Tina often discussed with her parents whether they should get a pet dog. However, they always ________ that training a dog would be too distracting for Tina, and they couldn’t ________ the vet (兽医) and food bills with their low income.

One day, when they were walking along a narrow path to look for mushroom, a painfilled howl (嗥叫) rang through the trees. Tina and her parents got ________.

“That’s a dog.” Tina headed off in the ________ of the wolf.

“Wait, Tina!” Her dad reached for her arm but ________. “It could be a wolf.”

“Even if it is, it’s still hurt,” Tina said as she headed deep into the forest. “We’ve got to help it.”

Tina’s parents ________ her, but Tina was soon out of ________. When they caught up with her, she was kneeing down beside a hunting dog. It was obvious that he was ________ in a trap. Tina’s dad bent forward to ________ the dog and found the trap closed over the dog’s paw (爪). Later, Tina’s dad took out his knife to ________ the trap. ________ the trap didn’t break any bones.

Tina’s mother had grown up in a family of hunters and was well ________ that the dog was well-trained.

They took the dog home, and Tina’s dad treated his ________. Although Tina’s parents initially intended to send the dog to a ________ where there would be kind people taking care of him, the family quickly grew to love him, so they ________ their idea. Tina named the dog Rocky and he became a family member.

My 12-year-old niece was staying with us for a little while. One night we stayed up talking about how we used to _______ and take part in random (随机的) acts of kindness. We talked about how so much had _______ and how it would be difficult to do so many of those things now, _______ when it came to helping out strangers.

The next day, I _______ something from downtown and took her with me. As we walked around, we heard a beautiful male voice _______. We turned around to see a middle-aged man sitting on a corner with his guitar. A couple was sitting on a bench nearby and listening to his _______.

After I ran my errand (差事), we _______ to sit at an outdoor restaurant across from him on the other side of the street. My niece kept _______ and saying how wonderful his singing was. Seeing how moved she was by his music, at the end of our _______, I gave her a $10 bill and asked her to put it in his bowl.

She was ________, but headed over. As she ________, the man was just finishing a song, and they had a conversation. She told him how ________ she was by his music, and he told her she ________ his day.As she was excitedly talking about the ________ with me, she mentioned, “He didn’t even know how much it was. He just ________ that someone was enjoying his music.”

I was about to explain the meaning of the word “gossamer (小蜘蛛网)” to my five­-year­-old students. We were learning a poem. I _______ because one of them was waving his hand at me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Once I got caught in a spider web _______ I didn’t see it,” the boy said.

“That’s gossamer!” I shouted, nearly jumping up. “Gossamer things are hard to see.” Gossamer is also how I might describe the voices of _______ young children. I can only hear them when I am close enough. They are not the children speaking with ease. They are the children whose faces turn _______ if I call on them, or who whisper (低语) “I don’t know” even when they do _______. I don’t want them to _______. I want them to be comfortable being _______.

Shy children usually have less practice in speaking, especially when there are other more children _______ to talk. It’s a loud world. Though shy children may appear _______ to be in the background, they are losing opportunities to participate. Without practice, fear of speaking ________.

It takes about three weeks, a small bit of ________ each day, for each of my 17 students to learn a poem. So far, they have memorized more than five. And now, an obvious ________ has happened. The “shyest” children are as eager to read aloud as the ________ ones.

Practice is an excellent way to increase ________ of shy children while learning a poem. And it is practice that makes them enjoy the ________ of the language.