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　　In history，a real cowboy was a simple farm worker on horseback．He spent a long time a day outdoors working with cows ．The work was dirty，tiring and not very well paid．

　　People in the western。states had to 　1　 cattle at low cost and send them by railway to the eastern 　2　 ．But someone had to 　3　 the cattle and get them to the nearest railroad．This was the job of a cowboy．Sometimes the 　4　 was more than a thousand Kilometers away and it could take as 　5　 as six months to move the cattle．The　6　 was long but the cattle were driven 　7　 as not to lose 　8　．Then they could be sold at a good price．

　　Most cowboys were young，　9　 men．A good horse 　10　 their job of moving cattle much easier．A good cowboy 　11　 cows and knew how to control them．At night，he 　12　 to the cows to keep them calm．

　　In the late 1800s，America was changing from a nation of farm to one of 　13　 and cities．The cowboy seemed 　14　 compared with other Americans doing ordinary jobs．

　　Today，the 　15　 of cowboys has 　16　 greatly．One change is the use of trucks．

　　The job is not so hard 　17　 it used to be．And cowboys are better 　18　 now．They are 　19　 to be married．Some of them are farmers teachers or truck drivers．Some work for big companies．　20　 at night and on weekends，they become cowboys．These part-time cowboys increase the total production of meat，keeping the beef price low．

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　　During the dust-blown thirties, everyone fell on hard times. The year 1 10, we drew names at our little school to see whom we'd 2 Christmas gifts with. I picked Helen's name. Helen was a new girl. Her family 3 in a house someone had deserted.

　　Every day Helen wore the 4 brown dress to school, some of the neighbors whispered that Helen's daddy was 5 , and that he drank. Some didn't 6 want their kids to be friends with Helen.

　　One day in December I said to Mom,“Wouldn't it be nice to get Helen a 7 for Christmas?”Mom agreed, 8 I could see from her expression that there was no extra money for material. She had bought the material for me and my sisters and our dresses were almost 9 “There must be a way,”I 10 . Mom hugged me.“I wish there was a way,”she said.

　　The next morning Mom called me into the kitchen.“I have a(an) 11 ,”she said.“You and Helen are the same 12 . If you gave her your new red dress, I could fix you up the wool plaid（格子花呢）one that your cousin Esther sent.”I got a special feeling in my stomach. Give Helen my new dress? 13 I could respond, Mom said quickly,“I'll go ahead and fix the plaid dress and you can give her that, so she will have a 14 dress to wear for Christmas.”

　　“Give the red dress to Helen,”I said.“I want her to have it.” “Are you 15 ?” “I am sure. Absolutely.”When Helen came into the room Mom handed her the new red dress. A look of 16 filled Helen's face. She hugged Mom. Helen took it and 17 it in front of her.“Thank you, thank you, thank--”she said to me.“I'm so 18 .”I was feeling happy, too. Helen moved away shortly after that and I never 19 her again. Me, the plaid dress became one of my 20 .