【推荐1】While so many birds visit our leafy garden every year, it’s the pair of tawny frogmouths (茶色夜鹰) that have been returning for years to _________ their young that bring the most excitement. It’s been wonderful to observe how both parents take on the _________ duty of caring for their young.

Last summer the frogmouth family, parents and two babies, was _________ sitting in a tree close to our back deck _________ the late afternoon sunshine. With little _________, dark clouds emerged, and _________ rain began to fall.

At first the birds seemed to enjoy the rain and moved out along the branch, fluffing up (抖开) their feathers to _________ the wet weather. But within minutes, day turned to night. Dark clouds brought a _________ heavy storm; crashing thunder and blinding lightning, wild winds and driving rain turned the garden into a(n) _________ place for the little family.

Through the flashes of lightning, we watched in __________ as the parents guided their young back along the branch until they were all gathered close to the tree trunk, both parents spreading their wings over their young to __________ them from the rain. When the storm passed, the family walked __________ out along the branch and spread their wings to enjoy the sunshine.

When I look up at the pair of tawny frogmouths who continue to __________ our garden, I know I’m not just looking at __________ parents, but very __________ ones.

【推荐3】Five years ago, I was a trail ride leader at a holiday farm in Victoria. My favourite horse was a warmblood called Holly, a chestnut mare. Aged seven, she was _________ sweet-natured and well-trained; the only_________ with Holly was her vivid imagination. I was constantly surprised by Holly’s ability to be _________ by rabbits, the wind or even shadows——sometimes her own shadow!

One day, as we headed back from a ride on the beach, Holly and I were _________ the way over the hilly area. When we got to one particularly long, steep hill, Holly began to twitch(抽动) her ears and step in place. So, when she_________ to sniff(嗅) and give all the _________ that she believed the ‘horse-eating monsters’ were close, I became a little worried.

At the bottom of the hill as we rounded a corner, Holly _________ with caution, and so I followed her gaze to the path ahead. There, sunny itself in the middle of the track, was a brown _________. This time it was my _________ to get scared; I was on a nervous horse, leading a group of eight inexperienced pre-teen riders. Unexpectedly, Holly firmly__________   ears forward. With the snake in her sight, she was no longer frightened.

I have heard that horses have a better sense of__________ than dogs. I hadn’t seen it __________ before that moment. __________ , while we waited in reality for just a second or two but for what felt like a century—the snake awoke and glided calmly off into the bush.

Holly then __________ ,leading the horses with caution and care. She had been alert to danger and had been __________ for the safety of us all. Following in the footsteps of their lead mare, not one of the other horses showed any fear.

【推荐1】Melbourne Girls' College is getting rid of all dustbins and asking students to take their rubbish home to encourage them to move towards zero waste.

Starting next Monday, the college will gradually_______all the rubbish bins in five weeks in classrooms and the yard, _________1400 students and 140 staff to find their own home for chip packets and juice boxes. Volunteer students will _______ daily non- compulsory food inspections in which children bringing “zero waste" lunch boxes will be _______. Students using only _______ packaging will receive a token (礼券）to win prizes such as keepcups.

The rubbish that students take home may still go to landfill(废物填埋场）via their home bins, _______the new policy will help persuade_______to buy fewer packaged items and reuse containers. Most issues around carrying rubbish home, such as smell and mess, can be solved._______tuna （金枪鱼）in a tin, for example, can_______ the school's compost（堆肥）bin and the tin can be __________ before it's taken home.

The college principal Karen Money acknowledges that some parents may not have the time or means to avoid   ________ in single-use packaging, “but it's________to get as many people as we can to avoid it. We talk a lot, ________ educators, about the bad problems the world ________, and if we don't start putting some actions ________ that beautiful idea, then it's just empty."

【推荐2】NASA scientists have found evidence of flowing water on Mars. This opens up the possibility of___ and wonders we can’t begin to imagine. The____undoubtedly is an astonishing achievement.

We may be excited by the thought of living things on another ______, but we seem to have lost _______in our own. In the past four decades, the world has____50% of its vertebrate( 脊 椎 )wildlife. But across the latter half of this period, there has been a steep___ in media coverage (报道)of the subject.

Think of what would change if we valued_____ on the earth as much as we value the possibility water   on Mars._____ 3% of the water on this planet is fresh and of that, two-thirds is frozen. Yet we lay waste to   the ___part. Sixty percent of the water used in farming is____by careless irrigation. Rivers, lakes and aquifers ( 地 下 蓄 水 层 )are sucked dry, while what remains is often so bad that it____the lives of those who drink it. As for salty water, which so______us   when apparently detected on Mars, however,   on Earth,   we express our___ by destroying it. A new report suggests fish numbers have   halved since   1970. Coral   reefs are under such___ that most could be gone by 2050.

A couple of weeks ago, I launched a column focusing on extreme consumption, and___ suggestions. They have flooded in. Here are just a few of the _____:wigs(假发)for babies, to allow “baby girls with little or no ___at all the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic hair style”; The iPotty, which _____little   children to keep playing while toilet training; a smartphone for dogs to take pictures of themselves....

As clever new ways of wasting stuff are continually___ , we become more and more used to the___ consumption of the world’s precious resources. Isn’t it time for us to have second thoughts about our lifestyle?

【推荐3】In our modern world, when something wears out, we throw it away and buy a new one. The _________   is that countries around the world have growing mountains of _________ because people are throwing out more rubbish than ever before.

How did we become a throwaway society? First of all, it is now easier to_________ an object than to spend time and money to repair it. Thanks to modern manufacturing (制造业) and technology, companies are able to produce products quickly and inexpensively. Products are plentiful and _________.

Another cause is our_________ of disposable (一次性的) products. As _________ people, we are always looking for ways to save time and make our lives easier. Companies _________ thousands of different kinds of disposable products: paper plates, plastic cups, and cameras, to name a few.

Our appetite for new products also_________ to the problem. We are addicted to buying new things. Advertisements persuade us that _________ is better and that we will be happier with the latest products. The result is that we __________ useful possessions to make room for new ones.

All around the world, we can see the__________ of this throwaway lifestyle. Mountains of rubbish just keep getting bigger. To __________ the amount of rubbish and to protect the __________, more governments are requiring people to recycle materials. __________, this is not enough to solve our problem.

Maybe there is another way out. We need to repair our possessions instead of throwing them away. We also need to rethink our attitudes about__________. Repairing our possessions and changing our spending habits may be the best way to reduce the amount of rubbish and take care of our environment.

【推荐2】On September 3, 1928, Alexander Fleming was hard at work. His _______ was to study bacteria in a lab. While working, Fleming found mold (霉菌) on one of his Petri dishes. And when he looked _______, he saw something _______. The bacteria he studied were also _______ all over the dish, but they weren't growing on the spots that had mold. He _______ whether the bacteria were driven away by the mold. After more tests, Fleming found that it was doing just that. And he learned that the mold was a _______ called Penicillium.

Fleming believed that he could turn the mold into medicine to _______ infections. This medicine was the world's first antibiotic (抗生素). Fleming first _______ it “mold juice.” Later, he _______ the name to “penicillin.” Soon, a team at Oxford University ________ to help. Scientists Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley worked with Fleming. Together, they further ________ penicillin.

The first patient treated with the new drug had a bad ________. His name was Albert Alexander. After a few ________ with penicillin, he felt much better. However, they ________ the medicine. The infection came back, and ________ Alexander passed away. Still, the doctors had learned that penicillin could fight bacteria. They just needed to ________ more of it. Later, Florey and Chain flew to the United States. There, they found ways to grow the mold ________. Starting in 1942, penicillin was used to treat World War Ⅱ soldiers.

At that time, diseases were just as ________ for soldiers at war as enemy forces were. Bacterial pneumonia (肺炎) alone ________ 18% of American soldiers to die in the first World War. Thanks to penicillin, that ________ to less than one percent in World War Ⅱ.

The four scientists saved lives and changed the world of medicine forever. Today, antibiotics are used to treat many illnesses.

【推荐3】In order to test whether lookers-on are willing to give a hand to someone in trouble, in 1985 a France television company sent its reporters to the Paris Subway. They took cameras to see what _______ would do if they saw someone _______ on the platform or trains. The incidents looked _______ but they were all done with the help of actors. However, _______ people tried to help, and most passengers _______ not to notice. In one of the incidents, a foreigner was attacked by three men. The attack was on a _______ which was quite full, and _______ the man tried to get the other passengers to help, they all _______ his request . This is not only a French problem. A British newspaper reported in 1991 that a(n) _______ of Social Psychology in New York had sent his students out to ________ their own cars. The students didn't try to ________what they were doing. About 80 people ________ 250 car thefts, and only twelve of them tried to ________ the student robbers. In a typical ________ , one man stopped, looked, and then put his hands __________ his eyes , shouting “I didn't see that!”About forty people ________ to help the thieves, and two people ________ sat down next to the car and waited to buy a camera and television set that a ________ was taking from the back seat of his own car. The professor wonders whether it's a problem of ________ cities or would be the same thing as happens ________ .