1 . Jodi and Chase’s family liked to kayak (划皮艇) out to a small cabin down the river. Each summer the parents always ________ them of the dangerous brown bears nearby.

Today, Jodi and Chase were allowed to paddle ahead alone. They put on life jackets and started their ________. After a while, Jodi took a break and laid her paddle (船桨) ________ her kayak, taking out their smoked salmon sandwiches with onions. Chase raised his eyebrows. “We’ll have to ________ the fish smell on our hands when we’re done,” he said “We don’t want to smell like a bear’s favorite snack.”

Jodi stared at him as she ate. “Not funny.”

“I never ________ about bears.” Chase responded.

Shortly, they arrived at the usual stop: a cove (小河湾). Stepping out of their kayaks excitedly, they ________ it above the waterline, secured the rope around a tree, and washed their hands in the water.

“You go ahead,” Jodi said. “I need to grab some berries.” Then she got off the road. Walking alone, suddenly, Jodi sensed ________. She stopped and listened carefully. There was rustling (瑟瑟声) on the far side of the stream. She wanted to ________ down the road immediately. Would that be a ________? Just as what Dad had told her?

Then, a giant creature came out from the shadows. At that moment, Jodi was ________, going through a checklist in her mind: round ears, dark fur and a straight body… It’s a black bear! She ________ breathed out, for this kind was not so dangerous as the brown ones. But still, she could smell its stinky breath from across the ________. Yet, as quickly as it had appeared, the bear escaped. Jodi breathed a sigh of ________. When she arrived at cabin. Mom, Dad, and Chase were already there.

“How did it go?” Dad looked ________ Jodi smiled broadly. She did have a ________ for them!

5 . One day, I was standing on the boat when a very large female leopard seal swam by. I put on my diving gear and got my camera. I was ___________. My mouth was dry. At first, I couldn’t even move. But I knew it was time to___________this mysterious creature.

I jumped into the freezing water. Immediately, the seal swam toward me. Then she put my entire camera—and much of my ___________— into her mouth. Although the seal was putting me at risk, I tried not to ___________ any fear. After a few seconds, she let go of my head. She ___________  me a few more times and swam away. Then she ___________ with a live penguin. She even tried to show me how to___________it. She tried to push the penguin into my camera — she thought the camera was my___________! The seal thought I was just another large animal, and she was trying to___________me, I realized.

By now, she didn’t seem very____________. She stayed by me for four days. One time, she noticed another leopard seal ____________ behind me. She made a deep, threatening sound and ____________ the other seal away.

Those four days were the most incredible experience I ever had as a wildlife ____________. I got some amazing pictures. I also learned that animals do not always behave the way we____________. My relationship with this powerful and ____________ animal will stay with me forever.

8 . Zigfried, a little mouse, blew his breath on the frosty window of the farmhouse and rubbed it to see the outside. Still nobody came. Maybe today, he thought _______. It was only a few days before Christmas and he was watching for a miracle (奇迹).

This farmhouse had been _______ too long. It needed a family. Zigfried’s _______ made a noise. He realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. He jumped from the windowsill (窗沿), grabbed a _______ from his home, and went next door to Farmer Mike’s.

Farmer Mike’s house had been a great place for the little mouse _______ the farmer married a wife who had a cat. Zigfried _______ when he thought of it. He looked around cautiously as he _______ into the room where grain was stored and was quite _______ as he filled his bag with wheat. He was turning to leave when suddenly he _______ a hot breath about his ear. His heart beat _______, and without thinking he started to run and luckily _______ the cat’s paws (爪子).

The next afternoon Zigfried heard some good news: a __________ family would be moving into the farmhouse soon. Zigfried’s granny would arrive on Christmas Eve to __________ with him. He hoped that the family would come before his granny came. Before long, a car came __________ the road leading to the house, with butter sandwiches, cheese and chocolate.

Zigfried’s Christmas miracle did arrive!

The house came __________ the next few days. Zigfried __________ every single hour of them. __________, the day before Christmas when he was drinking hot chocolate with a __________ smile at the door of his home, he heard the __________of the children of the family about what they might get for Christmas. What? A cat? The __________ froze on his face; his mouth fell wide open. After a long while, he at last found his voice: “Hey! Whose Christmas miracle is this?”

9 . Have you seen bees at work and stopped to wonder how smart they are? Results of a recent experiment prove that bees are clever enough to _______ time and energy when they fly around to different flowers.

Behavior

Nigel Raine, PhD, from Royal Holloway, University of London, has always been interested in finding out why animals behave as they do. He is also interested in bees. Therefore, it turned out to be not a _______ when he and some other scientists from Queen Mary University of London discovered that bees can quickly solve a problem that _______ computers many days.

A(n) _______ path

Flowers make pollen (花粉), and when bees visit them, they _______ the pollen to other flowers. The plants need the pollen to make seeds that will grow. Raine notes that we get a lot of our food from plants, so it is important to know how the bees move around and take pollen between flowers. The scientists wanted to _______ the journey that the bees take and how they save energy when they do this.

They completed the experiment on the roof of Queen Mary, using _______ flowers and a large amount of nectar (花蜜). They taught one bee to visit all these unreal flowers in one place at the same time. When the bee got to know the location of the flowers well, they saw how it flew around and returned home with the _______ . After this, they changed the locations of the flowers. The scientists thought the bee would follow the route it knew already, which would mean that it followed a longer route than it needed to, and so it would use more energy. They watched the bee carefully as it travelled between the flowers in their _______ location, and they made notes. To their ________ , the bee changed its route and flew a shorter distance.

Travelling salesman

The problem that the bee solved is similar to a math puzzle called the “travelling salesman problem”. A salesman who goes to ________ places to sell things wants to travel the shortest distance to do this. If he is going to visit many different places, it is not easy to ________ which is the shortest route. You have to calculate the length of many possible routes to find out which one is the shortest. A computer can calculate this but the experiment shows bees can do the same ________ quickly with a tiny brain.

Scientists are very interested in how they do this. It would help us to understand how pollen is moved around. ________ , if they find this out, it could help us to improve communication networks. This might help humans to ________ traffic jams when there is an accident, for example.

10 . I woke up by my dog barking in the early morning. I went outside to find a koala (考拉) at the yard gate wanting to enter. It was the first time that I had _______ a koala in my neighbourhood. What a welcome _______! 

I was wondering why he was here, as koalas _______ came down from the trees and didn’t like walking, either._______, there was no eucalyptus (桉树) around. Was he hungry or lost? Or maybe the bushfire across Kangaroo Island _______ him here? 

He just sat there, apparently _______, and sort of looked at me with a look, like helping me out of my suffering. At a(n) _______ look, I discovered a long cut at his back with bloods,_______ of attacks or cuts of something sharp in some other way. 

I rushed into my room and came out with some iodophor (碘伏药水). It was not a _______ problems as I was a nurse. This poor soul seemed to quite ________ my kindness when I ________ the cut with the liquid. It ________ me that he came to seek my ________! 

After the treatment, I watched the koala finally ________ in the wild, hoping he was able to ________ the hard time and live his life as he should.