Here’s a story about Ming’s life on the waters. Ming has lived all his life on a wide r_1___ in china. His home is a large house-boat with a roof, one of hundreds that move up and down. In about six years he has not once been on l___2__ but he is never lonely. He is a strong swimmer. In fact, he could swim before he could walk. When he wants to play with his f__3 __he just swims across to their boats or asks them to v__4__him.

Ming’s father is a fisherman, but he never u__5__a line or a net（网）. Great black birds called cormorants do the fishing for him. Rings（圈）have been put around the birds’ n  6   so that they cannot eat the fish they catch. They have been t to bring the fish to people. And then people reward（奖励）them with a fine big fish as soon    t__7__as their work is f    __8__ Ming loves watching the cormorants, but better still he likes going s   __9__with his mother. The shops, of course, are boats very like his o   __10__  .

Can animals be made to work for people? Some scientists think that one day animals may be trained（训练）to do a number of simple jobs i___1__of people. They say that at a circus（杂技场）,for example, we may see elephants, monkeys, dogs and other animals doing q___2__skillful（熟练的）things. Perhaps you have seen them on the television or in a film. If you watch closely, you may find that the trainer（驯兽员）always g__3 __the animal some sugar o__4 __a piece of fruit as a reward（报酬）. The scientists say that many d__5__animals may be trained to do a lot of simple things if they know they will get a reward f__6__doing that.

Of course, as we know, dogs can be trained to look after a house, and soldiers in both old and modern t__7__have u__8__geese to give warning（警报）by m__9__a lot of noise when an enemy comes near. And also it may be possible to train animals to work in families orf__10__.