1 . It was very dark outside. The whole building kept ________ in the hurricane. The fire alarm went off and rainwater came in from the roof of the ________ and dripped (滴) down the walls.

Frankie Randazzo, a restaurant owner, came out of his home at sunrise, after ________ the storm with his wife and her dad. Outside, he saw a large ________ that fell on the ground narrowly missed his bedroom. Its branches were everywhere.

The scene is a ________ sight across Lake Charles and the surrounding towns in southwestern Louisiana in the ________ after Hurricane Laura swept through. The storm ________ the Gull Coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, one of the ________ to have ever hit the region.

For Randazzo, and many other people in America, it was the latest ________ in this year. In March, Randazzo had to ________ his restaurants because of the pandemic (流行病). He missed all the big ________       : St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day. Now comes Hurricane Laura!

“My business was shut down and now my home is ________ too,” he sighed. “It’s basically like a(n) ________ movie.”

The recovery would be ________. The health crisis has already left businesses struggling to ________, and tens of thousands of people have been ________ across the state. It will be ________ for most of the people to find a place to ________ during the pandemic.

“However, this storm, or anything else, isn’t going to ________ us down. We’re going to ________ and we’ll be stronger than we were before.”

2 . I've always loved mountaineering (登山) and the mental and physical challenges that go with it. This time the peak (山峰) of Mt. Whitney is my ______. There are quite a few ways up to the big mountain, but we ______ the traditional one at last, almost 12 miles to the top.

I decided to make this trip less about ______ and more about the climb and my personal journey with a friend. Thinking about it this way, I decided to carry only one camera to ______ the course, but it still added 3.2 pounds to my backpack, which ______ 2.8 pounds without the camera equipment. Fortunately, climbing with a friend ______ sharing the weight, keeping our packs a little lighter. Therefore, we ______ reached the top just two days later. This particular trip was prepared for a personal trip on purpose to get to the peak and enjoy the breathtaking ______.

Climbing such tall peaks ______ every aspect of you, as a nature photographer. It can test both your physical strength and photographic ______. Can you imagine being 14,000 feet up, ______ the thin air of the high-altitude (海拔) environment while also trying to be ______ with your compositions (作品)? That’s what we were doing! And that’s the joy that comes with climbing Mt. Whitney as well.

Like any other ______ in nature, there are risks in mountaineering, though, Extreme altitude and the unpredictable (无法预测的) weather will test even the most ______ climber. Despite the fact, mountaineering for me is all about the experiences, which makes me live to the ______.

3 . On Lake Pitkajarvi, Pasi Widgren made an image of a fox that measures 90 meters from head to tail. For the sixth year in a row, the 40-year old building designer in Finland has ________ a very large work of art on the ________ lake. Widgren lives near the lake. He ________ a shovel (铲子) to create the artworks on ice. They melt from sight over time or ________ under snow.

Widgren made his first ice picture in the ________ of 2016. The idea to make such pieces came to him ________. He visited Lake Pitkajarvi on December 4. He tested the ________ of the ice after he arrived to ________ it was strong enough to walk and ________ on. It was about 10-15 centimeters thick. After four hours of work, Widgren was ________.

He then walked up a hillside about 150 meters above the lake to get a good ________ at his large artwork. He took some pictures to mark the ________.

However, several days later the image was harder to ________ because it then snowed a little. But its lack of permanence (永久) was not a ________ for its creator. He hoped the artwork would make people happy and move them to go for a walk in what he called “beautiful nature”. “It’s important to me that making this kind of art doesn’t leave any ________ on nature, ” Widgren said.

4 . I had been a shy and quiet person; whenever I had to do public speaking, I would get _________, tremble (发抖), and turn red. I spent so much time fearing the judgement of others that I _________ opportunities like school plays and performances. Then I _________ a competition called Poetry Out Loud, which is a national high school-level competition where students compete by _________ “poetry out loud”. I had terrible stage _________, but I figured it was time to face my fears.

Little did I know, I'd actually been given a mentor ( 指导老师) to help me prepare for the _________. Honestly, without him I wouldn't be the person I'm today. I remember meeting him for the first time and being so _________ that when I had to practice reciting one of the poems, I was as quiet as a mouse, eyes _________ to the floor. My mentor softly _________ me to be a little louder, look a little higher. Slowly but surely, I got better at making eye contact and __________ my voice.

On the big day, when it was my turn, I took a deep breath and began to recite. With each word, I grew more and more __________. It was such a(n) __________ feeling; it felt like I was freeing myself from the chains of fear and __________.

Since then, I've also written a ton of poetry, and some pieces have been published already! Being __________ poetry has been a(n) __________ journey that has helped me grow as both a poet and a person.

5 . I recently attended an event called “Building Your Resilience”. At the seminar(研讨班), we _______ the problems university students face, such as issues of health and wellness in relation to being a student and _______ a career.

I learned that there are many things that stop us from being fully motivated to achieve our ultimate _______ of a degree. One of the biggest factors is stress, which can _______ our academic performance. Yet we are left _______ of what to do.

One thing that can help during times of adversity is to be resilient. We must have _______ to be able to take risks and jump into the _______.

My biggest challenge was changing my _______. I started my post-secondary degree in the Business program, but I'd actually always been _______ literature. I stayed with Business for a while, trying to ________ myself it would be easier for me to find a job with a Business degree, but that just ________ my stress and hurt my performance in school. I personally struggled with changing my major. But doing so in the end is what ________ me and enabled me to grow. Decisions you make for yourself will ________ build your resilience.

Taking action in your life can feel ________ at times. Although there is risk in creating our own paths, I believe facing this risk builds the ________ needed to do the things you love. And when adversity does happen, know that you have the courage and capacity to bounce back (重整旗鼓).

6 . Travel almost exhausted my savings this summer.

When I ___ I had gone through all my credit card points, and my financial goal of saving 30% of my income wasn't ___, with so much of my money being spent on plane tickets, hotels, and food, I said no to a ___ who asked me to join him in Germany.

But my friend ___ my tendency to say yes and asked me if I was sure I couldn't make it work. ___, I thought about my priorities (优先的事项) and gave myself a daily allowance.

___ to live up to my self-made promise, I sat down to run the numbers. To make it through the rest of the month without breaking into my savings, I ___ the maximum ( 最多的) amount I could spend. The ___ was $30 a day, for about three weeks.

Competing with myself to ___ the numbers turned out to be a surprisingly satisfying ____. In the end, I stuck to my goal and finished the month with my ____ on track. And I realized that a ____ amount keeps me much closer to hitting my target budget (预算); the big monthly pot of money I used to imagine made it too ___ to overspend, with the idea I'd make it up by ____ less later in the month. By sticking to a day at a time, I was free from the ____ that I would be out of cash at the end of the month.

And arriving in Berlin, free from a financial black cloud back home, made every apple pie even sweeter.

7 . I recently took art lessons at Noina's art studio. Not only did I have a great time, I was also reminded of several key life ___.

Creating art is very ___ to me, and I felt quite scared because of that.I didn't feel ___ until about lesson 3, where I had created several drawings that weren't complete ___. More importantly, I was able to laugh with Noina at my efforts. Nothing had ___ in the environment — simply things were more familiar to me. A fear of the ___ is common in all of us. All it takes to change that is actually experiencing the thing you ___.

In all my pictures, there were many ___. I used my eraser a great deal, but found it was hard to erase the softest of lines completely. But Noina ___ me you could incorporate (合并) mistakes into the bigger picture, and that when you got to the ____ product, you couldn't see them at all; they were just ____ of the drawing. Sometimes we look too hard at the ____, beating ourselves up for minor mistakes, when in fact by the time we're done, these blend (融合) and ____ to become part of the whole image, and make it what it is.

Art class ____ me there are both fun and serious lessons to be learnt in every situation. It also gave me a nudge (促使我) to say that you don't have to be ____ at something for it to be fun — it's actually fun to be bad at things too.

8 . In Grade 7, my PE teacher watched me, as I tried to jump up and touch a marker on the wall. And he said: “You're doing pretty well in my ________, for someone like you with no ability at all.”

In high school, I wasn't ________ for a single team. I was bookish and slow, and that self-image-of being better suited to quiet reading and leisurely ________ remained with me for my entire life.

I discovered running in my 20s, and I ________ the feeling of quiet accomplishment-without the fear of ________teammates, but I always prioritized mental pursuits over physical ones.

It was my mental wellness that finally forced me to rethink my fitness. This winter, I found myself extremely tired. I knew ________ had to change. I needed a way to ________ the tension of months of video conferences, on-and-off (不断地) single parenting and virtual school.

I settled on an exercise bike. Since early March, I've hardly ________ a day on my bike. I'm not the ________. But I'm finally learning that movement isn't necessarily about athleticism (运动才能). More importantly, it’s about ________ your mind. It’s the feeling of accomplishment when you ________ something hard outside of your comfort zone.

A handful of people will find glory in athleticism. For the rest of us, the ________ is more personal: better sleep, improved spirits and ________ confidence. I’m not destined (注定) for the Olympics. But this was ________about ability. That's what I wish my gym teacher had told me.

If only he'd said, “You're doing really well in my class. Look at your ________.”

9 . It must sound crazy for a person who is blind and deaf to be a doctor. But that's what Alexandra Adams is struggling for.

Born blind and deaf, this young woman never ___________. She has no vision in ___________ eye and just 5 percent in the other. Her deafness was ___________ when her parents realized their dog was barking next to their baby girl but she didn't ___________. Alexandra’s speech is ___________, which is very unusual in someone deaf since birth because her mum would teach her to speak with a balloon between them. Her parents were keen that she stayed in mainstream education and she made it. She had extra support—a classroom _________ was assigned to help her copy notes and kept up academically. ___________making friends was harder as no one wanted to talk to her. So she always felt lonely.

Aged 16, Alexandra spent most of the year in hospital. It was there that she decided to be a _________. Later Alexandra _________ in applying to a medical school. Now as a fourth-year medical student. Alexandra is now ______________to become the first doctor in Britain who is ______________both deaf and blind. It's ____________that her would-be profession will not welcome this young woman, but she is determined to be a(n) ______________.

Modern ____________ has helped Alexandra a lot. She can't read X-ray print, so she takes photos and enlarges the print on her smart phone which is vital to connect her hearing aid via Bluetooth with a high-tech stethoscope (听诊器).

Alexandra is a campaigner on ____________ issues and has started a support group to serve people with special needs.

10 . Joel Boyers and his wife, Melody Among, were heading home in their helicopter (直升机）when he received a call for help from a stranger. The caller’s brother and her ___________ were trapped on their roof in Waverly because of the rising floodwater.

The caller ___________ Joel Boyers to come to their aid. Boyers looked west towards Waverly at the storm clouds. Aware of the danger to __________ in such bad weather, though, he __________ put the brother’s address into his ___________. Soon, he and Among were in the air,___________ for what they were about to see in Waverly.

Upon arriving, he found the water below was __________. People were holding on to anything that didn’t move—roofs, trees. The flooding also ____________ cell phone service, meaning Boyers couldn’t use his phone to locate the ___________ he was looking for. He flew on anyway.

As Boyers drove the helicopter, Among began _________ people on roofs and bridges—anywhere Boyers could __________ and get them onboard. A rescued man pointed to a teenager. The teenager held onto a branch with one hand and the other held a dog she’d saved earlier while both were ___________ in the current (水流). With no place for Boyers to land, he __________ the helicopter until it hovered (盘旋) just above the water line. The rescued man jumped out and swam to the tree, where he helped the teen and the dog to the ___________.

Though the experience was ___________, Boyers admitted it was fun.