1 . “Dad,” I say, “let’s take a trip. Fly and meet me!”

My father had just retired. He was _________ in his job, his thoughts, his life. While he woke up and took a warm shower, I screamed under a freezing waterfall in Peru. My father sees me drifting (游荡) _________, nothing to show for my 33 years but a passport full of funny _________. He wants me to _________, but I want him to find an adventure.

He agrees to travel with me and we meet four weeks later in Rapid City.

“What’s our first stop?” asks my father.

“What time is it?”

“Still don’t have a _________?”

An hour away is Mount Rushmore. As he stares up at the four Presidents carved in granite (花岗岩), “_________,” he says, “How was this done?”

The guide told us Gutzon Borglum _________14 years to the sculpture (雕像) and then left the final touches to his son. We stare up and I ask _________, “Would I ever devote my life to anything?”

No directions, no _________. I used to hear those words in my father’s __________. Now I hear them in my __________.

My father says, “I never __________ much with my father. We loved each other — but never said it. Whatever he could __________ me, he gave.”

That last __________ — it’s probably the same thing I’d say about my father. And what I’d want my child to say about me. I realize — maybe a __________ job won’t be as dull as I feared.

I tell my father I’ve decided to settle down, and I’m wearing a watch.

2 . My husband, our children and I have had wonderful camping experiences over the past ten years.

Some of our memories are ______, especially from the early years when our children were little. Once, we camped along Chalk Creek. I was worried that our 15-month-old boy would ______ the creek (小溪). I ______ a rope around his waist to keep him near to our spot. That ______ about ten minutes. He was uncomfortable, and his ______ let the whole campground know it. So instead of tying him up, I just kept a ______ eye on him. It worked — he didn’t ______ in the creek. My three-year-old, however, did.

Another time, we rented a ______ in Vallecito Lake. The sky was ______ when we headed off, but storms move in fast in the mountains, and this one quickly interrupted our ______ morning trip. The wind picked up and thunder rolled. My husband stopped fishing to start the ______. Nothing. He tried again. No luck. We were stuck in the middle of the ______with a dead motor. As we all sat there helplessly, a fisherman pulled up, ______ us a rope and towed (拖) us back. We were safe.

Now, every year when my husband pulls our camper out of the garage, we are filled with a ______ of excitement, wondering what camping fun and adventure we will ______ next.

5 . Decades ago, I traveled alone for the first time in my life. The trip to Colorado was not for business or family reasons, but just to travel and ________.

As I prepared for it, I felt excited and ________ at the same time. Would it be fun? Would I be bored? Would I stay in bed all day or would I jump with excitement to do the next thing? I wasn’t ________. Little did I know that it was going to be so ________ a journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me, travel is always about the ________: Always thinking of who would ________ what. Because it’s about family time. But when travel ________, who would I connect with? What would I do? Well, I found that I got to do anything I ________!

While traveling, I met locals and also other ________. Honestly, I had conversations ________—on planes, while hiking, in restaurants.

It was quite a(n) ________ experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of adopted kids, a cookie baker, and an internationally ranked marathon runner. The inspiring stories I discovered were ________ and nothing was like my wonderful and ________ life at home. I got to go rock climbing by myself, go hiking solo, and eat ________. And it was all ________, going smoothly. Actually, I felt surprisingly ________.

It was just me, my SUV and my backpack for a week. ________, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t ________ existed. It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are ________ and there is so much more out there to ________ and discover!

6 . Would you drive around the world on a motorbike? Would you do it with a dog_______ behind you the whole way? Jess Stone is doing just that with her dog Moxie.

Stone and Moxie are traveling the world together by_______. Their trip started on March 5 from their home in Guatemala and will_______them through 90 countries.

Moxie is a German shepherd who weighs 34 kilograms and is perfectly_______on the back of a bike. According to Stone, it took the dog just a single weekend to learn how to_______. Sitting on the back of the bike in a motorcycle dog carrier, she looks_______with hot pink goggles (护目镜) to protect her eyes.

Stone could not_______leaving home without her beloved dog, so she decided to travel the world with Moxie. Traveling with a dog,_______, has its limits, such as being_______to dog-friendly accommodations and attractions.

But according to Stone, it’s totally________it. “I see Moxie in my mirror________. Her head is always right up against my side. Sometimes she even________her big nose on my shoulder with her chin up there. It makes me feel so________that she’s really experiencing everything.”

One thing Stone has noticed so far is that no matter which country or area they have gone through, the reaction to Moxie is________. “She just puts a big smile on everybody’s face,” Stone said. “And that’s the part that really________.”

7 . Sitting back in my seat, I can’t quite believe that I’m about to travel along the railway that many foreign experts claimed was “impossible”. The train has been racing along steadily since it left Xining. All this time, the song “Sky Railway” has been_________inside my head. The words “railways like massive dragons are winding among the mountains” seem particularly_________as I travel across the “roof of the world”.

I was one of the people who came from all parts of China to work on this railway._________years to complete, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a record of all of our efforts to_________the most difficult engineering challenges. How to_______the delicate ecosystem was among the top concerns.

The first_________to catch my eye is the splendid Qingshuihe Bridge, the world’s longest bridge built over permafrost. Look! A group of Tibetan antelopes is moving under the bridge, with some stopping to eat grass at their_______. Thirty-three passages have been built under the railway to allow the animals to move safely and freely in their natural_________. Wild animals such as these Tibetan antelopes have now been using these_________for years. They seem totally__________that we are speeding past at over 100 kilometres an hour.

To prevent__________to wetlands and grasslands, 675 bridges with__________about 160 kilometres were built between Golmud and-Lhasa. We even moved 140,000 square metres of wetland to a new area in order to protect its distinct ecosystem.

The journey has been flying by, and before I know it, we have reached Tanggula Station.__________at over 5,000 metres above sea level, this is the__________railway station in the world. In locations such as this, the thin air,__________weather and high levels of UV radiation presented perhaps the greatest__________ for railway workers. To make sure we stayed__________, several oxygen-making stations were constructed. We were also able to enjoy__________breaks in lower areas.

As we pass Cuona Lake, I feel a sense of pride and achievement. Using thousands and thousands of sandbags, we built a twenty-kilometre wall along the lake to protect it from construction waste. Cuona Lake is so close to the railway that I want to__________and touch its pale blue mirror-like surface. Water birds playing in the lake, and cattle and sheep wandering the grasslands bring the scenery to life.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been attracting people’s admiration for centuries. Now, thanks to our efforts, passengers from all over the country have been enjoying these magical landscapes. I am proud that we built our “impossible” railway, and did so with the care that the environment__________. It truly is an extraordinary “Sky Railway”.

10 . It was last year in November that my family and I took our first camping trip. My whole family _______, which was the most important part of the trip for me. My siblings(兄弟姐妹) are grown-ups with different _______, which makes it difficult for us to _______ an activity like this.

We had just set up the tent when it suddenly started raining. _______, we had positioned the tent on a high flat surface where _______ could not come into our tent. Even with the rain, I had never been happier.

While we were all _______ the sound of the rain, my mom cooked a warm meal for the family. Over the dinner, my father told us _______ stories about his childhood, which made us burst into laughter. At night, it was a bit cold. My sisters and I grabbed a _______ and chatted about our daily life. Soon, a hot meal and a good _______ warmed us up.

I realized how ________ it was camping under the sound of the rain. I came to understand why my parents were so ________ about camping.

The next day, we ________ our belongings and headed home. I’m very ________ for this camping trip. Not only did I experience the beauty of the forest, but I also learned that even if the ________ is not the best for camping, we can get used to Mother Nature as a family to make unforgettable ________.