1 . One winter, a homeless dog called Shavi was left to die on the streets of south-west Russia after being _______ by a driver. With two broken legs, she was taken to a pet clinic for _______ by a volunteer from One Green Planet. After launching an appeal to find someone who could look after Shavi, the vet found Nina who _______ her and nursed her back to health, working on regaining her confidence and _______.

Due to work commitments, Nina couldn’t keep Shavi and instead found her a new _______ 185 miles away, near the Russian border. However, after just a few days, Shavi _______ from there.

Two weeks later, while walking along the road outside her home, Nina felt something brush up against her leg. Realizing it was Shavi, she was so _______ and excited. The dog had made the almost 200-mile journey back to the woman who had saved her life and legs.

The pair lived together and moved into a bigger apartment so Shavi had plenty of room to play. “Of course, she has now remained with us for good. I would never give this kind of friend away again. _______ are the most loyal and loving companions in the world. For every drop of human love, they _______ give all of theirs in return, and I know that from personal experience. Shavi is just like a __________ to me.” Nina said.

2 . Over the years, thanks to my life’s obstacles (障碍). I understood the meaning of faith and the strong will to survive. It was Hurricane Ike that made me fully _________ the beauty of our strength and a human’s motivation to _________.

Mom had a two-week vacation in summer. While we enjoyed our holiday in Southeast Texas, we didn’t realize the fact that Ike would cause months and likely years of “labor”. By September 7th, the “eyes of Texas” were watching Hurricane Ike more closely, making the typical mad rush for last-minute hurricane _________. Two days later, both oil and food were in _________ demand.

In the early hours of September 11th, some neighbors were planning to _________the storm in their homes, while others were making final preparations to get away. At first, we decided to stay. But that afternoon, the Houston-Galveston area would be on the more dangerous side of the storm. Mom and I packed some of our most _______ belongings in the car and headed for the East Texas town of Lufkin.

As Ike pushed farther inland, we _________ power in Lufkin. On Sunday, our next-door neighbor told us via cell phone that our house had remained well. Our hopes could not have been _________. But a few hours later, the neighbors reported that our brick chimney had gone, and it was sitting on our living room _________ a hole in the roof between two skylights (天窗).

We wouldn’t be allowed to return home until September l7th. I climbed upstairs, and looked toward the hole in the roof which showed a beautiful blue sky.

Without hesitation, I shouted, “Wow! A third skylight!”

My neighbors could not believe I was making jokes instead of crying, but __________ is always good medicine. It was with that joke that I knew, given time, everything would be okay.

4 . After six months of dating, my partner Gabe and I were taking our first road trip. Both of us were adventurous, and we couldn’t wait to go ________ and exploring.

At around 5:30 pm, we were ________ on a mountain road named Crowsnest Highway. We didn’t know the recent flooding in the area. When texting my mom, I happened to look up from my________and saw a wave of mud (泥浆) and a huge tree coming down the mountain, right in front of our car. Gabe tried to stop, but it was too ________. The mudslide sent our car falling nearly 300meters down a rocky cliff(悬崖)and our car landed on its side among some trees.

I didn’t know how long we were unconscious (昏迷的). Not ________, we were injured seriously. Suffering the huge pain, we both managed to move out of the ________ car. Then, we sat on a rock and considered our choices. We couldn’t get a ________ on our cell phones, so all we could do was shout for help. Luckily, someone ________. Four passers-by spotted us and called 911.When medical workers got to our side, they loaded us into separate emergency vehicles. I was in the hospital for ten days while they kept Gabe for six weeks. I was told I would not walk as a normal person for the rest of my life and Gabe lost ________ in his left eye.

Before all this happened, we were happy-go-lucky people. Strangely enough, the accident has made us even more ________. Despite the injuries we suffered, we’re thankful that we’re still alive. The experience also made us closer. A year after the accident, we even drove back to the Crowsnest Highway as a newly married couple.

5 . I found the bed shaking, gently at first. Because I was half asleep and not a native, I just thought it was nothing serious.

Sitting up, I turned on the bedside lamp. It was 3:34 a.m. _______, my 14th-floor Santiago Hotel room came alive, like a very angry animal shaking a smaller one in its teeth. Then the lights _______. The noise was more _______ in the dark. A strong feeling of _______ began to control me. As I pulled myself to standing, I couldn’t help _______ that I might not see my husband and sons again.

In a hurry I opened the door of my room and expected to find people. But_______, there was no one about. My mind was crying crazily, _______ I didn’t even call for help. Luckily, a middle-aged man came up. He just said, “We should go _______.” I said “Okay” and followed him to the stairs. On a lower floor I joined in a river of people and walked our way outside to the tennis courts, where a crowd of several hundred were _______. Some were crying, all were weak. Then I noticed that a woman was about to fall down and immediately I went to ______ her. When I looked around and saw frightened children in parents’ arms, my selfish thought was thank God that my _______ weren’t here.

Soon hotel staff were setting up chairs and passing around bottled water. They offered us tablecloths to wrap (包裹) around ourselves against the night _______ and shoes for people whose feet were bare. They seemed very _______ while in fact they too must be afraid.

I felt lucky to be alive, but as a _______, my relief was mixed with guilt for we soon learned that the earthquake had left many dead and others homeless and tsunamis (海啸) were _______ the way.

7 . Milo is a rescue dog adopted by 20-year-old Makayla Swift. One morning in November 2021, Swift opened her front door in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Milo _________ running.

Milo ran to the house across the street. He seemed unsatisfied with this house, so he ran to the one next door, Swift on his _________. Milo started scratching on the front door.

Swift was _________, because not everyone wants a strange dog on their property. But as she tried to _________ Milo away, she could hear a sound coming through an open upstairs window.

It was a voice yelling “Help!”

Hours earlier, around 4 a.m., Sherry Starr, 85, had risen from her bed. All of a sudden, standing there between the toilet and the tub, she slipped and fell heavily on the floor. She was _________ between the toilet and the tub and could not move at all. Starr was _________ and thought she was just going to die there.

For the next few hours, Starr practiced yelling: “Help! Help! Hellllp!”

Her voice was very _________ that no one could hear. Luckily, Milo _________ heard Starr the moment Swift opened her own front door.

Swift called the emergency number 911. When the ambulance workers arrived, they thought they’d have to remove the toilet to _________ Starr, but instead, they gave one last pull and out she popped. Though she was black and blue all over, Starr __________ a trip to the hospital.

Swift has known her own share of distress. Two years ago, her mother died. She says that Milo has helped her with her grief. “That dog is a blessing,” she says.

8 . A man in California survived a five-hour night swim, thanks to the ________ of a friendly seal (海豹).

Scott Thompson, a boater from Southern California, was out on his boat. After realizing the weather wasn’t favorable, he turned the boat back towards land.

Soon after, something ________ happened. The boat was rocked by the wavy water and Scott got ________ out of the boat. The engines continued to run, moving the boat farther and farther away from him, which made it ________ to swim back to it. He watched his boat ________ in the middle of the icy Santa Barbara Channel.

Lost at sea, with no land in ________, Thompson was sure these were his ________ moments on earth. However, thoughts of his family helped him find the ________ to survive. “Just keep ________, and you will get home to your family,” Thompson kept telling himself. “Just imagining my girls and my son growing up without me, and my wife not having a husband to support her, I couldn’t ________.

All of a sudden, he heard a big splash (拍水声). It was a medium-sized harbor seal that Thompson described as “an angel” that came to help him. “The seal would come up and ________ me, like a dog comes up and pushes your leg.” Thompson said. It was a sense of ________, Thompson recalled, knowing that he wasn’t alone on this heroic journey.

Being pushed along by the seal, Thompson felt ________ to swim to the nearest oil platform, which was far but closer than land. With the ________ of the seal, he swam through the dark, freezing water for five hours, until he managed to reach an oil platform. People aboard the oil platform offered aid. They rushed him to a hospital where Thompson was treated and recovered a few days later.

While the thought of his ________ motivated him to keep going, Thompson said that he would not have endured through the pain if it hadn’t been for the seal swimming alongside him.

9 . Oleita, a 26-year-old environmentalist from Detroit, thinks she may have a partial solution for two problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. She is encouraging snack lovers to donate their _________ chip bags rather than throw them away, so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.

The idea came to Oleita two years ago when she came across a woman in England_________ viewers how to put chip bags together to make sleeping bags on Facebook. _________, she decided to use that video as a blueprint to start the Chip Bag Project.

Oleita and her volunteers get chip bags of all brands and sizes. After cleaning them in soapy hot water, they _________ them open, lay them flat and iron them together. They use the material from old coats to _________ the insides. Each sleeping bag requires 150 chip bags and takes around four hours to complete.

Since 2020, the project has _________ more than 800, 000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to _________ money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s not enough. “We are committed to providing _________ for those in need, making an impact not only socially, but environmentally, ” Oleita says.

And, of course, there’s the symbolism of recycling bags that would _________ land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that pollution and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita said, “I think it’s time to show__________ between all of these issues. ”