Standing at the lake’s edge, I cast my line onto the smooth-as-glass water of Police Outpost Lake. Down the shoreline was my cousin Isaiah’s father, my Uncle Rick, who liked to fish alone, away from noise and other people. I’d learned to fish from my dad who had been a fish and wildlife officer. He loved his job, especially the part where he protected nature from humans. He’d taught me everything about fishing. However, he passed away.

Isaiah shouted, “Dad, where should I stand?” Uncle Rick pointed to a shady spot by a large rock where he had cast his line, and shook his head gently.

“He wants us to be quiet or else we won’t catch any fish,” I whispered.

Isaiah frowned, pouting, but it was “message received.”

Songbirds, ducks, and Canada geese glided by on the breeze, touching down briefly on the water’s surface before flapping and quacking their way back up into the sky.

“Why do I have to be so quiet?” asked Isaiah. “All those birds are making way more noise than I ever could!”

I ignored him and focused on the water. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a few loons(潜鸟)gathering together not far from the shoreline. What were they doing there? Loons usually travel alone, but here were five of them. Maybe it was a family? One loon, wailing and making yodeling sounds, swam away from the group, toward me.

“Isaiah! Come here!”

“Now who’s shouting?” asked Isaiah.

“Come here. A loon is swimming toward us, closer and closer.”

Just then, the loon stopped, letting out a crazy and loud sound, as if trying to catch our attention. Stepping into the water and getting closer to the loon, we both saw thin wire wrapped around its neck. Fishing line maybe? Reaching down, I touched its head, my heart racing. I could see a fishing line was wrapped tightly around its neck. Left like this, the loon couldn’t fly or fish or survive. It was asking us to help!

“Get the scissors from the toolbox.” I shouted.

As I set the loon down on the water, it beat its wings joyfully.

A few years ago，we adopted(收养) a lovely dog whom we named Gypsy. We didn’t know her age, background, or how she ended up wandering the streets of a large southern city with no owner. But we felt sure she’d had a difficult life, as she moved back whenever we wanted to touch her. She seemed particularly afraid of strange men. Gradually, Gypsy adapted to her new home with us, and she followed me around everywhere I went silently. Nothing seemed to make her bark (叫)，but we thought she was just a quiet dog as she seemed happy with us otherwise.

Not long after we brought her home, I had an operation on my leg. Gypsy seemed to dislike the coming and going of doctors, and visiting nurses-especially the males. She was still silent, but she barked at the ones she liked least. This led us to believe it must have been a male who had mistreated her before.

One day about a year after my operation, I was in the bathroom giving Gypsy a bath. Suddenly，I fell onto the floor. Luckily，I fell between the tub(浴盆) and water pipe. If I had hit one of them, I feel certain that would have been the end of me.

Unfortunately, I had no way to seek for help. The door was closed, and I didn’t have my phone with me. My husband wouldn’t be home from work for hours, so I did the only thing I could think of: I started shouting for help as loudly as I could.

Gypsy was clearly confused(困惑的) by my shouting.

Soon, my neighbor was in the house.

A Thrilling Camping Trip

Grady and his family went camping every summer. As it was becoming hotter, here came the camping time.

The family had been planning it for a long time and had decided on their destination — the Great National Forest. With food and equipment loaded into the car, the family set off. It was cool inside the car.

Jared, Grady’s younger brother, played with a toy dinosaur and made a lot of noise.

Grady’s mother talked excitedly with his father. Grady put on his headphones and listened to some music. He didn’t want to play with his brother or talk to anyone. After what seemed like hours, the car reached its destination. Grady unloaded his backpack and closed the car door.

“This is going to be a long week,” he said unhappily to no one in particular. He looked around the campground. Hundreds of tall and green fir trees (枞树), some as tall as church towers, covered the mountainside like a green carpet. It would be going dark soon. Grady had hoped the July weather wouldn’t be too hot but now he was feeling sticky.

Grady hated camping, but it was something his family did every summer. His father liked cooking in the open air, telling stories about how to survive things like bear attacks and bee stings. His mother and Jared liked to hike and take pictures of animals. Jared had a collection of insect pictures that he had stuck to the walls in his half of their room. Grady didn’t like them and thought they proved that Jared was a strange kid.

They set up camp — two tents, one for his parents and one for himself and Jared. While everyone else started preparing dinner, Grady, looking for somewhere to cool down, set off for the nearby stream, which was deep enough to swim in.

As Grady got close to the stream, an adorable bear cub( 幼 崽 )caught his eye.

Turning around, he saw a large angry mother bear moving swiftly towards him.