1 . Forest & Bird, a conservation organization in New Zealand, held a contest for Bird of the Century and invited people in the country and abroad to _________ their favorite threatened species. Comedian and talk show host John Oliver _________ Forest & Bird if he could campaign for the puteketeke, a native water bird with eye-catching black-brown feather (羽毛) around its _________. The organization _________.

To get _________ for the species, Oliver started a worldwide campaign, which focused on its _________ feather surrounding its neck, romantic mating ceremony and heart-warming parenting style.

“The puteketeke are fantastic couples and _________ parents who always carry their babieson their backs!” read one of the ads.

His effort _________. The puteketeke began at the bottom of the _________. But it __________ the contest with 290, 374 votes after Oliver started the campaign on its behalf. By comparison, the much more __________ bird kiwi just got 12, 904 votes.

According to Forest & Bird, there are fewer than 3,000 of the bird across New Zealand a few decades ago. But the __________ has been increasing thanks in part to conservation efforts.

Usually called Bird of the Year, the annual __________ is held to raise awareness about the plight (困境) of the nation’s native __________, 80% of which are on the threatened species list. This year, the contest was named Bird of the Century to celebrate the group’s __________ birthday.

2 . The first time ever I realized that plastic was a serious matter for our planet was during a road trip in Western Australia, almost 12 years ago.

We ______ at a supermarket along the Coral Bay coast to buy some groceries and the lady at the counter told us they didn’t sell any shopping bags in order to prevent plastic in the ______ and to help preserving the endangered turtles (海龟) living in that area. After a first reaction of surprise, we ______ all our shopping in our arms and left.

This was just one of the many experiences I’ve lived that made me more aware of my ______ and pushed me to adopt different habits to live and ______ more sustainably.

Our trip to Borneo was another life-changing ______ that has strengthened my determination to have a ______ lifestyle. While traveling in some Asian countries, we came to know that ______ drinkable water was always a challenge. So we had to travel with our water bottle, and we ______ to avoid using plastic during our trip.

Besides, we were also deeply ______ by our stay on Libaran Island. A ______ turtle conservation project and the community had made big efforts to ______ the beaches and creatively reuse plastic for ten years. Despite that, the shore is washed daily with tons of plastic coming from the tides.

Facing this global issue ______ raised in me a feeling of sadness and anger that soon turned into ______: to do as much as possible to reduce plastic in our life. Small changes can ______ a difference!

3 . Not long ago, I was the guide on a wildlife-photography trip to Svalbard near the North Pole. After two days of _________, we arrived there and _________ several seals resting on the ice. I _________ my camera and a motion sensor near the edge of a hole to get a(n) _________ of a seal.

The next morning, I was woken up because a polar bear was _________ closer. At first the bear walked toward our boat. Then it made a(n) _________turn and headed directly for my camera. The motion sensor reacted to the bear’s _________, making the camera start taking pictures. The bear circled the _________, gently sniffing it. Unexpectedly the camera _________ into the hole and disappeared beneath the deep ice.

That was the __________ moment in my photography career. I was so __________ with myself. A year later I obtained __________ to bring a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to find the camera. There was a lot more ice than the __________ trip. As I knew well, polar bears could be nearby. We decided to __________ it. The ice was so thin, and soon we __________ technical difficulties and had to pull the ROV out of the water twice. __________ on the third try the ROV found the camera. We shouted and __________ around on the ice.

I was overjoyed to see all my __________. I saw the polar bear breathing and sniffing the camera. __________ that camera is the most satisfying __________ of my career with the lovely animal and its habitat presented.

4 . Growing up on a farm, Fritz enjoyed watching cows and horses. It was what he _______ in his boyhood that took root in his pursuit of becoming a(n)_______. After completing his university, Fritz _______ work at a famous research center, raising raven and teaching graylag geese how to open boxes. Working _______ with free-living animals was exactly what he’d dreamed of as a boy.

In 1997, the center was given its first ibis chicks (隐鹮). Nowhere near as _______ as geese-and not even close to super intelligent ravens- the ibises frustrated many scientists. But Fritz was _______. He devoted himself to looking after them. After the ibises were first _______ back into the wild 20years ago, Fritz learned that _______ generations in zoo hadn’t reduced their _______ to migrate. What the ibises needed, Fritz thought, was a ________.

Fritz decided to teach the birds a new, safer migration ________ by guiding them himself in a tiny aircraft. And he was ________ he could succeed in this daring plan. When he announced that he’d guide the ibises, he was laughed at. But Fritz didn’t ________. He modified a tiny aircraft so it would travel at speeds ________ enough for his winged students to catch.

In 2004, after some rough ________ for about three years, Fritz successfully ________ the first birds from Austria to Italy, and has since led 15 such ________. Over that time, he has ________ 277 young ibises, many of which then started to ________ the route on to their own young.

5 . I was talking to my friend Sandy about our children. Sandy had recently moved into the neighborhood with her four ________, including her youngest, eighteen-month-old Kim. She seemed ________ to have kids nearby, until she saw our dog, Sam.

Sam, our shiny black dog, loved to play with the kids and ________ them. But Sandy was ________ of dogs, and she started to back away as Sam approached. I grabbed Sam’s collar and made him sit, trying to ________ Sandy’s fear.

Sandy mentioned that she needed to get her kids ready to go to their grandmother’s house. Just then, her door opened and her kids rushed out. Sandy warned them not to ________ Sam.

The kids huddled (蜷缩) around their mom, looking at Sam ________. Emma, my daughter, showed the kids how to ________ a dog properly. Gradually, the kids were won over by Sam’s ________ nature.

One day after that incident (事件), when the kids were playing across the street, I ________ the eighteen-month-old baby heading towards a small hill. I saw a car approaching at a high speed and shouted to everyone to ________ the baby. Sam rushed to the boy without ________ and pushed the baby away from the oncoming car ________. The kids cheered, completely unaware of the ________. They thought Sam had come to play.

Within a year, Sam had made friends with all the neighbors. Even Sandy started to ________ Sam and would often come over to give him a hug.

6 . Milo is a dog, adopted by 20-year-old Makayla Swift from an animal shelter. One morning in November 2021, Swift opened her front door in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Milo immediately ________ to the house across the street. Milo seemed ________, so he ran to the one next door, Swift on his tail. “He started scratching (抓) the front door,” Swift says. “I’m thinking, why is he insistently trying to ________ her house?” She was embarrassed for not everyone wants a(n) ________ dog to leave marks on their property. But as she tried to drag Milo away, she could hear a voice yelling “help” coming through an open upstairs window. Hours ________, around 4 a.m., Sherry Starr had risen from her bed. “All of a sudden, standing there between the toilet and the tub, I ________,” she says. “I slumped on the floor.” Starr is 85. “I could not move at all”, says Starr, who was ________ between the toilet and the tub. Starr was scared and thought she was going to die there. Her best ________, she decided, was to listen for the letter carrier in the afternoon and scream. For the next few hours, Starr practiced yelling: “Help! Help! Helllp!” “Her voice was very ________,” says Swift. “You had to be right at the front door to hear Mrs. Starr yell for help ________ you were Milo, the dog.” It ________ heard Starr the instant Swift opened her own front door. Swift called 911. Rescuers thought they’d have to break down the toilet to ________ Starr, but they gave one last pull — and out she popped. Though injured, Starr ________ a trip to the hospital.

Swift has known her share of ________ for living alone. Two years ago, her mother died. She says Milo has helped her with her grief too. “That dog is a ________,” she says.

7 . Little was road testing his mountain bike outside of Columbus, when his ________ partner, Dixon, stopped suddenly. Something in the ________ moving among the trees caught her attention. It ________ out to be a young Labrador, when they approached.

“He was really bony, and had a ________ leg,” Little told CBS News. They fed the ________ dog food and water. They also quickly realized the dog was coming with them, but they had no ________ how. “Ten miles from the town, we couldn’t ________ him,” Little said. “Out there next to the Oxbow Meadows, he was going to ________ as alligators’ (鳄鱼) food.”

An idea hit Little. He ________ picked up his new friend and slipped the 38-pound dog’s hind legs (后腿) into the ________ pockets of his cycling suit. Then he hung the dog’s front paws over his ________.

“He was injured, so he wasn’t trying to ________,” Little said. “He was also happy that we were there, touching and ________ him.” After a 30-minute ride, they arrived at a store. That was when Andrea Shaw, a lawyer on business, ________ to pass by. The dog went directly toward her, licking her, and “________ her”, said Dixon. Shaw was ________ and, after learning what had happened, declared her plan: “I am ________ this dog.” Shaw named him Columbo after the town where they’d met and ________ an operation on his leg.

Today, Columbo is living a ________ life on a farm with a horse, a pony, and her six-year-old boy keeping him ________. Literally the luckiest dog alive.

8 . One spring morning many years ago, I had been searching for gold along Coho Creek in southeastern Alaska. Suddenly, no more than 20 paces away was a huge Alaskan timber wolf —caught in a(n) ______ .

From her appearance, I guessed she had been in the trap for several days, because her toe was swollen (肿了). “She needed ______ ”, I thought. But if I tried to free her immediately at that time, shed would turn ______ to me. Each time I moved closer, she would make a ______ growl (咆哮). How I wish I could ______ her trust.

Over the next few days, I talked ______ with her, throwing her some meat. Gradually, I kept walking closer, but beyond the ______ of her trap chain.

At dusk on the fifth day, I ______ her dinner. Suddenly, I saw a slight wagging(摆动)of her tail. When I moved within the length of her chain, she remained ______ .

The next morning, I slowly ______ my hand on the wolf’s injured leg. ______, she made no threatening move. I knew it was the ______ and I opened the trap, and the wolf pulled herself free.

My experience told me the wolf would ______ into the woods quickly. Instead, she crept toward me and sniffed my hands and arms. This went ______ everything I’d ever heard about timber wolves. Yet, strangely, it all seemed so ______ .

9 . On 20 December, in Newdale, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea earthquake raced across the ocean near Gold shore. Worse still, it ________ thousands dead. Gold shore Beach was the only local beach to ________ the disaster without any loss of life. A 10-year-old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around 100 people escape danger with her   ________ of tsunamis (海啸).

The day began like any other on Gold shore Beach. People were walking, running or simply siting on the sandy beach, ________ the warm sea air and enjoying the soft ________ that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something ________. “The water was like the bubbles (气泡) on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t ________ and it wasn’t going in and then out. It was just coming in and in and in.” It struck her that these were the ________ of an upcoming tsunami, which Sabrina had just learnt about in a Geography lesson.

Sabrina was ________, but she soon kept her head. She warned her parents of the ________, thought at first they just thought she was ________. However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible disaster was ________ and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety officer. To her great relief, the officer ________ realized the coming danger. The beach was rapidly cleared of people, just ________ the huge waves ________ into the coast.

10 . Love Is Blind: The Magic of Tabby

In October, 2019, I started my work at a local animal shelter. Tabby was a 14-year-old dog. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s adoption (收养) seemed impossible. After all, we didn’t have many adopters coming in asking, “Can you show me all of your really old dogs who are also _________?” We had all thought that Tabby would live out the rest of her life at the _________.

One day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, had _________ Tabby’s picture and stories on the shelter’s website at home. They were interested in meeting her! It was the only _________ we ever received about Tabby. What could a young child possibly see in a 14-year-old dog who was both blind and deaf? Most boys would want a dog who could grow with them and _________ through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would _________ be able to do that. But after meeting her, Loretta and Gary decided that she was the right dog for their family. They adopted Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her _________ adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed. _________, it was what happened after her adoption that people might regard as “magic”. Gary _________ seizures (癫痫). Since Gary and Tabby met they became __________. They did everything together. Besides, Tabby could be aware of the coming of Gary’s seizures __________ they happened, giving his family a(n) __________ that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s __________.

How could it be? Nobody could explain __________ Tabby did it. But those of us who were fortunate enough to know her and her family had witnessed (见证) the magic, the kind that has its roots in __________.