The heart-warming story of Thor

四川雙流中學(xué) 蔣建平

生命的意義，不在于長(zhǎng)短，而在于深度。我愿盡我一生所能，每天都對(duì)你忠誠(chéng)。無(wú)論你貧窮或富貴，無(wú)論你疾病或健康，我都會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)愛(ài)護(hù)你、守護(hù)你，直到死亡將我們分開(kāi)!忠犬索爾的故事令無(wú)數(shù)人感動(dòng)流淚。

題材 人與動(dòng)物 體裁 記敘文文章詞數(shù)316 難度 ★★★ 建議用時(shí)6′

Do you remember the heart-warming story of Hachiko，the Akita Inu who spent nine years in waiting for his owner to return without knowing his 1.?His being faithful to his owner is being challenged by Thor．

In December 2015，Thor's owner died at 58，and his loyal companion fell into sorrow.The owner's family looked after Thor，but they didn't give him the same love and attention.Seeing the miserable dog，a neighbor called Saionara asked if she could take him in，and maybe help him get over the death of his owner.Then under her loving care，Thor started getting better.About a year ago，he started following the same route he had 2.alongside his owner．

Every morning Saionara gets up early，makes his food and then opens the gate for him to take the 3.he was already familiar with.Thor has a good memory，and he stops at all the usual places where his owner used to stay for a while，and lets those who know him pet him on the head.That's become his routine for the last year or so.And it seems that he is waiting for his owner to come back．

Wherever he goes，Thor always receives love and affection.Everyone knows his story and is eager to make his loss more bearable.People stop to pet him.His food and water bowls are always full at the shoe store he walks by every day，and some people even stop to take 4.with the famous dog so that they can have a look at him whenever they want to．

One day，after completing his walk and spending time outside the places his owner used to spend time in，particularly the lottery office，which he visited every day，Thor met his new 5.，Saionara.“I'll tell you that I love him，but I'm also concerned because I'm old.But I'll take good care of him，”she says．

Reading Check

Fill in each blank with only one word according to the context.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Important vocabulary in the text

1.fall into sorrow 陷入悲傷

2.get over 從疾病（或震驚、斷絕關(guān)系等）中恢復(fù)常態(tài)

3.pet...on the head 拍打……的頭

4.routine n.常規(guī)；例程

5.affection n.喜愛(ài)；鐘愛(ài)

6.bearable adj.可忍受的；能應(yīng)付的

7.lottery n.抽彩給獎(jiǎng)法

Ⅱ.Sentences for writing

1.It seems that...“似乎/好像……”，引導(dǎo)名詞性從句

而且，他似乎在等他的主人回來(lái)。

2.wherever“無(wú)論在（到）哪里”，引導(dǎo)讓步狀語(yǔ)從句，相當(dāng)于no matter where

無(wú)論走到哪里，索爾總是受到人們的關(guān)愛(ài)和喜愛(ài)。