Brownie and Spotty were neighbour dogs who met every day to play together. Like pairs of dogs you can find in any_________, these two dogs loved each other and played_________so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their own houses.

One evening, Brownie’s family_________that Brownie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no_______. Brownie didn’t appear the next day, and, despite their_______ to find him, by the next week he was still missing.

Curiously, Spotty_________at Brownie’s house alone, barking. Busy with their own lives, they just ignored (to pay no attention to) the_________little neighbour dog. Finally, one morning Spotty_________to take “no” for an answer. Spotty followed Ted about, barking strongly, then running towards a nearby wood, as if to say, “_______ me! It’s urgent!”

Ted followed the anxious Spotty. The little dog led the man to a__________spot a half mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie________, one of his hind legs stuck in a steel trap. Horrified, Ted now wished he’d taken Spotty’s earlier requirement________. Then Ted noticed something quite remarkable.

Spotty had done more than simply__________Brownie’s owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the__________dog, Ted found some dog food---which was later__________as the remains of every meal Spotty had been fed that________!

Spotty had been visiting Brownie________, in the hope of keeping his friend alive by offering his own comfort. Spotty had obviously stayed with Brownie to protect him from being hurt, snuggling (依偎) with him at night to keep him__________and touching him gently with its nose to keep his spirits up.

Brownie’s__________was treated by a veterinarian and he recovered. For many years afterwards, the two families watched the faithful friends frolicking (嬉戏) ________ chasing each other down that well-worn path between their houses.

   Steve and Mark were good friends. They decided to spend their vacation in Haiti. Since they _____ no French, they took a French wordbook with them and hoped it would help them in difficult situations.

The flight was _____ , and the hotel was very comfortable. Each day after breakfast, Steve and Mark_____a picnic lunch and dinner and went off to visit _____ of interest. After a while, the boys became tired of eating picnic meals and decided to eat a big fish dinner in a good restaurant. Unfortunately, they _____ their wordbook in the hotel.

They _____ the menu carefully. After ten minutes, Steve said to Mark, “ I don’t understand this menu.” “Neither do I,” said Mark. “I see poison on this menu. Are they _____ here?” “Maybe. They even spelled poison _____ They spelled it p-o-i-s-s-o-n instead of p-o-i-s-o-n. But it must mean the same thing. Maybe we should go to _____ restaurant. Because I don’t ______ to eat something that will kill me. “ But Mark was ______ So he said, “There is no other restaurant near here, and I’m tired of walking around the city. Let’s order something else instead. It’s _____ here, so the food must be good.”

The boys looked at the menu again. They finally decided to order steak,______ they really wanted fish. The boys just pointed to the word steak, and the waiter ______.

As they were eating they ______ some tourists speaking English. “ This ______ is delicious.”

“We’re lucky we picked a restaurant that’s famous for its fish”.

Steve and Mark wondered about what they ______ . “Famous for its fish? There was no fish on the ______ !” said Mark.

Finally, Steve decided to find out what all this was about. “ Excuse me, how did you order fish when it wasn’t on the menu?” “ Sure it’s on the menu. It’s right here. Poisson.” Steve shouted, “ Poisson. That’s poison ! We were ______ why a restaurant like this could have poison on the menu.”

The tourists ______ One of them said, “ No. Poisson is French for fish.”

What to Do when You’re Falling Behind

When I was a kid, it took me longer to learn how to ride a bike. I kept using a bike with training wheels and I didn’t _______ much, so of course I didn’t learn how to balance.

One day I _______ that my sister, 2.5 years younger than me, was getting close to _______ how to ride a bike. She wasn’t quite there yet, but she was _______ much closer to balancing than I was. I couldn’t let her _______ me to it!

So I took my bike, _______ it out to the street, and decided that I was going to learn how to ride it right now. I _______ the training wheels, jumped on, and swerved (突然转向) all over the place like an out-of- control madman. I tried to stay near the grass when I could get some degree of _______, so when I fell, I’d _______ fall to the lawn instead of the street or sidewalk.

After many attempts, I finally learned how to ________ Then I rode my bike a lot that summer and have had the ________ ever since.

Up until that point, I’d been making a big deal out of the whole process. It seemed ________ and discouraging. I was afraid of falling. But once I began to face the fear and ________ the courage to risk getting hurt, I quickly showed my ________ ability on the other side with a whole new skill. From the moment of making the decision to the time I ________ to get the basic skill it probably took me less than an hour.

What finally ________ me to face the fear and take action? It was the ________ that I was falling behind. My sister was leaving me in the dust. She could ride ________ I couldn’t. I really didn’t want that to happen.

I had no idea that I could learn to ride a bike so quickly. The feeling of falling behind served as a powerful motivator (动力). ________ trying to hide the disappointment, I allowed myself to feel the weight of that pressure. I used the ________ feeling to motivate myself to take action.

Last Sunday, I go to the Beijing Olympic Forest Park with my friend Chris. As soon as we got there, we were so attracting by the breathtaking scenery that we couldn’t help take many photos to record the beautiful moments. As we walked on, we noticed a kite hanging up on a branch, but its owner, little boy, was too short to get it down. The boy looked worried but we decided to help him. Unlucky, the kite was also beyond their reach. Then we looked around and found a slick, with that we got the kite down. We gave the kite away back to the boy. He was very delightful and thanked us for what we did.

   Several years ago，we planned to move out of the city and buy a country house. The first ___________ was finding a suitable country house that we could afford. We started to ___________ the real estate（房地产）listings online and thought we had found a really ___________ one. My wife Catherine went to look at it. I was expecting a positive result. ___________，my wife told me the house wasn't suitable for us at all. While this was not the ___________ of the world，it prevented us from carrying out our plans as we had expected. So，what did we do？Could we ___________ and decide to stay where we were？No. We decided to ___________ looking.

To make a long story ___________，it took us two years of weekly visits to the real estate listings before we ___________ found three houses that might be suitable. The next ____________ seemed obvious-we had to take some time off work and drive down to ____________ these houses. So，off we went and after 15 hours of steady driving，we ____________.The next three days were tight-looking，then looking again and then finally making an ____________. The final story has a ____________ ending-we found our house，and ____________ several months later.

Sometimes, ____________ show up out of nowhere to destroy the best of plans, and some of these difficulties can be the final play. ____________, if you adopt the philosophy that every obstacle has a solution, then you can find your ____________ through. Obstacles will appear no matter who you are or what you are trying to ____________, but it is only those who know there is a solution and keep digging until they find it that will ____________ one day.