Once upon a time, there lived a poor but cheerful shoemaker. He was so happy that he sang all day long. The children loved to stand around his window to listen to him.

Next door to the shoemaker lived a rich man. He used to sit up all night to count his gold. In the morning, he went to bed, but he could not sleep because of the sound of the shoemaker’s singing. One day, he thought of a way to stop the singing. He wrote a letter to the shoemaker inviting him over for a cup of tea.

The shoemaker came at once, and to his great surprise, the rich man gave him a bag of gold as a gift. The shoemaker took the bag and thanked the rich man. When he returned home, the shoemaker couldn’t wait to open the bag. He had never seen so much gold in his life! He sat down at his bench and began, carefully, to count it. The children watched through the window.

There was so much there that the shoemaker was afraid to let it out of his sight. So he took it to bed with him. But he could not sleep for worrying about it. So he got out of bed and went to hide it in the attic (阁楼), but he was not sure if that was a good place.

Very early in the morning, he got up and brought his gold down from the attic. He had decided to hide it up the chimney (烟囱) instead. But after breakfast, he thought it would be safer in the chicken house. So he hid it there. But he was still uneasy, and in a little while he dug a hole in the garden and buried his bag of gold in it.

He was in no mood for singing and found it difficult to focus on his work.

At last the shoemaker felt so unhappy that he took his bag of gold and ran next door to the rich man.

Mrs. Murphy had been working as a cafeteria (自助餐厅) employee at Cypress Valley School for four years and there was no job in the whole world that she loved more than that. In fact, Mrs. Murphy liked to stay with these cute children. The woman’s face lit up every time she served lunch to the little children and saw their smiles.

One day after serving the kids food, Mrs. Murphy was talking to her co-worker when she noticed something strange. She saw a little girl at the far end of the cafeteria who finished only half of her lunch and filled the rest in a lunch box. “Is she not feeling well? Why didn’t she eat?” Mrs. Murphy was puzzled as the girl stood up and walked away.

The next day, when the girl came to the cafeteria, the same thing happened. She divided the food into two equal parts, placed one half in her lunch box, and ate only the other half. Mrs. Murphy became concerned when this continued for several days, so she decided to follow her one day.

She saw that the young girl went in the opposite direction of the school after class, which led to a deserted neighborhood. “Why would she go there after school?” The elderly woman wondered as she followed the girl, taking care not to be noticed.

After a couple of minutes, she noticed the girl was walking into an alley (胡同) where a small boy sat on the ground. The girl smiled and approached the boy. “Claire! I’m here!” The boy looked up at the girl and smiled warmly. “I’ve got some food for you, David!” She said, sitting on her knees and opening her backpack. The boy enjoyed the other half of meal. The fine scene was too wonderful to be ruined. And Mrs. Murphy firmly believed that she had to do something to help them.

Just then, Mrs. Murphy approached them.                  

Hearing this, Mrs. Murphy’s heart was full of sympathy (同情) for the two children.   

3 . This week was busier than usual, and I was in need of sleep or rest today. All I wanted to do was go home and enjoy a bowl of good hot soup. But when I saw my daughter’s car, I knew that it was Bryan’s night. Since his parents separated, I had tried to have my six-year-old grandson spend a few hours with me at least once a week. I had always tried to make it a special time for him. We did many interesting things. Bryan loved all these activities, and so did I.

But today I had to give up our evening. I knew how tired I was, so I just said, “Bryan, I’m sorry. Tonight I don’t feel like having fun or playing games. We’ll have our night together some other time.”

He said, “I like soup, Grandma.” I knew he actually meant “Please don’t send me away. Please let me stay”. And I saw the shadow in Bryan’s eyes. Something else was changing. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t want to have him come anymore — not tonight, not next week, not ever. Finally, I said OK. And his eyes lighted up. After I put the soup on the desk and turned on the TV, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, there was a coat over my legs, and the soup was gone. Bryan was on the floor, reading a coloring book and watching a television show at the same time. The poor boy must have been so bored! When he found I was awake, he ran over and gave me a big hug. “I love you, Grandma,” he said. “Haven’t we had a nice time together?” His big smile and happy eyes told me that this time he meant exactly what he was saying. That was the keyword—together. We had done nothing exciting or special. But we were together.

6 . One day, King Sisyphus of Corinth was trying to solve the city’s fresh water problem. He happened to look up and saw Zeus fly by. The king of gods was carrying a lovely river spirit (小精灵) in his arms.

“That Zeus,” sighed (叹气) King Sisyphus. “What a trouble-maker!”

Soon after, the river god Asopus flew by. “Sisyphus! Have you seen my daughter?” he asked.

“If you give my city a source of fresh water, I will tell you what I saw,” King Sisyphus shouted back. Immediately, a clear stream (水流) of fresh water appeared.

“Zeus took her that way,” the king pointed.

The king knew Zeus would be angry when he found out what he had done. But Corinth badly needed a source of fresh water. And finally, it had one.   

Sure enough, Zeus was very angry. He told his brother Hades (the god of the underworld) to take Sisyphus to the underworld immediately!

“When they tell you I am dead, do not put a gold coin under my tongue,” King Sisyphus said quietly to his wife. As a good wife, she did exactly as the king had told her.

Because Sisyphus was an important person, Hades himself met him at the River Styx, the entrance to the underworld. Because no gold coin was placed under his tongue(舌头), the king arrived as a poor beggar.

“Where is your gold coin?” Hades asked. “How can you pay for a trip across the River Styx and arrive in the underworld?”

King Sisyphus hung his head in shame. “I had a terrible wife. She didn’t give me anything after I had died.”

“Go right back there and teach that woman some manners!” Hades raised his voice. He then sent Sisyphus back to Earth. The king became alive again.

Sisyphus and his wife laughed when he told her about the experience. But he never told it to anyone else. You never know when the gods are listening!

8 . I joined a language exchange program online last year and had the chance to meet Lucy, a girl from England. We gradually became ________ with each other. At first, it was ________ to talk to someone I had never met before, but as time went by, our conversations continued ________ .

Being a teenager could be challenging, but having someone like Lucy, who ________ me even from thousands of miles away, made it easier. However, little did I know that she had been fighting with depression for many years. When she finally opened up and shared her ________ with me, I was both shocked and grateful that she ________ me enough to tell me that.

From that day on, I tried to ________ her regularly and encouraged her to seek professional help. Finally, Lucy started seeing a doctor, and then she made progress in ________ her condition. But later, with increased learning tasks, we both became ________, so our conversations became less frequent. One Sunday night, I surfed the Internet and found that Lucy had cleaned up all her social media posts. I was anxious and tried to ________ her, but there was no response. I completely ________ her. Weeks turned into months, and I gave up the ________ of hearing from her again. Surprisingly, Lucy sent me an email one day. In her message, she apologised and explained her sudden ________. Also, she thanked me for my help during her darkest moments. Her words touched my heart, and I realized the influence our ________ had made on both of us.

Even though we are ________ by distance and time zones, our friendship remains strong and continues to thrive.

10 . Mrs. Humboldt was my brother’s science teacher. It was said that her look once________all the sixth-graders. The teacher never smiled and seemed hard to get close to, which was far from their________. What they had been wishing for was an easy-going teacher.

Mrs. Humboldt________rules. She believed rules could push better habits and self-control. It was really a(n)________for students like my brother who didn’t follow rules. He always arrived late, and made various excuses to________homework. So he wasn’t a stranger________the teacher’s office. He seemed to be afraid of her.

However, in the days and months followed, my brother looked like a________person. He began to behave________. He got up early________it was an extremely cold morning. He finished his homework as soon as he came home. The only thing that didn’t change was that he still________Mrs. Humboldt for her being________with him. He once said to me that Mrs. Humboldt paid much attention to his________at school every day. He had to follow Mrs. Humboldt’s rules.

Later, he successfully entered a key high school. One day, my brother told us something that really________us. He said that Mrs. Humboldt was actually a great teacher and that he finally understood her good________. She really prepared him for high school. He added that Mrs. Humboldt was the teacher he wanted to________most.