Simon was a middle-aged leather businessman. He always failed in his career, which made him a depressed(沮丧的) man. So he often _____________ that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so disappointed with the city that he had to leave.

So his family moved to another city. It was the ______________   of a weekend. When Simon and his wife were busily tidying up their new home, the light suddenly went out. They had to _________ work. Simon was regretful to have forgotten to bring along candles and had to wait ________ in a low mood. Just then he heard slight, hesitant（犹豫不决的）knock on his door that sounded _____________ in the quiet night.

“Who’s it?” he wondered, since Simon knew ________________   in this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be disturbed, so he went to the door and opened it ______________. At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your ______________. ” “No,” answered Simon quickly and shut the door in ______________.   “What a nuisance (讨厌鬼)!” He complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down than somebody came to________ things.”

After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside.________   this time she was holding two candles, saying, “I live upstairs. My grandma told me you might need candles. She sent me here to give you these.” Simon was very______________ by what he saw. When he became fully aware, he said, “Thank you and your grandmother. God bless you!”

At that moment he suddenly realized what caused his   ________________     in life. It was his loneliness with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was actually nobody else but _____________, for his life had been darkened by his cold _____________.

No visitor was left in the museum now, and John was walking around to check if everything was all right. _______ he saw a beautiful painting lying on the floor. John _______ and gave it to the curator (馆长).

The curator called several museums to check if it was a stolen painting _______ no one claimed (认领) it. So the curator decided to hang it. _______ said it was beautiful and had a very deep meaning. The curator was _______ to have such a painting in his museum and congratulated John on his discovery.

Some weeks later a woman and her _______ came to the museum. While they were looking at that painting, the little boy began to _______. The curator went over and asked what was making him so sad.

The child pointed to _______ and said, “That’s my painting and I want it back.”

“Yes,” said his mother. “He _______ it on the floor a few weeks ago. If you look carefully, you can see the name on the painting.” The curator ________ believe his ears when he heard the truth.

Long long ago, the Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝) wanted to choose twelve animals for the Chinese Zodia (十二生肖), so he organized ________ animal race. The first twelve animals to win ________ get a place in the Chinese Zodia and have a year named after them.

The cat and the mouse both asked the ox (公牛) to wake them early on the day of the race. That day, the ox tried to wake them, but without success. So the kind ox carried them on ________ back and started running when the race began. The mouse woke up just when the ox was ________ across the last river. He knew that he could never beat the cat ________ he pushed the cat off the ox’s back. So he pushed the cat into the river. When the ox reached ________ side of the river, the mouse jumped off and ran to the finishing line, just ________ the ox. The tiger came third.

So the 12-year cycle (循环) begins with the mouse. The ox comes after him. The tiger follows the ox. The rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig come after them. ________ the cat was lucky to finish the race, she was almost dying in the river. In the end, she has no place in the zodiac. So that’s ________ cats kill mice. They can ________ forget what happened in that race long long ago!