In 1978, Avril and Christopher Rowlands paid £6 for a fir (冷杉), brought it to their new home in the pretty village of Inkberry. After ________ their first Christmas together, they planted the tree in their front garden to ________ their first Christmas in their new home. It has ________ grown over the years and nowadays, it ________ over their four-bedroom property—measuring about 50 feet. Each December the couple decorate their giant fir with thousands of fairy lights which they switch on for the ________ .

The tree is so ________ that a cherry picker is used to reach the top branches and add the star to the top. The lighted tree is one of the brightest landmarks (标志性建筑) in Inkberrow, which is one of UK’s darkest villages ________ there being no street lights.

Avril and Christopher’s fir now attracts thousands of people who ________ their tree every December. As a retired TV writer, Avril said, “We love doing the Christmas lights. The ________can be seen from miles around on nights and people ________ to see it. It’s become something of a (an) ________ for people in the village and beyond. It even ________ me to write a children’s book about the tree called The Laxford House Christmas Tree.“ The couple ask for people who admire the tree to make a ________ and over the years they have raised thousands of pounds for charity.

“The tree is really ________,” said the retired BBC editor Christopher. “During COVID, it was lit, like a beaco (灯塔) of ________.”

This is a story of a penguin（企鹅）that swims 5, 000 miles to a ________ in Brazil every year in order to visit the man who saved his life. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, but it’s true！

Joao Pereira de Souza is a 71-year-old retired worker and part-time ________. He lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He found the small penguin ________ on rocks at his local beach in 2015.

The penguin was starving and covered in oil. Joao ________ the penguin, naming him Din Din,________ the oil off his feathers（羽毛）and fed him a daily diet of fish to rebuild his________.

When Din Din________, Mr. de Souza set him free into the sea,________ expecting to see his new friend again.

The little guy wasn’t gone long, though, and just a few months later, he was back at the same beach. He ________Joao fishing and followed him home, staying with him for the rest of the year.

________, this cycle has ________over the past five years. Each year Din Din stays with Joao for about eight months and is believed to ________ the rest of the time breeding（繁殖）on the Patagonia coasts of Argentina and Chile.

“I love the penguin like he’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” Joao told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He ________ them if they do. But he lies on my lap, lets me give him showers and allows me to feed him ________.”

Professor Krajewski, a biologist who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, said: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his ________ and probably a penguin as well.”

I was resting when Jenny called. “There’s a thing that ________ you,” she said. “My cat found a mouse and I don’t know how you feel about cats with mice, although I have the ________ that you are afraid of bugs.”

“Bugs are afraid of me.” I said. Having been bitten by a spider, I decided my new ________ was simple: get them before they get you. “I will get it.”

The mouse was under the ________ when I arrived. After putting a broom handle beneath to force surrender, which ________, I walked beside the fridge, armed with a box.

It was a good plan, but it didn’t ________ according to plan. The box created a no-escape trap, the mouse ventured out and I slammed the box down. ________, the only thing inside the box was its tail, and the mouse was struggling to escape.

Meanwhile, sensing Jenny was going ________ on the mouse, I said, “Don’t you dare name it! It’s not your pet.” The mouse then crawled up on the broom handle, and we were now eyeball to eyeball.

I ________ for something else to get the mouse. She rushed over, and then a spatula (抹刀) descended over my shoulder.

“What? This is a MOUSE not a MOUSSE (奶油)!” Another container was handed. Despite my two-box move, the mouse ________ and shot back under the fridge.

I told Jenny to leave the kitchen light on, hoping the mouse would stay under the fridge and not ________ her bedroom at night.

After my departure, she found the mouse ________ in the sunlight, with the cat alongside, soaking up the rays as well. They seemed a(n) ________ couple. Learning from my ________, she got a box with a lid, and the mouse jumped in the box and helped her ________ the lid.