1 . Flooding was fairly usual for a Queensland summer. This time, however, there had been a lot of rain and flash flooding further north, which ________ ran down to the river.

My younger brother was getting ________ and thought we should evacuate (撤离). We spent hours trying to ________ him down. The water had never gotten to less than 1 to 2 meters away from our street level. After a few more ________, the water levels were getting much higher than we’d seen before and we thought it best if we moved our cars to the higher ________ just in case it got to the street level. Later, we ________ a lot of furniture and electronics upstairs.

Finally, we decided to ________. The water was getting close to the street level, which only meant another foot from ________ our bottom floor. We left to spend the ________ with my cousin who lived in a neighborhood close by. We heard that the water had ________ further, but had no idea how far as it was dark and we couldn’t see anything from our cousin’s house.

The ________ moment was when we finally got to see our house. There is a high school behind our house, which ________ at the base of this large hill, with an elevated sports oval (高架椭圆形体育场) right behind our house. The water at its ________ was about 2 inches from being level with the oval. We ________ it to survey our house. Seeing water lapping (轻拍) at the windows of our bedroom on the second floor of our house was the most unbelievable ________ I had ever seen.

2 . A growing number of colleges and universities are offering competitive esports (electronic sports) teams. Now some doctors are calling for gamers to be treated like other college athletes, because just like with other sports, they also suffer injuries.

Ryan Harran and Daniel Singh are both university esports team players. “Some days I don’t play at all because of school and work, but when I do play, it could be anywhere from three hours to six hours,“ Harran said. “It is pretty mentally exhausting. There’s certainly eye strain (视疲劳) from just looking so hard,” Singh said.

New research looked at 65 college esports players and found they averaged about 5 to 10 hours of gaming training daily, with many reporting overuse injuries including hand and arm pain and neck and back pain. “Poor posture (姿势) can produce fast-growing pressure on your neck, back and shoulders, ”said study author Dr. Hallie Zwibel. “Eye tiredness is the most commonly reported problem...” Zwibel says players also report sleeplessness due to the blue light from the screens. In fact, esports can be such heavy work that players often retire by the time they’re in their mid-20s.

So far, 80 colleges and universities in the U.S. have esports teams. Researchers say schools need to provide prevention and treatment plans for esports injuries just as they do with traditional athletes. “Nutrition, exercise, and stretches, especially stretches of the eyes to avoid eye tiredness during game play,” Zwibel said. And it’s not just college and university esports athletes who should be careful, and even if you don’t play at that level, Zwibel said, you can still suffer esports injuries like overuse injuries and eye tiredness from video games.

Singh says he keeps all that in mind to be his best on the game day. “I often roll my shoulders back and keep a straight back,” he said, adding that he also tries to do some exercise when he’s offline.

3 . For lots of animals — humans included — lazing about in the sunshine is one of life’s greatest pleasures. But unfortunately, this pleasure comes with a cost: sunburn. And, while those of us with fairer skin are more likely to be sunburned, animals are at risk of sunburn, too. But if this can happen to animals too, why, then, don’t we ever see sunburned whales?

“If you think of it, the sun has been here forever in terms of our planet, and all individuals have been living in the sun,” said Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a molecular epidemiologist from the Autonomous University of Queretaro, in Mexico. “So, it’s a pretty strong pressure that the sun has put on animals and that has led to many mechanisms (机制) of reacting to it.”

Some of these mechanisms are obvious: hair, fur, wool, feathers and scales (鳞) on many creatures create a protective layer between sunshine and skin.

But, “marine mammals (海洋哺乳动物), and specifically cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), are an exception because they don’t have fur; they don’t have scales,” said Acevedo-Whitehouse, who has been studying sunburn in whales for over five years.

In skin examples taken from the backs of blue, sperm and fin whales on their cross-ocean movements, Acevedo-Whitehouse and her colleagues discovered signs of sunburn from the whales’ hours spent breathing and socializing at the surface. But importantly, they also discovered that whales have specialized mechanisms that help them reduce this burn, even making them disappear. “The common adaptation of whales is that they appear to work well at repairing damage,” she said.

Some whales generate colors that darken and protect their skin. There are even whales that have developed a hard, keratinized layer that protects the skin below. “We were excited to see there isn’t really evidence of skin cancer in whales,” Acevedo-Whitehouse said. Now, they’re trying to understand exactly how those self-curing mechanisms work.

4 . When Marguerite Richards post a TikTok (抖音) video about her father's decade-old thriller novel, she was hoping to inspire a little interest. A few dozen new readers, maybe. As the first few positive comments started rolling in, she was pleased to have done something nice for a dad who definitely deserved it.

She had no idea that, within days, millions of people would see her video, and her father's book would rise to the top of Amazon's Best Seller list.

Lloyd Richards first published Stone Maidens in 2012. It's a thriller about an   FBI agent following a killer in Indiana and, by his daughter's account, it's quite attractive. However, his original release (出版,发行) failed to drum up excitement.

It's a different world now, with social media making somebody and something rise to fame overnight. Richards, the daughter, decided to try her luck.   “I saw how much time and effort and passion my dad put into his book. I know what a lovely storyteller he is,”   she told CNN.“ He never stopped writing, and he always stayed positive.”

Whether it was the interesting thriller, or the efforts of a proud daughter, the story of Lloyd Richards and Stone Maidens struck a chord.

Marguerite Richards posted the first TikTok about Stone Maidens about two weeks ago. It has since received 48 million views and numerous positive responses.   After that, Richards posted more videos of her father, delighting in his unexpected success.

“My dad wasn't really sure what TikTok is, but he has been so pleased and grateful,”   Richards says. The experience has breathed new life into a labor of love.   Now, Lloyd Richards has more than 360,000 TikTok followers and a brand new story to tell. He has plans for the future, too.

7 . Our son Jason was born with cerebral palsy (脑瘫). My wife and I often comforted him as he faced many _________ in his early years.

It was _________ to see him chosen last for baseball regularly, _________ he was happy and well _________ by his peers (同龄人) throughout primary school. His most _________ time came when he began high school. One afternoon, he returned home with _________. He threw his bag on the floor, shouting angrily, “I’ll never go to school again!” He was _________ with food other kids had thrown at him on the way home. He didn’t tell us what had happened until later.

Several days earlier, he had _________ the school running team. That day, a few older students made fun of his _________ on the track and made him the target of their one­sided__________ fight. I called the headmaster about the matter and it never happened again. He stayed on the team __________ trouble continued.

One day in October, we had snow and freezing rain.As the other kids exercised in the gym, they noticed Jason jogging around the snow­covered __________. A few weeks later, he told us each month students __________ an “athlete of the month”. The coach would list the top athletes, and students voted for the winner. Jason’s __________ had never been listed. But that day, one of the students said, “I’d like to nominate (提名) Jason for the athlete of the month, sir!” The coach looked __________

“He works harder than any of us, sir,” the student continued.

“But we’ll have to have someone __________ the nomination”, the coach replied.

Tears formed in Jason’s eyes as he told us what happened next.“Mom, Dad, everyone in the class __________ their hand.”

We, also in tears, looked at him as he__________ showed his certificate.

Whenever I despair, I think of this story. I __________ myself that challenges are not overcome by force, but by patience,__________ and faith.

8 . When I was a little boy, my parents and I lived in my grandma’s old house. It was _______ by four huge vegetable gardens. In the spring and summer, it was so _______ there with some colorful flowers. That wasn’t all, though.

On the back porch Grandma had dozens of potted plants. She watered them, talked to them and _______ them. And in the winter she would _______ them all inside and set them on shelves near the _______ to get some light. There with a lot of love she kept them growing even during the _______ months.

As a boy I was _______ by all the hard work she put into them. I _______ the vegetables she grew, as they helped to _______ the family all winter long. However, I couldn’t understand why she put so much __________ into looking after those potted plants. They didn’t ________ us any food and they rarely had any flowers. It ________a mystery (奥秘) to me for a long time.

Now as a(n)________, I can finally understand why Grandma had those potted plants. It is the ________ reason I have so many pictures of sunrises and forests hanging in my house. They tell me that light, love, and growth still ________ during the dark winter. They make me know that spring will come again and that's what I always say to my son.

Today I ________ Grandma’s potted plants in a new light. Every bit of her ________ for them is worth it. But my greatest ________ of light and love is Grandma herself. She is light to my soul ________ in the darkest times. And her love will live ________ though she passed away years ago.