The day before my daughter’s sixth birthday, the entire family was busy packing presents. I _______ my little princess that I would wake her up early the next morning and hand out the presents to her _______.

I woke up at 5:30. After taking a _______, I planned to wake her up but as I came out from the bathroom, I realized that an earthquake _______. I screamed to wake my husband and my daughter up. We rushed out of our house. Outside we watched our house _______. It lasted for 3 minutes. The house remained _______ some cracks (裂缝) appeared on the walls.

Despite the _______ earthquake, my daughter and I went to her school at 8:00 as planned but no one was there except the teacher, who _______ us to go back as a tsunami (海啸) might come soon. On the way home I heard a policeman cry out loud, “Stay _______! No tsunami!”

At home, I ________ about the presents: to whom should we deliver them? After some discussion with my family, I decided to give them to the children in a nearby ________. Upon getting there, I was really shocked. There were hundreds of injured people waiting for treatment.

A boy ________ with a bandage (绷带) on his head. He looked at me with a(n) ________ look as if asking, “Could I have one?” ________ I handed over one present to him. He took it happily and ran to his mom, shouting, “Mommy… a toy car!” Never would I forget his shining eyes! I was happy that our presents could bring a little ________ to those suffering from a disaster.

We live in a town, about half a mile from the banks of the Ahr River. It had been raining buckets that week and there were _______ warnings for some of the nearby areas, but not where I was.

As a precaution, I’d _______ sandbags outside my garden door and piled electronics and clothing on tables and the couch just in case water managed to see p through.

As I fell asleep, I was _______ by the sound of rushing water. When I swung my legs off the bed, I was _______ to feel cold water already up to my knees and rising fast. Shivering and in darkness, I grabbed my phone and _______ its flashlight. Water was coming from the garden door, and chairs, bookshelves and pieces of my drum set were floating all over my living room. The Ahr must have _______ burst its banks and breached the sandbags. And now I had to get out — fast!

With the water now up to my waist, in bare feet I started to paddle to my only _______: the door leading to upstairs. Finally I made it to that door and tried to pull it open, but the water’s pressure was high. I managed to make a _______ of about 30 centimeters with all my strength and effort, enough for me to squeeze through. Rushing down outside, I _______ that if I had woken up just a few minutes later, I would have drowned.

The experience made me grateful and determined to live each day to its fullest. I will remember what my mother told me: “Don’t remember the day when you ________ everything. Remember the day you survived.”

When I was driving on the highway, a big storm came. The rain began to beat_______     against my car windows. I had to stop and_______my car along the roadside. Sitting in the car with boxes of_________in the back seat, I was_______of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina hit Houston when I was fourteen years old. I was_________that it would destroy my neighborhood._________it missed ours, while leaving many parts of the city in _______. From the TV, I saw a reporter_______the homeless people inside the Houston Astrodome(体育馆). Many of them were in dirty and_________clothes, and some had no shoes on their feet. I noticed a little boy behind the reporter__________an old teddy bear. Suddenly, I knew I had to do__________.

The next day, my friends__________me at our volunteer club and we came up with a plan to________some used toys and give them to the kids at the Astrodome. I hoped they would bring some________to those homeless kids. We________the word to our schools and other organizations. Three days later, our club was flooded with new toys! When we__________the Astrodome with our gifts, children__________toward us from all directions.

My cell phone brought me back to the present. To my joy, the storm had________“Hector, we have had more__________because of the tornado.” “Well, I’ve brought a lot of clothes for them. The__________kept me late, but I'll be there soon!" I turned my car into the suddenly heavy traffic. I knew that any small act of kindness would make a big difference.