2 . I’m not a climate scientist. I don’t know much about _______. I just really like them. Whenever I’m outside or near a window, my eyes are drawn to their ever-changing shapes. I love the different _______ they take. There were times I sat on a beach and found myself unable to _______ if I was looking at the water, sand or clouds.

I’ve been _______ to clouds since I was a child. I loved to _______ them as animals in the sky. I loved getting lost in _______, staring at them out the windows during a(n) _______ class at school or on a long road trip.

There were moments when I realized how much clouds _______ my experience of the world. A sky of bright white clouds would make me feel _______ and energetic, while a sky covered with ________ clouds can make the same things appear ________.

Watching clouds is a solitary (独处的) activity for me, even when I’m ________ by people. If you have a drink or a meal with me in an outdoor café, my eyes will ________ turn to the sky. I might frequently point out an interesting shape. Mostly, I just ________ enjoy them. Like a piece of art, a vase of flowers, or a passerby in an amazing dress, clouds are one of those ________ things to be noticed and ________ when I’m alone.

Clouds can also ________ me away from the dull parts of life, and away from day-to-day stresses and ________. They get me out of my head and into a(n) ________ land where I can imagine the constraints (束缚) of everyday life don’t ________.

4 . Luke is a cute dog, living together with me for five years. We get lots of _________ in our area during the summer season. Many forests are badly damaged by fire s each year. That hot summer, not far from our shelter, a forest _________ fire. It was July, and there had been a heat wave going on for three days.

Somehow, Luke rushed towards the forest. At that moment, there was no longer any hope to wait for Luke to come back to the _________. In fact, I was waiting for firefighters to tell me that he had _________ in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman rushed into my office and told me that Luke had succeeded in saving four cats who had been trapped by the flames(火焰). I _________ accompanied(陪伴)the fireman to the forest to get him back. _________ we got to the scene of the event, we didn’t see Luke. Then we heard the _________ of a dog barking(吠)in the forest. I recognized the barks was Luke’s. Thanks to Luke, four cats and a fireman were saved. This true story shows us that pets are loving and _________. We should love and _________ them. Little animals can do __________ things for humans.

5 . Our neighborhood was struck by a fierce storm just several days ago. Staring out of the window I witnessed a tree being ______ by the violent winds. The branches bent, and swayed back and forth, thanks to their ______ to avoid breaking. The leaves desperately stuck to the branches since their life ______   the tree. The powerful trunk that ______ the tree upright bent slightly backwards from the force in a battle to ______ its position.

One and half an hours had passed and the storm came to a stop. The tree gracefully returned to its ______ position standing tall among the chaos. It succeeded in ______ the storm. It didn’t look the same, for leaves had shed from its branches with the soil loosened a bit, but what ______ is that the tree won the fight for its life.

For a long time I really wondered why this tree ______ my attention the way it did. As time passed, it became ______ that it wasn’t just about the tree but about the roots, which, although unseen, dug deep into the soil providing ______ and nutrition. The roots allow the tree to be able to take a ______ because they are there to support it.

I couldn’t help but reflect by asking myself how deep the roots are in my life. ______ , the next time you catch your kids ______ , when the job is driving you crazy, when you are underpaid and the ______ is tight, and when the storms of life are raging, go back to your roots. Life is full of ______ . They will make you sway, make you ______ , make you lose some leaves but the deeper your roots dig the stronger you stand.

Facing ______ you might bend but don’t break. No matter how hard the wind blows, don’t let life ______ you into an undesirable position. Your ______ lies in your roots.

6 . When Ariel rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge(保护区)in Queens, New York, last November, she planned to go hiking and bird-watching. Bingo! A mile into her walk, she _________ a gorgeous female mute swan near the water’s edge. Ariel, 30, who had worked at the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation(康复)center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be _________. But it didn’t move as she _________ this one.

She was certain that the bird needed _________ attention. Then Ariel _________ her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, _________ picked it up, and cradled it in her arms. And then an idea _________ her: What do I do now?

Her best choice was the rehabilitation center. _________, that was across the East River and on the other side of town. How was she going to _________ a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some strangers driving by offered her, her bike, and the swan a __________ to a nearby subway station. And no one seemed particularly __________ by the feathered passenger on the subway. One guy, says Ariel, was “sitting right in front of me on his phone. I don’t know if he noticed there was a swan in front of him.”

Ariel __________ the rehabilitation center, and Higginbotham, an animal-care manager, __________ her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and __________ to the center. There, staff members __________ that the swan might have lead(铅)poisoning, caused by swallowing weights used on fishing lines.

The staff did all they could to help her. __________, even with all the thoughtful care, the swan caught a serious disease due to bacterial infection. Two months after Ariel came to her rescue, she __________.

It’s a(n)__________ ending, but the real story is just __________ some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city. In all, Ariel traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway while dragging her bike. “That’s the perfect __________ of who she is,” says Higginbotham.

8 . The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the ________ close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to ________ the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went a longer way than ever.

The ________ the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip ________ more time, the fish were not fresh.

To settle this________, fish companies installed (安装) freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers ________ the boats to go farther and stay longer.

________, the Japanese could taste the difference ________ the fresh and the frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of the frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower ________. So, the fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and put them in the tanks, fin to fin. After struggling for some time, they stopped moving and became ________ and dull. Days later, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry ________ a coming economic crisis!

But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan. How did they________ ? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies ________ put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark. The fish are challenged and therefore are constantly on the ________. The challenger they face keeps them ________ and fresh!

Have you ________ that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time not active or awake? So we need ________, which, basically in our life, are new challenges, to keep us awake and moving. If you are steadily ________ challenges, you are happy. “Your challenges keep you ________ and fresh. Don’t create success and enjoy it in a state of ________ . You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.”