4 . Friends always ask why I, a middle-aged woman with no athletic (运动) talent (天赋), travel to perilous places — the jungles (丛林) of Thailand or Borneo, for example, where the water is often unsafe and the food risky; places with infectious diseases, poisonous snakes and the wildest animals.

I never know how to answer. Nine years ago I suffered a stroke (中风). To prevent another stroke, my doctors told me, I’d have to take dangerously high levels of blood thinner (血液稀释剂) for the rest of my life and any travel would be risky (冒险的).

I had to think about what was important to me: family, of course, and friends. But then what? No matter how many times I thought about it, I could not be happy without travel. Then I had to decide how I might manage the risk.

The first real test of my travel courage came nine months after my stroke when I joined my husband, Jack, on a business trip to China. After we’d toured the remains of a Tang dynasty temple on a high mountain, Jack wanted to ride down on a toboggan (长雪橇).

Before the stroke it would’ve seemed like fun. But now? I hesitated. My mental klaxon (高音喇叭) screamed warnings about the consequences of a cut, a fall, and a crash. Then, gaining confidence from who knows where, I lowered myself carefully into the toboggan, which marked my adventure (冒险) travel come back.

In the years since then, I’ve traveled about twenty-five percent of the time. Through it all, my lucks held out—no deadly falls, no car accidents or serious infections. For me, adventure travel is a risk worth taking. Travel broadens my world and keeps me connected to nature. What’s more, saying “yes” to travel keeps me connected to myself.

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

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

Another time, we rented a boat in Vallecito Lake. The sky was clear when we _______, but storms move in fast in the mountains, and this one quickly _______ our peaceful morning trip. The _______ picked up and thunder rolled. My husband stopped fishing to ____________ the motor. Nothing. He tried again. No ____________. We were stuck in the middle of the lake with a dead motor. As we all sat there ____________, a fisherman pulled up, threw us a rope and towed (拖) us back. We were ____________.

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

Once I went to a German city for vacation. The trip left a     1     (deep) impression on me than before. It was already dark outside when I arrived at the airport at 6 p.m. The first thing was to find a place to stay. I decided     2     (call) the youth hotel. But to use the phone I    3     (need) some coins. I asked a lady for help. To my surprise, she gave me three     4     (coin) to use. But all the phones there needed phone cards which could only be bought at post-offices during the daytime. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to call the hotel.     5     old gentleman helped me. He couldn’t speak English     6     understand that I needed to make a phone call. He showed me to the phone and inserted（插入）his phone card. I called the hotel and found a place to stay that night. The     7     (kind) of German people made me feel at home.

Wherever I went, I asked people for directions. It surprised me that almost every young German could speak English     8     ( fluent). Older Germans couldn’t speak English very well, but they would try to help me whenever they could. One middle-aged man even drove me to the place I was looking for. My experience in Germany completely changed     9     (I) impression of Germans.

I thought Germans were not     10     (friend) to foreigners before, but things have changed since then. The people in Germany couldn’t be more friendly.

Last summer, I went on the trip to Qingdao, where I stayed for seven days and enjoyed myself. Before leave Qingdao, I went fishing on a beautiful lake. Unlucky, I didn't catch any fishes, and I got boring. I decided to go swimming. When I stood up, my wallet with all my money in fell into the water. I jump into the deep lake to look for it, so I found nothing. The next morning, I wasn't able to leave the hotel because of I had no money to pay for anything. I had no choice but call my parents and asked for help. They sent myself some money by WeChat. How an embarrassing trip!