1 . My PhD project is to protect a tiny species of fish, whose color is greenish. To ______eggs, Clanwilliam sandfish (沙鱼) swim to ______tributaries (支流) of the Doring river system in South Africa. Local people say it was once a ______event: The water seemed to change ______ as thousands of sandfish migrated to the shallower tributaries. Now, ______those numbers have reduced to dangerous levels.

My PhD project at South Africa’s University of Cape Town is in ______with a nongovernmental organization in saving sandfish. Human activity, climate change, etc, are drying up the rivers. As newly young sandfish try to ______to the upstream (上游), they now get ______in shallow tributaries. The sandfish population has decreased by more than 90% since we began keeping count. They’re now regarded as ______species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.When the river starts to dry up, we ______young sandfish and put them into buckets of water, then move them by truck to prepared fish nurseries (鱼种场) ______ by local people. The support from local people is amazing. Once the sandfish are large enough to be less threatened, we will ______them to the natural ecosystem.

The data so far show the project has been ______. We’ve ______ about 36,000 young sandfish over the past three years. I’m looking forward to ______those numbers next year.

2 . Of all the men who ever liked fresh air, no one liked it more than Wilson. He often climbed mountains to ________ the fresh air at the top. He drove an open car without a roof. He’d always keep one window ________ in his room.

One ________, Wilson went to Finland on business. The hotel he stayed in was ________. It was warm and quiet. But Wilson got ________ when he found all the windows were closed to keep warm. He tried his best to open one, but ________. The manager had wisely ________ that. No fresh air in the room!

Night came, but Wilson couldn’t fall asleep. Having ________ in bed, Wilson became hot with anger. His hands waved madly in the dark air. Suddenly, he ________ something on the floor. It was his heavy boot! Without thinking, he threw it with all the force. A terrible sound ________ the bedroom. Wilsom calmed down immediately. “Now I should go to ________.” he thought in great ________ and soon fell peacefully asleep.

The next morning, Wilson woke up. He ________ the terrible sound, and opened his eyes to look. The ________ were all in one piece, just as good as the night before. No fresh air was ________ entering the room, since what he broke was his own cup on the table. He felt guilty (内疚的) about his behavior.

3 . Steve Sanders is a dad who suffered from a serious kidney (肾) disease. Although he had been living a ________ life, going to the gym regularly, the doctors warned him that his kidney function was ________ and that he needed dialysis (透析). This made Sanders start a ________ for a kidney donor (捐献器官者) online. After he shared the post, he got ________ from 26 people who began handing in paperwork to become donors, ________ nothing moved beyond that. It could have been that they weren’t matched, or they stopped the process. “I don’t ________ them on that,” Sanders said. “I completely ________.”

One day, Chris, a local shopper, ________ him that told him he wanted to be a kidney donor. ________, Chris ended up being a perfect donor, making Sanders very excited. It was a total ________ for Sanders and he said he was happy that somebody was ________ to give him a chance.

Chris filled out the paperwork and ________ the process after a few weeks. When asked why he chose to donate his kidney, he said that he wanted to ________ what he preached (宣扬) to others on being kind and ________. Chris wanted his kids to grow up and ________ what kindness is.

Once the hospital showed his kidney was a ________ for Sanders, he agreed to receive the operation ________. Sanders was grateful for Chris’s ________. “Chris has made me feel very comfortable not ________ him anything. This is a guy who did this out of love,” Sanders added. After lots of tests, the two dads had the operation in October 2022. It was a(n) ________ transplant (移植) and even after it, they have continued their friendship.

4 . A few years ago, I visited my daughter Sandra and my granddaughters, Jocelyn and Hailey.

One evening I noticed Hailey was a bit unhappy. I asked her what the _______was and she told me that she had to go to bed so _______and she wanted to stay up with me. I asked her if she felt a little _______and she said, “yes” with a pout (噘嘴).

I asked her, “Do you know what Grandpa does when he is feeling sad? I go to my _______ place.”

“Where is your happy place, Grandpa?” Jocelyn _______aloud.

“My happy place is on the inside of your hugs (拥抱),” I replied. “It’s the best place in the world. Don’t ever _______the power of a hug.”

Extra big hugs were _______that night from two of my girls.

The next morning, Sandra was under a bit of pressure to complete an assignment (任务). She lost her _______.

Jocelyn said, “Mom, are you having a _______day?” Sandra replied, “I guess I am, dear. I’m sorry.”

Jocelyn said, “Would you like to go to Grandpa’s happy place?” With that ________her mother in her arms. “Grandpa says this is his ________place.”

After some ________eyes and a heartfelt “I’m sorry,” Sandra returned to ________with a big smile on her face.

I cherish (珍爱) my time with ________and it is good knowing that what is said with ________has an influence on them.

5 . As a 16-year-old student, Charlie has been a successful business owner. When he was in middle school, he ________ the idea of selling coffee. Then he made a lot of ________. He did research on the Internet, tested different kinds of coffee and improved his product. It all seemed ________ but he didn’t give up.

At the same time, he received great support from others in his community, who tried to help him succeed at such a young age. They were ________ by his creativity. And his good coffee became increasingly popular. ________, he set up his own company successfully and he also made a decision to ________ a part of his earnings to benefit others.

Now Charlie is helping to educate and inspire other kids in his community to start their own business. He has been sharing his story with ________ middle school and high school students. His advice is: “Never let your ________ stand in your way; do what you want to do.”

The key to his success is to ________ goals and keep going on. His growing faith also helps him over the course of his business adventure. “You can start a business out of anything. It is more about finding your ________.” Charlie said.

6 . Dr Rabia Sa’id grew up in a polygamous (一夫多妻的) family, which is legal in parts of Nigeria; her father and two mothers had ten children _______ lost three of them.

Her father was a _______, so she attended an Army school, finishing at the _______ of her class.“If you are very _______ in my country, the government will direct you to study science, ” she explained.“I’ve always wanted to get higher education; never wanted to just stay back and be a wife and mother.”

But after high school, she put her _______ on hold.She had three young children and she had to wait. Ten years passed. “Within that time, all my classmates _______ university and were working, and I was just a housewife, and I wanted to be also in their _______, ”she recalled.

She admitted that she felt envious when she saw students who were not nearly as _______ as her in school graduated. When she _______ went back, she did well in the sciences.

Now she ________ as Deputy Dean of Student Affairs at Bayero University Kano and teaches in the Department of Physics. Her research has ________ electronics and space weather physics, and she applies it to local ________ needs, including waste recycling.

She is now ________ a government project to gather atmospheric data. She is now a mother of six children, two with disabilities. She is a role ________ for science education in her community, where girls’ education is ________ to be recognized.

7 . Relaxing under a sun umbrella, I felt comfortable. My friend Chickie went for a swim.

The ocean was as smooth as glass. I thought,“I can float (漂浮) on my back as if I were in a swimming pool.” Then I ______ it. I closed my eyes and ______ the gentle rocking under me.

I floated peacefully until the water under me rolled and splashed (溅起) over my face. I opened my eyes and ______ around. How did I get so far from the ______? I hadn’t realized how ______ the sea was carrying me.

I ______ swimming as quick and hard as I could. I cried for help, but I was completely ______ in the water. Far off on the beach I could see people ______ their umbrellas. I thought, “It must be the time for lifeguards to leave work. I’m going to ______ here and nobody even sees me!”

Two young men suddenly came near me. One of them ______ my arm. The other held his arm. ______ they pulled me toward the beach.

“You were caught in a riptide (激流),” one man said.

“Thank you so much for ______ me,” I said.

Slowly I got up to walk back to my ______. Chickie had come back. I looked back at my ______ and found they had simply disappeared. Then I sat down with my friend to tell her about my ______.

8 . When the weather starts to warm up, we love heading to the beach for a few days. During one such trip, after a few days of being _________ on the beach and spending too much time walking the boardwalk, we decided to go for a _________.

We _________ a car for the day and drove to Key West. Our _________ was to enjoy a scenic drive on Highway 1 and maybe try some pie and head back, but the day _________ to be more memorable than that.

It was a breathtaking drive and we kept our eyes glued to the window. The scenery was _________ and felt like we were driving over water. When we were closer to Key West, _________ my husband-stopped the car, grabbed his camera, and ran out looking up at the sky—_________ me looking at him confused (困惑的).

After a few minutes of looking and pointing at a shiny object in the sky, he was pretty _________ to announce he’d spotted a UFO. I should __________ here that he loves sci-fi movies and UFO shows and strongly __________ we are not alone.

We eventually got back in the __________, stopped at a nearby store, and asked someone in the parking lot, “Do you see that shiny thing in the sky?” The man looked up and __________, “Do you mean that weather blimp (气象飞艇)?” The shiny object in the sky was not an unidentified flying object or alien craft but a weather blimp.

It is one of the short funny travel __________ that always come up when we talk about our __________. It starts with one of the kids saying “Remember the time when Dad thought he saw a UFO...?” and always makes us laugh.

9 . A 15-year-old student has been praised a hero after it was found out that he had saved the life of a man who had suffered a heart attack. Sheng Xiaohan hadn’t told students and teachers the story until the man _________ at the school to thank him.

Sheng recalled he was _________ home at around 9 p.m. after working late at school when he saw a group of people surrounding a man on the ground _________, with a man patting on his back and others calling his name.

When he saw the man was unresponsive, he _________ his pulse and found it was weak and his body _________ “I had learned first aid several times since primary school and the _________ time was during military training,” he said.

He first tried the Heimlich maneuver, but then thought the old man might have _________ a heart attack. He asked people around to give him some _________ and tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). He _________ down on the man’s chest regularly, while asking another man to help with artificial respiration. Someone else called the emergency __________. Sheng kept doing CPR for about six minutes until the ambulance arrived and __________ the man to the hospital.

“I didn’t dare stop or ask others to replace me in case of any __________,” he added. “During the process, he started to breathe again, which gave me the confidence and __________ to go on.”

Sheng said he didn’t feel tired during the process, but afterwards his arms were __________. After the experience, he didn’t treat it as anything out of the __________ as he was a warm-hearted young man always ready to help others.

10 . Jodi and Chase’s family liked to kayak (划皮艇) out to a small cabin down the river. Each summer, the parents always ___________them of the dangerous brown bears nearby.

Today, Jodi and Chase were allowed to___________ahead alone. They put on life vests and started their adventure. After a while, Jodi took a break and laid her paddle ___________her kayak, taking out their sandwiches: smoked salmon with pickled onions.

Chase raised his eyebrows. “We’ll have to___________the fish smell on our hands when we’re done,” he said “We don’t want to smell like a bear’s favorite snack.”

Jodi squinted at him as she ate. “Not funny.”

“I never ___________ about bears.” Chase shrugged.

Shortly, they arrived at the usual stop: a cove (小海湾). Stepping out of their kayaks, they dragged it above the waterline,___________the rope around a tree stump (树桩), and washed their hands in the water.

“You go ahead,” Jodi said. “I need to grab some berries.” Then she got off the road

Walking alone,___________, Jodi sensed movement. She stopped and listened. There was rustling on the far side of the stream. She wanted to ___________down the trail immediately. Would that be a ___________? Just as what Dad had told her?

Then, a giant creature came out from the shadows. Jodi was frozen to the spot, going through a ____________in her mind: round ears, dark fur and a straight body...It’s a black bear! She exhaled slightly, for this kind was less____________But still, she could smell its stinky breath from across the stream,____________it had eaten something rotten (腐烂的).

Yet, as quickly as it had appeared, the bear escaped. Jodi breathed a sigh of____________

When she arrived at cabin, Mom, Dad, and Chase were already there.

“How did it go?” Dad looked __________

Jodi grinned. She did have a____________for them!