2 . Students at an elementary school in California, with the help of their art teacher, created a telephone hotline that people can call to get cheerful advice from kids during difficult times. Shortly afterwards, the hotline began getting thousands of calls an hour.

The hotline is available in English and Spanish. It offers the happy voices of children of different ages sharing positive messages. For example, by pressing 1, you can hear a group of kindergartners saying together, “You can do it! Keep trying, and don’t give up!” Pressing 2 brings the sounds of children laughing-a sound certain to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Jessica Martin, who teaches art at West Side School in Healdsburg, California, thought her students just might have the magic words needed to bring calm to people in difficult times. Ms. Martin worked with students at West Side on a project they called “PepToc”. Actually, they called it “Pep Talk” first. But when Ms. Martin’s 6-year-old son drew an ad for the hotline and spelled it “PepToc”, they decided they liked that even better.

Most of the project was completed in a day. Ms. Martin worked with students from kindergarten to the sixth grade. She had the same basic question for all the students-What could you say to help or encourage someone else? Students working on the hotline thought of what they would like to say. When they were ready, Ms. Martin recorded each one. Later, she sorted out the recordings into the different parts of the telephone hotline.

Ms. Martin thought the project would only attract interest from people near the school. But the hotline was soon getting hundreds of calls a day-and then, thousands of calls an hour. It’s become unbelievably popular with stressed adults, patients in hospitals, older people in homes, and others who just want to hear the happy voices of children.

5 . On weekends, I went to the local library to borrow books as usual. On my way there I would pass by the nursing home. This time as I_________toward the library, I saw an old woman_________there all by herself. Today I decided to go to_________to her instead of just walking past.

The old woman was very_________to share her life with me. She told me about her_________and that her father was an activist. She told me about the wonderful_________she had taken when she was exploring in Africa and the_________moments she had with her friends. And it felt nice to_________a smile on her face while she was_________her best times. We sat there for about an hour.

She told me she was__________and that it was nice to talk to someone after such a__________time. The last person she had had a(n)__________with was one of the nurses but she had found another__________and left. Up to now there wasn’t anyone for her to__________with.

It made me feel__________that some old people are easily affected by the social__________. And sometimes this can have a serious impact on their__________. We should try to best to spare some time to__________the elderly, whether they are our grandparents, neighbors or__________a random elderly person. The elderly woman was highly__________and I learned so much from her in less than an hour.

6 . When David Carter started his art major at the University of Texas at Austin in 1971, he had big dreams of becoming an artist or a writer. But he dropped out of university at 23 after he hurt his hand badly in an incident. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia(精神分裂症) and spent several years without a home. Carter liked to spend time around UT-Austin, because he dreamed of being able to continue his study in the university and becoming a writer.

UT-Austin student Ryan Chandler said he met Carter during an assignment(任务)   on homelessness for The Daily Texan. “I interviewed him about homeless problems. After I heard his story, we kept in touch and really became friends. I learned he wanted to get back to UT-Austin, so I decided to help him.” said Chandler.

With the help of Chandler, who worked with the university office, Carter was assigned and adviser by UN-Austin’s College of Fine Arts. “It’s the greatest blessing I’ve ever received,” Carter said. “He did what had to be done to get me back to school, and I couldn’t have done it without him.” after seeing a magazine article about Carter, a UT-Austin alumnus(校友) decided to pay his tuition fees without telling his name.

Doug Dempster, dean of the college of Fine Arts, said in a statement that the school would be looking to help Carter in any way it could. “David Carter’s determination to complete his degree is a testament to finishing well what was started, and stopped, even many years earlier. We welcome him back as we do many students each year whose education could not be completed easily. We’re going to help him through his remaining course work.”

7 . Henry was a middle-aged businessman whose repeated failure in career made him a depressed man, often ________ that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so ________ with the city that he had to leave.

So his family moved to another city. It was the evening of a weekend. When Henry and his wife were busily tidying up their new home, the light suddenly ________. Henry was regretful to have forgotten to bring along ________ and had to wait in a low mood. Just then he heard light, hesitant knocks on his door that were clearly audible (听到) in the ________ night.

“Who’s it?” he wondered, since Henry was a ________ to this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be ________, so he went to the door and opened it impatiently. At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your neighbor.” “No,” answered Henry in anger and shut the door ________. “What a nuisance!” He complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down than the neighbor came to ________ things.”

After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside. ________ this time she was ________ two candles, saying, “My grandma told me the new neighbor downstairs might need candles. She ________ me here to give you these.” At that moment, Henry suddenly realized what caused his ________ in life. It was his ________ and harshness (刻薄) with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was ________ nobody else but himself, for his eyes had been covered by his cold mind.

9 . Have you ever imagined being friends with squirrels? Monica hadn’t until one day in October 2016 when her family ___________ a tiny, injured squirrel. They took care of her and then released (释放) her back into the ___________. They didn’t expect to ever see her again. However, five years has passed and little Bella, that’s what they called the squirrel, ___________ comes to visit them almost every day.

As a baby, the terrible ___________ made by an owl (猫头鹰) left Bella near death. She was ___________ taken in by the family, and raised by them alongside three ___________ squirrels named Larry, Curly, and Moe. Bella stayed with the family until spring 2017, when she had healed (痊愈) successfully. Thanks to a regular ___________ of fruit, nuts, and baby food, Bella was ___________ to jump on the trees in the forest. The sweet squirrel never goes too far from her adopted (收养的) home, and stops by to say hello whenever she can, ___________ such a long time has passed.

“Bella sits right at the front door ____________ someone to notice she has come by for a visit. If no one ____________ her, she will jump over to the dining room window, expecting someone to see her,” Monica said, “whenever she stops by, she asks for ____________ more than a handful of nuts.”

Guess what the most ____________ part is? A few years after Bella’s original stay with the family, she found her way back to them ____________ an injured foot — and a belly full of babies — spending another few months of recovering. “It was truly exciting to watch the baby I raised ____________ her own babies,” Monica said. Bella now even has her own social media page, where her human family documents her adventures, with thousands of followers!