1 . After their business trip, John and Mary returned, eager to see their lovely children. As they drove into their hometown feeling glad to be back, they noticed ________, and they went off their usual route to see what it was. They found a ________ in flames. Mary said, “Oh, well, it isn’t our fire, let’s go home.”

But John ________ closer and screamed, “That home belongs to Fred Jones who works at the plant. He wouldn’t be ________ work yet, maybe there is something we could do.” “It has nothing to do with us,” Mary ________.

But John drove up and stopped and they were both horror-stricken to see the whole house in ________. A woman on the lawn was screaming, “The children! Get the children!” John ________ her by the shoulder saying, “Get a hold of yourself and tell us where the children are!” “In the ________,” cried the woman. “Down the hall and to the left.”

In spite of Mary’s disagreement, John ________ for the basement which was full of smoke and ________ hot. He found the door and two children. ________ he left he could hear some more sobbing. He ________ the two badly frightened children into ________ arms and started back asking how many more children were down there. They told him ________ more and Mary grasped his arm and screamed, “John! Don’t go back! It’s ________! That house will fall down any second.”

________ he ran into the smoke-filled hallway and at last he found both children. As he climbed up the ________ stairs, the thought went through his mind that there was something strangely ________ about the little bodies next to him, and at last when they came out into the ________ and fresh air, he found that he had just ________ his own children.

The baby-sitter had left them at this home while she did some shopping.

2 . “Fire! Fire! ” What terrible words to hear when I _______ in a strange house in the middle of the night! It was a large, _______ house — the sort that burns easily — and my room was on the top floor. I jumped out of bed, opened the door and stepped out into the passage. It was full of _______.

I began to _______, but as I was still only half awake, instead of going towards the stairs I went in the opposite direction. The smoke grew thicker and I found it hard to _______. The floor became _______ under my feet. I ran into another room and tried to reach the window for fresh air. Suddenly, one of my feet got caught in something _______ and I fell down. The thing I had fallen over felt like a package of clothes, and I picked it up to protect my _______ from the smoke and heat. Just then the floor broke under me and I fell through to the floor below with pieces of _______ wood all around me.

__________, there was a doorway in front, so I put the package over my face and ran. My feet were terribly burned, but I __________. As I reached the cold air outside, my package of clothes gave a __________. I nearly dropped it in my surprise. Then I saw there were many people in the street. A woman screamed (尖叫) as she saw me and came running __________.

“My baby! My baby! ”she cried. Those people cheered loudly __________ she took the smoke­blackened package out of my arms. I almost failed to see who she was — my boss's wife. I had __________ her baby, and I became a hero!

3 . The back door of the ambulance (救护车) was suddenly shut and the driver ran to the front, jumped into his seat, and started the engine. Inside were the _______ parents, Mr. and Mrs. Green, the mother holding their baby daughter Ally. The little girl had ________ food stuck in her throat(喉咙) and could hardly breathe.

The driver, Mr. White, _____ his siren (报警器) and flashing light, and started speeding towards the nearest hospital, fighting against ________. The cars ahead of him pulled out of the way as he drove through the ________. From the back of the ________ the parents were shouting at him to _____, since Ally had almost _________ breathing. In front of him he saw some traffic lights, with the red “STOP” light shining. Mr. White knew that he had no time to _________, so he drove straight past the traffic lights, looking _________ his left and right as he did so.

Coming towards him from his right was a taxi. The driver had the windows ______, since the car was air-conditioned(空调开放的), and he was playing his radio. He did not _______the ambulance. The lights were green, so he drove straight ________ into the path of the ambulance.   Mr. White tried to stop his ambulance but it was too late. It hit the taxi. Everybody was shaken but no one was hurt. Mr. White looked to see _________Ally was. He was astonished to see relief (宽慰) instead of _______on the faces of the parents.

“Look!” cried Mrs. Green. “She is ______ again.”

“It must have been the _______.” said her husband. “It ______ the food out of her throat.” The baby’s color was turning to normal(正常的), and she was crying in a loud but healthy ____ . They were all joyful, and quite forgot about the accident, the taxi, and the lines of _______ all around them.