A series of thunderstorms damaged our area recently. ______ rains, high winds knocked down trees. I spent the afternoon ______ branches and throwing them away.

Then, just before I was getting ready to walk my dogs, the ______ came on my television that another storm was ______ our way. I took my dogs outside ______. Huge black clouds were rolling in while thunder (雷) boomed over the hills. The ______ seemed terrible. That was when I saw it: the tiniest blink (闪烁) of ______. I smiled. The first of the fireflies (萤火虫) had ______at just the time I needed to see its light. It ______ me how far their light travelled in the darkness of the night. How didn’t they seem bothered at the coming ______? Looking at the lightening fireflies, I noticed that the darkness no longer seemed so ______ and that my fear had changed into ______.

In our life, we have to ______ storms caused not only by nature but also by ourselves. We shouldn’t be ______ of them, however. We are here to ______ our light, to share our love, to drive the dark away and to make this world a better place.

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he ________ that the elephants weren’t being held by the use of chains or kept in ________ . All that was holding them back from escaping the camp was a small piece of ________ tied to one of their legs.

________ the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely ________ as to why the elephants didn’t just use their ________ to break the rope and escape the camp. They could ________ have done so, but they didn’t try to at all.

________ and wanting to know the answer, he asked a ( n ) ________ nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer ________ : “ When they are very young and much smaller, we use the ________ size rope to tie them and, at ________ age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot ________ . They believe the rope can still hold them. ________ , they never try to break free.”

The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the ________ that it just wasn’t possible.

Have you ever heard of and seen Canadian geese? Do you know that they __ fresh grass and seeds?

Canadian geese have a good __ for their politeness. They always bow down to you whenever you walk by. However, I have recently found that they can sometimes be __ to their peers, especially on occasions when they quarrel for food——yes, these __ gentlemen do quarrel, just for something to eat

Yesterday I witnessed two Canadian Geese arguing __ for a clump(草丛) of beautiful fresh grass. The clump was __ right in the middle of them, while the two were shouting noisily, stretching their necks as long as they could to look aggressively at each other. It’s __ to witness the “impolite” side of Canadian geese. Hence, I couldn’t help __ my morning walk, standing still to watch these “gentlemen” quarreling. Interestingly, after a short while, a truck roared past their feast, disturbing their __ conversation. The two geese were equally __ by the massive “monster”, thus giving up their conversation.

Would they start quarreling again? I stood still, __ the ridiculous question and waited. Beyond my expectation, right after the truck’s passing by, the two geese immediately lost their ___for quarreling as if they had forgotten all about what had happened. Even the two turned around and left the __ in opposite directions as if nothing had happened. They left only me there, imagining what might have happened without the __.

They got along harmoniously again. Sometimes it’s not that bad to be __.