An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans     1     (leave) thehouse-building businessto live     2     more leisure life with his wife. Thecontractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a     3     (person) favor. The carpenter said yes, but over time     4     was easy to see that his heart was not in his work.

When the carpenter finished the house, his employer handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, “This is your house. . .my gift to you.” The carpenter was     5     (shock)! If he had only known he     6     (build) his own house, he would have done it all differently.

So it is     7     us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often     8     (put) less than our best into the building. Then, with ashock we realize we have to live in the house wehave built. If we could do it over, we would do it differently. But you cannot go back. Life is a do-it-yourself project. Your attitude and the     9     (choose) you make today help build the “house” you willlive in tomorrow.Therefore, build     10     (wise)!

Once there were two mice, a city mouse and a country mouse. They were distant relatives. One day the city mouse,     1     lived in a big house wrote a letter to the country mouse inviting him for a visit.

Delighted, the country mouse accepted the     2    (invite) and came to the city mouse's house. He     3    (greet) by the city mouse cheerfully. The country mouse was surprised how big the house was! The city mouse was pleased and     4    (lead) the country mouse to the kitchen. When they climbed up the table, there were a large piece of bread, fruit and cheese     5     it. But just as they began to eat, they heard     6     loud noise. The city mouse cried, “Run! Run! The cat     7    (come)!” They ran away quickly and hid.

    8    (breathe) heavily after hiding in the mouse­hole, the country mouse said to the city mouse, “I should go back to my house in the country. Even if I eat nothing but beans, I can live     9    (peaceful). Why don’t you come with me to the country? It is     10    (nice) to be poor and happy, than to be rich and afraid.”

One day, when I was cooking the evening meal, my daughter stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked her down. “Move out of the way,” I said impatiently. She walked away, and her little heart was    1    (break). I didn’t realize    2     rudely I’d spoken.

When I    3     (lie) awake in bed, God’s small voice came to me and said, “While     4     (deal) with a stranger, you use common politeness, but the children you love, you seem to abuse. Look at the kitchen floor, and those are the flowers she brought for you.”

By this time, my tears began to fall. I quietly went and sat by her bed. “Are these the flowers you picked     5     me? I’m so sorry.” I said. She smiled, “Oh, Mom, that’s okay. I love you anyway.” I said, “Daughter, I love you too, and I do like the flowers,     6     (especial) the blue.”

You should be aware that if we were to die tomorrow, the family we left behind would feel the    7       (lose) for the rest of their lives. And come to think about it, we devote     8     (us) more to work than to our family---an unwise    9    (decide) indeed. So, what is behind the story? Fill life with love and bravery, and we shall live    10     happy life.

Kate got into a panic when her car ran out of gas on a highway one night six weeks ago, “I thought I could make it all the way home, but     1     (obvious) was wrong,” Kate recalled. “I drove to the side of the road and got out,    2     (plan) to walk to the nearest gas station. That’s when I met Johnny, a homeless man sitting nearby. Johnny stopped me. Concerned about my     3     (safe), he told me to get back in the car and lock the doors. I obeyed. A few minutes later, he came back with a gas can that he bought with his last $20.”

“    4     was crazy that he should use all his money on someone he didn’t even know,” Kate added.     5     (repay) Johnny, Kate returned many times and gave him some money, food and clothes. But she wanted to do more    6     this man. “Johnny is generous indeed,” said Kate. “He’s got such positive energy,     7     he’s in that situation.”

    8     (touch) by Johnny’s selflessness, Kate is now raising money online for him. “To my great joy, donations keep pouring in,” said Kate. “So far, over $100,000     9     (collect). He’s indeed a good guy and deserves everything     10     is coming to him.”

Our house was across the street from a large hospital, so we rented some of our spare rooms to     1     (patient). One evening, there was a knock at the door. I opened     2     (see) what was going on. A truly sick-looking man was just standing at my door. His face was terribly red, yet his voice was pleasant. He told me that he had been hunting for a spare room since noon, but no one     3     give him one.

For a moment, I wanted to refuse, but his next words convinced me, “I’ll sleep in this rocking chair by the gate. My bus     4     (leave) early in the morning.”

The old man had a huge heart inside his tiny body. He told me that he was earning his living by     5     (fish) to support his daughter, his daughter’s 5 children and her disabled husband. He didn’t complain (抱怨) while telling me his story. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease,     6     was seemingly a form of skin cancer.

Early the next morning, he asked me, “Can I come back again and stay here the next time I need     7     (treat)?” I told him he was welcome to come again. On his next trip,     8     a gift, he brought two big fish. In the years when he stayed with us, there was never a time when he didn’t bring us any gifts like these.

My neighbor     9     (warn) me that I could lose renters by putting up the old man after he left the first morning. Perhaps we lost renters once or twice. But if they had known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family will always be     10     (thank)to have known him. From him, we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

Jim and I first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our     1    (marry).Someone had been returning our garbage cans to the garage each garbage day,and we had wondered who.Then one day we spotted him,    2     elderly man who lived across the street.

I baked cookies and left       3    on a bench outside the garage with a thank-you note. Later that day,we found that a typed letter     4    (replace)the gift.The letter was from Tom and explained why he returned cans for people he barely knew.Back when he'd been fighting a war,his young wife,Gee,had lived alone.Neighbors had taken the time       5    （handle)her garbage cans and he never forgot.Now by doing the same       6    all of us, he paid it forward.

    7    (gradual)we got familiar.His wife Gee one day invited us to look through their Christmas decorations.Gee quietly explained each decoration,     8     was collected during every year's after-Christmas sale.As our kids left with the box of decorations,she smiled.Her treasures,     9    (gather)over a lifetime,found a new home.

Now every Christmas,we decorate our tree with Gee' s treasures and Tom's letter, reminding ourselves of     10     it means to be a neighbor.

In 1850,an American lawyer,James N.Bethune,bought a slave to work in his home.The slave,a woman,had a small child     1    (call)Tom,who was blind and autistic(自闭症的).

One day,Bethune     2    (walk)around his garden when he heard music coming from the house.He went inside and found young Tom playing on the family piano.Bethune     3    (instant)realized that the boy,who was only four,had special abilities.He asked a band of     4    (music)to come to the house and play in front of him.Tom reproduced perfectly the music he had heard.It was obvious that Tom had the ability to memorize and repeat pieces of music after     5    (hear)them just once.

In 1857,“Blind Tom”took part     6    his first public performance.The reviews were so good that Bethune took him on a tour of the US.Three years later,“Blind Tom”    7    (invite)to the White House,    8    he performed for the President.Over the next forty years,Tom performed

“Blind Tom”died in 1908.

One day     1     ant was drinking at a small stream and fell in.     2     (face) with the trouble, she tried her best to reach the side, but made no progress at all. The poor     3     (tire) ant was still bravely making all     4     (effort) when a dove saw her. Moved by her determination and perseverance, the bird threw her a blade(片)of grass,     5     supported her like a raft(木筏), and thus the ant reached the bank again. While she was resting and drying       6       (she) in the grass, she    7       (hear) a man come near. He was walking along barefooted     8         a gun in his hand. As soon as he saw the dove, he wished to kill it. He would certainly have done so, but the ant bit him in the foot just as he raised his gun to fire. He stopped to see     9     had bitten him, and the dove       10       (immediate) flew away. It was an animal much weaker that had saved her life.

There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one     1    (love) her.

One day,     2    (feel) very sad and lonely, she was walking through grassland when she noticed a small butterfly     3    (catch) in a thorn bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of     4    (fly) away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy.

“In return for your wonderful kindness，” the good fairy said to the girl, “I will give you any wish that you would like     5    (get). ”The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”

    6    (lean) toward her, the fairy whispered in her ear and then disappeared.

With the little girl     7    (grow) up, there was no one in the land happier than she was. Everyone wanted to make themselves     8    (tell) the secret of happiness by her. She would only smile and answer, “The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”

When she was dying, the neighbors all gathered around her,     9    (fear) that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. So they begged her     10    (tell) them what the good fairy said. The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “She told me that everyone, no matter how old or young, how rich or poor, had need of me.”