I woke up at 3 the night Esther came to live with us. I stood at the top of the stairs listening for her bleating(咩咩叫) coming from the _________ below. Esther, a day-old orphaned lamb, was said to be less likely to _________ their first night. I grew anxious from _________.

“Grace will be upset.” I thought. Esther had already _________ my 16-year-old daughter’s heart. I feared the worst, _________ approaching the basement. There, in the straw, sleeping peacefully with Esther was Grace. No _________ Esther wasn’t bleating. She had found her mama. They slept together for the next month, from straw in the basement _________ sheets on Grace’s bed.

Little Esther soon became Big Esther, _________ she was forever Grace’s baby. Grace _________ her teacher to let Esther come to school and us to let Esther come along on vacation. Esther, biologically a sheep, considered herself a human — Grace’s human, to be __________. She’d enter the house __________, jumping through an open window if the door was closed. She was Grace’s __________ absolutely— when Grace left, all she had to do was bleat; when Grace returned, she came running and bleating.

Indeed, their __________love is worthy to be remembered forever. Sadly, in February 2021, Esther passed __________. But in Grace’s dream, when Grace walks by, she’ll bleat, Esther will bleat back, and they’ll run to each other, happily __________.

The suburb I live in backs on to a large nature reserve. One morning I saw a koala (考拉) sitting in a palm tree in my front yard. I phoned around to ask what I could _________ this koala, but no one wanted to know. I ended up _________ the koala out of my tree and we crossed the road _________ for him to return to the nature reserve.

I’ve always been befriending animals. As a young kid I used to pick up lizard eggs and _________ them. It stimulated my interest as to why there wasn’t anyone wanting to come and _________this koala in my tree. After that, I signed up for all the _________I could find.

Once I had accreditation (合格证 ), I volunteered with the RSPCA in 2019, rehabilitating (使康复) wildlife. I was an ambulance driver, _________ overnight rescues. We rescued hundreds of animals and _________ more.

I cut the leaves of the eucalyptus trees for the koalas to eat and look after the __________ wildlife at our centre. If they recover, they are __________ back to where they come from.

As a kid I would never have imagined doing this. I feel like I’m the __________ girl on the planet that I get to do what I love. I believe it’s my __________.

After Japan discharged nuclear wastewater, people are terribly worried about more animals, especially marine animals. Any animal has the right to survive and the Earth is our common home. Please care for our animal friends.

It was a dark night. Thick, dark, gray clouds had made sure that there was no starlight or moon light to ________ me as I walked out of my porch (门厅). Still, I kept the porch light off because I didn’t want to be ________ by bugs and moths (飞蛾) on this sticky ________ evening. I stood there for a while letting my eyes adjust to the lack of ________.

It was then, though, that I saw them. First one blink of light at the far end of the ________ followed by another and then another. I ________. I recognized them at once as my firefly (萤火虫) friends, my lightning bug buddies who always ________ this time of the year.

When I was little I used to sit in the grass and watch them ________ fly around blinking on and off. I never ________ and put one in a jar as some kids did because I never wanted to hurt these messengers of light. Their time on this earth was so ________ as it was. I tried to enjoy them each night they were here. It always ________ me when they disappeared in the fall and it always made my heart sing when they ________ the next summer.

We are like them in a lot of ways. Our ________ here on earth is brief. Often our light of love is more like on and off blinks rather than a ________ shine. Still, we do our best to share it and take ________ in knowing that others will be shining their light long after we are gone.