Miss Hickory heard heavy footsteps, clump, clumping along the stones of the pasture, then approaching her lilac bush. Out of the corner of one sharp little black eye she could see a pair of large yellow feet but she did not turn her head. As a matter of fact Miss Hickory had difficulty in turning her head. It was a hickory nut that had grown with an especially sharp and pointed nose. Her eyes and mouth were inked on. Her body was an apple-wood twig formed like a body with two arms and two legs, hand and feet, as twigs sometimes grow. To this body Miss Hickory's nut head was glued. She wore a blue-and-white checked gingham dress.

Actually, Miss Hickory was a _____ .

Uncle Emanuel rubbed his face and neck with a big red handkerchief. He stood for a moment to admire the neat, healthy rows of corn, tomatoes, beans, okra, mustard greens, and cabbage growing in his garden. "This is a good place to live," he said, almost to himself. "From this garden we get all the vegetables that we need."

He felt _____ .

: It was a dreadful ordeal. The men wrestled huge boulders out of the way, chopped trees, dug roadways in rocky ground. The hillsides were steep, the heat suffocating; alkali dust stung their eyes and throats. When oxen couldn't move a wagon, soldiers came to the rescue, a dozen men hauling on long ropes attached to the vehicle. Several wagons overturned, breaking their axles, injuring their teams, and scattering goods down the hillsides.

There were many _____ .

Mr. Brewster and the few who owned land sold their possessions. Secretly, arrangements were made with a Dutch ship captain to meet them at the coast and carry them to Amsterdam. There would be no farewells to their neighbors, for their leaving must be kept as quiet as possible.

They were _____ .

"We must call out the hunters from all the countryside," the village people said next. The tiger hunters came, in their blue uniforms and their red-tasseled hats. Their matchlock guns were slung over their shoulders. Their deer horn cases were filled with bullets, and their oilpaper packets of gunpowder were safe and dry inside their sleeves.

They were _____ .

The crescent wrench is popular because it is the most useful adjustable wrench. This wrench has a crescent or C-shaped jaw at one end. The jaw can be adjusted to fit tightly around different size nuts and bolts. The crescent wrench is made in many sizes. They range from tiny pocket size models to very large wrenches two feet long. A crescent wrench can adjust to fit almost any size nut, like the ones used on bicycles.

The crescent wrench is _____ .

In the fall of the year Mrs. Bell's garden glowed with rose, lavender, purple, and white asters. White spider lilies popped like miniature fireworks around the stately white house. Clematis blanketed the iron fence with fragrant stars. I thought that even Henry must have come to see the beauty of it, even if he didn't like to work there.

Mrs. Bell's garden was _____ .

Cooperative ownership combines the advantages of home ownership with the convenience of apartment living. Under the cooperative form of ownership, an apartment building is managed and run as a corporation. The buyer purchases stock in the corporation that runs the building and, thereby, receives an apartment. The value of the apartment determines the amount of stock purchased. The buyer receives a lease that grants them exclusive right to possession of the apartment.

It is meant to be a _____ arrangement

Mars and Venus, Earth's nearest neighbors, are similar in size and composition, but they are very different from Earth. Venus is too hot for liquid water to exist. Radar images from the Magellan spacecraft show a hot, dry planet with high plateaus, long valleys, and rugged mountains. But green plants and blue waters are missing from the landscape.

Venus is _____ .

In 1993, archaeologists in Russia unearthed a magnificent tomb from the bleak, windswept lands of Siberia. It belonged to the ancient Pazyryk people and was hidden far below the ground.

The archaeologists made a(n) _____ .

He lay down on a wide bunk that stretched across the end of the room. In the other end, cracker boxes were made to serve as furniture. They were grouped about the fireplace. A picture from an illustrated weekly was upon the log walls, and three rifles were paralleled on pegs. Equipments hung on handy projections, and some tin dishes lay upon a small pile of firewood. A folded tent was serving as a roof. The sunlight, without, beating upon it, made it glow a light yellow shade. A small window shot an oblique square of whiter light upon the cluttered floor. The smoke from the fire at times neglected the clay chimney and wreathed into the room, and this flimsy chimney of clay and sticks made endless threats to set ablaze the whole establishment.

The living quarters seemed _____ .

One day they saw a bird with green grass in its beak, flying into the bare trees to build a nest. They watched as the bird soared high up into the cliffs to find lush leaves. The elders sent a few young men to climb up and see what lay beyond the cliffs. There they saw streams, green trees, and soft grasses. It was a land rich enough to feed cattle and people for a long time.

The bird had _____ them.

By the summer of 1967, China was on the brink of another civil war. Red Guards had overthrown Party leaders in several provinces. Some Red Guard units had begun looting China's military bases to arm themselves. They fought with workers' groups for control over local governments. Finally even Mao had to admit that his revolution was spinning out of control. After more than a year of bloody chaos, Mao turned against the Red Guards. He publicly accused them of "suspecting everyone and overthrowing everyone." In July 1968 he ordered all Red Guard units to disband.

The Red Guards were _____ .

One day Maria discovered that a neighbor was offering for sale a used blue convertible with low mileage. It was in good shape mechanically, and the price was $300, which made it a pretty reasonable deal. Maria was excited about the idea of working to pay for it. So she got a part-time job and began saving money.

Maria was _____ .

In the West, people think of China as being part of the Far East (it is situated on the eastern side of the vast continent of Asia). The Chinese, however, think of themselves as being in the middle of the world. They call their country "Zhongguo," which means "middle of the world."

Chinese and Westerners have different _____ .

He helped plan the city by using a pattern of crossing streets, called a grid, that would be copied throughout the new land. He gave numbers to all the streets that went in one direction; the streets that went the other way he gave tree names, like Pine and Chestnut and Walnut. Philadelphia is still thought of as a fine example of town planning.

He _____ the city.

I once watched as an adult raccoon investigated my drawing case and its contents. The raccoon's nimble fingers removed and examined every pencil and pen. Each eraser was felt, sniffed, and tasted. I later lost that same drawing case while sketching at the zoo.

The raccoon was _____ .

As the daytime weather grows sunny and warm, the maple trees begin to pump sap up from their roots into their trunks. Sap is the food that helps the trees make their leaves. During the winter, the sap is stored in the roots. In the spring, when the sap flows into the trunk and branches, it wakes the sleeping insects who live inside the tree. As the insects move around, woodpeckers can hear them. The birds tap at the tree to make the insects come out.

Warm temperature causes the sap to _____ up the tree.

The honeyguide bird and the ratel, which is also known as the honey badger, are a good team. The honeyguide bird flies around looking for beehives. When it finds one, it calls out. The honey badger comes running and gets to work. Its tough, furry skin protects it from bee stings while it breaks into the hive. When the badger is done eating what it wants, the honeyguide bird swoops in and eats the rest!

The badger and the bird _____ .