1 . In 1972, I was studying in Passau, Germany. One night, I was ready to walk the two miles home. Normally, walking around a city in Germany was___________for single women regardless of the time of night._________, I thought nothing of walking alone.

My _________took me through a street with lots of cheap restaurants and pubs that served food and beer. Normally, I just walked through without_________. But that night, as I walked past one of the pubs, four young men noticed me. They called out a few rude words, but I_________them and kept walking. However, they came out and started to_________me. I turned up and down a few streets, hoping to lose them, but in_________.

After the fifth turn, I was_________that I was in trouble and started praying._________, from one of the darkened yards, a huge German Shepherd rushed out. He was barking excitedly, wagging his tail, and__________me like he’d been waiting for me to come home.

The young men spotted the dog and __________right away. I got a sense of__________and started walking again. Strangely, the dog followed me all the way until I got to my door.

As we__________my door, I slowed down to pull my key out of my purse. The dog kept his__________and walked right past my house without even looking at me. With a__________heart I watched my angel disappear into the darkness.

2 . Austria is often mistaken for Australia. Some tourist shops in Austria even have souvenirs that have a sign, saying “No kangaroos in Austria”.

However, recently, a kangaroo has been seen jumping around in the European country.

Police in the small town of Kirchschlag bei Linz, Upper Austria, have ________ many sightings (目击) of what looked like a kangaroo jumping through the grasslands and forests around the town over the weekend. Now they are actively ________ the animal in the whole town. They have also ________ all the zoos and breeders (饲养员) in the area. But so far, no one has ________ to be responsible for the ________ animal.

“It sounds ________ but it's true,” a police officer told Agence France Press. “We have called all the zoos and kangaroo breeders around us, but no one is ________ a kangaroo. We really hope the owner will come forward.”

Police cannot tell what type the kangaroo is, but they have ________ the locals that they have nothing to worry about, as kangaroos are herbivores (食草动物). It is unlikely that this particular one can cause any ________. Regarding their chances of ________ in the Austrian wild, Austria can be a perfect habitat for them because there are many grasslands in the country.

If you're thinking that people simply ________ a giant rabbit for a kangaroo, the video posted on Instagram can ________ your doubt. The video was ________ by Thomas Kaufmann, who lives near Kirchschlag bei Linz, over the weekend. “I am not an animal expert, but that ________ looks like a kangaroo.” he said.

It is interesting that this isn't the first time a kangaroo has been ________ in Upper Austria. In 2015, another one appeared near a field of corn, in St. Oswald bei Haslach.

3 . A thirty-year-old environmental puzzle has finally been solved. Since the 1990s, pieces of plastic telephones that look like Garfield—the lazy cartoon cat—have been ______ up on beaches in France. But for three ______, no one knew where the phones were coming from. On March 22, a group of volunteers from a coastal clean-up organization, along with two journalists finally found out the ______ to their puzzle. They discovered a(n) ______ shipping container and ______ of several Garfield phones inside a rocky sea cave. The cave is hard to find, and can only be ______ when the tide (sea) is low.

Shipping containers are used to move things like food, clothing and other items ______ the sea. Cargo ships ______ hundreds of the huge steel containers from the countries where the goods are made or grown, to the countries where they will be ______. However, ______ knows for sure how the shipping container full of Garfield phones ended up in the ______.

People who live in the area say that the ______ first showed up on beaches ______ a big storm in the early 1990s. The container ______ fell off a ship during the storm, but nobody ever reported that it was ______.

The Garfield phones have become a symbol of the problem of ocean ______ Fabien Boileau is the director of Iroise Marine Natural Park, where the cave with the phones is ______. He said the Garfield phones help people to ______ that plastic trash doesn't ______ in the ocean. Some of the colourful plastic pieces still look almost ______, even though they were washed overboard more than 30 years ago.

4 . Mice are at their best at night. But a new analysis suggests researchers often test the nightly creatures during the day, which could alter results and create ________ across various studies, if they record time-of-day information ________. Scientists assume that waking up lab mice in the daytime may twist research.

Of the 200 papers examined in the new study, more than half cither failed to report the timing of behavioral testing or did so ________. On the contrary, they found only 20 percent reported ________ testing. The analysis was published in Neuroscience & Bio-behavioral Reviews.

West Virginia University neuro-scientist Randy Nelson, the study's lead author, says this is likely a matter of human ________. “It is easier to get students and schools to work during the day than at night,” Nelson says. But that advantage ________.

“Time of day not only impacts the intensity of many ________, including mice activity, aggressiveness of their behavior, and hormone levels,” but changes in those factors can only be ________ during certain parts of the daytime cycle, says University of Wyoming behavioral neuro-scientist William D. Todd. This means that “failing to report time of day of data collection and tests makes ________ of results extremely difficult,” adds Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center staff scientist Natalia Machado. Neither Todd nor Machado was involved in the new study.

________, the study researchers say it is critical that scientists report the timing of their work and consider the fact that animals' behavioral and physiological responses can ________ with the hour. As a first step, Nelson says, “obviously, taking time-of-day into consideration seems like ________ fruit in terms of line assing behavioral neuroscience research reliability, reproducibility and rigor (严谨性)

University of Calgary psychologist Michael Antle, who was also not involved in the analysis, says such differences in how studies are run ________ a “reproducibility crisis” in science, with other laboratories unable to ________ study results. “Running a study at the wrong time,” he says, “could lead to us completely ________ a finding altogether.”

5 . In the city I live in, we have a national park full of trees. I am thankful for that place, although I do wish it was bigger. One day I was looking around and climbing by a _________ when I saw a beautiful tarantula (狼蛛) crossing the path. I just stopped and decided to_________ carefully its walking nature.

Behind me there was a_________ going up the same path. And they also_________ the tarantula. Without doubt, a kid shouted, "Quickly, Dad, kill it. "

His older brother also said that, _________ their dad to kill the tarantula. Then I_________ their dad, saying, "Wait. This is the last_________ that the tarantula has to live in. Do you_________ want to kill it？"

"Well, it's_________ and we all have kids here. "

"Why not stand still and let it cross__________？Then you can go up and__________ the rest of the forest. "

After some__________, they agreed to stand still and watch. Soon, the tarantula crossed and hid into the bushes and rocks. I shared my view with them that sometimes we get into__________ but we need to keep calm and__________ our point of view. __________ we are kind to a small creature (生物), then we can start to be kind to__________ ones.

Their dad__________ me and shared his opinion about the above mentioned__________. He said, "You're right. I was about to make a__________. " The children even said goodbye to the tarantula and they__________ something too. I remained there, watching the family pass with a new view of life.

6 . Some twenty years ago, Poonam visited Ranthambore, with her husband Aditya Singh. She was _______ by a tigress with three cubs (幼崽) on a hill. At the end of the trip, she asked Aditya if they could move to the Ranthambore and he agreed.

Over the years, the couple bought about 35 acres bordering the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve on one side. The area, called Bhadlav, had _______ vegetation but has since been _______ into a green forest.

After _______ in Ranthambore, Aditya first visited the Bhadlav area with a BBC film-maker. He became _______ that the farmers were _______ their land because of the risk of predators (食肉动物) searching for food. “I just bought this and did nothing to it except _______ the aggressive species. We _______ the land to recover and now after 20 years, it has become a green forest which is frequented by all kinds of animals, including tigers.”

Not only did the couple have the _______ to let the natural habitat renew itself, they also created several water holes to ensure the wild animals have enough drinking water even during the hot summers. Because of their efforts, the ________ to the farmers in the area has been dramatically reduced. “The animals understand in this forest they get food, water and safe shelter without any ________.” Aditya explained. They have had many ________ from buyers for the land but the Singhs are not interested in selling ________ their love for nature and wildlife. “Money was never the ________,” they said.

Aditya and Poonam’s story has inspired others in the area to follow their example. Aditya has also been receiving ________ from people across India who want to create a comparable model in their own states.

7 . Garbage trucks pick up rubbish and take it to dumps. Over time, the piles of rubbish at the dumps get bigger. The dumps are getting full. Now, we know that some things people throw away can be________Recycling trucks come to many homes to________these recyclables.

Some people sort their________into two separate boxes. This is called two-stream recycling. One box________paper products, and one box holds plastic, glass, and metal materials. Other people use single-stream recycling. They do not sort their recyclables into________boxes.

The recycling trucks collect the recyclables that people throw away and________the materials to recycling centers. In some places, workers sort the materials by hand,________many places use workers as well as machines to sort the recyclables.

New technology has made recycling centers more________. Large machines with magnets（磁铁）sort metal materials. The magnets separate steel cans from aluminum cans. The cans are crushed and________to companies that reuse the metal, Other________crush paper and tie it together. Paper companies buy these things to make fresh paper.

Recycling is________for many reasons. If we recycle everything we can, garbage dumps will not fill up so________. Also, by recycling old materials, we will use________new materials. Recycling uses less energy than making________ products. Recycling saves fossil fuels and________pollution. This is good for our planet's health.

8 . Country diary: a chainsaw massacre in the alder woods

On an overcast, drizzly afternoon at Durham Wildlife Trust’s low Barns nature _________ alder provided the brightest splash of color in the _________

A tree had been felled and sawn into _________. Chainsaw wounds on this species can look like a massacre, because soon after the timber is cut, it turns a lurid shade of red, almost like blood, in stark contrast to the battleship-grey bark, _________ those wounds, which briefly _________ raw meat, fade to orange and finally to chestnut brown.

When this reserve was established half a century ago, around old gravel pits (采沙场), some moisture-loving alders were planted to help _________ a bare, windswept site. Alder wood is one of the finest sources of charcoal, and the plantation trees are old enough now to be coppiced, to produce barbecue fuel.

There is also an important natural alder wood here, created by a cataclysm almost two and a half centuries ago, which led to the designation of the reserve as a site of special scientific interest.

The Great Flood of 1771 _________ Weardale, washing away bridges all the way to the coast. When the water subsided, the course of the River Wear had _________ half a mile south, and the old riverbed became what is now the reserve’s Long Alder Wood, the finest example of its kind in the region.

When it sometimes floods, this tangle of gnarled（苍劲嶙峋的） trees has a _________ of the Florida Everglades（佛罗里达大沼泽） about it, with mossy, fallen trunks sinking back into the ooze (淤泥). Year round, there are wonderful __________ to watch birds from an embankment level with the tree canopy. This afternoon an acrobatic flock of about 30 goldfinches（金翅雀）__________ and chattered through the twigs, feeding on tiny seeds that fall from the woody cones.

Sadly, since the mid-1990s, another__________ has befallen this locally __________ woodland: alder dieback disease has killed around half the mature trees. Coppicing is leading to some regeneration, though in this precious __________ dead timber is allowed to lay where it falls, reserved for the needs of a __________ community of fungi, invertebrates and woodpeckers, rather than back-garden burger-flippers on summer evenings.

9 . As my son and I were leaving for his basketball class, we found a cat sitting outside the door. Since we are not typically_________with animals in my neighborhood, the cats usually_________when they sense human presence. But this one sat still when she_________found us a couple of steps away. We felt she might be in need of some_________

With my encouragement, my son_________up the cat. We are usually quite afraid about_________animals, but this time he brought her in. We_________a little bit of milk, and she drank as we took turns stroking（轻抚）her back.

When we had to leave, she_________us out of the door. Two street dogs showed up and she_________in fear. We all felt__________for her. We tried to put her in our car__________we could take her to the basketball class, but she jumped off.

We did an act of__________towards the cat, but in a way, I think nature and the cat did a much bigger act of kindness towards us. We were given a(n)__________to engage（参与）in a moment, where one could just give without any expectations. We could feel a(n)__________, without having to say any words, and learn the joy of__________.

10 . In the midst of the deadly wildfires that spread across California this summer, a(n)_________friendship was developed between a cat and a chicken who stayed together to survive the fire.

The Grass Valley firefighters_________ the pair on their second day of cleaning up during the Carr Fire in a_________ in the Redding area, California.

“The_________ had survived the deadly fire finding_________ in each other in the doorway of a home,” Grass Valley Fire Chief Mark Buttron said. Buttron shared a heartwarming_________ of the pair staying together. The photo shows the cat was on the floor next to a water bowl and the chicken on the other side of the plate.

The cat and chicken were both_________and needed treatment for their injuries. Firefighters_________found water and called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The animals_________ one animal carrier so they could__________ together until being taken to receive medical treatment.

Niko Kuyper, the owner of the chicken, didn't__________what had happened until a neighbor saw his animal on the news and__________ him. Kuyper recognized the chicken and he was even more__________to see his chicken was__________ Whiskers, another neighbor's cat.

Though Whiskers has to visit the__________ every day to get her bandages (绷带) changed, she has been reunited with her family. Kuyper took the chicken to his parent's house where it is being__________ to new hens. Both animals are__________to recover from their injures.

The animals' friendship provided__________ to those affected by the wildfires.

“Everyone in our neighborhood__________ their homes,” Kuyper said. “It's__________to see something positive like this shining through.”