My father was the kind of person who could never pass by someone who needed help. He was a firm believer in the mantra (箴言)： What goes around comes around. He believed that someday he might need help, and someone would return the favor. But I didn’t quite buy it.

One weekend, my father and I took a trip to Flaming Gorge Reservoir (水库). We loved to fish at Flaming Gorge. We owned a cabin boat that was about fifteen feet in length. We put our boat in at Sheep Creek Marina (游艇停泊港). Our goal was to go as far north as possible, spend the weekend in our boat, and fish until we had our limit.

Heading toward the Wyoming side of the reservoir, we traveled some distance before we began to fish. Frankly, the fishing wasn’t very good, but we loved being out on the boat together in such a beautiful place.

Suddenly, we saw a man on the far shore waving at us. Immediately, my father fired up the motor and went toward the other side of the reservoir, where the man was still waving at us. When we arrived, I was amazed to see a beautiful big yacht (游艇) pulled onto the shore.

The man introduced himself as Mat and then thanked us warmly for coming to his assistance. His battery was dead, and he wondered if we could help him. We did, and soon his big motor roared back to life. Mat and his family were very grateful. We lost an hour of fishing. Being an impatient teenager, I was a bit annoyed at the one-hour loss, but we were soon back out on the reservoir.

The next day the fishing didn’t improve. As a matter of fact, it was terrible, so we decided to call it quits and go back to the marina. We were about two miles from the marina when we found ourselves fighting a strong headwind that slowed our progress. The waves were kicking up, and suddenly our engine decided to quit.

We tried to get it running, but it simply wouldn’t start.

On our way home, I saw an old lady waving at our car by the roadside.

3 . Long ago, in a village lived a wise old man. All the villagers were unhappy because they thought their neighbours had better lives, so day and night the _________ townsfolk would burst into the old man’s house for endless _________ about their fortune.

Early one brisk autumn morning, the old man posted a huge sign in the village square that _________: ALL CITIZENS WILL GATHER HERE AT NOON. BRING A BIG GREEN PICKLE (泡菜).

At twelve sharp all the villagers gathered in the square with a big, green pickle. The old man said, “I want you all to put your pickle down by your feet!” The crowd became _________. After considerable _________ and complaining, the villagers did as the old man said.

Then the old man spoke once again, “Imagine that everything you are — your wisdom and your _________, your blessings and your misfortune, your _________ and your weaknesses — is in your pickle. If you don’t like your pickle, no big deal. _________ someone else’s. Go ahead and choose.”

With that _________, all the villagers now had the overwhelming __________ of deciding whose pickle they wanted. The baker’s eye __________ fell on the schoolteacher’s pickle. The schoolteacher’s eye __________ over to the tailor’s. Every eye __________ every pickle in town. However, when it was over, the townspeople — every single one of them — had __________ their very own pickles.

Since that day, whenever a villager approached the old man to complain, he would simply say, “It’s your __________; you picked it.”

4 . With a broad smile on her lips, 15-year-old Sirin rushed to her mom to show off her new painting. But her mom raised her eyebrows, and spoke in a hushed tone, “Shh... honey.. don’t shout. I am busy with a(n) ________ talk.”

Holding her oil painting, she ________ and then searched for her dad. “Dad, see what I have done,” Sirin announced aloud in a(n) ________ voice. Her dad smiled and just patted her on back lovingly, saying, “No time, baby. I’m late for work.”

Hearing this, she stormed off to her own bedroom, slammed the door and ________ herself on her bed, sobbing. When her mom was calling her for dinner, Sirin arrived late deliberately. She kept silent, ________ the table mat with her nail. Her mom was puzzled at the ________ behavior. Suddenly, the morning ________ clicked in her mind. Softly, she asked, “Honey, did we do anything wrong?”

At this very moment, Sirin could no longer ________ her anger. “Why is everybody so busy?” she roared, tears streaming down. She assumed that, ________ ignoring her like others in her school, her mom and dad would appreciate her painting, but they were no ________. Shocked, mom threw her arms around her tightly, announcing ________ and firmly, “Baby, I am so sorry!”

When back from school the next day, Sirin was surprised to see her beautifully-decorated ________ on the wall. It was beautifully framed and just below the painting, it read, “Honey, we are really proud of you!” ________ her parents’ stress from daily routine, she felt sorry about her previous behavior. She ________ her head and apologized.

Though everything came and went, mutual ________ would stay forever in their family.

8 . I experienced a day when I was extraordinarily _______. I’m never a picture of grace, but on this particular day, I seemed to be _______ everything. It’s an old church, and the floor is _______ in some places, so my fall was the floor’s fault. But when I fell again on my way out to the car, and yet again in my own home, I began to grow _______. Had I let myself get so stressed out that I had _______ become sick?

Having been raised by devoted Christian parents who also worked in the mental-health field, I tended to look for spiritual and emotional reasons before I headed to the local _______. I have the calming practice that _______ a yoga pose with a breath prayer. I went to _______ more comfortable clothes for the exercise, and as I removed my shoes, I was _______!

I wasn’t having a stroke at all. I had completely worn out my favorite pair of sandals. The soles (鞋底) of both shoes were split in two! I had ________ all the possibilities to figure out what was causing my clumsiness. It never occurred to me to check my soles.

So often when we start to feel ________, we look for ways to make things better. But just as it never occurred to me to check the soles of my shoes, our own souls are the very ________ thing we think of to check. Take a moment to remember the last time you sat still, meditating. If you can’t remember when that was, it might be a(n) ________.

The local cobbler (鞋匠) said my soles were irreparable. We had a good ________, but it was time to let them go. Fortunately for us, our souls can be mended and restored — once we realize they are in need of ________.

9 . At the age of 17 years 64 days, Mack Rutherford has become the youngest person to fly around the world alone! Mack’s journey around the world lasted five months and he flew across 52 countries in total. His record-breaking flight began in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on 23 March, 2022. He was 16 years old when he took off and celebrated his 17th birthday by himself in his plane.

Mack faced many challenges during his adventure. Because of his small-sized aircraft, he had to land whenever the weather got too rough. However, at some points he literally (确实地) couldn’t land, such as when flying non-stop for 10 hours over an ocean. At other points, he faced extremely hot weather, such as in Dubai. In Sudan, a country in Africa, Mack also faced sandstorms which made it hard for him to see where he was going. Mack battled strong winds and pouring rain during his flight, but he never stopped smiling, joking and updating his flowers on his social media account along the way, and managed to expertly pilot his plane to safety.

And if Mack’s surname “Rutherford” sounds familiar, it’s because his elder sister Zara also flew around the world earlier this year, and still holds the female version of the record! The Rutherford siblings (兄弟姐妹) were inspired by their parents to become pilots. “I have known for certain I wanted to fly since I was eleven,” Mack said, “My dad Sam is a professional ferry pilot, my mum Beatrice is a recreational private pilot.”

Mack hopes to inspire young people to begin working towards their own goals, “No matter what background you have, I believe it is never too early to work towards your dreams and you shouldn’t limit yourself by others’ expectations.” With both feet firmly back on the ground now, it’s time for Mack to turn his attention towards catching up on his schoolwork!

After I stepped into the school library, I went straight to the shelves filled with books at once. It was break time and I had dropped by the library to borrow a book. Just as I was looking through some books, a girl in my class, Alice, came up to me. Alice was a pain in the neck as she would often make fun of others. That day, Alice laughed at me about my deepest secret -that I had come last in class in the mid-year examinations.

I blushed(脸红)hotly in shame. At the same time, I became extremely angry. My best friend, Lynn, was the only one who knew my secret. How could she betray(背叛)me?

My anger grew as thoughts about my friendship with Lynn flashed through my mind. We had been good friends since Primary 1. We hung out together, studied together and stayed up till the early hours of the morning to exchange our dreams. We were closer than sisters. When she needed a shoulder to cry on, I would be there. How could she do this to me? I was so mad that I could not control myself.

Brushing aside Alice’s taunts(嘲弄), I stormed to the place where Lynn usually went - the school field. Lynn looked at me with a welcoming smile on her face. The sight of her treacherous(背信弃义的)face made me mad and crazy.

“How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends!” I shouted at Lynn. “I hate you!”

A look of bewilderment(迷茫)crossed her face as she said,

“Wha ... What’s wrong? What did I do?”

Lynn cried out but I was cold and I didn’t show any kindness to her at all. I told her, “You are no longer my friend!”

And then I stormed away and returned to the library to calm myself down.

Paragraph 1: About 5 minutes later, one of my classmates came up to me and handed me my diary.

Paragraph 2: Luckily, Lynn was still in the field.