3 . Ron and Sharon Ross, an old couple living in the town of Otis, woke up in the middle of the night. A neighbor was pounding on their door,_ __________ for them to get out. A mountain fire was quickly heading its way from nearby Echo Mountain.

With 30 minutes to __________ what they could take and go, they rushed to gather their valuables. But their   __________ was for their little puppy, Piper, which was getting __________ with all the sudden movements and started to hide.

Just as they were looking for Piper, the power was __________. They had to find flashlights and locate the puppy in a __________ room. With a recent surgery on her arm, Sharon could only use one arm to hold the flashlight searching for it. Another problem in their __________ plan: their truck was parked behind their garage, which __________ with electric doors, now useless in the power failure. With all their strength, they finally opened it by hand, which ensured them a __________ escape.

Time was ticking. However, they wouldn't go before helping a friend __________, who was living alone in the same community, only to find nobody in. While going down the mountain toward safety, they saw a __________ walking toward the fire. Despite the thick smoke, they could __________ him. It was their friend walking to his house. Immediately, they turned around, picked him up, accompanied him __________ to his house to fetch something valuable and then drove away together. Fortunately, both the couple and their friend survived.

The fire ended up destroying most homes in Otis, __________ eleven lives and leaving the town hit heavily. Still, it strengthened their sense of community. Soon after, together with many others, Ron and Sharon Ross, who _________ the disaster, instantly started their rebuilding efforts from ashes.

4 . Chloe Smith is a girl aged 6 from Atlanta, Georgia. One day, while taking a walk with her father near their home, she________something shiny under a pile of rubbish. She picked up the ________ to take home, as she often did on her treasure-hunting walks. Chloe was later ________ to discover she had found a stolen Olympic gold medal.

The medal belongs to former canoeist (划艇运动员) Joe Jacobi, who won gold while ________ for Team USA in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games. The medal, along with other personal belongings, was ________ in May of 2016 when someone broke into Jacobi’s can. Though police managed to ________ some of his stolen items, they hadn’t been able to find his ________ Olympic medal. It may have been lost forever, if not for a 6-year-old girl’s treasure-hunting ________ .

Chloe’s dad had seen Jacobi’s story on the news, and ________ realized it was his stolen property. He found Jacobi’s email and sent him pictures of the treasure. After________ the medal, Jacobi was astonished, just speechless.

Chloe was ________ to give it back after speaking with Jacobi on the phone. ________, Jacobi promised to speak to her class when school begins again this fall. The ________ of this little girl reuniting an Olympian with his beloved possession is ________ . When we talk about character and doing the ________ thing, Chloe represents the Olympic values in every sense of the word.

6 . Gurnah, growing up in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

He is the first Black writer _________ the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993, and some observers saw his _________ as a long delayed corrective (矫正)after years of European and American Nobel laureates (获得者). In his 10 novels, Gurnah has often explored the _________ of exile(流放), identity and belonging. They _________“Memory of Departure” “Pilgrims Way” and “Dottie,” which all deal with the immigrant(移民)experience in Britain.

Gurnah’s first language is Swahili, but he _________ English as his literary language. He drew on the imagery and stories from the Quran, _________ from Arabic and Persian poetry, particularly “The Arabian Nights.” The news of Gumah’s Nobel _________ by fellow novelists and academics who have long argued that his _________ deserve a wider audience.

Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, which is now _________ of Tanzania, in 1948. Then, in 1964, he fled to England. __________ , poor, homesick, he began to write scraps(片段)in his diary, then __________ entries, then stories about other people. In his 20s, he started __________ fiction. Then he finished his first novel, “Memory of Departure,” about a young man who flees a failed uprising, at the same time he was writing his Ph. D. dissertation(论文). __________, he became a professor of English.

Though Gurnah hasn’t lived in Tanzania since he was a __________, his homeland always inspires him of his imagination. __________, he said “my homeland always asserts myself in my imagination, even when I deliberately try to set my stories elsewhere”.

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

“You should get a cat,” my doctor 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 doctor’s advice.

Elaine used my bed as a litter box, and a vet (兽医) told me that she just wanted my _________. She tried every means to get a (n) _________ of my meals. She’d fearlessly lick (舔) sharp knives when left unattended and eat anything that fell on the floor.

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

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

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

Our time is often cut short unpredictably, leaving behind a legacy of endless __________. Elaine was supposed to help me through more of my life. Now she no longer wakes me up at 5 a.m. __________ for breakfast, but she’s still the reason I get up every morning.

10 . A Heroic Driver

Larry works with Transport Drivers. Inc. One morning in 2019, Larry was ______ along 165 north after delivering to one of his _______ Suddenly, he saw a car with its bright lights on. As he got closer, he found another vehicle upside down on the road. One more look and he noticed _____ shooting out from under the ______ vehicle. Larry pulled over, set the brake and _____ the fire extinguisher (灭火器) . Two good bursts from the extinguisher and the fire was put out.

The man who had his bright lights on came over and told Larry he had   ____ an emergency call. They then heard a woman’s voice coming from the, wrecked (毁坏的) vehicle. _____ the vehicle, they saw that a woman was trying to get out of the broken window. They told her to stay ______ until the emergency personnel arrived, but she thought the car was going to ______. Larry told her that he had already put out the fire and she should not move ______she injured her neck.

Once fire and emergency people arrive, Larry and the other man ______ and let them go to work. Then, Larry asked the ______ if he was needed or ______ to go. They let him and the other man go.

One thing is ______-Larry went above and beyond the call of duty by getting so close to the burning vehicle! His ______ most likely saved the woman's life.