well, thank you, lady. No one has ever done me a(n) ______ like that before. God bless you.” Then she disappeared down the street, while something warm occurred in my heart.

It was a special Saturday evening. Hardly had I finished my work and left my office building at 9:00 pm when it rained cats and dogs. In order to get home earlier, I dashed into the rain without hesitation. Out of my expectation, I noticed a man wandering around my car, the moment I approached the parking lot.

Shaking with cold in the heavy rain, he was looking around every few seconds as though to be waiting for somebody. It was at that moment that it occurred to me that I had forgotten to roll the car window up and that was exactly where I left my wallet. In a flash, I got a big breath.

So I couldn’t help speeding up and at the same time called out to the man, expecting that he didn’t take the money and make a run with it, as after a busy day’s work, I was too tired to catch up with him.

“Are you the owner of the car?” the man asked in a shaking voice, but raindrops on the roof of my car made his voice unclear.

“And who the hell are you?” I replied with an unfriendly expression as if he was a thief who was caught stealing my wallet.

The man went on to tell me that he was a beggar, begging around the nearby buildings where I worked every day and familiar with every face and every car here. “This morning, several young men walked up plotting to take the wallet in your car. I came over and frightened them away, pretending to call the police. Thus the bad boys were scared to run away immediately. I had been waiting for you here since then so that the car and your wallet would be secure,” added the man.

When the man gave me a clear explanation of what had happened earlier, I was astonished to cover my open mouth with my hands.

Standing in the rain, I couldn’t believe my ears.

“Why didn’t you take the money?” I asked him.

8 . Justin Horner was driving down a freeway in Portland, when his tire blew out. He _________ to the side of the road and made a sign that said he needed _________.

Three hours later, a truck _________ pulled up. Out came a family of four. They were Latino, and their young daughter acted as the _________ between her parents’ Spanish and Horner’s English, so that they could work together to _________ the car. They spent about an hour on the repair.

“I just _________ them,” Horner recalled. “And I tried to give the daughter a $20 bill. And she just wouldn’t _________ it.”

But Horner was stubborn, and he put the money in her _________, and walked away. Then Horner heard their daughter asking him if he was _________. Indeed he was, and she came over with a tamale (玉米粉蒸肉). They exchanged thanks and the family __________ to drive away.

“I __________ the tamale and my money was in it,” Horner said. Horner immediately ran over to the truck to get the father’s __________.

The father saw Horner __________, rolled down his window, gave him a wave, rolled up the window and drove off. Horner also saw the young girl __________ goodbye through the window.

A few months later, Horner posted his story on social media, which drew thousands of likes and hundreds of __________.