1 . Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modern convenience: the iPad.

Instead of looking at nature, I _______ my e-mail. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading _______newspapers each morning. And that was the problem: I was acting as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation but my _______ wasn’t.

So this year I made up my mind to try something _______: getting away from the Internet. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, _______ I’m not good at self-control. But I was _______. I started by handing the iPad to my wife. Then, a stroke of luck: The mobile phone _______ at our cabin was worse than in the past. I was _______, forced to carry out my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail and my favourite newspaper websites, I had little way to _______ the world. I had no ________ but to do what I had planned to do all along: read books.

With determination and the strong support of my wife, I succeeded in my vacation struggle against the Internet. I finally ________ that it was me, of course, not the iPad, that was the ________.

I knew I had ________ when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. “Don’t need it,” I said. ________, as we return to work, a test begins: Can I survive when I’m back at work? I don’t plan to ________ my iPad completely. But I hope to resist the temptation (抵抗诱惑) to use it every five minutes.

2 . I found a wonderful picture of Maolan karst cones online and presented it to the innkeeper. “You can’t go there,” the innkeeper ________me with a smile. “The viewing platform has been closed due to________that too many visitors could cause geological damage.”

Though disappointed, we________an alternative: a seven-hour hike through the“funnel forest”. Initially, we were ________to run the risk. However, I had________the tourism motto in the nature reserve: “If you don’t do it now, you won’t do it in your lifetime.” Three of our group ________decided to venture into the forest. The innkeeper responded with a knowing ________:“Great. Bear Grylls went there.”

The next morning, we set off with a local________. Rain came and went three times, and before I actually________to climb over the first mountain, I had already got wet to the skin. I was a walking________of mud and water.

Our guide, in his 50s, behaved like a botanist, introducing the locally specific plants to us, but I was hardly in the________. Every step sank into the muddy, sucking ground. Every log or rock in front of us was a physical________. “One can never reach those places without strong willpower,” I murmured, reciting that millennium-old________, over and over again.

Sinkholes and entrances to underground rivers kept popping up along our________. Thinking of them leading to an unknown world, I began to________the road that I can control even more.

Wandering in a green chaos without any obvious landmarks is also breathtaking.

3 . A professor entered the classroom and told the students about a surprise test. All students were_________ and waited for the test to begin. The professor gave the test papers to all students with text facing down at the desk. Once he was done with _________ the test to all students, he asked them to_________ the test paper and begin.

Students were ___________ to see that there was just a black dot in the center of the page. The professor told them, “I want you to ___________ about what you see there.” The students were___________ confused but got started with the test. At the end of the class, the professor collected all answer sheets and started reading each answer from each sheet in front of all students. All of them___________ about the black dot and tried to explain its position.

Now, professor began to explain, “Here everyone_________ the black dot and wrote about it_________ no one wrote about the white paper. The same is with our lives. The white paper stands for our whole life and the black dot __________problems in our life.

Our life is a __________ given to us by God, with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate—our friends around us, the job that provides us with everything we need. However, we just focus on day to day ____________ like health issues, lack of money, poor relationships, but we seldom see that these problems are very small __________to everything we have in our lives.”

We should try to take eyes __________ our problems and enjoy each moment that life gives us. Be happy and live your life ____________.

5 . Several months ago, a tornado fiercely hit our city without any signs before. We hadn’t ___________for it in advance, so we were just forced to go into our___________actions. I happened not to be in the classroom when it attacked. Hearing the alarm screaming, I rushed___________as fast as I could back to the classroom.

Never did I imagine that we would put our regular_________to use. Never did I imagine that my students had ___________against the wall and crouched(蹲) down on their knees. Their eyes were obviously filled with___________as they asked if their parents, pets, and friends would be okay. I, along with other teachers, tried our best to___________them, though we actually didn’t know what the___________would be.

I couldn’t ___________the tornado anymore. However, I’m very proud of my students who performed so well. In such a(an)____________and dangerous situation, they behaved beyond their ages. Never in my life had I seen them ____________instructions(指示) so quickly, without any hesitation. Though some tears were dropping and some hearts were beating fast, the kids were incredibly____________. I’m extremely proud that they struggled to calm down because of their____________in me.

Because of the tornado, I realized that my job as a teacher meant a lot. Behind every well-behaved students are a long line of teachers who have made it their life’s ____________to educate them with safety, courage, calmness and trust. Though the tornado has presented ____________, I’m sure we can handle them one by one.

6 . The management of a software company decided to teach its employees (雇员) about finding real ________ to solve problems. When called to play a ________ in a hall, the team of 30 employees was quite ________. As they entered the hall, they found a huge box of balloons (气球) at the centre. They were ________ to pick a balloon and blow it up. And the team leader asked them to ________ their names on their balloons. All tried to do that, but not everyone ________ it. A few balloons burst (爆裂) due to pressure and yet they were given another chance. Those who ________ even after the second chance were ruled out of the game. In all, 25 employees were left for the next ________. All the balloons were collected and the team leader asked the employees to ________ the balloon with their names marked. Also, he told them no balloon should be ________. It was almost 15 minutes and no one was able to find his own balloon.

Now it was the third and final level. The employees were asked to pick any balloon in the room and give it to the person ________ on the balloon. Within a couple of minutes all the balloons reached ________ employee.

The team leader said that this was the real way to solve problems. Often everyone is crazily ________ ways to solve problems without recognizing the ________ way. Most of the time, ________ and helping others can give you the tools you need to deal with all problems.

8 . Last month, Koch went to make breakfast and found a(n) ________ guest using his pool. A large moose (驼鹿) was swimming in the deep end, ________ in the solar cover (太阳能覆盖膜).

“I looked out in the backyard and there’s the moose absolutely panicked and ________,” Koch told The Dodo. “She stepped on the solar cover and put her ________ through it and she was ________ trying to get free.”

Koch has noticed more wildlife around his home in Ottawa, ________ he had never seen an animal________impressive before. He rushed outside and pulled the solar cover off the ________ moose, who continued paddling ________ the pool, proving to be a surprisingly skilled swimmer.

The wild moose seemed to be having trouble finding her way out of the pool, so Koch called the police and wildlife services to see if they could ________ a hand. “She looked so pitifully sad out there that my wife said, ‘I want to give her a ________.’”

Workers from wildlife services intended that they would get her to a safer spot, but they couldn’t ________ it until she was out of the water. “The best thing that happened was that after 3.5 hours she climbed out of the shallow end and ________ the fence,” Koch said.

The moose ________ unscratched, but the same can’t be said for Koch’s pool — which now has two hoof-sized ________in the bottom.