When I was eight, I wrote my first poem. My mother read it and _______, “Mike, what a beautiful poem! Well done!”

“When will Dad come home?” I asked. My father liked reading poems. I could hardly wait to _______ my work to him. Then I placed my poem on the dining table _______ and tried not to crumble（弄皱）the paper.

At about seven, my father came back. He seemed _______ after a busy day’s work. He noticed my poem. “John, Mike wrote his first poem!” my mother said excitedly. “And it’s beautiful and amazing!”

When my father read that poem, I lowered my head and didn’t________ him. It had only ten lines, but it seemed to take hours. Then I heard him dropping the poem back on the _______.

“I think it’s terrible,” he said. After hearing it, my eyes were getting _______ and couldn’t stop crying.

“John, this is the first poem he’s ever written,” my mother said. “He needs _______. Please don’t be so strict with him.” “He should read more and practise more,” my father said. “To be a good poet, he has a _______ way to go.”

Though I was sad about my father’s words then, I now _______ he was right. Practice makes perfect.

Did you watch your dog bury(埋) his favorite bone but dig it up only a day or two later? There is actually a reason behind this—it’s simply in their nature. For thousands of years, dogs have buried their bones.

When dogs lived in the wild, sometimes food was hard to find. If they were able to find meat and bones, dogs had to protect them. In order to keep other dogs and animals from finding their meat, dogs would bury it in the ground. Even though most dogs have lots of food to eat today, their instincts(本能) still tell them to bury their bones. Some dogs hide(藏) more than one bone at a time.

A dog cannot bury a bone just anywhere. He must first find the perfect place. Often it’s near a tree or a large rock. Once the dog finds the perfect place, he uses his front feet to dig the hole, drops the bone and covers up the hole to protect it. Dogs don’t always remember where a bone is buried, but they have a wonderful sense of smell. A dog can smell a bone even if it has been buried for years. Most of the time, dogs find bones they have buried by themselves, but they can also find bones buried by other dogs.