2 . My family always had some sort of animal around, but none of them were truly mine. My parents didn’t permit me to _________ my own until I was seven years old. Finally, I was _________ to have my own _________, a fish called George. I said it was my responsibility to _________ it.

Every Friday I would clean out his bowl. I found myself _________ invitations to go somewhere immediately after school, because I would have to feed my fish first. Every day he would remind me that I was _________ and that I had someone depending on me.

One day, I came home from school and headed to my room to _________George. I found a _________ thing had happened. I _________ my bag and ran over to the bowl. I saw my best friend George floating around lifeless.

My mom walked into my room. I turned around as tears started to well in my eyes. “Mommy, George d…d…died.” With that __________ word I started crying uncontrollably. My mom came to my side as I hid my face in my pillows.

Suddenly, I realized that George hadn’t just __________ me. He had taught me what __________ meant. I learned it through feeding him and cleaning his bowl. This made me feel __________ . To my seven-year-old self, this was a great __________ . Slowly, a smile crossed my face. George was gone.__________ , the lessons he taught me would forever be carved into my memory.

3 . I got a message from my friend, Megan. “This little _________, Winnie, needed a home,” she said, and then _________ some pictures.

I’d started my animal _________ in 2017 after I’d bought a piece of land and used it to give some _________ animals a home. To give them a better life, I _________ the home with the profits I made running four pet supply stores. My first animal was a sheep, Charlotte, who had a bad back leg. _________, the farm had grown to feed 200 animals.

Looking at the _________ Megan sent me of the cute disabled dog on my phone, I decided that I had room for one more. Despite his deformed(畸形的)front legs, his beautiful brown eyes on the pictures made my heart melt(软化). So I took him to a hospital. The doctor got him to _________ with a cool set of wheels.

“_________ doggie,” strangers showed pity sometimes when they saw Winnie. But within minutes, they __________ that Winnie was living his best lives on the farm and they didn’t need to feel __________ for him. I __________ Winnie’s own web page where I would share Winnie’s life. And he earned a lot of followers. “He __________ me when I was feeling sad,” one follower commented recently.

Winnie proves that animals with __________ can lead fulfilling(令人心满意足的)lives. He’s my best friend and I’m __________ of everything that he does.

7 . Twenty years ago, I became involved in pet therapy (疗法) work with our dog J.J. After J.J. passed away, we ____ another young dog, whom we named Angel. As she ____ and went through training, we realized that she would be a good therapy dog.

Angel is ten now and ____ every week. She visits two hospitals, a day care center and a library. At the library, dogs lie on the floor, and kids ____ a book to read to a dog. After they_____, they get a trading card with the dog’s picture and history. Angel has also ____ at a children’s special needs camp. She is so _____ that everywhere we go people recognize her, _____ the kids she has worked with.

We have ____ some very special things through our pet therapy work. We used to pay a ____to a woman who was completely paralyzed (瘫痪) on her right side from a stroke. One day, my husband, Jack, asked the_____if she wanted to give Angel a treat.

She_______, and Jack carefully placed the treat in her right hand. Angel_____ took the treat. Then the woman_______her right hand and started ______Angel. Her friend in the room looked ______ and said, “ She hasn’t been able to move that_______since she had her stroke!” After that, every time she lifted her left hand to   ______us, we’d tell her she had to use her right hand, and she would.

When Angel visits the hospital, she also performs_______ for the patients, such as rolling over, shaking and balancing treats on her nose. Once she starts her performance, she won’t stop________Jack claps his hands.

9 . Songbirds do have a perfect voice. Every species of bird wakes up at a very particular time in the morning and begins to sing. This is because each species has its own specific waking stimulus (刺激), which is linked to the brightness of the sunlight.

Like human beings have to learn to speak, birds also have to learn how to sing. They do this in several stages. First, they practise voices and sounds, which is comparable to the early stage in human language development. During the second stage, the birds practise their songs for eight to nine months, until memory and practice match up. The singing is strengthened during the final stage.

Although nightingales got their name as a result of their singing at night, not all nightingales sing at night. Generally, both males and females sing during the day. The night song is used mainly for seeking partners. After succeeding in attracting a female, the male nightingale falls silent and doesn't start his song again until the early morning.

Birds are seasonal singers. We only hear numerous kinds of bird concerts between spring and high summer. This is the time when birds are looking for partners, and when the males aim to impress the females with their song and mark out their territory at the same time. However, even after they have found a partner, male birds continue to sing, because this is the time when they are showing their offspring (幼崽) how to sing.

Birds don’t all sing as well as others, not even within a species. The song of a bird in London will be quite different from that of a bird in Paris or Berlin. Although the members of each bird species share a vocabulary of sounds, dialect differences are quite common. The individual dialects are not natural but are learnt while the birds are children that adopt the dialect of their parents. The young birds always sing as well or as badly as their teachers, because the adults on whom they model themselves vary in style and talent from region to region.