Emergency on the Mountain

Ana was a 12-year-old girl living in the mountain. Her ______ was to become a village nurse like Leta, her neighbor. She spent almost all her spare time reading the first-aid book by herself.

This morning, Leta went to Santiago to ______ a short-term training class by a group of volunteer doctors for first aiders to learn medical ______. Before she left, Ana begged Leta to take her along but Leta ______, saying that it was a ______ potato because Ana was too young to learn anything important. Ana was very ______, so she decided to wander around to refresh herself. On the hillside, she saw Rafi standing on a donkey’s bare back, some kids around him. Rafi was only 13, but he was always doing something to get attention. “No wonder adults don’t ______ kids with anything important”, Ana said to herself. She had just turned away when she heard a few ______ and Rafi fell off the donkey. Ana ran to where Rafi was lying and ______ that one of his legs bent a little sideways between the knee and the ankle and that all the other kids were ______ not knowing what to do. She remembered what the first-aid book said about broken legs.

“Vin!” Ana called to one of the boys. “Go and get Rafi’s mama and find someone with a truck.” She turned to the other kids. “Give me your shirts. We need something to ______ his leg with so it doesn’t move around.” Ana found a strong, straight stick, which she’d use to ______ his leg. She carefully wrapped the boys’ shirts around his leg and the stick. When Ana was done, Rafi came back to himself. Ana ______ comforted him until Rafi’s mama came over. Behind her was a neighbor in a pickup truck. They lifted Rafi into the truck, then drove down the dusty hillside toward the hospital.

The next day, Leta came to Ana’s home. “I heard what you did,” Leta said. “You kept your ______ in an emergency. That’s an important skill.” Ana’s face burned. “Now, listen. The volunteer doctors are coming here tomorrow with vaccines. We need some extra ______. Can you help?” Ana didn’t hesitate. “I would love to and I’ll bring my first-aid book.” Ana said excitedly.

In 1951, Mary Star and her colleagues were working at an low a factory, packing eggs into cartons (纸箱) day after day. They “_________ a silly plan to brighten up their workday”, reported The Washington Post.

In their own version of messages in a bottle, they wrote their names and _________ on eggs delivered to the US east coast, trying to _________ penfriends. “Whoever _________ this egg, please write me,” Starn _________ onto several eggs, along with her home city of Forest City and the date, 2 April.

After failing to get any _________ the group figured their _________ eggs had “long ago been cracked into omelets (煎蛋饼)”. They gave up on ever _________ from anyone. But, _________, 72 years later, one of the eggs __________ on a Facebook group called “Strange (and Wonderful) Secondhand Finds That Just Need To Be Shared”, in a(n) __________ by a man from New York City.

John Amalfitano said he had been given the egg 20 years earlier by a neighbor on Staten Island, Miller Richardson, who had __________ it for years after finding it in his egg carton in 1951. Thanks to the social media post, Amalfitano was able to __________ Starn, now 92. “I’m __________ to have a new friend,” she told the paper. “I finally have my __________.”

A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apples he grew. One day, his friend_________him a young apple tree and told him to take it home and_________it.

Seeing the gift, the farmer was very_________, and he thought he would also have a lot of wonderful apples, but when he got home, he had a (n) _________. He did not know_________to plant it. He thought over and over and_________every place he could think of._________he decided to plant the tree in his woods. There were many high trees with thick leaves in the woods. With those trees around no one else could_________the young apple tree. He even felt proud of himself for finding so_________a place for the apple tree. Every day he went to take care of the tree,__________it. To his surprise and__________, the apple tree didn’t grow as he__________. It died without sunlight and good soil.

Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a__________place. “What’s the difference?” the farmer said angrily. “If I had planted the tree near the__________, passers-by would have stolen the fruit. If I had planted the tree in one of my fields, my neighbors would have come at night and__________some of the apples! If I had planted it near my house, my own children would have taken the__________. No matter where I plant the tree, I can’t have__________to enjoy the apples. So there is no difference where I planted it.”

“Yes,” said the friend, “but__________someone could have enjoyed the fruit. Now you not only have robbed (抢夺) everyone of the fruit, but also have__________a good apple tree! You don’t know the true meaning of ‘share’!”

We should learn to__________in our life. The more you want to own something all by yourself, the less you get at last.