1 . I was driving on the freeway when I noticed heavy clouds roll in. A storm was coming. The rain began beating ______ against my car windows, making driving impossible. I ______ onto the shoulder of the road and stopped. The rain ______ me of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina struck when I was nine years old. I had worried it would strike us in Houston. It missed us, but other cities were not so lucky. I remembered watching the ______. A reporter stood inside the Houston stadium, ______ people. Many wore dirty and ______ clothes, and some had no shoes on their feet. I noticed a little boy behind the reporter ______ an old teddy bear. Watching him, I knew I had to do something.

The next day, my friends ______ me for our volunteer club and we came up with a plan. We wanted to ______ toys and give them to the kids at the stadium, which would bring some ______ into the lives of these families. We ______ the word to the school and other organizations. Three days later, the donation boxes were overflowing with new toys! When we ______ the stadium with our gifts, children ______ toward us from all directions, smiles lighting up their faces.

Suddenly, a phone call brought me back to the present. To my joy, the storm had ______. “Hector, we have more ______ of yesterday’s tornado.” “Well, I’ve brought clothes I’d like to donate to them. The storm stopped me, but I’ll be there soon!”

3 . My work started in 2003 at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. It seems like such a long time ago. In the 13 years that have ______, more than 50,000 animals have passed the doors of the ______. Most of them, I do not remember. But ______ there are animals who stand out. Tabby was one such ______.

Tabby was one of the many ______ dogs. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s ______ to be adopted seemed small. But one day a woman ______ Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, who ______ epilepsy (癫痫) had seen Tabby’s picture ______ the shelter’s website. They were ______ in meeting her! Most boys would want a puppy, a dog who could ______ with him and run through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would never be able to do that. But as they say, “love is blind.” After meeting her, they decided to ______ Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her ______ adoption, it would still have been something very ______ indeed. But it was ______ happened after her adoption that some might label as “magical”. They became inseparable. They got along well with each other so that Tabby could sense Gary’s seizures(疾病发作)before they ______, giving his family a ______ that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s ______.

How could it be? There are some things that challenge logic and understanding in this world. Sometimes the best that we can do is to accept a ______, which we couldn’t attempt to explain. Because when you try to ______ it, you lose the beauty and miracle of it all.

6 . On 20 December, in Newdale, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea earthquake raced across the ocean near Goldshore. Worse still, it ________ thousands dead. Goldshore Beach was the only local beach to ________ the disaster without any loss of life. A 10-year-old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around 100 people escape ________ with her knowledge of tsunamis.

The day began like any other on Goldshore Beach. People were walking, running or simply sitting on the sandy beach, ________ the warm sea air and enjoying the soft ________ that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something ________. “The water was like the bubbles (气泡) on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t ________ and it wasn’t going in and then out. It was just coming in and in and in.” It struck her that these were the ________ of an upcoming tsunami, which Sabrina had just learnt about in a Geography lesson.

Sabrina was _______, but she soon kept her head. She ________ her parents of the danger though at first they just thought she was joking. However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible ______ was on its way and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety ________. To her great relief, the officer________ realized the coming danger. The beach was rapidly ________ of people, just before the huge waves ________ into the coast.

7 . Since 2009, a small army of _________ in the Palace Museum have been receiving global social media attention. These hairy guards are _________ inside the museum walls. The purpose is to defend wooden structures and _________ relics against mice.

I visited the Palace Museum in the summer of 2023 to _________ the history of Qing Dynasty. I stayed in a small hotel in one of Beijin’s hutong areas for a whole month. It took me a 20-minute walk to the _________ every morning. Before _________ to Beijing, I had already conducted some background research on the history of the Palace Museum itself and managed to read an article about the famous palace cats. I was _________ to spot at least one of them during my stay there.

In the third week, _________ I was walking through the western gates, I was surprised to spot not one, not two, but three cats on the corner of a porch in front of an office. I _________ the furry guards in Chinese, “Hi! Kitties!” The cats ignored me, __________ to take a rest in the shade next to their white painted cat houses.

I __________ three more cats inside the bamboo garden of the employees’ exercise grounds. It wasn’t until my last week in Beijing that I __________ got to pet one. The slightly fat furry cat looked like the real “boss” of the palace as he made his way over to me, staring with his sharp yellow and blue eyes and letting __________ short, loud meows demanding attention. He was very friendly and __________ to be scratched behind the ear and even given a belly rub.

For those cat __________ planning on taking a trip to China’s capital, these absolutely adorable security guards are definitely worth spending a day in the palace looking for.

8 . On December 20, in Newdale, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea Earthquake raced across the ocean near Goldshore. Worse still, it _______ thousands of deaths. Goldshore Beach was the only local beach to _______ the disaster without any loss of life. A 10-year-old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around 100 people escape danger with her _______ of tsunamis.

The day began like any other on Goldshore Beach. People were walking, running or simply sitting on the sandy beach, _______ the warm sea air and enjoying the soft _______ that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something _______ . “The water was like the bubbles (气泡) on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t _______. I mean it wasn’t going in and then out as usual. It just kept coming in and in and in.” It struck her that these were the _______ of an upcoming tsunami, which Sabrina had just learnt about in a geography lesson.

Sabrina was _______, but she soon calmed herself down. She warned her parents of the ________, though at first they thought she was just ________. However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible disaster was ________ and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety officer. To her great relief, the officer ________ realized the coming danger. Soon, all the people on the beach was rapidly ________ just before the huge waves ________ into the coast.

10 . A photo, shot in the Luding earthquake, soon went viral (迅速传播). In the photo, a 20-year-old firefighter, Zhang Zili, was ________ holding a 2-month-old baby, ________ the hearts of people. People noticed the word “Wenchuan” on Zhang’s left armband. Zhang, born in 2002 in a county neighboring Wenchuan, was hence lovingly referred to as “Wenchuan Brother”.

On May 12, 2008, Zhang was attending a ________ class when the magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck. He and his classmates were crying on the playground, not ________ what was going on. ________, the People’s Liberation Army came to their rescue. He ________ how emergency supplies were air-dropped from helicopters and how PLA soldiers put up ________ and offered instant noodles to locals. One ________ even hugged and comforted Zhang, saying “Don’t be ________, we are here now”. The words left a deep impression on Zhang.

This year, when the Wenchuan brigade (消防队) was recruiting (招收) firefighters, he did not hesitate to join, hoping to ________ people just like the PLA soldiers. In less than four months, he has taken part in several forest firefighting ________ and rescue operations. By Thursday, Zhang’s brigade had urgently ________ two rescue channels in the baby’s village to transport the villagers.

Actually, many Wenchuan Brothers have participated in the search and rescue operations for the Luding earthquake. Of the 74 people from the Wenchuan brigade, many are ________ from Wenchuan. With an average age of 27, they ________ the Wenchuan earthquake and want to help people facing ________ difficulties.