1 . It was snowing in the midwinter, in a rural highway outside of town. Pepper and Cooper, a pair of beagles (小猎犬) walked with great difficulty through the ________ night. Cooper, a father-to-be ________ the roadside for a spot, where his struggling companion might rest safely. Her way was made ________ by the new life growing inside her. They needed a ________, dry place safe from the bitter wind.

That December night, Gus Kiebel was driving home from work when he ________ the pair in the flash of his headlights. Feeling curious and ________, he parked his truck and ________ the animals. Gus ________ down and stretched out his hands to the beagles, which made no effort to ________. He ________ the dogs on the passenger seat of his truck. Then he ________ his phone and called the number from the dogs’ tags. A man answered and immediately grew ________ and impatient when Gus told him why he was calling. ________, the man declined to ________ the dog. These beagles were ________, no home at all in this world. Then he called his wife Katie. “You can’t put them back in the ________,” she said. “Bring them home.”

Without enough ________ for two more dogs in their small house, the next day, Katie took them to a shelter nearby. In the days following, Katie phoned the shelter ________ to check up on Pepper and Cooper. Soon after Christmas, the beagles were ________ - as a pair, by a loving family. This touching story speaks to the best of our nature. And when kindness and love overcome ________ and neglect (忽视), it can feel like the greatest miracle of all.

2 . While there isn’t anything unique about an 8-year-old longing for a pet dog, the extremes to which Jenna Bates was willing to go make her unique.

“My dad really didn’t want a dog, so I knew I had to do something super _______ to earn one,” she said. Then Jenna _______ with a deal her father couldn’t _______. She’d _______ sugar of all types for a year, and her parents would reward her strong _______ with a puppy dog.

“Oh, she’ll never _______ it.” Mr. Bates said. He figured a day of watching her friends eat pizza would end any more _______ about dogs.

After all, Jenna had never even _______ to read a food label before making this deal. _______ her affection for sweets, she started the deal with confidence.

As Jenna read the ________ on the food, she was ________ to learn most chips, ketchup, bread, and crackers had added sugar.

“Then I looked at my ________ meal, and then I looked at my normal lunch. I thought, “What did I do?” she said. “But then, I thought, ‘I can do it for my dog!’” Then that kept ________ over and over.

Actually, she found herself ________ her new living way so completely that she had no plans to give it up.

Dad ________ brought forward his end of the ________ earlier this month. The family ________ for two hours to pick up their ________ member — Lucy, the golden doodle.

Jenna may not be sure how much longer she’ll stay away from sugar, ________ she is sure about one thing — being a dog owner is even better than she’d ________.

3 . This is the story of Moyo, a rescued elephant in Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery, a local non-governmental organization called Wild Is Life. She is probably one of the ________ elephant cubs ever to be rescued. She came to the nursery when she was about three to four ________ old. Sheweighed 56 kilos, and ________ a just-born African elephant cub weighs about 90 kilos. So she was a special iconic little elephant. Under good care of the staff there, she managed to ________.

Every year, hundreds of young elephants are orphaned across the African continent and rarely have a chance of ________ in the wild and are more often than not, left to die. “We rescue babies, and we provide ________ for them. We make sure they are in good ________ here, and help them regain their ________ needed in the wild. We are trying to create a culture where people ________,” said Roxy Danckwerts, the founder of Wild Is Life.

Moyo is about four and a half years old now. She is healthy, playful, and has become some kind of ambassador to the nursery. Therefore, she’s having to take on a lot of ________ for such a young animal, almost becoming a leader at the very young age. She is gentle, calm, very very ________ to the other elephants that come into the nursery. She is also very good with people.

But unfortunately, they’re not much more than objects of money in the eyes of ivory(象牙) dealers. Zimbabwe has a ________ elephant-hunting problem. Some regions are ________ as much as 75 percent of the elephant population over the past 10 years. That is why Danckwerts feels excited at China’s decision to ________ illegal ivory sales, which he believes has become a major turning point and a signal to the world that China has made a ________.

5 . Animals help lift my spirits in the darkest of times.

“You should get a cat,” my therapist (治疗师) said. “A cat?” I couldn’t even look after myself. I took a deep _________ and carefully considered the idea of _________ a pet friend into my life.

When Elaine came home, it became increasingly _________ that she didn’t understand “no”, “stop it” or “don’t do that”. I was beginning to _________ my therapist’s advice.

Elaine used my bed as a litter box, and after visiting a vet (兽医), she concluded that she just wanted my _________. She fought tooth and nail to get a(n) _________ of my meals. She’d _________ lick (舔) sharp knives when left unattended and eat anything that fell on the _________.

She stole my heart with her bravery and kept me busier.

I decided to start taking Elaine for _________, I could hardly leave the house before, but my heart couldn’t say __________ to her. Elaine showed me what __________ looked like. She didn’t stop to __________ the possible outcome of a situation; she __________ went for it. If there was a dog nearby, she would run toward __________. She jumped without knowing where she would __________.

And following her journey of adventures every day, I got the same __________ as she created.

Elaine __________ after a medical accident, leaving a cat-sized hole in my heart. I’m no stranger to __________, but that was one of my most confusing emotional experiences.

Our time is often cut unpredictably, unmistakably __________. Elaine was supposed to help me through more of my life. She no longer wakes me up at 5 am __________ for breakfast, but she’s still the reason I get up every morning.

7 . Before the summer of 2019, Darby was just another four-legged puppy living a quiet life with White, his owner. One day, White went fishing in Northern California’s Bodega Bay. He _______ Darby, then a year old and 100 pounds, to stay in the car, windows down, while he cast his line a few yards away. The fish weren’t _______ until suddenly, they were. At first, White thought he had caught a stingray, a type of large flat fish with a long tail. However it _______ that it was a shark, about 6 feet long. Not uncommon, but still _______. Their teeth were sharp. He brought it close and carefully freed it, _______ it to swim away. It didn’t. All of a sudden the shark bit his ankle and there was blood everywhere.

He _______ for help, hoping the fishermen down the beach could hear. But they didn’t seem to know what was going on. _______, Darby did. He threw himself out of the _______ toward the water. He ran right up to the shark and sank his _______ into its head, which just made the shark bite down harder. Darby backed off and bit the shark’s tail again. The shark ________ released and White managed to push it into shallow water, where it swam off. The ________ thing took less than a minute, but it left plenty of ________ with one artery (动脉) of his nearly cut off.

With Darby’s story known to more netizens, ________ cash offers started to come in. “Someone offered me a million dollars for him, but I wouldn’t ________ it. My mother passed away in early 2022, Darby and I became ________. This kind of dog might have a bad reputation for being aggressive, but they’ll give their life to save yours,” White says.