Carl lost his job. He tried to find another one but it wasn’t easy. The poor fellow couldn’t pay his bills because he had so little money, and he couldn’t ask anybody to lend him.

Carl spent his days at home. He looked out of the window and watched his neighbor’s house. An old professor lived there alone. Strangely, he never talked to his neighbors. Carl could see into the professor’s house because he never drew the curtain. The rooms were full of antique (古老的) furniture and vases. Carl thought, “Why haven’t I got an antique vase? I could sell it for a lot of money.”

Every day Carl saw the professor. He left at 10 o’clock. He had a dog. Carl often went to the fence and played with it or give it a piece of meat.

One day Carl thought, “I will go into the professor’s house and steal a vase. I will break the window and climb in, the dog is not a problem.”

There was an old gun in the cellar. It had been his great grandfather’s favorite thing a long time before. Carl didn’t want to use the gun but he thought, “Anything could happen.”

He wanted to hide the gun under his coat but it was too long so he cut the end off with a saw.

The next morning he watched the professor leaving home at 10 o’clock. Carl climbed over the fence. The dog ran to him and Carl gave it a big bone. He threw a piece of stone through the window, which broke. It wasn’t high. He could climb into the house easily.

He looked around inside. There were paintings on the walls, small figures and vases on the shelves and the floor. Carl didn’t know much about arts. He couldn’t choose. He reached his hands towards a big vase when he heard a noise. The front door opened and someone entered the house.

It was the professor. He had left an important document at home.

The professor was much scared.

When I was little, I lived in a house with a beautiful garden full of all kinds of Bowers. There was nothing I enjoyed more than sitting in the garden with my mother reading stories to me. When I was old enough to read, I enjoyed reading stories aloud to her.

I would never forget one day when I was in the third grade. I bad been picked to be the princess in the school play, and for weeks my mother had rehearsed (排练) my lines so hard with me. But however easily I acted at home, the moment I stepped on stage, every word disappeared from my head. Finally, my teacher took me aside, explaining that she had written a narrator’s (解说员) part to the play, and asked me to change roles. Her word, kindly expressed, still hurt, especially when I saw my part go to another girl.

I didn’t tell my mother what had happened when I went home after school that day. But she sensed my pain. Instead of suggesting we practice my lines, she asked if I wanted to take a walk in the garden.

It was May and roses were blossoming and, under the trees, we could also see yellow dandelions (蒲公英) in the grass, as if a painter had painted our garden with red, yellow and green. I watched my mother casually bend down by one dandelion. ”I think I’m going to dig up all these weeds,” she said, pulling it up by its roots. ”From now on, we’ll have only roses in this garden. ”

“But I like dandelions,” I protested, “All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions.” “Yes, every flower is beautiful in its own way, isn’t it?” she asked thoughtfully. I nodded, pleased that I had won her over. “And that is true of people too,” she added. “Not everyone can be a princess, but there is no shame in that.” Relieved that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry as I told her what had happened. She listened and smiled to me gently.

Para 1: “But you will be a beautiful narrator,” she said.

Para 2: After the play, I took home the flower.

4 . A young man was walking by the lakeside when he suddenly saw a piece of gold glittering in the lake. He was so happy that he jumped into the water to look for it. But he couldn’t get it however hard he tried. Being wet, dirty and tired, he had to go ashore (上岸) for a rest.

Unexpectedly, after the water became ________, the gold appeared again.

He jumped into it again, but once again the gold disappeared. So he had to go ashore again to sit beside the lake. He thought, “Where is the gold coin in the water on earth? I have seen it ________, but how come it is that all the attempts were made without any success?” Driven by the ________to get the gold, he searched the water again and again, but ________, which made him really unwilling to ________ .

At that moment, his father came to ___him. Seeing his son wet and dirty, he asked, “What ________? Why do you look so ________?”

His son answered, “I see a piece of gold coin in the water clearly, but I can’t get it________!” His father looked into the water and it seemed that a gold coin was on the peaceful water. Then he looked up at the tree nearby and said to his son, “You are ________. Look! It’s not a gold coin but the reflection of the metal ________on the tree.”

Ordinary people are always busy ________illusory (虚幻的) things and all these just result from hoping for________, which weakens our ability to ___right from wrong. So we should choose the right ________of life and learn to understand and thank everything, which will help us live a happy life.

5 . When Alexa couldn’t crawl, stand or walk as a baby, her mother sensed that something was wrong. ___________, doctors told her not to worry — perhaps Alexa was just a “lazy baby”. After seeing a specialist, though, Alexa was diagnosed with a rare disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which _____________ the central nervous system and the   ___________in the body.

Throughout Alexa’s childhood and adolescence, there were no approved medications

Alexa was outgoing and loved to exercise her _________________ through pretend play (假想游戏) and performing. This _____________ spirit led her to work as a child ___________ , appearing in movies, television shows and commercials. With hard work and determination, Alexa graduated from high school, _____________home to attend college and then went on to law school, where she________________ a drug for SMA that was in clinical   ______________. Finally, she received the first-ever approved treatment to slow the   ______________ of her disease.

Now, Alexa works as an entertainment lawyer for a Hollywood production company, ensuring child performers   ______________ the help they need to navigate the industry. Although Alexa doesn’t let her SMA define her, it has certainly ________________who she is today: optimistic, courageous and ____________ , leading Alexa to get as much out of life as she can.

6 . Two weeks ago, a 5-year-old girl named Sunshine Oelfke emptied out her piggy bank (存钱罐) onto the living room floor and immediately started counting. Her grandmother, Jackie Oelfke, thought she was playing as she carefully lined up the coins, but then she saw the girl put the coins into a plastic bag and place it in her backpack.

“What are you doing with that money?” Jackie asked her granddaughter.

“I’m taking it to school,” Sunshine replied. “I’m going to take it for milk money. My friend Layla doesn’t get milk— her mom doesn’t have milk money and I do.”

Jackie’s heart melted at Sunshine’s words. Choked with strong feelings, Jackie held her sweet granddaughter tightly in her arms.

Last week, Jackie and Sunshine met with her teacher, Rita Hausher, and handed her the $30 the kindergartner had saved. There are 20 kids in Sunshine’s class and about half don’t get milk. It costs $ 0.45 a carton (纸盒). The total adds up to about $180 a month for every child in the class to have milk every day.

After dropping Sunshine off at school, Jackie posted a tearful video on Facebook to explain her granddaughter’s plan. To her surprise, many people offered to donate toward the cause. Within a week, Jackie raised more than $1,000. Now every student in Sunshine’s class can get free milk for the rest of the year.

Jackie said Sunshine doesn’t see her kind act as a big deal. She was just trying to look out for her friends. “She doesn’t understand the effect she’s brought about,” Jackie said. “But now she knows she can do whatever she puts her mind to.”

8 . My husband is more a kid at heart. He insists we find gifts for the grandkids while on a trip to Savannah.

I can be a kid at heart, too, but I also can be a mathematician — and even cheap, ugly gifts add up quickly when you have 11 grandkids.

Children like gifts and they want them. So we are digging through piles of cheap key fobs (钥匙链), plastic sun hats, chocolate treats that will melt in the heat, and funny T-shirts, finding nothing.

We go with two hats for the boys but are still empty-handed for the nine girls. Then I spot small bracelets (手链) in a rainbow of colors. He turns one over a couple of times and says, “Nice.”

The bracelets are made of small balls shaped like starfish and turtles. They all look like rock candy, which can be eaten and was popular when we were kids. We buy nine and make a mental note: tell the girls not to eat them.

As the clerk wraps the bracelets, I remember a gift I had as a girl. Once we could choose one thing in a shop to remember our trip. What I selected was a blue plastic soapbox with the lid (盖子) and topped with a pink flamingo (火烈鸟). It was cheap and tacky (俗气的) and I believed it was the loveliest thing a girl could own. It was too beautiful to put soap inside, so it sat in a dresser drawer year after year, slowly aging, yellowing, as a reminder of a family trip long ago.

The girls are married and have families of their own, and those gifts are still in the dresser drawers in their old bedrooms, but I have came to realize that every gift may have its worth and value, saying we are together even though we were apart. That’s always a good deal.