2 . Borneo is home to some of the most extraordinary wildlife. Several years ago, I decided to go there for a visit. A local person offered to be my guide, which was a great bonus for me.

One day, my guide turned off the smooth road and took me across a ________ hillside instead. We picked our way carefully when ________, a Rafflesia (大王花) popped into my view among those stones. Oh, dear! More than ________, I bent down and put my nose practically inside the flower’s core.

________, to my surprise, it was only one of the ________ during the trip.

As I ________ the end of my trip, there was still something I had yet to see. We planned to ________ most feared creature there, the saltwater crocodile, which can grow to a ________ of 6 meters or more. When we shone a flashlight towards the muddy shore, little sounds ________ in the darkness as if something unseen underwater had broken the ________ Taking a second look, we spotted two greedy ________ just above the water line. As we drew near, it ________ and we saw clearly it was a crocodile. With great caution, we neared it and finally could ________ its true dimensions. It was a baby-no more than 0. 6 meter long. Aha, whatever, I could now report to the ________ back home, who had never been to Borneo, that I had ________ a hungry crocodile in the wild and lived to tell the tale.

The world out there is so fascinating. Don’t let work run your life. Why not step outdoors and enjoy the wonders nature offers to you?

4 . In 2008, I traveled to a remote region in southwest China to tell the story about the Nu River. The word “Nu” means “angry” in Chinese. Here many ________ lived in the mountains along the narrow river. There were ________ bridges over the river and most people from the villages had to ________ it by zip lines (滑索).

I went to a place closest to a town on a market day. When I got there, a stream of people was already crossing over the ________ waters of the river. They did it ________ or in pairs. Some of them even went with ________ in their arms, such as chickens and pigs. I even saw a goat.

With a camera around my neck, I hooked onto the return line and moved forward until I ________ midway above the river. The waters did look angry below me.

Hanging over the river, I ________ people crossing until those waiting to return home became very ________ . I pulled myself back to the roadside to let them pass, and then hooked onto the line again for another try. Suddenly, I saw a group of people were heading toward the zip lines with a ________!

“What’s the angle? “I asked myself, as I ________ my position. I wanted the river waters in the picture but that was not easy to do. Before I could check all the ________ they tied a rope around the cow, hooked it on the line, and gave it a push. Kicking its legs in the air, the cow ________ the steep line above the angry river.

I reached the line’s end just as the cow closed in. For a second, my camera was in the cow’s face. The view was ________ —completed by the angry river below.

Nowadays, these zip lines have been ________ by modern bridges and government housing projects have been designed to encourage the people to move down to the riversides.

6 . I grew up in Michigan and have loved boats since I was young. I’d go out on my dad’s fishing boat, and every birthday I’d get a miniature boat with a viewing window. In Michigan, we’re _________ by lakes and I soon discovered that I loved diving and _________ skipped school days for the beach.

Three years ago, I _________ put forward an idea of running glass-bottom boat tours to an investor. It started in 2018. At present, My sons _________, manning the deck(甲板)and phones. We head out on the Cheboygan river and Lake Huron. We sail past lots of places of_________, with a historian on board explaining the history. We often scan the river to see what we can find.

One weekend this year, I met a _________ client. I thought I should find something to show him and managed to find a giant shell. Then I saw a green bottle. I swam to my boat, took a photo and then opened the bottle. It was full of water and had a paper inside. I _________ the paper and saw the date —November 1926. We were all amazed. The note_________: “Return this paper to George Morrow.” I was so excited to have found it.

We made sure to keep the paper safe. Before leaving the harbor, I posted a picture on my Facebook page and didn’t expect what followed.

The next morning, my phone _________ with messages. While I was driving home, I got a phone call from Michele Primeau. She told me she was George Morrow’s daughter. I didn’t believe her __________. She said her dad would float notes in bottles when he went on vacation or __________ them in walls when redecorating. She __________ he had posted this one on his 18th birthday.

In autumn, Michele came to visit. She brought some of his writing and the handwriting matched. She __________ I keep the message and the bottle.

It now sits in a display case in my shop. That Facebook post now has 87,000 __________. In a hard year, the discovery has brought purejoy.__________a Scuba diver(水肺潜水员), this feels like a lifetime achievement.

7 . Who’d let a stranger stay with them? A lot of people, as you can see.

If ever any anxiety existed – and there is always a sense of anxiety when ________ into the unknown – it disappeared when my first host met me at the train station in Helsinki. Ari looked like my idea of a ________ Finn: tall, golden hair, and blue-eyed. However, Finns were also supposed to be ________ reserved. Ari was anything but. He was lively, _________ me a warm welcome and hiking with me to his apartment, _________ he showed me the sleeper sofa, served me tea, and also handed me a _________ with an instruction to come and go as I pleased. If this was what couch surfing was all about – ________ and welcome, then I had gotten off to an impressive start.

I quickly discovered one of the bitter-sweet aspects of couch surfing: having to say goodbye so soon _________ getting to know somebody. _________, I had miles to go before I slept, and so, after two days, I _________ to my train and the coastal city of Turku, where my next host, Juri, met me. Thin and wild-haired, Juri was the anti-Ari, but no less __________. He wanted to hang out and _________ a big part of his day to showing me around his city. In another city, a family of five received me like a long-lost _________, and chatted with me into the night. Now they are always asking when I will be _________.

As I boarded my next train for the north of the country, I began to think about this couch-surfing idea. What __________ these people to open their homes to strangers? I _______ that there was a burning curiosity, but also a wish to _________ to those in need and lend a hand to like-minded folks who might, at some level, _________ their own lives.   

Before I left for my Finland adventure a friend asked, “Aren’t you afraid?” I wasn’t sure of an ______ response then, but I am now: Of what? If couch surfing taught me anything, it’s this: Most people are good. Most people are generous. And there is a basic human tendency to __________.

8 . When my father and I traveled to Paris, Notre Dame was our first stop. But when we arrived at Notre Dame, we saw a long line outside it. Even so, we didn’t want to _________. We decided to go to the back garden of Notre Dame where there were few tourists.

Immersed in the beautiful natural scenery, we wanted to take some _________ photos. As we tried to find a photographer, a tall, slim Frenchman _________ toward us and showed us he was willing to take pictures for us.

Trying to get the perfect shot, he kept changing the _________ of the camera. However, after a few _________, he didn’t return our camera. His behavior confused us. But after a while, it became _________. He asked for 10 euros as payment before he would return our camera.

At that point, I was so angry that I _________ to argue with him. But my father stopped me and paid the money, with a(n)_________ expression on his face, the man walked away quickly to search for his next _________.

Later, my father __________ to me: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. So it’s __________ to ask for a payment after taking photos for us. But if someone offers to help you, never __________ the kindness just because of this particular event. Most acts of kindness are pure and without any __________ intention.

__________, we met a lot of warm-hearted locals who guided us and lent a hand when we needed them. So just remember, we can’t throw away the __________ because of its core.

9 . Considered a symbol( 象征) of ancient Chinese_________, the Great Wall of China was enlisted in the World Heritage by the UNESCO in 1987 as one of the _________of the world. Just like a huge_________, the Great Wall winds( 蜿蜒) its way up and down from east to west, across deserts, over mountains, _________ valleys till at last it reaches the sea, with a _________of more than 6000 kilometers.

No one can tell for sure when the building of the Great Wall was _________, but it is popularly believed that the Great Wall was first built over 2500 years   ago during   the West   Zhou Dynasty to _________ the nation against the northern tribes( 部落). Emperor Qin Shihuang united the different small countries into one _________. To keep the enemies out, he had all the walls _________ up; thus, the great wall came into being. It had been playing an important _________ in wars in ancient Chinese history. It was very _________ work to build such a wall in the ancient days without any modern machines, as all the work was done by _________. Thousands of men died and were _________under the wall they built. Some parts of the Great Wall are now in _________ or even entirely disappeared.

Today the Great Wall has become a _________ for every visitor to China. Many of them have come to know the famous Chinese saying:“He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a true man.”