1 . I used to think my life was perfect. My mom had her dream job and a beautiful office and I had my own room with a computer and a garden to look after. But one Sunday, everything changed. A hurricane _______ our neighborhood while we were visiting my grandparents in Raleigh. Our kitchen was ________, and our clean and comfortable home was in ruins.

But something ________ happened. Our neighbors, the Flores family, came to our ________. They helped clear broken pieces and offered us a place to stay. Their ________ was most impressive. We had never ________ spoken to them before, but they ________ their home to us and made us feel like family.

We started a new ________ of having weekend dinner together. We invited other families from the neighborhood to join us, and our ________ were filled with laughter and delicious food. It was a beautiful thing to see our ________ come together in the wake of a disaster.

I ________ knew Rosica, their daughter, before the hurricane. But she quickly became my friend. She had a gift for ________ and our evenings together were filled with adventure and laughter.

Looking back, I realize that the hurricane ________ unexpected benefit. It brought us closer to our neighbors and ________ our lives in ways we never could have imagined. Sometimes, it takes a(n) ________ to bring out the best in people.

3 . Luke is a cute dog, living together with me for five years. We get lots of_______in our area during the summer season. Many forests are badly_________by fires each year. That hot summer, not far from our shelter, a forest______________fire. It was July, and there had been a heat wave going on for three days.

Somehow, Luke rushed towards the forest. There was no longer any hope at that moment to wait for Luke to come back to the____________. In fact, I was waiting for firefighters to tell me that he had____________in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman burst into my office and____________me that Luke had succeeded in saving four cats who had been__________by the flames (火焰). I____________accompanied (陪伴) the fireman to the forest to get him back.___________we got to the scene of the event, we didn’t see Luke. Then we heard the________of a dog barking (吠) in the forest. I______________the barks was Luke’s. The firemen______________the tracks of the dog until they found him barking loudly by the side of an injured________. Thanks to Luke, four cats and a fireman were saved. This true story shows us that pets are loving and caring. We should love and__________them. Little animals can do__________things for humans.

5 . Romero is an 84-year-old man. He owes his ______ to his pet dog, Palomo, who took ______ to him after he got lost in the desert for a week.

On November 27, Romero left his home for a short trip, but he didn’t come back ______. His family wasn’t ______ at first as he used to visit nearby villages in the area and would be back a few days later. However, after four days, the man’s niece, Ramona, panicked and ______ it to the local authorities.

The police with trained dogs were brought in to ______ Romero. They searched the area around, but a week after his ______, Romero was nowhere to be found. That’s when the old man’s faithful dog, Palomo, was brought in as the last ______.

According to one member of the search team, the brown dog ______ them through hills and valleys and finally to the place in the desert where Romero had been ______. His niece told the authorities that Romero sometimes had poor memory and that ______ his getting lost on his trip.

The ______ weak man was rushed to the hospital where he spent two days getting back on his feet. One officer posted online that “Palomo ______ by the hospital door day and night waiting for the ______ of its beloved Romero. The unconditional love of his pet allowed Romero to be ______ with his family”. A photo of Palomo staying by Romero’s side after he came back home was along with these words.

6 . It seemed like any other day when fitness instructor Chantelle Lister set off to work at 7 am. It was the school holidays, so her daughters Loren and Mollie, 17 and 6, and 11-year-old son Charlie were still ______ in bed.

But within an hour, the family home in Kettering, England, went up in flames. The fire started downstairs, and deadly smoke started ______ the second floor, where the children were sleeping.

______, the family’s beloved dog, Bailey, rushed to their ______. Although the thick smoke ______ to climb the staircase, the 4-year-old dog made his way ______   and kept barking outside Loren’s door until she woke up.

Loren opened the ______ to thick black smoke covering the stairs and the sound of smashing glass. Struggling to ______, the teenager ran into the other bedroom and managed to get the ______ children out through a window and onto the roof.

After successfully raising the ______, Bailey ran back downstairs to try to get out. Unfortunately, he was trapped in the ______ house.

“The firemen pulled Bailey out and tried to save him, but he was dead,” Chantelle said. “They put a blanket over him and I kept ______, ‘That could have been one of my children. ’Bailey was such a character and so ______. The children wouldn’t be here ______ him. He’s my hero and I’ll be ______ to him forever.”

7 .

Ariel Cordova-Rojas rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, planning to go hiking and bird-watching. A mile into her walk, she ________ a female mute swan near the water’s edge. Cordova-Rojas, who had been ________ at the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation (康复) center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be ________. But as she________ this one, it didn’t move.

She was certain that the bird needed ________ attention. Cordova-Rojas covered her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, ________ picked it up, and held it in her arms. And then a thought ________ her: What do I do now?

Her best ________ was the rehab center. ________, that was across the East River on the other side of town. How was she going to ________ a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some bewildered strangers driving by ________ her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station.

On the subway, no one seemed particularly ________ by the feathered passenger. They were busy with their own things. Cordova-Rojas called the rehab center on the way, and Tristan Higginbotham, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and ________ to the facility. There, staff members ________ that the swan might have lead poisoning (铅中毒), caused by ________ weights used on fishing lines.

The staff got the swan back up on her webbed feet. She even made a boyfriend at the center—another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that care, the swan ________ a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Rojas came to her rescue, she ________.

It’s a ________ ending, but the real story is just ________ some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city—literally. “In all, Cordova-Rojas traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway,” says Higginbotham, “That’s the perfect ________ of who she is.”

8 . “You’re very talented, dear. I hope everything turns out great. I’ll tell my friends about the animal shelter (避难处),” a kind old lady told Conrad, who smiled _______ as she left $20 in his hat.

Conrad was proud of what he was doing and people in the _______ loved hearing him sing and play his _______ . The 11-year-old didn’t know _______ how much money the local animal shelter needed.

His mother, Sandy, worked at the shelter and had always been a(n) _______ animal lover. Therefore, he grew to be fond of animals as well. _______ , he recently heard his mother telling a friend that the shelter was not doing well. It _______ purely on donations, and not much donations were _______ . This made the boy very _______ . So he grabbed his guitar and ________ the local town square to sing and play.

He placed a ________ to tell people he was doing it to raise money for the animal shelter, which helped greatly. People ________ and gave him mostly $1 and change, and others, such as the kind old lady, were more ________ . He was grateful to everyone and continued playing songs and ________ money.

Raise your kids to love animals, and they’ll be better people. Caring for innocent animals makes people more selfless, ________ and caring. That’s why Conrad used his skills to raise funds, knowing how vital the shelter was.

9 . I got out of the car that rainy Tuesday, already tired, and headed toward the rehab center where I work as an acupuncturist. It had been a_________morning with my son, Adrian, who has ADD (过动症). By the entrance, something caught my eye — a_________. Where did she come from?

_________of my colleagues knew anything about her. But a client told me she had been_________the last few nights. At the end of my_________, I saw her in the same spot, cold and_________. “Go find your family,” I said.

It rained the next day. When I_________out for a break, there she was, getting rained on again. Halfway home that evening, I made a turn back to the rehab. I_________the chicken and drove home, her beak (喙) on my shoulder the entire_________.

I asked online if anyone had lost a chicken. A week went by. No one__________her. My rescue made her__________— even laying eggs in my couch.

The biggest surprise was how Adrian took__________her. His illness makes him lose temper frequently. But not with the chicken. I’ve never seen Adrian so__________before. It’s a blessing to see the__________between them. That Tuesday, I told the chicken to find her__________. Little did I know it would turn out to be us!

10 . Anansi was about to eat when his friend Turtle walked by. “Hello, Anansi,” said Turtle. “That smells great!” Anansi didn’t like to _________. But in spider culture, you always share your _________ with friends. So Anansi said, “Come in and eat with me.” Turtle sat down. But before Turtle started eating, Anansi said, “Turtle, your hands are dirty! In my culture we wash our hands before eating.” Turtle looked his dirty hands and felt _________. He apologized to Anansi and went to the river to wash.

When he got back, Anansi was _________ eating. “I didn’t want the food to get_________,” Anansi explained. Turtle sat down and he was _________ hungry. But Anansi said, “Your hands are still dirty!” Turtle looked down. Anansi was _________! “I’m so sorry! I’ll wash them again,” Turtle said. This time, Turtle walked back with clean hands. But to his _________, all food was gone! “I’m sorry, Turtle, but you took so long! I couldn’t wait,” Anansi _________.

The next day Turtle invited Anansi to have lunch. They swam to the ____________ of the river. There, Anansi saw a table covered with food. But there was a problem. Every time he tried to sit down, he ____________ back to the surface of the river. Anansi had a (an)____________. He put some rocks in his pockets and swam back. He sat down at the table and smiled. But before he could eat ____________, Turtle said, “In my culture, we____________ our jackets at the table.” Anansi saw that Turtle wasn’t wearing a jacket, and he felt ashamed. But as soon as his jacket was off his ____________, he popped back up to the surface again. On the river bottom below, clever Turtle smiled and started eating.