2 . Milo is a dog, adopted by 20-year-old Makayla Swift from an animal shelter. One morning in November 2021, Swift opened her front door in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Milo immediately ________ to the house across the street. Milo seemed ________, so he ran to the one next door, Swift on his tail. “He started scratching (抓) the front door,” Swift says. “I’m thinking, why is he insistently trying to ________ her house?” She was embarrassed for not everyone wants a(n) ________ dog to leave marks on their property. But as she tried to drag Milo away, she could hear a voice yelling “help” coming through an open upstairs window. Hours ________, around 4 a.m., Sherry Starr had risen from her bed. “All of a sudden, standing there between the toilet and the tub, I ________,” she says. “I slumped on the floor.” Starr is 85. “I could not move at all”, says Starr, who was ________ between the toilet and the tub. Starr was scared and thought she was going to die there. Her best ________, she decided, was to listen for the letter carrier in the afternoon and scream. For the next few hours, Starr practiced yelling: “Help! Help! Helllp!” “Her voice was very ________,” says Swift. “You had to be right at the front door to hear Mrs. Starr yell for help ________ you were Milo, the dog.” It ________ heard Starr the instant Swift opened her own front door. Swift called 911. Rescuers thought they’d have to break down the toilet to ________ Starr, but they gave one last pull — and out she popped. Though injured, Starr ________ a trip to the hospital.

Swift has known her share of ________ for living alone. Two years ago, her mother died. She says Milo has helped her with her grief too. “That dog is a ________,” she says.

5 . Just a few months earlier, I would never have pictured myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. If not for my teacher Mr Bricker, I might never have found that ______.

In the first and second grade, I was extremely ______. It just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing. I would escape into my writing. Mr Bricker always ______ me to write more. I think he was the first person to see my inner ______.

One day, he announced our class was going to ______ a play. “I need someone to play the lead part of Dorothy.” A few ______ students raised their hands at once. I, of course, was not one of them. After school, Mr Bricker said to me, “Dallas, I was ______ you didn’t raise your hands.” Me, the lead? I was ______ just thinking of standing on stage in front of a lot of people.

“You’re great at ______ things, so you won’t worry about lines. And you have such a sweet personality. Perfect for Dorothy! I had you in ______ for Dorothy while writing the play!”

I realized it was time to ______ my shyness. After five months of ______, we finally made the play a success. At the end of the play, when the audience stood and applauded, I knew they were ______ not just for my performance that night, but for the ______ that they knew would come in later years because of my new-found ______.