1 . The other day a big, ugly, black bat found its way to my bathroom. I am what is known as “the man of the house”, so it was my_________, in fact my manly duty, to rid the house of the_________creature.

Being a man does not_________the fact that I am extremely_________of bats. All men, I think, sometimes have had that feeling of being_________in some male role. Sometimes it is something as simple as having to_________that you know something about car engines when the car won’t start. But sometimes the trap is a (n)_________one. Many men prefer to be something different from what society_________men should be. What these men want is the_________to be what they want to be.

As I came towards the frightening bat, I__________what would happen if I had simply told my wife that I wouldn’t do it. But I couldn’t do that! I__________opened the window, carefully lifted a broom and swept the bat out of the__________.

My wife was__________and my son thought I was a__________. They asked me how I had got rid of the bat, I started to tell them—but then__________. A man doesn’t talk of such things.