Ben could hear strong winds outside his home in Alabama．Black （1）

clouds

clouds

（cloud） were making the sky very dark．With no light outside，it felt like midnight．The news （2）

on

on

TV reported that a heavy rainstorm was in the area．
    Ben （3）

was helping

was helping

（help）his mom make dinner when the rain began to beat（4）

heavily

heavily

（heavy） against the window．After dinner，they tried to play a card game， （5）

but

but

it was hard to have fun with a serious storm happening outside．
    Ben could not sleep at first．He finally fell asleep when the wind was dying down at around 3：00 a．m．When he woke up，the sun （6）

was rising

was rising

（rise）．He went outside with his family and found the neighborhood in （7）

a

a

mess． （8）

Fallen

Fallen

（fall） trees，broken windows and rubbish were everywhere．They joined the neighbors （9）

to help

to help

（help） clean up the neighborhood together．Although the storm （10）

broke

broke

（break） many things apart（分離），it brought families and neighbors closer together．