During a basketball game at Harvard, I was permanently blinded in my right eye. There was the feeling of bodies too_________, and then of a boy’s finger. His finger nail _________ my optic nerve, the cable that connects the eyeball to the brain. _________, I often crashed into people who seemed to have _________ out of thin air. I became afraid that some larger truth would remain forever _________.

Not long after graduation I went to _________ by myself in the woods of Vermont. I wanted the world to look _________ again. And there I _________, in some ways for the first time some snails. These animals are almost faceless, vainly _________ to disguise themselves with a shell. That first November, they appeared after the rain, __________ along the fallen leaves. As a kind of __________, I began to bend down in the long grass and __________ them. I wanted to see if I could match my attention to a snail’s pace. My __________ was that by learning to see slowly I would learn to see more. Gradually, my senses __________. I’d notice a blue-gray body as it moved across a leaf. More __________, I’d see a squirrel yawn on a branch. Each __________ was a door to the beauty existing around me.

It is not that lines look solid again but to have lost my sense of stability in the world, which is really just a __________ of the brain anyway, no longer __________ me. It wasn’t that I felt I was suddenly seeing again. Rather, I felt myself included __________. Missing out on some greater truth was impossible __________ I felt a part of what was true.

The vegetable plot in my backyard is a favourite place for many species of local birds, including a lone magpie (喜鹊).

Two years ago, I made ________ with the magpie. It would stand beside the vegetable plot and sing continuously for ten minutes. I would talk to the fellow ________ its beautiful singing and since this was a daily ________, it was neither disturbed nor ________ by my company. Soon, it ________ a partner and now they are a family of four.

Last June, the magpie family, ________ a band of other feathered friends, were making a lot of noise near the vegetable plot but I could not see anything out of ________ when I went to check. This happened twice more before I decided to ________ more closely.

As I ________, all the other birds flew either to the top of the boundary wall or to the trees but musical magpie friend ________ screaming and moving about on the ground. It was not ________ like the others but jumping from place to place with all its feathers puffed out (鼓起来). It was so ________ that I thought it could be injured so I ________ it. That was when I saw a huge yellow-coloured ________ around two meters in length, lying behind the flower pots.

________, the snake’s head was turned away from us; I immediately shouted for ________ and the magpie flew away. I ________ then that its ________ behaviour was to attract my attention to the snake.

I am so grateful to my friendly magpie for ________ its life to show me the danger. Many times dogs have saved humans from danger but I did not expect a bird to have so much ________.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and Kaleb Benham was wandering outside his home. His 90-pound dog, Buddy, was _________ nearby, doing what dogs do: getting into _________. Only this time, Buddy was getting into a real trouble.

The unmistakable _________ that no one wants to hear alone in the woods caught Benham’s _________. It was the deep roar of a bear. Benham _________ around to see the beast, which weighed around 350 pounds, 100 feet away. _________ the bear seized Buddy’s head and started dragging him away.

Benham, aged 24, chased after them. “_________,” he told CBS 13, “the only thing I could think of was ‘save Buddy.’” With extraordinary _________, he dashed and struck the bear. But it even _________ its grip (掌握) on Buddy. Benham tried prying open its mouth, but the jaw was ____________ tight. Finally, Benham turned to street fighting. It ____________. The bear dropped the dog and ran off into the woods.

Buddy was badly ____________. “My first thought was that I was going to lose him,” Benham said. He ____________ him to a nearby vet (兽医). Buddy’s ____________ took nearly four hours. Benham was ____________ to watch the process through a window as Buddy was operated on.

This was the second time Benham had rescued Buddy, says CBS13.