1 . A French couple in Brittany was saved from a house fire by their pet parrot after the bird made coughing sounds and cried, “It’s hot!” The parrot, aged six and named Baby, was the first to _________something was wrong in the home. He began _________ in the small hours of Sunday. This _________ his sleeping owners, and they quickly discovered that the dishwasher had caught fire.

The couple, Virginie and Gilles, said, “At night, Baby normally doesn’t talk and we don’t ever hear him.” So when Baby began _________ coughing sounds and saying, “Ouh c’est chaud! (Oh, It’s hot!)”, the couple _________ knew something was wrong and got up to _________.

Firefighters told the couple they couldn’t have _________ if they had not heard Baby’s words. The couple was so ___________ that they called Baby their _________. After the event, Virginie sent a __________to France Bleu, a social medium, with Baby sitting on her shoulder.

Baby was not the only parrot saving his owners. In 2020,__________ things happened in the US. A pet parrot saved a family in Tennessee by waking them after a fire started in their kitchen. The Tennessee parrot cried, “Fire!”__________, it had never used the word before.

Scientists say sometimes parrots __________ words in a way that is more than just copying the sounds, and are ____________ to knowing how to use the words. Some can even speak local __________ and several languages.

Grandma tried to straighten out her fingers. “Jessica, I think I am done knitting (编织),” she said. “My fingers just won’t do what I tell them any more.” I looked at Grandma’s hands, remembering that she had taught me how to knit gloves for my dolls since I was little and that her hands had been sure and strong whatever she had knitted. Grandma had always said that I was very good with her knitting needles and balls of yarn (纱线).

But this winter she could hardly bend her fingers. The doctor said Grandma had arthritis (关节炎), suggesting she should keep her hands warm. I made her cups of tea to hold and moved her chair closer to the fire. However, her fingers were still difficult to move.

I wasn’t used to seeing Grandma’s hands so still. In the morning, her hands were still in her lap. In the evening, her quiet hands even made her voice stay still. I tried to help her find her voice. “Grandma, tell me about when you were a little girl like before,” I begged, knowing she loved to tell interesting stories of her nine brothers and sisters and herself during their childhood. “That was so long ago, Jessica,” whispered Grandma. “I can barely remember.”

This winter there were no hats with matching gloves or soft sweaters knitted by Grandma. But I missed her voice more than those. What about her sister Olga giving their snowman a bath in hot water? What about her brother Peti cutting off her doll’s beautiful hair and then hiding it? Were those words still moving silently in her head?

After dinner, Grandma fell asleep in her rocking chair. Mom sorted through our knitting items, among which an old pair of gloves caught my attention. The gloves were Grandma’s favorite ones with the names of Grandma and her nine brothers and sisters on the fingertips. Each time she wore them, all her happy childhood memories would become very interesting stories in her mouth.

The gloves gave me an idea.

“Grandma, shall we knit a new pair of gloves?” I asked hopefully.

4 . After completing my Ph. D. in Germany, I applied for a job at a consulting company. I spent months making ______ before getting a phone call from the company. “Unluckily, we decided to ______ the job to someone else,” the voice said. But the ______ wasn’t over. “Would you like to hear feedback (反馈) from us?”   He went on to tell me I hadn’t clearly stated my ______ for applying for the position. I quickly realized he was right. I wasn’t ______ about what I applied for. I didn’t feel ______ about the job at the consulting company, and that clearly ______ in the interview.

From then on, I decided to ______ judge each job opening to make sure it truly ______ my interest. In my applications, I stated more clearly why I wanted that ______ job. Soon my effort started to ______, as I got an offer I was excited about.

A few years later, I found myself on the other side of the interview ______. I was interviewing people for the first Ph. D. position in my lab. I was particularly looking forward to talking with one candidate; his application looked ______, but the interview went badly, which made me wonder whether he was truly interested in working with me. I called and ______ where he could improve in future interviews, for which he was grateful.

I’ve ______ several interviews in my lab, and always encourage them to ask for feedback at the end of the interview.

5 . This year I did something I’d never done—shopping at midnight on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. After all, you can get great deals online from the comfort of your bed over a hot cup of coffee. So why would I stand traffic, cold weather and crowds for a few bargains?

For my teenagers, spending time with Mom is usually down on their list next to homework and picking up the dog waste. So, when they asked me to take them shopping at the mall at midnight on Black Friday, my first reaction was definitely no! But my son, who usually runs the other way if I mention shopping, wanted me to take him shopping. I felt needed, though I knew it was my wallet and a ride, not quality (高质量的) time with Mom that they wanted.

Then the hour-long car ride. We followed songs on the radio and talked about the deals we hoped to get. I had opportunities to give them lessons on what not to do when driving, but I had to keep the peace. And we all connected as we sat with crazed smiles at midnight.

The kids scanned for a spot once we finally reached the busy parking lot. There was something about standing in a line that snakes around the building in the freezing cold that brings people together. Once inside, we had to work as a team, hoping to come together with just the right size and color. As I dug through mountain s of clothing for a particular shirt for my husband and gave up, my daughter came toward me, shirt in hand and victory on her face. “I got the last one!”

So we ended up at 3 am with some bargains. Nothing we couldn’t have found online or in stores at a reasonable hour. But for me, I got quality time with my kids. Driving home tired, looking in the mirror at my children’s sweet faces, I decided, “If they ask me to go again next year, I’m in.”

9 . Many years ago, we came across a dog at an animal shelter ( 收 容 所) while looking for a companion (同伴) for our dog, Bear. This dog seemed to be meant for us and we _______ him, so we took him home. We thought the _______ name for the new dog was Bear Junior, and so it was.

Bear Junior would wake me up every morning at 4: 30 a.m. to go for a _______. He’d touch my face with his nose and I would soon _______. I once had to _______ for two days after an illness. My wife got up to _______ him for his morning walk. He held a sit-down strike (罢工) next to me and _______ to move. It worked.

Bear Junior felt it was his _______ to help all who needed it, no matter where he went.

One day, I took Bear Junior to the dog park. We had just started our walk when a small dog was barking (吠叫) for _______. We could see a big dog cornering him. Bear Junior went into ________, placing himself between the two, facing the big dog. I shouted, “Bear Junior! This is not your ________!” But he refused to let anything ________ until the owners were able to take control.

One winter, I was playing with Bear Junior in the snow. Across the street, an elderly lady ________ on a block of ice. Bear Junior ________ me, ran across the street, and sat right against her side. She used his collar (项圈) to pull herself up. Two days later, she came to our door with dog goodies to ________ Bear Junior.

10 . Pushpa hates tears but when she tells of incidents from her childhood, which she spent battling poverty, she can’t help feeling overwhelmed. “We used to be able to afford only one meal every day,” she says. But as challenging as those early years were, they would lead to her remarkable life as a scribe (抄写员) for people with special needs.

Pushpa remembers enjoying a blessedly normal childhood, peppered with “toys, dinners out and movies at the theatre”, until around grade 4. But life as she knew it disappeared when an accident left her father disabled.

“My mother, who wasn’t well-educated, had to work for ＄500 per month.” But what hit her hardest was her struggle to continue her education. The memory of her grade 7 teacher refusing to allow her to attend classes over unpaid school fees still hurts.

One day in 2007, while travelling with two visually impaired (有缺陷的) college students by bus, she heard them talk about how difficult it was for them to continue their education. “I remembered my own struggle to finish my studies so I seized the opportunity to help them.”

“I was a little nervous at first because I had passed my grade 10 examination only with a third class,” she smiles. “Since then, I’ve written exams for students who have low IQ, or are blind or visually impaired, or have met with an accident.”

It is, by no means, an easy task. “I read out the questions slowly and, sometimes, several times, and wait for the student to tell me the answer. I have seen scribes getting irritated (愤怒的) at students and that should not happen.” she explains.

Over the last 16 years, the young girl who once survived on handouts has come a long way. Connecting with examinees by word of mouth, till date, Pushpa has written 1,086 exams for special-needs test-takers and won the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2018 for her efforts. “You should be prepared to help the student for those few hours, without expecting anything in return.” Pushpa adds.