1 . Natalie Doan, 14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the _______ from her house. It’s the ocean that makes Rockaway so special.

On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned _______. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie’s family _______ to Brooklyn shortly before the city’s bridges closed. When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood _______. All around her, people were suffering, especially the _______. Natalie’s school was so damaged that she had to _______ attend a school in Brooklyn.

In the following few days, Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others _______. Teenagers climbed dozens of _______ of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings. Natalie’s choice was to help. The men and women helping Rockaway recover _______ Natalie, so she decided to create a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to ________. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collection when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick’s collection was ________.

In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids. ________, Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-needed supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts ________ her a famous person.

Today, the scars (创痕) of ________ are still seen in Rockaway, but ________ is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt.

2 . Whether it is a relaxing walk or a power one, taking a walk usually only lasts a small duration of time. This was not the _________ for Tom Turcich, though.

On April 2, 2015, Tom decided to walk around the world by himself. It wasn’t a _________thought. His childhood friend died _________ at the age of 17 due to a jet ski accident. _________by how short life was, he was fueled by a strong _________ to live every day to its fullest.

Tom’s walk _________ as a lone journey. But quickly, he found himself missing _________ on the road. And so, while making a stop in Austin, Texas, he _________ Savannah, a rescue dog. Since then, the pair have been making their way across borders, continents and seas, _________ 25, 000 miles in all.

Traveling always has some ups and downs. Tom __________ numerous unexpected delays along the way. He was __________ due to severe weather in Panama and became very ill in Scotland. Also, he had no __________ but to wait out pandemic lockdowns in many countries. But on the __________side, he met many kind people and __________ the beauty of nature in different parts of the world.

Tom __________ something few people have succeeded in, which helped him gain a much larger understanding of the world.

3 . Emma Jones’ three-year-old son, Eric, was sharing a hot dog on the deck overlooking her friend Sarah Roth’s swimming pool. One moment Jones was watching Eric play around with the other children at this _________ of moms and kids last July. The next moment he disappeared without a _________. She turned to her friend Machel Rawlings and asked, “Have you seen Eric?”

Rawlings stood, _________ the pool and suddenly screamed. Eric was found _________ face down in the deep end. What happened next was a _________ textbook response: As Rawlings dived in the pool, grasped the boy, _________ him over and swam him to the end. Meanwhile, their host, Sarah Roth, dialed 911. At the pool’s _________, Rawlings handed Eric up to his mother. His skin was blue and wasn’t breathing.

Rawlings who’d taken a CPR course just four months earlier, immediately began rescue breathing. Hanging up the phone, Roth, a former flight attendant who’d accumulated _________ experience before, _________ CPR from Rawlings. Three long minutes went by with Roth breathing into Eric’s mouth and __________ chest compressions (按压) while Rawlings and Jones __________ his condition. Gradually his color __________, and as the ambulance was arriving on the __________, Rawlings looked at Roth. “He’s breathing,” she said.

The __________ with which the women acted saved Eric’s life. Emma Jones found any words seemed powerless. She said __________, “They did everything right.”

4 . I was growing up in Minnesota, “ Joe Versus the Volcano ” was one of my favorite movies. I longed to be swept away to a tropical island. But as I ________ myself in La Palma reporting on the Cumbre Vieja (老昆布雷火山) eruption in the Spanish Canary Islands, I quickly realized that there’s nothing romantic about volcanoes — even on an island.

I had come prepared — an N95 mask, and a baseball cap my Spanish mother-in-law lent me. But nothing could ________ me for the invasiveness (入侵) of the volcanic ________. It fell from the sky like a rainstorm, lining streets, covering doorways, and filling the splits of my ears.

It wasn’t long before the airlines ________ all flights. When tourists began panic-buying all the boat tickets as I was ________ residents about their futures, I realized I had, indeed, missed the boat.

For two days, I wandered ________ streets awaiting the recovery of travel, carrying a backpack and feeling progressively stuck — and at times ________ . And then I realized I was being given the chance for deeper ________.

Here I was experiencing, although to a much lesser ________, what the people I was writing about were feeling: ________ and frustration from living next to an erupting volcano with no end in ________.

Like the people of La Palma, I ________ on others to get me through — from the English woman who gave me a bag of oranges from her garden to the church that let me use the bathroom after being ________ at the top of a mountain.

As I finally left — via boat — I realized how ________ I was to have experienced the humanity of the people in La Palma in the face of crisis. I know it’s what will pull them ________ it.

6 . On the weekend, I went to the beach nearby for some quality time with myself. After a ________ week, I wanted a place to be alone, ________ on what I did in the past. A few hours later, I noticed a girl of 8 or 9 building a little sandcastle with a moat (护城河) around it and trying to ________ the moat with water.

There being no container ________, she would go to the waves, ________ her hands and then walk back to her little castle. Sadly not much water was making to the moat. But she kept trying ________. I so wished I could help her out, ________, I didn’t have a container with me.

As watching her, suddenly I ________ that I had a bottle of water in my bag. I quickly ________ in, took it out, and walked over to hand it to her.

________ at first, she smiled but shook her head shyly. I reassured her that it would make getting the water much faster. She finally took it from my hands after I ________. Not wanting her to feel ________, I walked off the beach right away.

In the larger scheme of things, it was a tiny ________. But in my heart, I also know that when she notices someone needs help in her life, maybe, she would recall this little random ________ of kindness by a stranger, which would make her more likely to ________ and give a hand.