Directions: Fill in the blanks

Use your own words and phrases, or scroll to the end of the post to choose from a scrambled list of the words or phrases that were removed. Another option? Read, or listen to someone read, the original article first, then fill in the blanks from memory.

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LIKE her name, Siglinda Scarpa seems to be from another world. And not just Italy, _______ she was born. But one in which you can ______ the animals speak, and everyone gets along.
Ms. Scarpa, 72, lives in a wooden house painted robin’s egg blue, in the middle of an open woodland, with old oaks and pines ______ over sandy soil. With its second-story porches covered with the canes of Lady Banks’ roses, Carolina jasmine and wisteria, the house could be ______ out of a children’s book.
Some people come here to adopt a cat from the Goathouse Refuge, the animal _______ she runs, tucked back in the woods. Others come to buy her pottery or ceramic art, which is _______ in the sunny showroom on the first floor of this whimsical house: abstract pieces that _______ storms brewing in the sky; clay roasting pots shaped like squashes, with frogs or artichokes on their lids; or teacups molded like the _______ of a cat, the lines of cheek and jaw, nose and mouth drawn by a knowing hand.
_______ there are real cats everywhere.
A white one sits as _______ as a snowy owl on a post overlooking the woodland. Others walk _______ dogs napping in the sun. More _______ on the railing of a porch, staring at the birds zooming in and out of feeders _______ their reach.
_______ in a while the cry of a guinea hen or a turkey rends the air. Pecking for bugs around a garden full of greens, they, too, are _______ of the sleeping dogs — although those dogs came immediately to attention when I opened the creaking gate, joyfully barking and wagging their tails.
“Umbra!” a voice shouted from above. “Musa! Solé!”
Ms. Scarpa, a tiny woman who is _______ five feet and as slim as a reed, with gray hair knotted over a moon-shaped face, appeared at the top of the porch stairs.

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• perch
• where
• face
• For
• barely
• displayed
• beyond
• rising

• unafraid
• hear
• evoke
• Once
• something
• among
• still
• sanctuary