A Yunnan snub-nosed monkey named Bailian, or White Face, was a superstar within his troop in Xiangguqing village, Yunnan province. Local people have many     1     (appeal) anecdotes about him.

The primate lived for 30 years,       2     is almost 90 human years. However, in October, Bailian was found dead in the wild.

In his prime (盛年),     3    a commanding male, he had a large family with four     4    (wife) and three offspring. However, in 2012, he was challenged and defeated by a younger, stronger monkey.

He     5     (replace) as one of the troop leaders, and all his family members left him,with one     6     (except). A female monkey, 10 years older than Bailian, stayed with him, and     7     male monkey took good care of her until she died in 2016.

Overwhelmed by grief, Bailian groomed her fur as usual and carried her body with him     8    he moved with the other monkeys in the troop. When forest rangers removed the decaying body, Bailian tried    9     (stop) them — baring his teeth and howling as if in great pain.

In 2019, he formed his second family, this time with a 6-year-old female, and     10     (father) an infant the following year.

However, his happiness was short-lived. In October 2020, Bailian broke his legs in a fight and lost his family once again. Rescued by forest rangers, he resumed his nomadic lifestyle until his death.

The Fable of the Chicken

Once upon     1     time, all the animals were called to an early morning meeting. As they gathered in the public square, one of them, the chicken, was seen by her neighbors     2    (go) in the opposite direction. “Hey, Chicken! Why are you going away from the square?” they asked. “Didn’t you receive the     3    (invite)?”

“    4    , I did.” replied the chicken. “And I would of course come to the meeting. The thing is, I have some very important personal business     5     I must attend to. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must go home. Please let everyone at the meeting know how sorry I am. Tell them that although I won’t be there in body, I’ll certainly be there     6     spirit! Whatever you decide, you can count on     7    ( I ) complete support. Bye!”

The question that the animals were due to debate     8    (be) what to do with the issue of humans making frequent animal sacrifices (祭献). After a lively but     9     (surprise) short debate, the decision about which animal to offer     10    (reach) without any disagreement. They chose the chicken.

One morning, Mr. Wolf told his wife he would catch some toads (癞蛤蟆)for her to eat.     1     (hear) these annoying words, Mrs. Wolf grabbed a pan to beat him. Not wanting to     2     (scold) by his wife, Mr. Wolf decided to invent something to help him catch goats. He got     3     (inspire) when he saw a spring(弹簧) and invented a pair of spring shoes. With the magic shoes, Mr. Wolf     4     (jump) onto the sky above the sheep village where the goats were practicing spears (标枪). Seeing Mr. Wolf, the goats immediately threw their spears at him with a     5     (frighten) look on their faces. Hearing a loud noise, Red Wolf opened the door and found her husband     6     (trap) to the wall with many spears in his body. As a determined inventor, Mr. Wolf didnˈt lose heart. He improved his invention and made a new pair of spring shoes, hoping     7     (catch) the goats.

In order to defeat Big Big Wolf, Slow Goat     8     (lose) in thought. Suddenly, a good idea occurred to him. After a few days’ experiment, a magic insole (鞋垫) was invented,     9     (make) Mr. Wolf badly injured as he hit his house heavily. And he had to have his house     10    (repair)in the following week.

There was once a very lazy bird called Joe. When there was something he had to do, he would keep     1     (put) it off until there was hardly enough time left. Other birds always told     2     (he), “You can’t leave everything to the last minute.” However, Joe just wouldn’t listen.

When autumn came, the other birds began to prepare for the long journey to a warm area     3     Joe still put it off again and again. One day when he     4     (wake) up and found that all the other birds were gone, he realized that he would have to spend the long cold winter     5     his own. He had to admit that it was his own fault.

Joe knew he could do things well when he put his mind to them, so he began to prepare for winter. First, he found     6     place between rocks. Then, he made a new nest with branches, stones and     7     (leaf). Next, he filled the nest with fruit, enough     8     (last) the whole winter. Finally, he dug a little pool in the cave so that he would have enough water.

When spring came and his old friends returned, they all felt     9     (surprise). They could hardly believe that such a lazy bird had     10     (manage) to build such a wonderful nest.

The story started with the killing of a 19-year-old female elephant at the hands of hunters in northern Kenya in 2016. Her two calves (幼崽) then started a journey to the area where their mother     1    (kill). They were too young to deal with the hidden danger in the wild     2     the protection of adults.

According to that sad but inspiring true story, elephant-lover Sun Xiao wrote a children’s book Samburu, I’m Back. Sun is     3     witness to the story told in his book. He was, at the time, in Kenya working for Save the Elephants, a UK charity     4     (base) in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. When he and his peers found the two calves wandering in the wild, they tried to change their course.     5     (lucky), through great efforts they managed to transport them to an elephant reserve.

In the past decade, Sun     6     (devote) himself to spreading knowledge of elephants via a     7     (various) of methods, such as writing children’s storybooks     8     (feature) the elephants, sharing photos he took of elephants       9     posting hundreds of articles he wrote on social networks. He intended to raise public awareness of the urgent need to protect the creatures from hunters,     10     kill them for their ivory tusks.

We had two dogs, Lucky and Lily Bit. Either of them     1     (be) our favorite. Lucky loved much freedom and tried to find chances to leave the confines (束缚) of her indoor living routine. Our     2     (solution) to the problem were not useful. Lily Bit, on the other hand, did exactly as she was told to, never losing her way and always staying close to our home except when she came under the influence of Lucky.

Whenever the two got out together, on a regular basis, they could     3     (see) out of sight, often staying away for hours. More often than not, they d arrive home near suppertime, covered in mud and leaves.

I remember one time,     4     they once again mysteriously escaped, but this time they returned with clean bodies.     5     they could return with clean bodies was what we wanted to know. A few days later, my wife made an appointment to see our neighbor Carl, who lived in a house     6     (locate) not far from ours.

“I saw your two dogs the other day,” Carl said with a smile.

“Oh, yes? I’m so sorry. They have been so good lately, so it was such a surprise when they got out. I sure hope they didn’t cause any trouble,” my wife responded to his question. “Oh, no, no trouble at all. Did you have any idea where they went?”

“No,” my wife answered.

“They attended my dog’s funeral (葬礼). Their unexpected     7     (participate) in it always puzzles me,” Carl said.

“Oh, no. I didn’t know Toby had died,” Ann said,     8     (feel) so sorry.

“Yep, it died a couple days ago. He was buried in the back lot when your two dogs came running up. They sat down not far from me and watched     9     (intent). After I finished burying him, ultimately they left.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!” my wife replied. “Toby was Lily Bit’s father, you know. Now they can’t be reunited     10     each other.”

DEEP MAGIC FROM THE DAWN OF TIME

“Fall back, all of you,” said Aslan, “and I will talk to the Witch alone.”

They all     1    (obey). It was a terrible time this-waiting and wondering while the Lion and the Witch talked earnestly together in low voices. Lucy said, “Oh, Edmund!” and began to cry. Peter stood with his back to the others looking out at the distant sea. The Beavers stood holding each other’s paws     2    their heads bowed. The centaurs stamped     3    (unease) with their hoofs. But everyone became perfectly still in the end,     4    you could notice even small sounds like a bumble-bee flying past, or the birds in the forest down below them, or the wind rustling the leaves. And still the talk between Aslan and the White Witch went on.

At last they heard Aslan’s voice, “You can all come back,” he said. “I     5    (settle) the matter. She has renounced the claim on your brother’s blood.” And all over the hill there was a noise as if everyone had been holding their     6    (breathe) and had now begun breathing again, and then a murmur of talk.

The Witch was just turning away with     7    look of fierce joy on her face when she stopped and said,

“But     8    do I know this promise will be kept?”

“Haa-a-arrh!” roared Aslan, half     9    (rise) from his throne; and his great mouth opened wider and the roar grew     10    (loud), and the Witch, after staring for a moment with her lips wide apart, picked up her skirt and fairly ran for her life.

One day, by accident a mother deer and her two babies entered a cave where a tiger lived. Luckily, the tiger was not inside the cave at the time. When the mother deer found it was a tiger's cave, she wanted to lead her young ones out of the cave as soon as possible. However, before they left, the mother deer heard a loud roar （咆哮）. She saw the tiger at     1     distance. The tiger was coming towards the cave. It was dangerous to go out of the cave now. The mother deer was aware     2     the danger but she calmed     3     and thought of a plan. She     4     (raise) her voice and shouted, “My dear young children, do not cry. I shall catch a tiger for you to eat. You can have a good dinner.”

The tiger heard these words and said to himself, “A dangerous animal     5     (stay) inside to catch me now. I shall run away to escape death.” Then the tiger began to run away as fast as possible.

A jackal （豺狼） saw the tiger and said to him, “Why are you running now?” The tiger told him that a powerful animal was inside his cave waiting for his return. Then the jackal said to the tiger, “It is a     6     (confuse) thing.    7     (current), no animal in this forest is stronger than you. Let's go together to find out.” The jackal tried to persuade the tiger to go together with him. But the tiger said, “I do not want to have trouble     8     (take) a chance. You are likely     9     (run) away. I will be left alone to die. I am not coming with you.”

After the tiger said that, he ran away, leaving the jackal there. The jackal made up his mind to enter the cave because he wanted to find out what was in the tiger's cave. After he got there, he saw a mother deer and her two little babies. Then he understood everything. He couldn't help laughing and said, “He is exactly a coward （胆小鬼）！” The incident made a deep     10     (impress) on him.

Once upon a time , there was a colorless tiger. His lack of color made him     1    famous that the greatest painters all over the world came to the zoo to try to put some color on him. But     2    of them succeeded.

Then along came Van Cough the painter. When he said he wanted to paint the colorless tiger, everyone had a good laugh. When entering the tiger’s cage, he began whispering in the animal’s ear, and moving his dry brush up and down the tiger’s body. And    3    everyone’s surprise, the tiger’s skin started to take on the most vivid color. Van Cough spent a long time whispering to the animal, and     4    (make) slight adjustments to his painting. The result was     5    (true) “beautiful”.

Everyone was     6    (puzzle). He explained that he had managed     7    (paint) the tiger using a phrase he kept whispering in his ear: If you didn’t follow me, you wouldn’t be free again, you shall see.”

Now you see how joyful the tiger seemed at the sight of     8    (free). The zoo authorities finally transported him to the forest and     9    (set) him free,     10    never again would he lose his color.

A tiny owl(猫头鹰) that lost    1    (it) home last week when the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was cut down in New York is recovering at a wildlife reserve.

In a Facebook post Tuesday ,the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center said the bird    2    (rescue) after the 75-foot tree was cut down Thursday in Oneonta,    3    (rough) 80 miles southwest of Albany and around 170 miles north of its final stop in New York City.

A worker    4    helped transport and secure the tree discovered the owl and his wife called the center. He got the baby owl in a box fixed in for the long ride. In fact, the owl wasn't a baby — it was    5    adult male Saw-whet, the    6    (small) variety of owl in the Northeast, the center said. He hadn't eaten or drank for several    7    (day), but began to recover after    8    (get) water and food.

The center said a return trip to Oneonta would likely be too traumatic(创伤) to the bird, so it plans    9    (release) it on facility grounds in the town of Saugerties. In honor    10    where the tiny owl was found, the center has called him “Rockefeller.”