Science seems to be getting closer to answering a very old mystery．Homing pigeons can be
1 hundreds of miles from their homes．When they are let to go to 2 again, they find their way home．Because of this special ability to 3 , pigeons have been used 4 messengers for hundreds of years．
Today people even breed homing pigeons for 5 at a sport．The birds are shipped to some chosen 6 a few hundred miles away．Then all of them are let to go together．The winner is the bird that gets home 7 ．A good race can make it home from 500 miles away 8 a single day．
The mystery of the homing pigeons is how they 9 directions and how they find home．The first part seems to be pretty well 10 , and we know of two ways that pigeons tell directions．First, they use the sun．Experiments show that homing pigeons can tell 11 by the sun．What happens when the 12 is darkly overcoat by clouds and no one can 13 where the sun is? Then the pigeons still find their way home．
Naturally, people have wondered whether pigeons might have a built-in compass 14 that would tell them about the direction of the 15 magnetic(磁的)field．Many different kinds of experiments were 16 ．Here’s what the scientists decided 17 they had made experiments many times．When pigeons can see the sun, they use it as their 18 means of direction-finding．When they can’t see the sun, they use some 19 way to sense direction from the earth’s magnetic field．
But how do pigeons know 20 direction is toward home? What do they use that we would call a map? These are other questions to be answered．
As my wife greeted me one evening, her voice came through the door,“Guess what?”
I always take a deep 1 on this very leading question．“What?”I asked．
“I just won a sales contest at work and the 2 is dinner for two at the new fancy restaurant down by the river-front!”
She was so 3 ．We knew the restaurant was extremely good．“See?I told you there would be a 4 for me to wear my new spring outfit,”she shyly reminded me．
“ 5 can play at that game,”I responded．“I will wear my gray suit, my Borsalino imported straw hat and a new silk tie．We will be well 6 ．”
It was early 7 and nearing dusk as the waiter took us to a table by a window, with a(n) 8 of the river．And the table was 9 set, with a smoke-gray tablecloth and bright colored napkins．
A delicious meal 10 in such an atmosphere should be remembered a long time．As it 11 , this will probably never be forgotten．
As the shadows lengthened, the 12 rocking by the riverbank, I murmured,“Why not take a walk?”
Hand in hand, we walked by the stores．People smiled and nodded．“I 13 realized there were so many 14 people as we have seen this evening, dear,”I observed．
“Probably your new straw hat or your 15 ,”she said．
After receiving many smiles, we 16 ourselves back at the restaurant, looking at ourselves in the 17 ．It was then that I saw the 18 for all the smiles．
Caught in the fly of my trousers and 19 down for all to see was a bright red 20 from the restaurant!
When I was a little girl, every Sunday my family of six would put on our best clothes and go to Sunday School and then church．The 1 in elementary school would all meet together to sing songs, and then later divide into 2 based on their ages．
One Easter Sunday, all the kids 3 with big eyes and big 4 about what the Easter Bunny(复活节小兔)had brought． 5 all of the kids shared their stories with 6 , one young boy , whom I shall call Bobby, sat 7 ．One of the teachers , noticing this, said to him, “And what did the Easter Bunny 8 you?”He replied, “My mom 9 the door by accident so the Easter Bunny couldn't get 10 because he hadn't got a key．”
This sounded like a 11 idea to all of us kids, so we kept on going with the stories．My mom knew the true story, 12 ．Bobby's mom was a single parent , and she suspected(怀疑)that they just couldn't 13 the Easter Bunny．
After Sunday School was over, everyone went off to 14 ．But my mom announced that we were going home 15 ．At home, she explained that to make Bobby feel 16 , we were going to pretend(假装)to be the Easter Bunny , make a basket of our candies for him and 17 it at church．We all donated(捐赠)some to the basket, and 18 back to church．There, mom hung the basket over the hanger(挂钩)and attached(附上)a(n) 19 ：
Dear Bobby,
I'm sorry I 20 your house last night．Happy Easter．
