Once a traveler came into a village, 【小题1】（hunger）. The villagers tried to stop the traveler from staying, 【小题2】（fear）he wanted them to give him food. They told him that there's no food anywhere 【小题3】（find）. The traveler gave an 【小题4】（explain）that he didn't need any food and that, 【小题5】 fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them. The villagers watched 【小题6】（strange）as he built a fire and filled a large pot with water. Then he pulled a stone from a bag, dropping the stone into the pot. He tasted the soup and said 【小题7】delicious the stone soup was. As the villagers began to show interest, he said how good the soup 【小题8】（be）with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brought out a cabbage to share. This event repeated 【小题9】（it）until the soup had cabbage, carrots and onions-indeed, a large soup that fed everyone in the village.

Are you like one of the villagers, holding back？If you come forward and share your gifts, you will encourage others to do the same. The reward is 【小题10】 gift that can benefit（使受益）many.

   Determined to keep my private life from the census taker（人口普查员），I locked the front door. After several more days of _________to answer the door，one afternoon I _________ to my car. The census taker，who had been _________all week to catch me，spotted me and ran up to _________.I told the man firmly I would not answer his questions. He glared at me and _________ walked away.

A week went by. All my neighbours had _________their census questions，and the census taker _________. Then one afternoon there came a knock at the door. I answered the door and found a middle-aged lady. Suddenly，I realized my _________."I'm Carla with the US Census Bureau，"she said，_________herself the way the former one had. Only there was something __________：she was smiling.

So I let her in, offered her a bottle of water, and waited for the __________. But first, she asked about my family. __________she told me about her own family and something else. I __________ a lot about Carla, as she was in no hurry to get to the __________. She was pleasant and relaxed. And so was I. After about an hour, she put away her _________ and thanked me for the water, __________as she got into her car. I realized I didn't __________her visit at all.

Carla would call every few months, asking if our __________had changed. We always talked about our families and lives __________we were friends.

   Sarah grew up on a fishing boat. Her father, _____ to make enough money to buy a house, had _____ her within their only small boat since his wife died.

One morning, Sarah saw a _____ above the sea, which was close to them, and the boat began to rock as waves grew. ____  the mountain of clouds approaching from the south, she rushed below deck (甲板) ,“Dad, _____!”

“What?” her drunken father asked _____.

“Dad, a big storm is coming. We need to get out of here.” She grabbed his shoulders and _____ him.

He got angry, shouting, “What are you doing?”

“Dad, we have to _____ the boat. There’s a big storm coming.”

Her father _____ her at last. He walked to the deck, saw the ______ and fired up the engine.

“Dad, what are you doing?”

“Sarah, ______ we stay here, we will die. We need to go out to the sea. We must ride the waves; that’s our only ______.”

Their boat headed into the storm ______. Above them were black clouds and in front of them were dark waves. It was so ______.

Hours passed. The dark day turned into darkness totally. They held each other for ______, but the experienced fisherman needed no ______ because he had fought many such battles.

Eventually, the waves ______ and the sky brightened. Sarah was ______ and hugged her father, “You did it, Dad.”

They sailed back into the port. Other boats had been destroyed. Their boat was the only one to ______ the storm. Sarah hugged her father again. “Dad, you made it. You ______ us.”

“No, Sarah,” he held her by his arms, “we did it together.”

   It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.

The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries (食品杂货), saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.

I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.

People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity (人性) as a whole. And it has influenced (影响) us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.