4 . Natalie Doan, 14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the _______ from her house. It’s the ocean that makes Rockaway so special.

On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned _______. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie’s family _______ to Brooklyn shortly before the city’s bridges closed. When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood _______. All around her, people were suffering, especially the _______. Natalie’s school was so damaged that she had to _______ attend a school in Brooklyn.

In the following few days, Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others _______. Teenagers climbed dozens of _______ of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings. Natalie’s choice was to help. The men and women helping Rockaway recover _______ Natalie, so she decided to create a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to ________. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collection when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick’s collection was ________.

In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids. ________, Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-needed supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts ________ her a famous person.

Today, the scars (创痕) of ________ are still seen in Rockaway, but ________ is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt.

6 . What do you do with your clothes that you can’t or don’t want to wear anymore? Through cutting, stitching and redesigning, Baxter Salzwedel has found a_______way to be environmentally friendly.

In March, 2022, recycling clothes_______the 17-year-old from Lakeside High School a finalist spot in the Young Entrepreneurs competition. The competition was hosted by Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, a nonprofit organisation. He won a scholarship of $10.000 for his_______clothing brand The Mad Patcher.

In the beginning, Baxter just worked with clothes for fun. He learned his_______skills from his grandmother at a young age. He then started to _______his old jeans to try and make cool new designs.

The fun hobby quickly turned into a_______for Baxter when his classmates started asking him to make customized clothing for them and they_______for it. “I can’t make so many clothes for free.” said Baxter.

In 2021, Baxter started his clothing_______. He now uses colorful pieces from other clothes to_______his patchwork (拼缝物) designs like jeans, shirts and jackets. He only uses donated or________materials to ensure maximum sustainability.

Baxter has earned thousands of dollars through selling his clothes and he has________25 percent of his profits to some nonprofit environment conservation organizations.

He was________ as a finalist out of dozens of applicants across the US. The finalist needs to have successful business experiences, growth potential, innovation and________involvement. “It was amazing to do that and meet all sorts of young people with similar ideas,” Baxter said________. For Baxter, The Mad Patcher is a life-time________worth working on.

7 . Many animals move from one place to another at certain times of the year. This _________ movement is called migration. They migrate to find food, _________ , or in search of warmer weather. One of the most _________ migrations in nature is that of the North American monarch butterfly.

Every autumn, millions of these beautiful insects with fine black and orange wings _________ a long and difficult journey. Somehow they manage to travel around 4,000 kilometres south and find their way to California or Mexico. However, until recently no one _________ how they did this.

A team of scientists led by Professor Eli Shlizerman at the University of Washington has now found the answer. They have found out that the monarch is able to _________ the time of day. It uses its eyes to measure the _________ of the sun. These two pieces of _________ — the time of day and the point where the sun is in the sky — allow the butterfly to _________ the way to go. ____________ , it manages to reach the places where it will spend the winter.

The ____________ to the mystery of the monarch’s amazing ability comes at a time when it is in serious trouble. Its population has ____________ by as much as 90 per cent in the last few years. Sadly, human ____________ is the main reason why the number of monarch butterflies is falling. In many of the places where the butterfly can be found, people are ____________ the natural environment. They ____________ trees and use chemicals that kill the plants that monarch caterpillars eat.

The ____________ on the monarch’s behaviour has however led to a greater awareness of this ____________ . People have been working together to ____________ its migration and make sure that there are enough plants for it to ____________ . If this works, there may come a time when the number of monarch butterflies increases once again, The more we know about this lovely creature, the greater the chance it will ____________ and keep its place in the natural world for a long time to come.

9 . Biodiversity is a concept that's commonly referenced, yet regularly misunderstood. The complex_______ not only refers to the unbelievable variety of life on Earth, but to how everything from genes to entire ecosystems interact to make the planet habitable. The bad news: science shows that biodiversity is _______ worldwide at a faster rate than at any time in human history. That’s obviously devastating for everything in nature--including us.

“If biodiversity disappears, so do people,” says Dr. Stephen Woodley, field ecologist and bio-diversity expert with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “We are part of the _______ and we do not exist without it.”

Preventing such a catastrophe, says Woodley, begins with understanding why biodiversity is declining, and then taking action to _______ course.

“The two greatest _______ of biodiversity loss are habitat loss, primarily on land, and overexploitation, primarily in the ocean,” Woodley says. He explains that we can solve these problems by permanently _______ more lands and oceans and managing them for their conservation values.

That's the mission of the global Campaign for Nature, a partnership of the Wyss Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Instead of simply protecting 30 percent of the Earth, the_______ also encourages nations, in full partnership with local communities, to focus on the right 30 percent. Those areas, says Woodley, _______ the most important biodiversity, such as endangered species and ecosystems and rare species and ecosystems.

The campaign also recognizes the importance of_______ local rights. Local peoples manage or hold tenure(保有权) over lands that support about 80 percent of the world's biodiversity, making it ________ for these communities to be full partners in developing and implementing strategies.

________, protecting the health of key biodiversity areas is vital for tackling climate change, says National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Enric Sala. Pairing the international Paris Agreement to combat climate change, Sala's paper asserts, “would ________catastrophic(灾难性的) climate change, conserve species, and secure essential ecosystem services.”

“Biodiversity is stability,” says Sala. “Trees, wetlands, grasslands, peat bogs(泥炭沼泽), salt marshes(盐沼), healthy ocean ecosystems, mangroves(红树林), and plants ________ much of the carbon pollution humans put into the atmosphere. Yet, right now, less than half of the planet is in its natural state, which isn't enough.” Bottom line: Nature needs us to act-now. “Moving to Mars is not a(n) ________,” Sala adds. “The only conditions for our life and for the prosperity of human society are here on Earth ...we are ________ protecting it.”

10 . You just can’t imagine what a brave mother is like. She was a mother of three, who just _______ an earthquake, couldn’t tell if her children were _______ for help. Or what if you knew you couldn’t yell at her for help because she couldn’t _______ you? That was what happened to Connie and her three children _______ the 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Napa, California. Connie is _______ and communicates with her children using sign language.

At midnight, Connie and her three children were _______ on the first floor of their two-story home. She and her 16-year-old son, Juan, were shaken awake. Instantly, they realized there were no disaster supplies downstairs. Connie, also _______ one-month-old Raul and 8-year-old Adriana, called Juan to come close to her in the darkness and _______ for him to go upstairs to get a _______.

Juan slowly __________ the stairs. He heard a loud creak (嘎吱声). Arriving on the top floor, he moved quickly but __________ to get what he needed. Using the flashlight to guide his steps back __________ the stairs, the family was able to take a few items from the first floor and __________. Their home was almost in ruins.

Being deaf was not deterrent (妨碍物) for this __________ mother. The family made it to the __________ safely, which comforted everyone.