A little girl studied at her desk in the purple bedroom of her childhood home. The girl’s homework was to _______ a true story. Simple. Yet there she was, _______ it for a long time for better past her bedtime.

So attentive was the girl — changing words to _______ the mood (语气), erasing passages to move the story along, reading out loud to _______ the rhyme — that she jumped when she _______ her father’s hand on her shoulder. Dad was a business manager. He liked to _______ and watch TV at night. It was not his _______ to check up on her.

“Daddy?” she said, looking up at him. “I think I just decided what kind of job I want when I grow up. I like to write about things that really _______. I like to move the words around.” “I’m glad to see you take your schoolwork so _______,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”________ he kissed the top of her head.

Decades later, the girl made great efforts in writing, which ________ her a top job at Reader’s Digest, a ________ that has for nearly a century told true stories of ________ interest. As she walked out of the office that afternoon, she ________ the night in her purple bedroom and decided that for every issue (期刊), she would write her editor’s note as a story. That way, she would honor the ________ of the magazine. She ________ her mom with the news of her job. “Oh, honey, I wish your father were ________,” her mom wrote. “He would be so proud.”

“As an ________, I am doing the work I love, writing about people of interest doing things that matter. It’s been a (n)________ to connect with the thousands of you who have ________ to me. Let’s continue to do so,” the girl said.

   Mary Krupa became friends with the grey squirrels during her first week at Penn State University, after spotting them running around and idly（漫不经心地）wondering what they would look like with tiny hats on their heads. Today, everyone at the university knows her as the “Squirrel Girl”.

Mary started bringing them food, and gradually they began to trust her. She managed to put a hat on a squirrel and take a picture. Thinking that she could do something to lift up people’s spirits, she started posting similar photos on Facebook. The response was greatly positive, and before long Mary and her squirrels became an Internet sensation.

Growing up in a neighborhood outside the state college, Mary was always fond of birds and animals around her home, but she didn’t interact with people very much. She was later diagnosed with Asperger syndrome（阿斯伯格综合征）, but the squirrels changed that. “The squirrels are actually a good way to break the ice, because I’ll be sitting here patting a squirrel and other people will come over and we just start feeding the squirrels together and chatting about them,” “she said. “I am a lot more outgoing.”

And in case you’re wondering how Mary is able to get the squirrels to do what she wants for her photos, it has a lot to do with food. For example, whenever she wants them to hold or play with something, she puts peanut butter on the prop（道具）, and they’ll grab it. But getting to that part took a while. In the beginning, she would throw peanuts up the trees on campus and invite the squirrels to come down and get them, but they hesitated to approach her. She had the patience to earn their trust, though.

This year, Mary is graduating with degrees in English and Wildlife Sciences. She wants to be a science writer and educate people on how to preserve the environment. As for her furry friends, Mary plans to stay in the area and visit them as often as she can.

Yours，

Li Hua