It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags（衣衫褴褛）on the top step.

"Any old papers，lady？" asked one of them.

I was busy. I wanted to say "no" until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals（凉鞋），wet with heavy snow.

"Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot coffee."

They walked in and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks on the floor. I served them coffee and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.

The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands，looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice，"Lady，are you rich？"

"Am I rich？Pity，no！"

I looked at my worn-out slipcovers（家具套）.The girl put her cup back in its saucer（茶碟）carefully and said，"Your cups match your saucers." They left after that，holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.

Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.

I tasted the potatoes and stirred（搅动）the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup，a roof over our heads，my man with a regular job，these matched，too.

I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of the little sandals were still wet on my floor. Let them be for a while，I thought，just in case I should begin to forget how rich I was.

   When I saw Pamela tonight, she smiled and I smiled back to her. She was looking more _____ than before.

Pamela _____ at the express checkouts (快速结账台) in a busy supermarket. She helps when the selfserve checkout comes across a (n) _____ like no price on products. Usually she has hardly _____ one before another is created.

When I shopped there, _____ there weren’t any problems with the checkout, I called Pamela to the checkout I was _____. My concern was about Pamela. She looked _____ and was under great stress as she _____ moved from one checkout to the next.

I told Pamela that she needed to _____ I told her that it was ______ for her to put herself under such pressure and that we could wait. I ______ her that our expectations as ______ weren’t as severe as the ones she had set for herself. Pamela said she felt ______ because I not only ______ her stress but also talked to her about it. I gently told her things had to ______ I told her I’d be looking out for her in future to see if she’d take my ______.

Well, Pamela has taken it. Tonight, she was still doing her job but there was a ______ . She looked cool and calm. She told me that she shared what I said with her ______ As I walked away from Pamela, I was ______ of myself. Not only have I caused Pamela to think about her stress but also she has ______ her coworkers to do so.

   Scott and his four companions were terribly disappointed. When they got to the South Pole, they found the Norwegians had_________them in the race to be the first ever to reach it. After_________ the British flag at the Pole, they took a photograph of themselves _______ they started the 950-mile journey back.

The journey was unexpectedly _________, and the joy and excitement about the Pole had gone out of them. The sun hardly _______. The snow storms always made it impossible to sight the stones they had _________ to mark their way home. To make things _________, Evans, whom they had all thought of _________the strongest of the five, fell badly into a deep hole in the ice. Having _________ along for several days, he suddenly fell down and died.

The four who were __________ pushed on at the best speed they could __________. Captain Oates had been suffering for some time from his __________feet; at night his feet swelled (肿胀) so large that he could __________ put his boots on the next morning, and he walked bravely although he was in great ________. He knew his slowness was making it less likely that __________ could save themselves. He asked them to leave him behind in his sleeping-bag, but they refused, and helped him __________ a few more miles, until it was time to put up the ________ for another night.

The following morning, __________ the other three were still in their sleeping-bags, he said, “I am just going outside and may be __________ some time.” He was never seen again. He had walked out __________ into the snow storm, hoping that his death would help his companions.

   Two old beggars（乞丐）were sitting on a busy street corner of a big city. They watched _______ as a lot of people walked by without looking at them. Sometimes, a kind-hearted woman or a small child would _______ a few coins in the hats in front of them.

Today was not a _______ day for begging. The men were able to _______ enough for a big meal. As it was getting dark, they started to _______ their things.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, they _______ a man walking toward them. He was a _______ man—they could tell that from his fine clothes. The first beggar said to the second with _______, "He's coming our way！"The man stopped, _______ into his pocket and took something out. What looked like a piece of hard ________, wrapped（裹）in white paper, hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man turned and ________ his way.

"He could have easily left us a few ________ or a bill, but he laughed at us with a piece of rock candy, " said the first beggar. He looked at the offering ________. "There's no way we can ________ this-we have no teeth. "With these words, he picked up the thing and threw it away. Then he collected his things and ________.

The second beggar wanted to do the same, ________ a second thought made him change his ________. "I haven't had anything like this for ages, "he thought. " How ________ of that man to offer me something so sweet！" With that, he opened the white paper. To his ________ there was no hard rock candy inside. ________, a shiny white pearl（珍珠）worth thousands of dollars fell into his hand.

A young man had bought an old house that was in bad shape, but he and his wife believed they could restore it. They immediately went to work. Their goal was to have the old building look best for New Year’s Eve get-together.

Just two days before New Year, however, a storm swept through the area, leaving a hole in the wall of the house. There was obviously no time to repair the damage before New Year. Then, the sad couple attended a local auction(拍卖)that afternoon. One of the items put up for bids was an old gold-and-ivory-colored tablecloth. Seized by an inspiration, the young man was the highest bidder at $ 6.50. His idea was to hang the cloth to cover the ragged hole.

On the day before New Year, it was snowy. As the young man unlocked the house door, he noticed an old woman standing at the bus stop. He knew the bus wouldn’t be there within at least half an hour, so he invited her inside to keep warm.

When the woman walked in and saw the tablecloth, she rushed at it and said excitedly, “It’s mine. It is my tablecloth.” She told the surprised man its history and even showed him her name in one comer of the tablecloth. She and her husband had once lived in Vienna, Austria, and their village was hit by a deadly disease. So they decided to flee to Switzerland, but her husband told her to leave first, saying he had something urgent to deal with. A few days later, it was reported that the bus her husband took fell off the cliff(悬崖)and he was never to be found. Her husband was believed to have died. Touched by her story, the young couple asked about her address, planning to send the tablecloth to her after New Year. As the bus came, she left.

In the candlelight of New Year’s Eve, the tablecloth looked even more beautiful. As the man’s friends left the house, they thanked the man for his arrangement and mentioned how beautiful the house looked.

Otte old gentleman stayed, admiring the tablecloth.

The young man drove the old man to that old woman’s home.