1 . Charity in Action

In a busy city like Shanghai, the hustle and bustle often overshadow the needs of those less fortunate. However, amidst this chaos, there are still stories of _________ and kindness that warm our hearts.

One such story unfolded one sunny afternoon in the heart of the city. Li Hua, a high school student, was walking home from school, _________ by the noise and crowds. Suddenly, her attention was caught by a small group of people gathered around a street corner.

Curious, she approached and saw an elderly woman sitting on the ground, _________ and alone. Her clothes were tattered, and her face showed signs of _________. Li Hua’s heart went out to her, and she knew she had to do something.

Without _________, Li Hua reached into her pocket and handed the woman all the money she had. The woman’s eyes lit up with gratitude, and a _________ smile spread across her face.

Inspired by this encounter, Li Hua decided to take action. She organized a charity event at her school, _________ awareness about the situation of the homeless and poor in the city. She _________ flyers, made posters, and even gave a speech to her classmates, urging them to contribute whatever they could.

To her surprise, the response was _________. Many students donated their pocket money, while others donated clothes and food. Even teachers and staff got involved, __________ their support.

The charity event was a huge success. Not only did it raise a significant amount of money and goods, but it also __________ a sense of community and unity among the students and staff. More importantly, it __________ the importance of helping others and the impact one individual can have on those in need.

Li Hua’s actions not only __________ the elderly woman that day but also inspired countless others to do their part in making the world a better place. Her story is a reminder that charity is not just about giving money; it’s about __________ a hand to those who need it, about showing compassion and kindness in even the smallest of ways.

In the busy and often impersonal world of Shanghai, Li Hua’s story is a beacon of hope, a reminder that amidst the noise and crowds, there is still room for __________ and compassion.

2 . I forgot to pay my property tax last year. Was it a sign of early onset dementia(痴呆)? Had I spent last September as an anti-government tax resister and the entire month of September had ________ my mind? Then I realized the real problem: I have notification ________.

Since 2020, many of us have lived ________ online, relying on a trillion apps to send helpful, pinging notifications. So many notifications that they’ve become a waterfall of sound I no longer hear. I’ve grown ________ of every notification. I live in a continuous state of “oops.”

My bad decisions and my ________ are to blame. My first error was inviting these pings and beeps into my life decades ago. As someone with a memory as reliable as an inattentive goldfish’s, I once depended on a detailed paper calendar and to-do list system to keep me on ________. My careful notes worked for years. But I was eventually ________ transferring all the birthdays from one year’s calendar to the next. The coming of the PalmPilot (掌上电脑) thrilled me: I could enter the info once and, five days before each loved one’s birthday, the device would automatically inform me of the coming date.

That little PalmPilot was a gateway drug. I eventually ________ my brain to more powerful devices. And for years, generally they were at a ________ level. Then the pandemic hit and my notification stream became a series of alerts and even alerts for other unimaginable demands of alertness.

Then the other factor ________ kicked in. My actual hearing loss, a genetic gift from my father’s side, started getting worse, turning the world into a series of dull noises. Even with my hearing aids in, maybe I didn’t hear a notification.

Having become deaf to alerts both ________ and metaphorically, I reasoned that enduring a little wrist vibration with every notification would bring me back into being a responsible adult. ________, I felt like I had severe nerve damage. After month 13 of the pandemic, my general stress level was peaking and I was too ________ to turn some off.

“You’re not the boss of me!” I yelled one afternoon when seven notifications popped up ________. I turned away like a bad-tempered teen. The solution? I’m turning off all notifications and moving my life back to ________. Yes, it will be a tough adjustment. But it will force me to grab responsibility for my daily life back from all the devices.

The good news: Paper doesn’t chirp, buzz, flash or “pop up.” Paper just waits, quietly, non-judgmentally and trust you.

3 . On the mantelpiece is a sign saying “A home is not a home without a dog”. Next to it, in the couple’s living room, is a framed picture of a dog, which is itself nestled among ________ dog decorations. The kitchen, where Laura Jacques and Richard Remde’s four dogs ________ play and rest, is similarly decorated. Upstairs is the couple’s super king size bed, roomy enough to ________ two humans and four dogs.

Visitors to this house in Silsden, West Yorkshire are left in no doubt about the ________ of dogs in the couple’s lives. Their four dogs will soon become six, when they bring home two more cloned dogs.

Jacques works as a dog-walker. She has studied dog ________ and has spent a lot of time volunteering at the Dogs Trust. The couple have just moved into a new house, one they bought because it has a lot of land for the dogs to run around in. One corner has been ________ as a pet graveyard. Dylan, their eight-year-old dog who died earlier this year is to take the first ________.

When Jacques received the news from the vet that Dylan had died, she ________ in shock and grief. “I couldn’t comprehend that the worst possible thing had happened. I was just in total shock,” she says. “And then an idea occurred to me – I want to clone Dylan.”

The couple say they know how ________ pet cloning is and that some will criticize them for “playing God”. But they ________ that they are doing nothing wrong. “We have helped to make a scientific ________,” says Jacques. “Arguably dog breeders are doing something ________ but they are doing it for money while we aren’t. I can understand the ________ around human cloning – creating beings that don’t have a real mum or dad – but the same thing doesn’t apply to dogs. I know that some people will disagree with what we’ve done but I hope they won’t ________ us.”

They accept that some people will say they are mad and wonder why they are spending $100,000 on the ________. “We are not mad,” says Remde, “We are dog-mad though, and we both absolutely love all animals.”

4 . My life as a tax-paying employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked in a baking factory.

My best friend Betsy’s father was a manager at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, _________ little bunny (兔子) cakes for all its _________throughout Cleveland. It happened that the plant downtown needed eight kids for _________ help during our spring break, for which I had no_________ beyond listening to my favorite records. I’d _________ minimum wage. I’d see how a factory_________. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their _________.

Our_________in the factory were simple: Place cakes on a moving belt. Attach icing (糖霜) ears. Apply icing eyes and nose._________ bunny from the belt. This was ____________ than it sounds.____________ a bit and the cakes pile up. As I told my parents at dinner that first night, it was all a little more high-pressure than I’d   ____________ .

Dad __________. The son of a grocer, he’d spent the summers of his childhood____________ food in Benardsville, New Jersey. This was the sort of work that made you____________ the dollars you earned and respect those who did the work, he told me.