2 . It’s most people’s nightmare: surviving a plane crash only to be stranded (滞留) in a jungle with no way of contacting the outside world. But this was _______ for four Colombian children.

The children were _______ with their mother from their village in the Amazon to visit their father working overseas. The plane they were taking experienced engine problems and disappeared on May 1, 2023. Bad weather _______ the army from finding the crash site for two weeks, where they later _______ the dead bodies of three adults, including the children’s mother.

How did these children survive conditions that would be a _______ struggle for most adults? They are members of the Huitoto indigenous group (土著群体) and were _______ in the jungle. As such, they have an intimate (深刻的) understanding of the rainforest. They know which fruits are _______ to eat and which plants should be _______. Working with, rather than _______ the Amazon, they survived on juan soco (a fruit similar to passion fruit) and seeds.

While the children got on with the business of ________, the Colombian army worked with indigenous volunteers to find them. After 40 days of searching, the children were found and taken to ________ at a military hospital in Bogota.

Many around the world have taken their survival to be a ________, but others point out that it is the result of a(n) ________ and intimate knowledge of the rainforest that has been ________ through indigenous communities over the generations. It is their close connection to and understanding of the rainforest that ________ helped the children to survive.

3 . Jim owned a store. A customer once asked him how he managed to stay ________ all the time. His answer was, “When I wake up in the morning, I know that the day will have good and bad ________ for me, but whatever happens, I’m going to choose to be in a good ________.”

Then one day, something ________ happened. Jim was about to leave the store when an armed robber came in, held him up at gunpoint, and made him open the ________. As he was trying to open it, Jim’s hand ________. The robber saw this and probably thought, “He’s about to attack me!” The robber ________ and fired his gun.

Jim was rushed to the hospital. In the ambulance, he felt ________ because the paramedic (医务辅助人员) kept telling him, “I’m sure you’ll be OK.”

But when Jim was in the operating room and he saw the faces of the doctors and nurses, he got the feeling that they thought he was ________ dead. He knew he needed to do something to change their ________.

There was a ________ who was asking him lots of questions, very fast. One question was, “Are you ________ to anything?” “Yes!” Jim said loudly and everybody stopped what they were doing. There was total ________. “Bullets!” Jim said, and all the doctors and nurses burst out ________. And then Jim added, “Please operate on me thinking that I’ll live, and not that I’ll die.”

Jim survived, thanks to the skill of the doctors and nurses. But what also helped was that he managed to remain an optimist even in the most ________ moment of his life.

5 . It was a cold May morning when I received an interesting email from an old high school friend inviting me to join a 10-day all-girls surf trip. I knew I had to say ________.

The trip seemed simple enough. Ten ________ aged 30 to 45, all complete strangers, meeting on the coast of Portugal to try something new: ________in the Atlantic Ocean.

I have always loved traveling, so I was ________ to send an email to my boss asking for time ________ to make the trip. I met my ________ surfing companion on the grass of the hotel lawn in a small surf town called Ericeira. Although we had our different ________ and backgrounds, we were all united in a lasting desire to ________ ourselves, learn, tackle and grow.

________by our amazing coaches, together, we faced the waves. Sometimes, it poured with rain, and the waves __________ around us, but we were still out there. And with every slip and fall, words of __________ from our coaches filled the air. Honestly, I probably spent most of my days frozen to the bone, but that didn’t matter because learning a new skill taught me the humility (谦逊) that can come from doing __________ at something new, and the pride that develops when you finally __________ to grasp something you’ve been working on.

While surfing might not be my calling, trying it out __________ me to take more risks in life, to __________ my comfort zone and to never stop believing in myself. You never know what you’re capable of if you don’t go out there and try.

6 . 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.

9 . I once helped in a service work. I still remembered one special event that was uncommon for me. I spent several hours ________ out warm dinner to the homeless out in the homeless shelter.

I was in high school and at the time my sister was too young to join in. She wanted to help, ________ she made many chocolate chip cookies for me to take and hand out to people. When getting to the shelter, I passed out the ________. I began making sandwiches and share them with the crowd. I had the boxes with my sister’s ________ in them and began to walk around, offering them to anyone near me.

I moved towards an ________ gentleman and said, “Sir, would you like a cookie?” He stopped and turned around. He looked at me and said, “What did you say? Did you call me sir?” I told him I had, and his eyes ________ a little bit and said, “No one has ________ called me sir in the past 60 years.” He was completely moved.

It ________ me.

I explained I had been taught that ________ a person’s color and social position were, he deserved respect. It was ________ for me to think that just because he was homeless, no one ________ him the honor. It broke my heart. I just didn’t understand ________ no one ever called him sir. I had never thought that anyone was below me because I wasn’t taught that way. Every ________ person deserves to be treated with respect. Years later, I still carry that memory and the ________ it taught me. Sometimes, what we are taught to believe can ________ make a difference in someone’s life.

10 . After observing a few big falls from a tree, the Morgan family knew that there were two baby squirrels that needed a bit of extra_______. When the Morgans saw a dead squirrel nearby, they______that these two sweethearts were likely orphans. Father Keith and his daughter Riley took the ______to offer help. They moved the babies into a rabbit cage to bring them back to health. They became______family members, receiving the names Chip and Dale.

Keith did a bit of research, and the family______the babies Pedialyte (电解质水) to help them. While Chip ______passed away despite the extra care, Dale held on tightly. He responded well to the food and care the Morgans _______and soon got strong enough to leave the cage.

But then something______happened. Dale the squirrel kept coming back!

“Little by little he would go up in a tree, climb up to play, and then come back down to stay with us,” Riley______“OK. If he wants to stick around, we’ll build him a ______in the trees. Riley’s a big Whataburger (a fast food restaurant) fan and we decided to ______that design into Dale’s home,” said father Keith.

On July 10, Keith uploaded a picture of the squirrel home to a Whataburger group online, and the content ______. Over a thousand people shared the______, and the comment section was full of delight and awe. While Dale hasn’t stopped home to ______in a while, the Morgan family knows he’s out there making the most of his life. Dale serves as a(n)______that a little extra care can make a big difference!