1 .

It was a Sunday afternoon in May. Paul Blachut was busy working at a restaurant in scenic Augsburg, Germany. Many tourists came for food at the pretty place beside the river, where the meltwater was cold at this time of year.

A mother and her daughter were _______ the cooling water by the riverbank. They were playing with an inflatable tube happily when _______ the girl lost her footing and was caught in the river’s current. It happened so fast that the girl desperately grabbed (抓) on to the tube, which her mother was sitting in, throwing her into the river, too.

Blachut heard the sudden shout, “Two women are drowning in the river!” Then he hurried to the _______ , where he spotted them trying to grab anything they could. He was horrified to see that one of them kept sinking. Blachut’s mind _______ , “How can I help them?” _______ having no lifesaving training, he rushed down to the riverbank. Quickly he _______ his T-shirt and jumped into the river. He didn’t care about the cold; all he could think about was saving the women. It was obvious they were _______ .

As Blachut got closer to them, he could _______ that the mother seemed to be in the most trouble. She was drowning. He _______ a film in which a lifeguard grabbed a drowning victim’s body, pulling the person ashore while swimming on his back. Blachut tried this, but the woman’s clothing made her so ________ ; he kept being dragged under, too. He needed a new ________. He quickly dived under the drowning woman, ________ her upward and using that momentum (水势) to take her toward the shore. At that time, an onlooker was able to ________ the woman’s hand, pulling her ashore. Then Blachut jumped into the river again. He swam downstream, got hold of the daughter, and was able to get her out in the same way, too.

Several onlookers expressed their ________ for Blachut following the incident. However, Blachut was ________ about his role, “The whole rescue only took several minutes and I am happy to receive your praise.”