Early one morning last February, I felt the bang of Tink’s paws as she landed on my legs. This is my __16__. I was fast asleep and she woke me up, which had __17__ happened before. She sleeps downstairs and never comes __18__ the bedroom.
I sat up feeling __19__ because I’d been out the night before. But I soon realized something was very __20__. The room was half-filled with a layer of white smoke, strange and alarming, __21__ in the air about three feet deep like a patch of whiter cloud.
I phoned the fire brigade(消防队), who told me to __22__ the house as quickly as I could.
Within minutes, six fire engines __23__. For half an hour, my house was drenched (浸透) with __24__ until the fire was out. By now, __25__, I had begun to __26__ about our assumption that Tink was safe. I assumed she had managed to escape, but there was no __27__ of her. I told a firefighter and, __28__ he wasn’t meant to, he went back into my house.
After a few moments he _29___ with Tink, completely limp (四肢无力的). She wasn’t breathing. Then the firefighter put a(n)__30__mask on her, and incredibly she took a __31__ and coughed. She was alive.
The source of the fire was electrical. The firefighters told me I would have had six minutes to get out before I __32__ in the fire. Tink could have deserted __33__, but she came up to the most__34__ smoke-filled area to warn me. Generally cats aren’t known for their __35__, but she is the exception .
| 16. | A. dog | B. cat | C. daughter | D. son |
| 17. | A. ever | B. never | C. already | D. yet |
| 18. | A. through | B. out | C. up | D. into |
| 19. | A. sick | B. sleepy | C. lonely | D. sorry |
| 20. | A. wrong | B. bad | C. strange | D. awful |
| 21. | A. flying | B. lifting | C. hanging | D. filling |
| 22. | A. leave | B. save | C. move | D. pass |
| 23. | A. called | B. turned | C. arrived | D. achieved |
| 24. | A. water | B. fire | C. smoke | D. powder |
| 25. | A. therefore | B. anyhow | C. otherwise | D. however |
| 26. | A. analyze | B. hesitate | C. realize | D. consider |
| 27. | A. sign | B. condition | C. place | D. show |
| 28. | A. so that | B. even though | C. as if | D. ever since |
| 29. | A. appeared | B. hurried | C. vanished | D. left |
| 30. | A. carbon | B. poison | C. oxygen | D. dust |
| 31. | A. sigh | B. breath | C. voice | D. relaxation |
| 32. | A. escaped | B. shouted | C. woke | D. died |
| 33. | A. me | B. itself | C. it | D. ourselves |
| 34. | A. serious | B. dangerous | C. cautious | D. nervous |
| 35. | A. confidence | B. caution | C. selflessness | D. wisdom |