1 . The sun was beginning to sink as I set off into the Harenna Forest. I was on my way to _________ a unique honey harvest. Here, in south-east Ethiopia, hand-carved beehives(蜂箱)are placed in the _________. Reaching them to get the honey is difficult—and often _________ .

I _________ beekeeper Ziyad over a wide stretch of grassland before entering a thick jungle. Ziyad began preparations. He _________ handfuls of damp tree leaves, wrapped them with string, and _________ the bunch to create a torch(火把). Then, with one end of a rope tied to his waist and the other end around the trunk of a tree, Ziyad began _________ . He stopped every few minutes to move the _________ higher up the tree trunk.

_________ , Ziyad got close to the hive which was around 20 metres above the ground. Sitting on a branch, he __________ towards it and blew smoke from his torch into a tiny hole in the hive. Suddenly, Ziyad let out a sharp cry. Within seconds, he’d __________ the trunk and was back on the ground.

It was too __________ to collect the honey. A cool summer had delayed __________ . Baby bees were still in the honeycombs(蜂巢). The adult bees were __________ and kept attacking as Ziyad escaped from the tree. He had to wait for the right __________ to go back up.

4 . A single tremble shook beneath my feet. The trees above me began to sway(摇摆) hard. Then came the deadly_________that could only mean one thing, destruction. Every house and object was now_________. My vision blurred (模糊) even more when I saw the remains of my house. The house that used to_________all the happiness in the world was now_________a pile of ruined pieces. I_________all the times I played with my little brother and sister. Images of them were_________in my mind, so I let the darkness sweep over me completely so I could see them vividly one last time. I regained a bit of my_________after lying on the ground for some time. My eyes viewed different things, but I walked on mindlessly, with no_________to anything around me at all.

Years have passed since the disaster that_________me years ago. I never thought I would be okay again after this__________event.

Today I am going on a trip to California to help__________of a recent earthquake. Then, I see her. A young girl is weeping into her arm. I walk toward her. Losing family was__________, but because of my life changing experience, I am strong, and I can__________the lives of those who are suffering as I was. When I reach the girl, she stares at me with sad eyes, and I gently stick out my hand for her to hold to. One day, she may__________others the way I did for her. She holds my hand tightly, and together, we look for a brighter future where we can help those around us and__________the world starting with one disaster at a time.

5 . On a cold winter night, Andrew, a 22-year-old Canadian, suffered a heart attack and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.______, his dog, a 4-year-old Husky named Koda, didn’t______. Instead, the clever dog sprang into action and called 911.

Koda ______the emergency number on a cell phone. The 911 operator heard______on the other end of the line and sent a police officer to conduct a(n) ______ . When the officer arrived at the house, he found Koda barking at the front door, ______to lead him inside.

The officer quickly realized that something was______and followed Koda into the bedroom, where he found Andrew______on the floor. The officer called an ambulance and Andrew was rushed to the hospital, where he received timely______ .

Andrew said that he had______Koda to call 911 by pressing his nose against the phone’s screen. He never thought that Koda would______use the skill in a real emergency.

The story of Koda’s_______act has gone viral (疯传), with people around the world praising the dog’s______and loyalty. This heartwarming tale is a(n)______of the special bond between humans and their pets. Koda may not be able to speak, but he communicated in a way that______a life — and that’s something truly remarkable.

6 . One day, Marga asked if I would join her in hiking to Base Camp at the foot of Mount Qomolangma to celebrate her 60th birthday. I _________ the opportunity.

We met our guide Achut Pandey in Kathmandu. He was a man of joy and _________, who had been to Base Camp over 100 times.

When we left Namche Bazaar, we took the Three High Passes route, which is less-traveled, longer and more _________. The temperatures ranged from the teens to below 0°F. We were nearly _________. When we were done with dinner, we _________ ourselves to our sleeping bags. While we _________ were able to down a couple of eggs and a piece of toast, the higher we went, the less we _________. Eventually, it was a lot of _________ to just eat a bowl of rice. The altitude _________ us in other ways too. As our appetites slowed, so did our ____________. Renjo La Pass, the first pass, was supposed to take eight hours. It took 12.

Achut’s faith in us was never ____________. He greeted us each day with a ____________ “good morning.” Before we ____________ Base Camp, he carried our packs and skillfully negotiated our moods and capabilities. We trusted him as he ____________ us, confident and strong, up and down icy, ____________ and sometimes narrow paths.

Thanks to Achut, I made it, at 65.

7 . Mawson was an Australian explorer and scientist who explored the Antarctic with a team of fellow adventurers in 1912. His travels in the frozen continent brought him worldwide _______. In December of that year, Mawson and two other _______ left the main base at Commonwealth Bay, _______ a 300-mile exploration into the central part of the continent to gather scientific data and samples. _______ followed.

One of the men, a young British soldier named Belgrave Ninnis, _______ down an open crack on a sledge, along with several of their best dogs and many of the team’s supplies, dead. For several weeks, the two others, _______ with scurvy(坏血病)and other _______, struggled to return to camp, keeping living first on the _______ dogs, then on starvation food. _______, Xavier Mertz, a Swiss mountaineer and skiing champion, died from exhaustion, starvation and possible poisonousness from eating dogs’ livers.

________ to return with the research data, Mawson ________ the elements for 30 days. Finally he returned to the________ in February of 1913, extremely thin, frost-bitten and exhausted-only to ________ he had missed the ship rescuing the rest of the ________ by hours. Mawson was regarded as a survivor hero. For his achievements as an explorer and scientist, he was knighted(封爵)in 1914. In addition to his other ________, Mawson edited and contributed to the 22-volume Reports of Australasian Antarctic Expeditions.

9 . Winds howled. Branches shook. Rain poured down. A boy found _______ under a tree. Then he noticed a cat hiding under a bush. The cat meowed and raised a paw(爪)_______calling him over. The boy raced through the rain and took the cat. Just then, lightning _______ the tree.

When the rain stopped, the boy hurried home, with the cat in his arms. His mother saw the cat. “Not another mouth to _______!” she said, _______her head. “This cat saved my life,” the boy begged. “Please may I _______ it?” His mother insisted, “We have _______ enough food for ourselves. It must go.”

The boy watched sadly as the cat walked away and disappeared from _______.

The next day, the boy looked for the cat when he went fishing. But there’s no cat. And he hadn’t caught any_______. What would he and his mother eat for dinner?

That afternoon, the boy created a clay(黏土)cat with a ________ paw to look like the cat that had saved his life. He displayed it in the front window. A man stopped to buy it. The boy didn’t want to ________ another cat. But with that money, he could buy rice for dinner. The man left with the cat, and the boy rushed to the shop.

Day followed day. Each day, the boy watched for the cat. While he ________, he made another clay cat. Each day, a passer-by stopped to buy the clay cat.

And then one day, the cat ________, with a large fish in its mouth.

At dinner, the ________ of baking fish filling the house, the boy asked again, “Please may I keep it?” This time his mother ________ and smiled, “this is a good-luck cat.”