1 . On May 7, “eco-mermaid” Merle Liivand _________her own world record by swimming a full marathon’s distance with a single fin (鳍) in Biscayne Bay, Florida. When Merle Liivand was a child, she had health problems, and began swimming to help her lungs get _________ . In one training session, she nearly wound up swallowing some _________ that was floating in the sea.

That _________ made her think of all the sea animals who faced _________ pollution every day. She decided to work to make people more aware of plastic pollution. Inspired by sea creatures, she began swimming with a special single swimming fin _________ both of her feet. This single fin allows her to swim by _________both of her legs together. She believes swimming with it _________“a bigger message”.

Since 2019, she’s broken records, swimming vast distances—first in California, then in Florida, and this time swimming the _________ of a full marathon. Despite encountering challenges like jellyfish stings, she __________ , collecting trash along her route. Her dedication extends beyond records; it’s about community and global __________.

During her__________, a friend kayaked (划皮划艇) alongside, providing food and water and collecting the trash she __________ . By the end of her marathon, the kayak held three bags full of trash. Liivand’s actions aim to __________ a bigger goal: it’s not just about achievements, but about making a __________ impact on the world.

2 . I don’t usually watch TV at night. Last Thursday night, I finished my homework early and _________to watch TV for half an hour. To my surprise, there was a wonderful _________.

The program was about food waste (食品浪费). It asked cooks (厨师) to make meals from food that people threw away (扔掉). The cooks went to _________to find food. They found lots of bread. The bread was three days old but was _________very good. At some street markets they found bananas and strawberries. The _________was a little brown, but it was OK to eat!

From the program, I learned how much food people throw away every week. It is _________. We waste so much food because we _________so much and we can’t eat it all! The program also showed that some farmers throw away a lot of their vegetables because they aren’t the right _________for the shops!

People don’t want carrots when they are very big or very small, _________ the farmers throw them away or give them to pigs!

The program showed people that food waste is a big problem. We must __________food waste together. From now on, I will eat everything in the fridge (冰箱).

3 . As a florist, I spent hours arranging the display for an event. But a day later, it was unwanted and thrown away ________. I wanted to do something with it, believing many of the flowers still in good condition could be ________.

Thinking I could make the most of these beautiful ________, I started taking home as many as possible, and giving them to hospitals, but there were still many ________. Then, one day I had an ________.

I began repurposing some of them into ________ items. A pink agapanthus (百子莲)became a necklace, while I used a banksia(山龙眼)as a giant headpiece. A friend, Lily was at- tractive, with the orange flowers on her ________, which looked like a famous hairstyle. And some of my creations were ________ by another friend.

Sharing the photos on the social media got people ________. Many were ________ at how wasteful the floral industry could be. By then, I found more ________. My artworks showed me that we really could ________ flowers. On Valentine’s Day, there were so many ________ roses that I wove them together into a giant red suit, which Lily wore while walking through the city.

I think my work is ________ the ideas about beauty. Something people might think is ________ for the bin can really have a whole other life in it. So I hope people can think more about what they throw out.

4 . As a child, I was crazy about flying. I spent hours watching birds fly, noting how the angle of their ________ affected their flight. I would then waste tons of fresh printer paper, much to the disappointment of my parents, to ________ various wing types by constructing paper airplanes.

One day, I decided to ________. I built a plane out of a wooden clothes rack, with plastic bags as parachutes. After being in the air for a second, the world came ________ around me as I fell onto the bed with pieces of wood flying everywhere.

As I grew older, my inner ________ to discover why produced a desire to solve problems, allowing my great ________ for flying to turn into a deep-seated love for engineering.

I began to ________ myself academically, taking the hardest STEM classes offered. I also elected to participate in my school's engineering path. ________, I sought to solve problems that affect the real world. Inspired by the ________ crisis in India, I ________ a new purification system that can purify water more efficiently and cost-effectively than conventional plants.

Working on the project, I saw the raw power of engineering — a/an________ idea gradually becoming reality. I was spending most of my days ________ the why behind things, while also discovering solutions to common problems.

Thirteen years have passed since that first flight, and I have yet to ________ the difficulty of physical human flight. My five-year-old self would have seen the crash as a huge ________. But the great curiosity that I found in myself that day is still with me. It has continued to push me to challenge myself to ________ ever more complex problems, absorbed in the promise and applicability of engineering.

5 . One night at the summer camp, we did something that we should not have done. We made a plan with girls from the other camp that we'd wait until everyone was ______ , borrow a ______ and meet on a small island with an old log cabin on it. The cabin was said to be haunted（闹鬼的）, We just never knew how exciting our evening would ______ to be

We made it to the island and waited for the other girls in the old cabin. There was no ______ of them. The ten minutes in the cabin seemed like hours. Every strange sound made us ______ . We then heard a person ______ and saw a strange light coming towards the cabin, which was green and looked very frightening in the mist! We ______ and rushed to the water. We jumped into the canoe and didn't stop paddling（划桨）until we got to our camp. The next night, we met with the girls from the other camp. We asked them if it was they who had ______ us. However, they denied. ______ , we heard a whisper coming from distance and then we saw the strange ______ light again. Had it followed us here?

To our ______ , our camp instructor Jessica appeared. "Girls." she said, smiling. "Remember me? When I saw you ______ away, I followed you to the island to teach you a lesson." She put the green flashlight under her chin to make a   ______ face and said with a smile, "If you do that again, it won't be ______ you'll have to worry about! Understand?”

From that moment on, we became the ______ kids in the camp.

6 . Prior to arriving in China in 2017, I had read various books relating to China, famous Chinese novels as well as non-fiction and the seeds of my fascination were sown.

Therefore, when I arrived I couldn't have been more excited to be living in this ________ historically and culturally rich country, so vastly different________ my native home of the UK. The food, the landmarks, the mega cities and everyday life—I was raring to explore.

Yet despite my________ , learning Chinese hadn't even entered my mind. This wasn't ignorance or laziness, but rather intimidation at the prospect of attempting to________ what is regarded as the   most difficult language in the world. ________   my mind, the Chinese language was the prerogative of the highly intelligent. Besides this, once I moved to China, I was living in Shanghai which is an international city,   with many people speaking English as a second language—I________ English   would suffice.

However, after a year in China I________ to observe that while many expats did not speak   Chinese, there were plenty who did. Perhaps it was achievable after all? In addition I felt ________     with how many Chinese________ could speak English (to some degree or another) and yet I couldn't even speak the most basic Chinese. With   these factors in mind and a thirst for a new________ I   decided to begin my language journey and my only regret is that I didn't start earlier.