1 . Wilber stole Staci Greene’s heart years ago. The donkey (驴) was an unusual gift that left quite an impression.

Years later, after _________ back to her parents’ farm in Ramona, California, Staci started making plans for a donkey rescue (救援) project. She began _________ unwanted donkeys and mules (骡子), naming her project Hee Haw Place Donkey Rescue.

Hee Haw Place has had as many as thirteen _________ at one time, but because of Staci’s success in finding people who are fit to adopt (收养) the donkeys, she now _________ just six — two donkeys, two mules and two horses.

She makes sure the new _________ are suitable for the animals and that new owners are _________ about wanting to add a donkey to their families. If an adoption doesn’t _________, Staci always welcomes the animal back to her farm.

Donkeys require little _________, she says. Their hooves (the hard lower parts of their feet) should be trimmed (修剪) once or twice a year, and they need a large farm where they can walk and _________ grass.

But they need more than __________. Staci says, “These are working animals, and they need __________.”

Donkeys are relatively easy to train for riding and for pulling things. Staci __________ them and helps them find work and __________ in their new forever homes.

Staci’s animals always walk in the parade held during Mule Days every May in Bishop, California. They also __________ their training. Last year, Poppy the mule won a championship title, while the donkeys brought home several __________. Love and patience for the win!

4 . Photographer Joe Sartore began making studio portraits (肖像) of________in 2006. The purpose is to________for future generations species that someday might be extinct. Sartore expects to have portraits of nearly 1,000 animals. Here are some________of his project, which is featured in this special issue on________wildlife.

In Sartore’s opinion, the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog (巴拿马树蛙) is one of the most________species he has photographed that have since gone________. A few years ago there was one left________, a male, at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. He had________it there times before it passed away. At those moments he thought to himself________, “Don’t mess this up.” It might be this animal’s only________to have its story told well.

Another memorable species Sartore photographed is the Florida grasshopper sparrow (草蜢沙鹀). It is endangered, but seems to be________back. It’s a small brown bird, and some people________it enough to try to save it. There are many________stories, such as the California condor, the Mexican gray wolf, sand so on. They all got down to perhaps two dozen or fewer individuals, but they’re all________now due to human efforts.

The situation is still________as a recent report says that as many as one million species are already on their ________to extinction. It’s foolish to think that we can throw away so much________and not have it affect humanity in a(n)________way. Sartore’s goal is to get the________to care about the extinction crisis while there’s still________to save the planet.

5 . Austrian biologist Johannes Fritz has dedicated his career to helping northern bald ibises (鹮). This rare species of bird was _________ in the wild 50 years ago; however, through careful _________, he’s been able to “rewild” 277 ibises in his home country. To ensure that they survive the _________ of the winter, Fritz even _________ young birds a new migration path from Austria to _________ with the help of a flying machine.

Fritz guided the first group of ibises in 2004. _________, that path has already been affected by climate change. After noticing that three _________ failed to make the trip, he and his team _________ the birds and drove them where they needed to go. This was only a/an _________ solution, of course. Soon afterward, Fritz was designing a new __________ for the ibises which would help them __________ the dangers of the Alps.

Using a three-wheeled vehicle, Fritz __________ with the birds. He taught them a new migration path that __________ about 2, 5000 miles, which is about three times __________ than the old route. Rather than go to Italy, the ibises now ________ to Spain’s southern Atlantic coast. It takes Fritz and the birds six weeks to make a __________ trip.

Some may wonder how Fritz is able to teach the birds in his flying machine, and why the ibises __________ to follow him. The answer is quite __________. Fritz and the Waldrapp team have taken care of the birds their whole lives — __________ them and supporting them. So they __________ follow him, despite not knowing their new destination.

7 . An elephant was rescued in southern India after falling into a well in the village of Dharmapuri. It took more than 12 hours, but the elephant has been _________ finally.

The elephant came from a _________ forest. The well in the village was hidden by bushes. And there were even no barriers _________ around it.

People from the village _________ told the local officials when they saw the trapped elephant. They dropped some banana _________ down the well for the elephant to eat, as rescuers worked throughout the whole night to free it.

The officials brought in a crane (吊车) to _________ the elephant out. As the crane lifted the elephant to safety, it was fastened by some belts and _________ upside down. Doctors helped rescuers sedate (给……服镇静剂) the elephant when it _________ pipes they were using to pump water out of the well. After the rescue, the elephant was monitored by the _________ government for about three hours. It was found to be __________ and active in the end.

The people in the village have some __________ saving trapped elephants because two other elephants have fallen down wells before. And the uncovered wells there have already __________ a threat to the elephants.

The elephants need more __________ land to survive as they need to walk around to look for food and water. Open wells in their migratory routes (迁移路线) are huge __________ for them. What we must do is to cover the wells or set a barrier around them so as to __________ these elephants.

9 . On December 26, 2004, a 10-minute-long earthquake with a 9.3 magnitude took place in the Indian Ocean. This earthquake, which is the third _______ ever recorded in history, caused powerful tsunamis (海啸) that reached many countries’ _______. About 230,000 people were _______ by the disaster. Hundreds of thousands of others were injured _______ disappeared. One of them is a little _______ named Wati.

The tsunami _______ her hometown of Aceh when she was only 3 years old. Like so many others, the huge waves separated her from her family, and she was _______ to an unknown town. After days of _______, her family eventually gave up and thought she had _______.

However, Wati had been ________ by a stranger who found her on the street after the tsunami. The stranger had tried to find her family, but Wati could not ________ the names of her parents and only knew that she had a grandfather named Ibraham.

________ later, a taxi driver who heard Wati’s story happened to know an old man with that name in a nearby town and decided to take her to him. Although the old man did not ________ her at first, he took Wati to see his ________.

“When I saw my mother, I knew it was her,” said the 15-year-old Wati. “I just knew.”

The parents recognized their daughter ________ because of the birthmark on the body.

10 . A forest after a wildfire

Throughout my career, I’ve had many chances to enter various wildfire areas. But I’ve ________ had the opportunity to see the immediate scene after a fire.

So when I ________ into a recently burned forest, my first reaction was the deathly ________ hung in the air. There were no birds, no breeze caught in the leaves of a tree, or animal noises. It felt as if life itself had totally ________ from this place. What was even worse, the burned-out forest meant that a large amount of ________ alongside the road was no longer ________ by the under-growth (灌木丛) . Oil cans, glass, plastic bags—you name it, and you can find it.

Knowing there was a story here that needed ________ , I raised my camera with a heavy heart, no matter how ________ . Photographing burned-out areas is ________ , since there is really only a bunch of burned-out wood. Through my lenses, I sought to connect viewers to the ________ of the disaster.

For a nature photographer passionate about environmental protection, it’s important to ________ the ugly as well as the beautiful. We need to put those two things together, so while ________ hope, we are aware of what has been taken from us, and how ________ that loss can be. Without that balance, we risk becoming used to a world shaped by destruction and not the one of ________ . Nature will regenerate, but now, we must consider what ________ we humans play in that process, too.