I carried the parrot in both hands. I didn't know if it was a good idea. I was afraid I would drop it. I was afraid it would start jumping around. But it didn't. It lay very still in my hands.

The parrot was _________.

Wilbur walked up to the fence and saw that the goose was right - one board was loose. He put his head down, shut his eyes, and pushed. The board gave way. In a minute he had squeezed through the fence and was standing in the long grass outside his yard. The goose chuckled.

Wilbur had __________.

He took out the contest application and looked it over carefully. There were just a few blanks left to fill in. In crips, block letters, he printed the missing information. The he carefully folded the application and put it into the envelope. He didn't lick it and seal it because he still needed the check.

He will __________ the contest.

The huge tanker slowly sailed out into Prince William Sound. And then, suddenly, it happened. CRUNCH! The ship slammed into an underwater reef! Thick, black oil flowed out of the Exxon Valdez's smashed tanks. It poured into the dark water.

There was a(n) _____________.

Mrs. DeWitt leaned over me and stared at my little bits of cake floating in melted ice cream. "Don't you feel good, Molly?" she asked in a gentle voice.

Mrs. DeWitt was ___________.

They spread old quilts over the carrot bins. They hid their cabbages and potatoes under the beds. They hung their meat in the cellars.

The food was kept _________.

Cumulonimbus clouds are thunderstorm "factories". Inside them, water droplets combine to form larger drops. Soon the drops become too heavy to float on the air. They fall as rain or hail. Ancient cultures came up with their own explanations for the formation of lightning and thunder. The Vikings believed that lightning struck when Thor, the god of weather, threw down his great hammer. Thunder rumbled when his chariot collided with storms clouds.

People sought to explain the storms' ___________.

Benjamin Franklin helped set up Philadelphia's first fire and police departments. He helped start the first lending library and the first hospital in America. He was made postmaster of Philadelphia and later postmaster of all thirteen colonies.

Benjamin had many _________.

One fascinating animal that can be found only on Murre Island is the Rapul bat. Many of these long-eared, pale-gray bats live in the caves on Mount Rapul. After dark, they can be seen picking insects from bark and leaves.

These bats are __________.