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 . 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.

4 . 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.

6 . In her 102 years, Sally Lepis has been known for helping her family, friends and neighbors. So when the old lady couldn’t _______ to replace her decades-old hearing aids (助听器) and it became increasingly difficult to _______, a local non-profit was happy to give a _______. Last month, Lepis was presented (赠予) with hearing aids, worth about $7,500, through Senior Dreams Come True, a non-profit program _______ by a law firm.

“Mrs. Lepis has _______ so much of herself over the years to friends, family and those _______ in her community,” said Jennifer Cona, a managing partner at the law firm. Lepis has long been the _______ that’s kept her family together, her niece, Olivia Schmidt, 73, said. When Schmidt was a teenager, her mother, Lepis’ twin sister, died at age 42. Lepis _______ jumped in and raised Schmidt in her Westbury home.

“It’s _______ that she has done so much for so many people and thinks ________ of it,” said Schmidt, who ________ to recommend her aunt for Senior Dreams Come True over the summer.

In July, Schmidt and her cousins wrote letters to the non-profit, ________ Lepis for her lifetime of ________ deeds. Later that month, Lepis learned she would ________ new hearing aids, replacing the ones she had used for the past 25 years, and it is ________ that Lepis will again be a lively presence at her family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

9 . It was New Year time, and it would be our first New Year away from Alabama. That winter, my mother and my stepfather moved our family to Southern California. My athletic little brother, Paul, was _______ about the climate that allowed him to go to the beach _______ he wanted. I, however, was a fat child with typical southern _______.

On my first day in the new class, I introduced myself in a low voice. All I said was my name and where I was from. The class burst into _______, “He talks funny.” I was so _______ that I went to place a call to Granny Smith after school, who was my biggest _______. But I didn’t _______.

On Sunday evening, the phone rang. It was Granny. She often took advantage of the discounted long-distance _______on Sundays. She said she’d _______ a New Year package. Sure enough, it arrived. Surprised at the box, large enough to hold a small refrigerator, we ________ it open. The smell of Granny’s house filled the room: a ________ of fried meat, sausages, furniture polish and decorations. While always filled with ________ holiday decorations and homemade food before New Year, Granny’s house, in my childhood eyes, was precious and fantastic.

There were countless tins and containers. We opened them to discover piles of holiday ________. She even included our traditional candy bars. The box was as bottomless as a magical box. There, ________ all these, was my familiar holiday.

Every New Year that we spent in California, the ________ service could call. Over the years, many treasures arrived in the box. For me, it’s always been the best part of the holiday.

10 . At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started________out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling ________, she started jumping with both her hands ________ trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was so strong that everyone in her group also got ________. The lady finally________to push the cockroach away but it ________ on another lady in the group.

Now it was the turn of the other lady in the group to become ________. The waiter ________ forward to their rescue. In the relay of ________ , the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, calmed himself down and________the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was ________ enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Drinking my coffee and ________ the amusement, my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering if the cockroach had the ________ for their acting behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not ________? He handled it near to perfection in a calm state.

It is not the cockroach, but the ________ of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.