1 . As she approached 97, Gwen Erickson from Minnesota began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered, butterflies — the Monarch. Last year the grandmother _________ to raise 27 butterflies and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

While some might say that nature should be left to _________ itself, the butterflies’ population is _________ rapidly and is in need of a little extra help. _________, that love and devotion is exactly what the 97-year-old is able to _________ for her little winged friends.

The whole process is a little _________, beginning with collecting eggs from the milkweed leaves that grow in her backyard. Four days after Erickson placed the eggs in jars on her living-room table, the caterpillar (毛毛虫) appeared, and then, within several weeks, formed a chrysalis (蛹). A fortnight later the beautiful butterfly _________. Erickson then released the butterflies into the wild, but a couple seemed a little _________ to leave their loving home and __________ the senior by flying around the house.

When __________ her first attempt to raise the butterflies, Erickson said she hoped it could enable her grandchildren to __________ an interest in these beautiful insects. __________, it’s her who has found the pleasure in raising butterflies in the end.

Normally Erickson doesn’t like to talk about herself and what she does, but she does this time as she wants to __________ others to care for this endangered species. Happily a friend and her son have joined her in her newfound __________ and hopefully we will see a(n) __________ in those decreasing numbers.

This new __________, started so late in life, is a fine example of people __________ the smaller things in life. And it __________ us that it’s never too late to be __________ in life.