When Peyton was     1     11-year-old boy, a rainstorm hit his hometown     2     a dark night. When the rainstorm came, he was cleaning his room. His sister was sleeping. His mother was busy     3     in the kitchen. His father was watching TV.     4    , all the lights went off. Then the     5     rain beat against the doors and windows. The wind blew strongly, so his sister woke up. She was     6     scared that she began to cry. The family couldn’t do     7    . Peyton’s father took out the flashlight,     8     the batteries(电池) were dead. So his mother found some candles and a     9     of matches. The next morning, after     10     to the radio, they realized that a heavy rainstorm happened in their hometown.

Ben would hear strong winds outside his home in Alabama. Black clouds were making the s    1     very dark. With no l    2     outside, it felt like midnight. The news on TV r    3     that a heavy rainstorm was in the area.

Everyone in the neighborhood was b    4    . Dad was putting pieces of wood over the windows while his mom was making sure the flashlights and radio were w    5    . She also put some candles and matches on the table.

Ben was helping his mom make dinner when the rain began to beat heavily against the windows. After dinner, they tried to play a card game, b    6     it was hard to have fun with a serious storm happening outside.

Ben could not s    7     at first. He finally fell asleep when the wind was dying down at around 3:00 a.m. When he w    8     up, the sun was rising. He went outside with his family and found the neighborhood in a m    9    . Fallen trees, broken windows and rubbish were everywhere. They joined the neighbors to help clean up the neighborhood together. Although the storm broke many things apart, it brought families and neighbors c    10     together.

A man tried to catch monkeys to sell them to zoos. The monkeys, however, were very c    1     and every kind of trap(计谋) failed.

A young boy watched the man’s efforts(努力) and then took a pot (壶) with a narrow neck (瓶颈). He put a few peanuts(花生)around the pot and put lots of peanuts i    2     it. He then t    3     the pot to a tree and he told the man, “We should have a m    4     in a few hours.”

Some monkeys soon found the peanuts and the pot. One put his hand into the pot e    5     and got some peanuts, but he couldn’t pull his h    6     with peanuts out of the narrow neck of the pot. The monkeywas afraid and began to cry. Some of the o    7     monkeys tried unsuccessfully to pull the pot off his hand.

The boy and the man heard the noise. As the boy came near to the monkeys with a bag, the monkeys all ran away c    8    , the one with its hand in the pot. The boy packed the monkey and the pot into the bag. The man was s    9    and asked the boy the secret of his monkey trap.“Why was it so easy for the monkey to get his hand in but so hard to get it out?”

The boy laughed and said, “The monkey could get his hand back out if he let go of the peanuts in the pot, but he just wasn’t w    10     to let go. They never are.”

My uncle has a beautiful umbrella. He has     1     (have) it for years. He is very careful with it. I asked my uncle if he bought it or someone sent him     2     a gift. “Well,” he answered, “there is a strange but true story about it. Ten years ago, I was walking along a quiet London street one evening when it began to rain     3     (heavy). I had no raincoat     4     umbrella. Because I was on my way to a party, I was afraid of     5     (get) wet. So I stood in a doorway and waited for the rain to stop. No buses ran through the street and there were no     6     (taxi). There wasn’t a person around. At last     7     young man came by. He held a large umbrella. I stepped out of the dark doorway. As I suddenly appeared before him, the young man was so shocked that he     8     (drop) the umbrella. He soon disappeared into     9     (dark). I picked up the umbrella and continued my walk. I knew it would be hard to find the     10     (own) of the umbrella in such a big city, so I have kept it ever since then.”

My brother and I finished high school two weeks     1    . As a special gift, my parents took     2     to South Africa and went camping by the lake in a small village.

Late in the afternoon, we     3     up our tent in the middle of a field (田野). After finishing it, we cooked a meal     4     an open fire. We were all hungry (饥饿的) and the food smelt good. After a wonderful meal, we told stories and     5     songs by the camp fire. But some time     6    , it began to rain. We felt     7    , so we put out the fire and went into our tents. Our sleeping-bags were warm and comfortable, so we all     8     well. In the middle of the night, my mother     9     up and began shouting. The tent was full of (充满) water! We all jumped out of our sleeping-bags and hurried outside. It was raining     10    ! Unluckily, the wonderful night became a wet night.