The words of some second-graders opened the hearts of dog adopters to empty the doghouses of a local shelter. Their hand-written notes _______ fast growing adoption rates for the dogs to get adopted in Richmond.

Nobody could resist a _______ like “If you adopt me, I hope I will _______ up your Sundays like the sun. You’ll be my Sunday Special, and I hope I’ll be yours!”

Kensey Jones, a second-grade teacher, is also a volunteer of a local shelter. She _______ to come up with an idea for a _______ assignment, and had the idea to try and _______   adoption rates by giving the dogs their own supporting voice.

“The idea just struck me to _______ persuasive writing with these adoptable pets that need a forever home,” Jones said, adding that it was “a way that I could make their writing _______ for the students, and _______ make an impact on the world and our community.”

She told the shelter’s manager about the idea, who thought it was __________. The kids nearly __________ at the news that their new assignment would be __________ on helping dogs get adopted.

“Hi, I’m Cody. I would love to be adopted,” one student wrote. “I would like a loving, caring family. Please be my __________!” This kind of representation, pinned in colorful drawings to the animals’ crates (板条箱), was a huge __________. This shelter sees a high adoption rate.

“All dogs __________, a loving home,” one of the kids said. “I am so very happy to be able to help neglected (无人看管的) animals find forever families.”

Pangolins (穿山甲) are the world’s most heavily poached (偷猎) mammal. And three out of four Asian pangolin species are critically _________ now — heavy demands for their meat, scales, and blood have _________ them with extinction.

Growing up near Cue Phuong National Park in Vietnam’s Red River Delta, Thai Van Nguyen had been accustomed to seeing dead pangolins. _________, everything changed when he witnessed his neighbor killing a baby pangolin. It was then that his _________ to save pangolins was ignited (点燃). And he knew the biggest _________ would be shifting the mindset and habits of the Vietnamese people.

To change the fate of the pangolins, Nguyen set out to _________ the public on the importance of pangolin conservation. His efforts _________ a series of outreach and education campaigns: he published research in peer-reviewed journals, attended international workshops, and developed Vietnam’s first reintroduction and tracking programme for pangolins.

Then Nguyen founded Vietnam’s first Pangolin Rehabilitation Center. So far it has _________ to restore and release nearly 500 pangolins and has _________ to rescue other species like turtles.

In 2018, Nguyen __________ his work, creating Vietnam’s first-ever anti-poaching unit, which has destroyed 9701 animal traps, and arrested 558 people for poaching—leading to a significant __________ in illegal activities in Vietnam.

Nguyen devotes his life to __________ pangolins, bringing global awareness of pangolins’ __________. “It’s my greatest joy that I can really make a __________,” he said. And it is this devotion that __________ won him the Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots activism in 2021.

Didga, the skateboarding cat

I have three cats. Didga is the most eye-catching. In terms of skills, there is no cat in the world that can be _______ to what she can do.

I’ve been an animal-trainer for 40 years. Everyone said cats can’t be trained. Thus, I wanted to _______ them wrong.

I went to an animal shelter (动物收容所). As I was walking through, a kitten _______ behind me. So I adopted her without _______.

Before long, Didga _______ to her new life, going out or swimming together with my dogs I trained. She did everything _______. I never forced her. She enjoyed the _______ of the dogs.

However, training with cats isn’t _______. As a trainer, patience _______ most. With patience and encouragement she picked up a handful of skills ________. ________ is one of her most impressive skills she acquired. She rode along with the move of the board, jumping on and over objects. That really ________ to a lot of fans.

In 2017, Didga accomplished a tough task to perform 24 different tricks in ________ a minute, which got her into the Guinness World Records.

Didga has ________ a difference to my life. She has taken me to levels I would never have dreamed of. She is really one in a million. What I do is just ________ the best in her.