1 . I grew up in northern Arizona, where it has the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Until I was invited to _______Guizhou province by the China Storyteller Partnerships Tour, I realized how _______ Guizhou can be in poetic (有诗意的) detail. There is _______better than seeing things with one’s own eyes. I will attempt to do so here.

My father used to ask my brothers and me on yearly fishing trips around Arizona. We would _______ to catch the largest fish, and those who succeeded would be rewarded. I remembered sitting in a small boat in the middle of the lake, mostly _______ my bored tongue, while my father tried to _______ me the whispers of the wind, or a fish dancing on the surface of the lake. He vividly described to me everything that he _______in nature. On my trip to Guizhou I had the _______ to kayak(皮划艇) on Wanfeng lake. At one point I rested, _______ floating at the center of the lake, listening to the spaces between silence and ________the surrounding karst (喀斯特) mountains. I thought about my childhood, and ________ I had listened more closely to my father’s ________ feelings.

I’ve ________ Arizona for 10 long years, creating my own destiny in China. I’ve managed to build myself a family, a career, and join in ________ activities. I feel as if I have everything I need. For a moment, in Guizhou, I felt ________.

2 . Passion, like life, is about the journey, not the destination. Kimberly and I have been planning a trip to Europe for a year. This was a _________ of ours. We took our friends Frantoise and Stein Eriksen with us.

The most exciting part of the journey started with a train ride that had some curveballs (不顺利). When we were trying to get on a _________ from Zurich to Croatia, we had gotten the departure time wrong and had to _________ around the station to make it in time. We had a tough time finding a taxi to make it to the ship. We finally found a taxi and arrived an hour late. _________, they waited for us.

Once we got onto the ship we _________ it was not like a large hotel with great service. It was a tight quarter. The bathroom was very _________. The shower was a spout (喷头) connected to the bathroom sink. You turned it on and sprayed (喷洒) yourself, along with the rest of the room.

The week-long ship ride was full of _________. There were people from different nationalities speaking different languages. We stopped on islands of all sizes. We bicycled 30-40 kilometers. Then there were high winds — so high that the buses couldn’t run because they might blow over. So we took an expensive taxi, and headed back to make our flight home.

While we loved the more predictable parts of the trip, our real passion was in the _________ — the missed rides, the _________ ship, the mixture of cultures, and even the __________.

Sometimes people are so __________ that it scares them to do something different. __________ when they do get out of their comfort zone, the different experiences they once thought were __________ are what stand out. Mixing things up, trying new things, seeing something through another person’s eyes, being __________ to adventures — this is how you create __________.

3 . The most unforgettable thing during my long summer holiday last year, of course was my trip _______ England. This was my first time to go abroad, so it really made me _______.

There were quite a lot of interesting places in England, _______ Oxford. When we walked around Oxford, we saw quite a lot of ancient buildings on _______ sides of the streets. One of the most famous tourist _______ in Oxford is Christ Church, it’s _______ one of the Oxford University’s 39 colleges. There is a huge hall in Christ Church, _______ was used as the dining hall at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter _______. I felt really excited when I heard this.

_______ place that impressed me ____________ during my trip was a place called Stratford upon Avon. It was a small town. Maybe you haven’t ____________ it, but I’m sure you have heard about William Shakespeare — it’s the great man’s ____________. In Stratford upon Avon, I could ____________ Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Shakespeare Countryside Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and a lot of places that are connected with ______________.

I went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace. It was the house ______________ Shakespeare was born and spent his early years. Its sitting room, hallway (走廊), bedrooms, and kitchen were furnished (布置) in 16th century style. I also went to see the Shakespeare Exhibition. It illustrated (以图解说明) Shakespeare’s life and career in both Stratford and London.

I really enjoyed this nice trip to England, from which I learned a lot. I’m very happy that I could visit such an interesting country. I want to go there again in the future.