The day started like any other. Papa came back ________ his boat full of fish. Mama made breakfast. Seven-year-old Jonas was doing homework, while his little brothers ran around the yard. That day seemed ________, but Alejo knew better.

Alejo felt shaking, and his ears perked up（竖着）, listening for what had already ________. Alejo made a crying sound, and Mama said, “Sh!”

Suddenly, a strange roaring（轰鸣） sound began. Papa ran to a nearby building’s roof（屋顶）to find out what was happening. But Alejo knew better. The shaking of the ground ________ up his padded paws（肉掌）. He wanted to run, but he didn’t dare to leave his family.

“Why were they waiting? Didn’t they know that a great earthquake had roared under the ocean and would soon bring strong waves onto the land?” Alejo thought.

And then Papa shouted with fear from the rooftop, “Tsunami（海啸）! Run!”

Mama grabbed（抓）a little boy under each arm and shouted to Jonas, “Jonas, run! Follow me up the ________. Fast!”

But the roar had gotten louder, ________ her words. All that Jonas had heard was, “Run!” And he ran back home where he thought he would be safe. Alejo barked（吠） and barked, but the tsunami made it ________ to hear his voice, too.

Alejo ran to Jonas and gently bit（咬） his feet, ________ the boy wouldn’t move. Jonas pushed the dog away, but Alejo would not give up. He grabbed（抓） Jonas’s shirt in his ________, and he pulled and pulled till his mouth broke. With all his strength, he pulled Jonas back outside. Finally, the boy understood.

Alejo and Jonas ran and ran till they reached the top of the hill and met their family. They had a mother-father-brothers-dog thankful hug, though they saw the house was ________ damaged（毁坏）.

What can people do when natural disasters (灾难) happen? Can we stop them? No, we can’t. The only thing we can do is to clean up after the disasters.

Last year I met Mr. Flood. It started raining and _______ raining almost a month: the water on the streets got higher and higher every day. We used _____ instead of cars. We lost lots of things, including our businesses, our jobs and our homes. Schools ________ and farms were destroyed. We ran out of food and clean water. In some places the water was higher than the buildings. I felt like we lived in a(n) _______ world.

Because of the flood, lots of ______ broke out. Some people died. The soil and other things made the water become very, very _______. That was in summer time, so though it was raining, the _______ was still high. The hot weather and dirty water made the air very bad. Hospitals didn’t have enough rooms for _____.

When the flood was over, I looked around my city. The word “______” can describe the situation. Everything was destroyed and lots of people were sick, but we were very strong, I think. We had to ____ our city, take care of the sick people, and start our schools again. I just hope that one day, people can stop the natural disasters whenever they happen. After all, people are very clever.

I looked at my watch. It was ten to six. There were just ten minutes left before we _______ leave for home. Suddenly the earth began to shake. In no time the shake became very _______. “Earthquake!” someone shouted. I _______ the others to the door but we couldn’t get out. I stayed under a desk, covering my head and neck with my arms. “Will someone save me _______ the buildings fall down?” I kept thinking about that.

Several minutes _______, the shake stopped. We ran quickly to the street. It was such a(n) _______ that we couldn’t believe our eyes—the street was full of debris (废墟) and broken wood. More and more people came out and many were injured. Lots of them did _______ but looked up into the sky in shock.

_______ in such a situation was difficult. Our phones didn’t work because of the earthquake. So it was _______ to find out if our friends were okay. I had no way of letting my family in China ________ that I was still alive. I just hoped that they wouldn’t hear about the earthquake until the next day.

Finally, I realized that people’s lives seem so small and fragile (脆弱的) when we face the natural disaster. So as long as we are alive, we should try our best to do what we want to do and live happily.