Chris was born in a cardboard box with three other kittens. He was in a smaller cardboard box marked “free kittens” when Emily found him and took him home. After that, he loved boxes.

He would be ________ a box to sleep in. Chris slept in different boxes, even in Emily’s sock drawer, if she left it ________. He didn’t just sleep in boxes, though. He also enjoyed sleeping in the bedroom of Emily’s dollhouse with toys everywhere. Emily’s mother suggested Chris need a(n) ________ house of his own, but Emily thought little of it.

One day, Emily came home from school and she searched everywhere, but no Chris. ________ , she found the big cat hiding himself inside her mom’s new glass vase. His fatty body almost ________ the vase. “We have to ________ the vase to get him out!” Emily cried. “No,” said her dad, “If the vase is broken, the glass pieces might hurt Chris, maybe we can ________ butter (黄油) to the inside of the vase and pull him out.”

Emily’s mom buttered a lot inside of the vase and her dad tried to ________ the unhappy cat out, but they ________ . Realizing the awkward situation, Emily suggested visiting a ________ . Soon they were at his office with a(n) ________ and buttery cat in a vase. The vet had Emily and her parents ________ in the hall while she gave Chris a shot to make him sleepy.

An hour later, Chris was brought out to his ________ family. Not only Chris, but the vase was still in one ________ ! The next day, Emily brought home a refrigerator box and made it into a rocket ship. Now Chris sleeps in it and dreams of ________ spacemice.

For hours I had been traveling up the Nile Valley,from Luxor to Cairo, on a train jammed with Egypt's working Poor.

At 1 a. m. I reached Cairo and took a taxi to Tahrir Square, the city's center. The taxi _______ me off across the street from Hardee's. Just as I was about to open the restaurant door, two street _______ pounced on me with cries for _______.

In my broken Arabic I asked when they had last eaten﹣﹣about 16 hours ago, they said.

I asked them to wait while I went inside. Since I was traveling on a _______ budget and was even _______ meals on occasion, part of me _______ the children's hunger. But mostly, the children reminded me how _______ I really was.

I ordered two hamburgers for the boys. Then _______ my remaining stinginess （小气）, I bought them one of Hardee's delicious, big chocolate chip cookies.

I brought the food out, and as they took the _______, they ________ me with 30 seconds of nonstop blessings.

After they finished, I ________ the bag and pulled out the cookie, extending it for them to take. Both boys fell ________, and then tears welled up in their eyes as they ________ this was too much.

They ________ the cookie six times.

I knelt down beside them, ________ their eyes, and amazed at what was before me： two destitute （一无所有的） boys asked ________ for what they needed, ________ to take a crumb（一点, 少量） more.

On the seventh ________, after a long and silent pause, they held out their hands and took the cookie.

I had seen many __________in Egypt﹣﹣the Pyramids, the Aswan High Dam, the Valley of the Kings, the treasures of King Tut. But it was this ________ outside Hardee's that left me truly awestruck, for here two little boys taught me a lesson I've long remembered： an awareness of my spiritual poverty and a desire for a softer heart.