1 . The distinctive smell of wet dogs was a reminder of the Christmas vacation when I was twelve. My cousins from Ohio were _________. We had gotten many gifts and were also blessed with fresh _________. The four of us spent as much time as possible sliding down the short white hill to the shallow _________. Naturally, we tested the ice on it the first day, and we knew we could slide across it and _________ our ride.

On the third day of our festivities, we were so _________ to play that we did not check the ice. A few degrees of _________ added a small layer of water to our slide, increasing our speed and _________. Seconds after, my brother Peter slid into the pond, he was _________ in the icy water. Peter was only eight and not a good swimmer, _________ dressed in a winter coat and boots.

We all __________. I jumped down the slope to reach him, but our __________ was faster to jump into the water, grab Peter by his waving hand, and pull him to shore. We managed to __________ Peter with our coats and get him back to the house in record time. Drinking hot juice by the fire, we patted and hugged the __________ dog. The dog took all day to __________. His wet-dog smell kept longer and returned often, __________ us of his heroics and our own Christmas miracle.

2 . Queen, a 3-year-old small dog, had been overlooked for almost 400 days in an animal shelter. When Scott Poore heard about how sad and _______ Queen had become from living in the shelter for so long, he decided to do what he could to draw some _______ to the homeless dog. He ended up _______ plenty of one-on-one time with Queen after he _______ moved into her kennel(狗窝).

Scott brought along a few belongings and bedding, which he _______ with Queen. He was _______ to live with her until she was adopted(收养). After seven days and seven nights, Queen found her forever home!

As everyone can _______, animal shelters are not a great place to get any _______. But all of Scott’s hardships were rewarded when a father and son saw a report about Queen and her new roommate and _______ to adopt her.

“I just want to thank them for opening up their home and their ________ for such a lovely dog who deserves a life in a(n) ________ home,” he said. “I had the ________ of meeting the father and the son and it’s going to be a ________ place for Queen.”

After Queen had ________ her people, this dog lover ________ to find the next animal who needs him.

3 . I love wildlife. So when my friend said that we had a chance to _________ brown bears in the High Tatras, I didn’t think twice about it, and we _________ arrangements to go the following week.

The trip was a great _______ ! We walked for hours and stayed in a _________ mountain hut(小屋) which was usually reserved for park rangers. It actually took us some trouble even to locate it. As soon as we arrived, our guide _________ to us that we would be fully integrated(融入) into their research programme and would be tracking the _________ of bears wearing GPS transmitters. On the first day, we were woken up at sunrise and, after _________ some warm clothes, set off into the forest. Our guide walked very _________ and we had trouble keeping up with him. Suddenly he _________ across a small hill. He must have caught sight of a bear. We followed him as fast as we could, but by the time we reached him, the bear had __________ into the bushes. Later in the week, though, we did manage to observe several bears feeding on berries. We were so excited. Yet, __________ hurrying to take photos, we __________ our breath, stayed about 30 meters away and just watched them. Our guide insisted that we should keep our __________ from the bears so as not to __________ them.

Observing bears in their natural habitat(栖息地) was really __________. I had never experienced anything like that before. If I hadn’t had to go back to school, I would happily have stayed on for several more weeks.

4 . One Christmas Eve, our birder friend called us with a request. “Do you have room in your car for a (n) _______ snowy owl (雪鸮)? The hospital in Saskatoon will take it. It just needs a _______ there.” My family couldn’t have been more _______. A snowy owl? Of course! Isn’t Christmas about giving a hand to those _______?

He dropped off the bird in a cardboard box and _______ the box with a piece of cloth. After my husband gathered our children around, we _______. A few minutes later, our three-year-old daughter _______ in the back seat. Our two sons, 8 and 11, played together, _______ my husband drove and I, in the front, was bathed in Christmas peace.

Once or twice, our oldest son _______ this scene and said, “Dad, the owl’s sticking its head out”. “Don’t________.” my husband replied “It’ll be fine.” Not far from Saskatoon, my daughter in the back woke up crying I ________ and picked her up ________, my son shouted, “Dad, the owl’s out!” I was ________ to hear that and saw the owl knocking on the window with its head, in a desperate struggle for ________.

I bent over my daughter to ________ her as my husband pulled off the road. To our ________, the bird stopped struggling for some reason. My husband took the ________ to return the bird to its box then, he sat in the back seat to take care of the box. I took the ________ as our car was running toward the hospital. It was ________ for us to get there safe and sound. What a (n) ________ Christmas!

5 . In 2016, Yu Yongguang, a teacher at the Jiangsu University, saw a Yangtze finless porpoise (江豚) for the first time in a newspaper. He found himself _________ by the “smile” of the porpoise. Two months later, Yu set up an on-campus association (协会) to protect the species in _________. At first, there were only seven members.

In recent years, his efforts have _________, and the association now has about 750 members. _________, thanks to close partnership with universities, government and non-profit organizations, the association has succeeded in _________ about 8,000 volunteers to contribute to the cute species’ _________.

With the development of the association, its work has gone far beyond _________ simple publicity activities. Under Yu’s leadership, his team members _________ the country’s first popular science book about the finless porpoise. They have also drew up various designs for a science popularization curriculum (科普课程) _________ different groups of people.

In addition, he has also __________ his team to the major habitats of the porpoise to conduct scientific study and environmental recording. Based on this work, the team has written a series of reports that include __________ suggestions on improving the habitat protection work. At present, the number of Yangtze finless porpoises is growing __________ and stands at around 1,000.

Yu said he never imagined that the small association he __________ would unite so many forces to protect the animals. He believes that the __________ of different parts of society together will see the number of finless porpoises continue to __________, and will also help the environment along the Yangtze River to improve continually.

6 . Joey isn’t your typical guard pet—unless you try to break into his house.

Adam found a baby _________ in his yard. He decided to _________ him in and named him Joey. In just a few months, he _________ a family member. “He’d let anybody _________ him.” says Adam. “Right up until the kid broke in.”

That was the day when Adam came home to obvious signs of _________. Strange, snowy footprints tracked around the _________. His _________ was scratched up（刮擦）. A few items of value were _________. He alerted the police about the break-in, and officer Ashley came to the house to make a _________ .

“Joey had run in the bedroom... and kind of __________ her,” says Adam.

Ashley asked if Joey bites. Not usually, Adam explained, but he is, after all, a __________ animal. You never know.

__________ later, Ashley returned with a remarkable story: She’d __________ a suspect, based in part on the cuts all over his hands.

She asked him, ‘Did you get that __________ a squirrel?” and he says, “Yeah, it kept __________ me and wouldn’t stop until I left,” says Adam.

“The attack __________ him, obviously, because he wasn’t __________ to have a squirrel come flying out of nowhere at him,” says Ashley. “So basically he said he took what he could and __________ as fast as he could.”

In a couple of hours, Adam’s family got their __________ back, and Joey got his favorite   __________; nuts.

7 . Elephants are the largest existing land mammals on the Earth; and as a _________, they require large areas of land in order to _________. As human populations have grown around the world, elephant populations have significantly fallen due to _________ habitat loss. In an effort to draw attention to the animal’s _______, Elephant Family and The Real Elephant Collective have worked together to _________ Co-Existence — an environmental art exhibition of 100 life-sized lantana elephant _________.

The Co-Existence elephants started their long journey in India, where they were made by _________ communities in the jungles of Tamil Nadu: These handmade sculptures’ were amazing. In June 2021, a total of eight separate herds were _________ to the public in London. The _________ of the exhibition was to highlight the effects of humans ____________ wild spaces. ____________ the elephant sculptures were meant to be admired, they also ____________ a message: we should change the way we live by existing in ____________ with the wildlife and nature.

“We should value our ____________ with nature and celebrate all life forms around us by sharing space,” says Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara of The Real Elephant Collective.

Funds ____________ by the Co-Existence movement were given to grassroots ____________ throughout India. These organizations tried to allow people and wildlife to coexist ____________. Some of their measures include ____________ local knowledge about wildlife, creating technological solutions to keep both animals and people safe in ____________ spaces, easing the effect of roads and railway lines to make sure wildlife can ____________ get across.

8 . Sam Felstead, 42, suffered a heart attack around 4:30 am while sleeping at home. Her 7-year-old cat, Billy, seemingly _________ something was wrong and began jumping on Felstead’s chest and meowing as _________ as he could.

After _________ up, she realized that she was not able to move her body and had sharp _________ down her right side, so she called for _________. She was quickly rushed to the Nottingham City Hospital in the early hours of the morning where _________ told her she had a heart attack in her sleep.

“I was a bit _________; I went to bed and I felt fine I’d even been out with my dogs, and I didn’t feel _________ or have any pains,” Felstead told the India Times. “_________ I woke up in the early hours covered in sweat and couldn’t __________. Billy was on my __________ and was meowing loudly in my ear.”

Felstead believes her cat __________ her life.

“He doesn’t __________ sit with me but he knew something was __________ and he wouldn’t leave me alone,” Felstead told the BBC.

Felstead spent three days in the __________. Now on heart medication, she’s back home and working again.

9 . The Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo is a ________ for tree-climbers. It is home to some of the world’s tallest tropical trees. It has also proved to be the treasure for scientist as they have already ________ lots of towering yellow meranti trees (a kind of tree), finding a tree with a record ________ each year.

Just recently, scientists ________ a golden find-the world’s tallest tropical tree to date. It was found, ________ on the island of Borneo, in a grove of yellow meranti trees. The method that scientists used to ________ this tree to prove its height was surprisingly ________ .

In 2018, scientists used laser imagery from airplane to ________ the cluster of huge trees, by creating 3-D images of the forest canopy and spotting any extremely tall growth. Subsequently, drones (遥控飞机) were flown over the site of the yellow meranti trees to double ________ the presence of the probably tallest tree. However, after finding the tree, they go ________ !

Bringing just a tape measure (卷尺) and climbing equipment, an ________ climber is sent up to the very top of the 100-meter tree to accurately ________ the height of the tree, nicknamed “Menara” which is Malay for “tower” . This Malaysian climber Unding Jami ________ one of the world’s tallest standing trees on January 6, 2019. Slowly, but ________ ,Unding Jami and his fellow climbers ________ the highest point of the tree and assured the tree to be about 100.8 meters!

In an interview, Jami talked about his ________ to the top of the tree. When asked about how he felt at the ________ , Jim replied, “I was scared but honestly the ________ from the top was unbelievable. I don’t know what to say other than it was very, very, very amazing! After we had measured it, I couldn’t ________ for the whole night.” Let’s hope we will continue to preserve the ________ of this world for as long as we can.

10 . The author, Lewis Caroll, describes an amazing creature in the famous fairy tale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It _________ the way of giving Alice’s own thimble (顶针) as a gift for herself, leaving the children readers a strong impression. _________, when the kids try to search for this creature in real life, they will be _________ that this creature does not exist anymore. This is the dodo, a flightless bird that has gone _________ hundreds of years ago.

Dodo were _________ to the island of Mauritius, which locates in the east of Madagascar. Their appearance could only be described _________ illustrations and written accounts from those who have seen them. The images of a dodo _________ depict (描述) it as a bird with gray feathers,yellow feet, and a beak with black, yellow and green in colors.

As the bird is _________, it was historically recorded as fat and clumsy, but now it is thought to be well-adapted. The island where dodos used to live is believed to have plenty of food _________ and few predators, so dodos did not ____________ to evolve with strong wings to fly and find food.

____________ arrived when Dutch sailors discovered Mauritius in 1598 and handed in the first ____________ of dodos to the world. In the following years, the dodos were ____________ by sailors and also by the animals they ____________, including pigs, rats, and monkeys. Their ____________ and habitats were destroyed, leading to the rapid ____________ of dodos’ population.

Finally, in 1662 the last dodo closed its eyes, and they are thought to have ____________ by 1690. It had been less than 100 years from the ____________ of the dodos to their extinction. The bird is considered as an icon of extinction, ____________ people about the fact that human activities can have ____________ influences on biodiversity.