As soon as I saw the cat in our yard, I knew he was a stray (流浪儿). He looked  36 —a wounded warrior with a badly scarred body.
I started putting out food for him each day, but he wouldn’t come near me if other people were  37 . Winter came, and he still wouldn’t  38  us. Then, one day, a car hit him so we took him to the vet’s.
After a week, we were eager to bring him home to  39  our family. But when we went to take the cat home, the vet told us we should put him to  40  immediately because the cat was so fierce and mean that he would  41  become tame , let alone a pet.
But I have always had  42  in love’s power to  43  even the wildest beasts. I told the vet, “I want to take him home.” We  44  him Paws.
Three days went by, and we only knew Paws was  45  the bed because when we walked past it we heard deep growling.
I wanted to somehow let him know he was  46  and loved. So I put on a hard hat and a pair of welding gloves. I  47  under the bed toward Paws, with my face to the  48  and only the top of my head facing him. I  49  out to stroke (抚摩) him gently over and over again.
He growled and tried to  50  and bite me. It was scary—but I knew he couldn’t  51  me, so I just kept going. Slowly, he began to  52 . Then I slid out from under the bed and left the room.
Several hours later, I noticed a cat on the bed. It was Paws—all  53  on the pillows! I couldn’t believe it.
That dear cat became the  54  of our household. Although Paws finally died of cancer, his legacy(遗赠)—my  55  and firm belief in the power of love — lives on.

We had moved from Cairo to Mt. Vernon, Illinois, away from my grandmother when I was eight years old. I missed her  36 . I was told I was her favorite grandchild; she was my favorite granny. Mother must have sensed my  37 , for she would take my little brother and me back to visit my Granny on occasions.
She didn’t live in a big house or have expensive things, but I never  38  it; I just knew she loved me and I loved her back.
We had lived, for a time, next door to her  39  my father was away during World War II.
Granny had never had very much in the way of  40  or material things. But it was the little things she gave me that had always  41 . Things like letting me dip my fingers in the sugar bowl or the coffee she let me drink from her  42_. She allowed me to sit on top of her kitchen table to enjoy those privileges.
She also had a vinegar bottle that sat high on a shelf that was  43 , in my eyes; I asked if I could have it someday. It was given to me in a box after her  44 . She remembered in her last days; love is like that.
She didn’t have much;  45  did we. But she did something for my brother and me. I will always remember she  46  her pennies in a glass jar. I am sure Granny could have used those pennies herself  47  she saved them to give us when we came to  48  her.
I don’t remember how much we  49  on our visits, nor was the  50  important. It was the idea that she remembered us, and cared about us, when we were away from her.
Those  51 , of when I was a child, still give me  52  feelings now. I often wonder, after all those years, when I am lucky enough to find a  53  lying on the ground  54 , if it could possibly be Granny tossing me pennies from  55 .

There are about fifteen hundred languages in the world.
But ___1___ a few of them are very ___2___. English is one of these. Many, many people use it, not only in England and the U. S. A, but in other parts of the world. About 200, 000, 000 speak it as their own language. It is difficult to say how many people are learning it as a ___3___ language. Many millions are ___4___ to do so.
Is it easy or difficult to learn English? Different people may have different ___5___. Have you ever ___6___ the ads of this kind in the newspapers or magazines?
“Learn English in six month, or your ___7___ back ...” “Easy and funny? Our records and tapes ___8___ you master your English in a month. ___9___ the first day your ___10___ will be excellent. Just send ...” Of course, it never ___11___ quite like this.
The only language that seems easy to learn is the mother tongue. We should ___12___ that we all learned our own language well when we were ___13___. If we could learn English in the same way, it would not seem so difficult. ___14___ what a small child does. He listens to what people say. He tries what he hears. When he is using the language, talking in it, and ___15___ in it all the time, just imagine how much ___16___ that gets!
So it is ___17___ to say that learning English is easy, because a good command of English ___18___upon a lot of practice. And practice needs great effort and ___19___ much time. Good teachers, records, tapes, books, and dictionaries will ___20___. But they cannot do the student’s work for him.

When we read books we seem to enter a new world. This new world can be similar to the one we are living in, or it can be very  31  .Some stories are told 32 they were true. Real people who live in a 33 world do real things; in other words, the stories are about people just like us doing what we do. Other stories, such as the Harry Potter books, are not  34 . They are characters and creatures that are very different from us and do things that would be 35 for us.
But there is more to books and writing than this. If we think about it, even realistic writing is only 36 . How can we tell the difference between what is real and what is not real? For example, when we read about Harry Potter ,we  37 seem to learn something about the real world. And when Harry studies magic at Hogwarts, he also learns more about his real life than  38 . Reading, like writing, is an action. It is a way of  39 . When we read or write something ,we do much more than simple look at words on a page. We use our 40--which is real—and our imagination—which is real in a different way --- to make the words come to life in our minds.
Both realism and fantasy(幻想) 41  the imagination and the “magic” of reading and writing to make us think. When we read 42  realistic, we have to imagine that the people we are reading about are just like us, even though we  43 that we are real and they are  44 . It sounds 45 ,but it works. When we read, we fill in missing information and  46 about the causes and effects of what a character does. We help the writer by  47 that what we read is like real life. In a way, we are writing the book, too.
Most of us probably don’t think about what is going on in our 48 when we are reading. We pick up a book and lose  49  in a good story, eager to find out what will happen next. Knowing how we feel  50  we read can help us become better readers, and it will help us discover more about the real magic of books.

ONCE again, I was in new school.  36 was a girl in my class named Paris. That’s where the similarities  37  . I was tall and she was small. I was one of the   38  in the class while she was the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my  39  .
40  she wanted to be friends.
One day, she invited me   41   and I said yes I was too shocked to say no．42  no one had invited me over to play before．But this girl, who wore the   43   fashions, wanted to see me．She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother, her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister- When we got to the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Barbies which was my next   44 ．I would have thought she’d outgrown them．I had   45   played with them．But we sat on the floor of a walk-in cupboard laughing as we   46  crazy stories about the Barbies．That’s when we found out that we both wanted to be   47  when we were older．We both had wild   48 ．
We had a great day that afternoon．Our jaws （下巴） 49  from smiling so much．She showed me her   50  , which had mostly come from a designer clothing store （时装设计店） down the block．The woman who owned it used her as a   51  sometimes for her newspaper ads and gave her clothes in exchange．
Paris had the whole   52   charmed．The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines, the 53__ gave her free passes and the pizza place let her have free pieces．Soon I was   54  in her magic world．We slept over at each other’s houses, spent every free moment together．My dark hair grew out and I learned to love being tall．
Paris, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the   55   teenage years and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: your "worst enemy" can turn out to be your best friend．