“Fire! Fire!” What terrible words to hear when one wakes up in a strange house in the middle of the night! It was a large, old, wooden house and my room was on the top floor. I jumped out of bed, opened the door and stepped outside the house. There was full of thick smoke.
        I began to run, but as I was still only half-awake, ____25___ ________ going towards the stairs£¬I went in the opposite direction. The smoke grew___26____ (thick) and I could see fire all around. The floor became hot under my bare feet. I found an open door and ran into a room to get to the window. But ____27___I could reach it, one of my feet caught in something soft and I fell down. The thing I had fallen over felt like a bundle of clothes, and I picked it up ___28___ (protect) my face from the smoke and heat. Just then the floor gave way under me and I crashed to the floor below with pieces of ____29__ (burn) wood all around me.
   As I reached the cold air outside, my bundle of clothes gave a thin cry. I nearly dropped ___30___in my surprise. Then I was in a crowd gathered in the street. A woman in ___31__ night dress and a borrowed man’s