The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has welcomed home two paintings by the Dutch master, more than 14 years after they were ripped (扯) off the museum’s wall in a nighttime theft. Museum director Axel Rueger called their return “one of the most special days in the history of the museum”. The paintings were discovered last year by Italian police while they were searching an Italian criminals’ farmhouse near Naples for evidence of drug dealing. They were in a box and hidden behind a wall in a toilet when they were found.

The paintings were considered among the artworks most searched for in the world. After years in darkness, they can now shine again. They are back on display at the museum before being taken to the conservation studio for repair. Fortunately, they suffered surprisingly little damage as thieves who had climbed up a ladder and broken a window to get into the museum in 2004 ripped them out of their frames.

“It is not only a surprise that the works have been recovered but it’s even more surprising they are in relatively unharmed condition,” Rueger said.

The museum director was on vacation when the call came last year from Italian authorities who believed they had recovered the paintings. He didn’t celebrate right away. He’d had calls like this before.

“I was hopeful but also a little hesitant. Over these years, we had so many occasions when people phoned us, contacted us, claiming that they knew something about the whereabouts (下落) of the works and each time it was false, the trace went cold,” he said. “So… the way has been full of disappointment.” But museum experts sent to Italy to check the authenticity (真实性) of the works quickly turned Ruegers doubts into delight.

Rueger said the paintings are now back at the museum, which is home to dozens of works by Van Gogh. “I’m very confident that everything is safe in the museum from now on,” he said.

   Saja Pahad, a small village in Chhattisgarh, India, has been dealing with severe water shortages for as long as anyone can remember. With only two wells available, locals were barely able to secure enough water to feed their cattle, let alone irrigate their crops. Villagers didn’t know what to do and the government ignored their difficult situation, but one “crazy” teenager took matters into his own hands.

Shyam Lal was only 15 when he took it upon himself to solve his village’s water problem. He identified a spot in a nearby forest and decided to dig a pond to collect rainfall that could then be used by the entire village. Lal shared his idea with the rest of Saja Pahad, but instead of volunteering to help, they just laughed at his crazy plan and called him a lunatic (疯子). But the young man didn’t let the people’s reaction get him down. Instead, he grabbed a spade (铁锹) and started digging the pond himself. He kept on digging for the next 27 years.

Now 43, Shyam Lal is considered a hero by his community. That small hole he started digging nearly three decades ago is now a one-acre, 15-feet-deep pond filled with precious water that serves the entire village.

“No one helped me in my work, neither the government nor the villagers,” Lal told the Hindustan Times. “It was my dream to secure enough water for the whole village and their cattle.”

The story of Shyam Lal’s determination recently went viral in the whole of India, and prompted authorities in Mahendragarh district to finally acknowledge his achievement. A member of the government recently visited Saja Pahad and offered Lal a $ 156 prize for his contribution to the village.

   When I read a post about taking someone to the movies, I remembered something that happened a couple of years ago.

I used to drink Coca-Cola and they had a contest where there was a ___________ inside the bottle cap. You went to a website and entered the code and maybe you _________ something. I won some ___________ Cokes. But then, I won the Grand Prize！I was surprised and ___________.

The Grand Prize was free movies for a year. What that ___________ to be was that the company sent me 52 admission tickets for a local movie theatre — they _________ one movie a week was what free movies for a year _______. All of the tickets had expiration dates（失效期）later than a year from the day I _________ them. I used quite a few taking friends to see _________.

But the best thing I did with them was that I ____________ twenty-two tickets that I had left by that time, to the local Women’s Transition House. It is a place where women and their ____________ could go when they’re ______________ domestic violence or just a bad situation in general and get help to make a ______________ start.

My work team had decided we would be a charity through which we ______________ donations for that particular Christmas. I knew that the Women’s Transition House ______________ some childcare for the women ______________ they could go for job interviews and things like that.

I put those tickets in a(n) ______________ and wrote a note on the outside, asking the Women's Transition House staff to give the movie tickets to women there ____________ the holidays to have something ____________ to do, with or without their children. It made me ____________ happy to do this.

   Even though we are probably not aware of it， on our path. through life， we are setting goals all the time. However， many things will not only depend on how firmly we set a' goal， but how _______ we act in achieving it.

A story shows how smart acting can turn a seemingly _______ crisis （危机） into a（n）_______ . During Roosevelt's third campaign for president ，millions of leaflets （传单） with the president's campaign speech were _______ . People who had no chance to see and hear Roosevelt live would be able to _______ it， hopefully like it and _______ him. Of course，his picture was on the front page. Too _______ no one had noticed that under the picture was a tiny but _______  name， George Moffet， who had taken the picture.

By law， Moffet would have had to be. asked for the right to _______ this picture. As the campaign managers

had. ________ to do so， the choices looked hard：either burn the millions of leaflets，________ losing the campaign and pay the high price to print new leaflets with a ________ picture， or ask Moffet's permission（许可）. Both choices seemed ________. What could they do?

It was the campaign boss George Pekins who ________ the tables. He sent a telegram to Moffet with a great ________ telling him that Mr. Roosevelt's campaign team was planning to print millions of leaflets with Mr. Roosevelt's ________ . It would for sure be a great ________ for the photo studio. How much would he bewilling to ________ for using it?

Moffet said he would pay $ 210. Roosevelt's campaign boss ________ . So， a hard problem was solved wisely. The ________ ? Think of things in different ways.