【推荐1】Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and the rain poured down.

Suddenly, a wail (尖叫) of a steam engine ______ the storm. It was moving closer and would cross Honey Creek Bridge. The old wooden frame (框架) of the bridge began to shake ______ the steam engine started across. When the train reached the halfway point, the bridge ______. Finally, it collapsed, breaking completely apart.

“The bridge collapsed！” Kate shouted to her sick mother. “I've to ______ the station. A train full of ______ is due here.” And then ______ a lantern, Kate raced out into the storm. The ______ way to get there was to ______ the Des Moines River Bridge.

The bridge was little more than two steel rails stretched across narrow wooden strips, which were spaced so far apart that Kate could easily ______ between them. Getting down on her hands and ______， Kate began her dangerous crossing. A strong wind quickly ______   out   the lantern, so Kate had to feel her way in the darkness. Finally, she was ______ across the river!

Kate hurried to the station and burst through the ______. “Honey Creek Bridge is out！” she shouted to the ______. “Stop the passenger train！” Then, extremely ______， she fell to the floor.

Rushing out onto the tracks to give a ______， the stationmaster was just in time to ______ the train.

Years later, a new bridge named Kate Shelley Bridge was built across the river ______ people could always remember the ______ of the girl, Kate Shelley, who ______ her life and saved so many people.

【推荐3】In our discussion with people on how education can help them succeed in life, a woman remembered the first meeting of an introductory science course about 20 years ago.

The professor ________ the lecture hall, placed upon his desk a large jar filled with dried beans (豆),and invited the students to ________ how many beans the jar contained. After ________ shouts of wildly wrong guesses, the professor smiled a thin, dry smile, announced the ________ answer, and went on saying, “You have just learned an important lesson about science. That is: Never ________ your own senses.”

Twenty years later, the woman could guess what the professor had in mind. He ________ himself, perhaps, as inviting his students to start an exciting ________ into all unknown world invisible (无形的) to the eye, which can be discovered only through scientific ________. But the seventeen-year-old girl could not accept or even ________ the invitation. She was just ________ to understand the world. And she believed that her firsthand experience could be the ________. The professor, however said that it was ________. He was taking away her only ________ for knowing and was providing her with no substitute (替代). “I remember feeling small and ________,” the woman says, “and I did the only thing I could do. I ________ the course that afternoon, and I haven’t gone near science since.”

【推荐2】It was a cold January in 1925 in Nome, Alaska. The town was cut off from the rest of the world due to heavy snow.

On the 20^th of that month, Dr. Welch ________ a sick boy, Billy, and knew he had diphtheria, a deadly infectious (传染的) disease mainly affecting children. The children of Nome would be ________ if it struck the town. Dr. Welch needed medicine as soon as possible to stop other kids from getting sick. ________, the closet supply was over 1,000 miles away, in Anchorage.

How could the medicine get to Nome? The town’s ________ was already full of ice, so it couldn’t come by ship. Cars and horses couldn’t travel on the ________ roads. Jet airplanes and big trucks didn’t exist yet.

________ January 26, Billy and three other children had died. Twenty more were sick. Nome’s town officials came up with a plan. They would have the medicine sent by ________ from Anchorage to Nenana. From there, dogsled (狗拉雪橇) drivers—known as “mushers”—would ________ it to Nome in a relay (接力).

The race began on January 27. The first musher, Shannon, picked up the medicine from the train at Nenana and rode all night. ________ he handed the medicine to the next musher, Shannon’s face was black from the extreme cold.

On January 31, a musher named Seppala had to ________ a frozen body of water called Norton Sound. It was the most dangerous part of the journey. Norton Sound was covered with ice, which could sometimes break up without warning. If that happened, Seppala might fall into the icy water below. He would ________, and so would the sick children of Nome. But Seppala made it across.

A huge snowstorm hit on February 1. A musher named Kaasen had to brave this storm. At one point, huge piles of snow blocked his ________. He had to leave the trail (痕迹) to get around them. Conditions were so bad that it was impossible for him to ________ the trail again. The only hope was Balto, Kaasen’s lead dog. Balto put his nose to the ground, ________ to find the smell of other dogs that had travelled on the trail. If Balto failed, it would mean disaster for Nome. The minutes passed by. Suddenly, Balto began to run. He had found the trail.

At 5:30 a.m. on February 2, Kaasen and his dog arrived in Nome. Within minutes, Dr. Welch had the medicine. He quickly gave it to the sick children. All of them recovered.

Nome had been ________.