1 . The Sierra Nevada range is incomparable in scale and magnificence. There’s no better way to see it than to appreciate every spectacular view with your own hard _______. My husband, Will, our kids (Herbie, 5 and Artley, 11) and I planned to _______ the northern half of the John Muir trail in two weeks, which _______ along the backbone of the High Sierra, past lakes, and through dusty pine forests.

We set _______ before we started: this would be tough, but worth it. To get our kids more _______, we let them have the map and decide when to stop and rest. In this way, they felt empowered. This _______ also resulted in Herbie nearly standing on a 4-foot snake on our first day, though. _______, it was early morning and the snake was half asleep.

For two weeks, the boys enjoyed the _______. They built dams and bridges across streams, climbed and swam. Sometimes, they refused to carry their packs and _______ about feet hurting. But these moments were far outweighed by extraordinary bursts of ________ and enthusiasm — particularly when we’d been slogging (艰难前行) uphill for hours and a mountain top finally came into view, our kids even decided we needed to ________.

By the time we finished, we had ________ countless mosquitoes, suffered foot pain and had terrible sleep. But we were right to be ________ about our kids’ abilities. Through the ________, they will, I hope, understand what they are truly capable of, how perseverance leads to bigger ________ later on, and what it feels like to be encouraged and supported so that they can achieve something great.

2 . Water is one of the most important things for life on Earth. What happens ________ you suddenly can’t get this precious liquid?

Mark, an expedition (探险) guide from Shropshire, in the UK, ________ this for himself while ________ along the Zambezi River for two months. When he reached the gorge (峡谷) at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, the area became much more ________ to travel through. Mark guessed that it would take a month to get to the other side of the gorge, and with no other people for miles around, he was beginning to ________ food: After two weeks of trying to pick his ________ through the gorge, Mark decided to find another ________. On his ________, he could see another river heading into the Zambezi.

________ at 4 am, Mark climbed out of the gorge with two—litter water bottles. But after three hours of walking, he ________ ran out of water. He was on the edge of a cliff (悬崖). He could see the river far below him.

He examined the cliff and saw a few tree roots to hold onto, so he decided to make an attempt at climbing down. When he reached a ledge(岩架), he became ________ due to his thirsty, hunger and tiredness. It was not until a few minutes later that he came to himself. Even so, Mark kept pushing himself down the cliff for nearly an hour until he came to the ________. He had to sit there for an hour, cooling down and drinking water.

While few of us are likely to experience this kind of extreme dehydration (脱水), around four billion people experience a ________ of water at least one month of the year. Mark was lucky. After resting for a week, he was able to ________ his journey. Although his experience was a ________ in patience, it also taught him how important water is.