It was Christmas, and there     1     a big party in the house. Guests (客人) came and went, but the party went on. Then the bell rang. Several people shouted, “Come in!” A small man     2     the front door and came in. Nobody knew him but the host (主人) went to meet him and invited him     3     a drink. The man sat there happily for an hour and a half and drank. Then suddenly he stopped and looked at the host. “Do you know?” he said. “Nobody asked me to the party. I don’t know you. I don’t know your wife and I don’t know any of your guests. My wife and I     4     to go out in our car, but one of your guests’ car was in front of our gate, so I came here     5     him and my wife is waiting in our car for me to comeback.”

According to some old Chinese stories, there once was     1     ancient emperor named Shennong. At that time, people could not tell the difference between medicinal (药用的) and poisonous(有毒的) plants. When they got sick, there was no medicine to treat their illnesses. Many sick people could only wait for     2    .

To save his people, Shennong decided to     3     and test out different plants. He and his followers set out on a journey to find medicinally effective plants. Once, they     4     a large forest on a high cliff (悬崖) from a distance. Although there must be many different     5     of plants, they couldn’t find a way to the cliff.     6    , they saw some monkeys climbing along the vines and trees hanging down from the cliff. Shennong was inspired by the scene. He asked his followers to cut down the tree trunks and vines. Together they built a scaffold (脚手架) . With its help, they climbed to the cliff and collected many     7     plants.

Each time the team found a new type of plant, Shennong would taste it     8    . Some plants made him sleepy. Some caused him to suffer pains in his stomach. Some made him tremble (颤抖) all over.     9     searching and testing over a long period of time, he and his followers managed to discover hundreds of medicinal plants.

One day, Shennong tested a poisonous plant by mistake, and passed away later. People covered him with thousands of flowers. From then on, Shennong was     10     the “Emperor of Medicine”.

The Beijing Hearing Dog Association has a plan. They plan to choose some stray dogs (流浪狗) and     1     them. Then the dogs will be able to     2     the old and the deaf. They like to choose young dogs better, because it’s       3     to train them. The kind of dog is not important.

Twenty-four     4     will join the training. They all have some experience of     5     dogs and they all love dogs. They will learn a     6     language first from the coach and they teach the dogs. This training will take 180 days. Then the better-performed dogs will enter (进入) the next training. They will learn to understand different sounds, such as knocking on a     7     and water boiling. Then the dogs will live with the deaf or the old     8     30 days.

Some people think the     9     won’t work because it will cost a lot of money.     10    , some people like the plan and they would like to be the volunteers.