1 . Dan Price was the CEO of Gravity Payments, a financial services company. One day, he found out a friend was struggling ________. The cost of living in Washington is ________, and she just couldn’t make ends meet(量入为出) on her salary. However, Dan was already earning $1.1 million a year. He realized how ________ it was that he had so much while the people working under him were struggling.

This point was driven home when he ________ a Mc Donald’s handbook on the desk of employee Rosita Barlow. When asked , Rosita burst into tears and ________ that after she left work at Gravity, she went straight to her shifts (轮班)at McDonald’s . Some nights, she even stood ________ at the local food bank.(赈济处）

That’s when Dan decided to do something to stop income ________ in his company. In 2015, he cut his own pay by 90%, mortgaging(抵押）his two houses, and ________ his stocks and savings so that he could ________ every single employee’s pay to $70,000 a year!

More than a third of his employees saw their ________ double. Some feared productivity would decline(下降）if everyone was earning more, but the ________ turned out to be true. Dan’s employees began to truly thrive (奋发）once the stress of making ends meet was ________ from their everyday lives. Employees like Rosita were finally able to quit their second jobs and ________ their work, actually increasing ________.

When COVID-19 hit the U.S, Dan’s company ________ financial difficulties. But what the employees decided ________ Dan! They chose to take a voluntary pay ________ of between 5% and 100% to keep Gravity going ________. The pay cuts worked! Gravity was able to ________ from the economic downturn, and they recently restored all salaries to their pre-pandemic amount.

As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats! Dan treated his employees well. And when it was their turn to________ him, they didn’t let him down!

3 . “Can I buy an ice cream with my blue rock?” I smiled down at the little girl. She couldn’t be _______ than five years old. I had seen her several times _______ here. Children usually _______ their ice cream with cash money. She looked so _______, worrying that her rock might not be enough. I made a(n) _______ of examining it carefully. I _______ it to the light. I bit it with my teeth. I tapped it with a pencil.

“Yes. What kind of ice cream would you like?” The little girl, still serious but with a _______ smile of thanks on her face, looked _______ at me: “I would like a popsicle (棒冰) that comes with two halves,”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t want a bigger ice cream cone (蛋卷筒)?” She _______ her head. “No. I can’t share those very ________. They melt too quickly.” “Share it? With whom?” I looked around and there didn’t seem to be ________ near her, and I never ________ any of the other children playing with her either. She turned and ________ to a young woman sitting quiet y at a picnic table. “For my Mommy. She doesn’t have any ________. She gave me that blue rock for my birthday.”

I ________ a tear from my eye and handed the girl her popsicle. She thanked me and ________ to her mother. I saw the Mom look up and mouth a “Thank you so much” to me.

I closed up my ________. I got a sundae for me and the little girl’s mother to share. I ________ a cone for the little girl. I put them in a carrier and went over to the picnic table. ________, we had supper together.

Our story came to a happy end. You may know us from some of the things written in the ________, or maybe you saw us on the evening News. We are “Blue Rock Ice Cream”. I still have that blue rock. Plus a wife and a little girl.