One day, about ten years ago, while working at the cash register (收银机) in the gift shop at my University Museum of Natural History, I saw {#blank#}1{#/blank#} elderly couple come in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} a little girl in a wheelchair. As I looked closer at this girl, I found that she was {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (fix) on her chair. I then realized she had no arms {#blank#}4{#/blank#} legs, just a head, a neck and upper body, dressed in a little white skirt. As the couple wheeled her up to me, I turned my head toward the girl. When I took the money from her grandparents, I looked back at the girl, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} was giving me the most optimistic, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (large) smile I had ever seen. All of a sudden, her handicap (缺陷) was gone and all I saw was this beautiful girl, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} smile just melted me and almost immediately gave me a {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (complete) new sense of what life is all about. She took me from a poor, unhappy college student and {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (bring) me into her world; a world of smiles, love and {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (warm). I'm a successful business man now and whenever I think about the troubles, I think about that little girl and the remarkable lesson about life that she taught me.

    They had been on {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (we)planets for millions of years, but 2018 was the year several species {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (official)died off forever. Three bird species went extinct this year, two of {#blank#}3{#/blank#}are songbirds from northeastern Brazil. A {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (disturb)trend is that mainland species are starting to go extinct, rather than island species.

    The species {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (wipe)out in the wild resulted from many factors such as the creation of dam and trapping {#blank#}6{#/blank#} trade. Beyond birds, other animals such as the vaquita and the northern white rhino {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (be)near the end. We are currently experiencing the worst species die—offs since the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (lose)of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

    Although extinction is a {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (nature)phenomenon, it occurs at a rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we're now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the rate. In the past 500 years, about 1,000 species {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (go)extinct.