1 . Ariel Cordova-Rojas rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, planning to go hiking and bird-watching. A mile into her walk, she __________ a female mute swan near the water’s edge. Cordova-Rojas, who had been __________ at the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation (康复) center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be aggressive (富于攻击性的). But as she__________ this one, it didn’t move.

She was certain that the bird needed medical attention. Cordova-Rojas covered her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, __________ picked it up, and held it in her arms. And then a thought __________ her: What do I do now?

Her best bet was the rehab center. __________, that was across the East River on the other side of town. How was she going to __________ a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some strangers driving by __________ her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station.

On the subway, no one seemed particularly annoyed by the feathered passenger. They were busy with their own things. Cordova-Rojas called the rehab center on the way, and Tristan Higginbotham, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and __________ to the facility. There, staff members __________ that the swan might have lead poisoning (铅中毒), caused by swallowing (吞下) weights used on fishing lines.

The staff got the swan back up on her webbed feet. She even made a boyfriend at the center—another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that care, the swan __________ a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Rojas came to her rescue, she __________.

It’s a __________ ending, but the real story is just __________ some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city—literally. “In all, Cordova-Rojas traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway,” says Higginbotham, “That’s the perfect __________ of who she is.”

3 . Elephants have a good memory and they can recall the smell of a relative even after a decade apart.

When Franziska Horner and her team _______ planned reunions (团聚) between two mother-daughter pairs at zoos in Germany, they took advantage of the chance to test the elephants’ _______. One pair had been _______ for two years, _______ the other had spent 12 years apart.

Franziska _______ faecal (排泄物的) samples from these African elephants and others at German zoos, carrying the smelly 10-to-15-kilogram faeces around in her tiny car. Her team _______ these samples one at a time to the four elephants _______ their reunions.

When they encountered faeces from _______ elephants, either those in the same zoo or unfamiliar animals, they sniffed (闻) the faeces piles and walked away. But when presented with a _______ from the mother or daughter they were due to be reunited with, the female elephants ________ sniffed the samples and showed a variety of ________ , from making deep sounds to swinging their ears.

Such reactions may be linked to positive emotions, the researchers say. “That was amazing and intense,” says Franziska. “We were sure they did ________ , and they knew exactly what they were ________ there. The sample size was small, but it would be ________ to do similar tests on elephants that weren’t being reunited. ”

“I am not surprised that elephants have memories, especially in social contexts, that ________ a long time,” says another scientist.

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.

7 . 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.

8 . Five years ago, I was a trail ride leader at a holiday farm in Victoria. My favourite horse was a warmblood called Holly, a chestnut mare. Aged seven, she was _________ sweet-natured and well-trained; the only_________ with Holly was her vivid imagination. I was constantly surprised by Holly’s ability to be _________ by rabbits, the wind or even shadows——sometimes her own shadow!

One day, as we headed back from a ride on the beach, Holly and I were _________ the way over the hilly area. When we got to one particularly long, steep hill, Holly began to twitch(抽动) her ears and step in place. So, when she_________ to sniff(嗅) and give all the _________ that she believed the ‘horse-eating monsters’ were close, I became a little worried.

At the bottom of the hill as we rounded a corner, Holly _________ with caution, and so I followed her gaze to the path ahead. There, sunny itself in the middle of the track, was a brown _________. This time it was my _________ to get scared; I was on a nervous horse, leading a group of eight inexperienced pre-teen riders. Unexpectedly, Holly firmly__________   ears forward. With the snake in her sight, she was no longer frightened.

I have heard that horses have a better sense of__________ than dogs. I hadn’t seen it __________ before that moment. __________ , while we waited in reality for just a second or two but for what felt like a century—the snake awoke and glided calmly off into the bush.

Holly then __________ ,leading the horses with caution and care. She had been alert to danger and had been __________ for the safety of us all. Following in the footsteps of their lead mare, not one of the other horses showed any fear.

9 . UPS deliveryman Ryan Arens was making his rounds near a pond, when he heard a strange sound. It was December, and about 15 feet from the frozen bank was the _________ of that sound — a brown-and-white wire-haired hound（猎犬）had fallen through the thin layer of ice. An elderly man was already on the _________, determined to save her. He was trying to _________ the pond and was striking the ice with a rock to create a(n) _________ to the dog, but seemed to be struggling.

Arens, 44, thought he _________ a better chance. “Animals are my weakness,” he said, explaining _________ he chose to take off his overcoat, even though the temperature was minus 15 and _________ the rescue task.

After breaking the ice using the man’s rock, Arens jumped into the icy water. He surfaced in time to see the dog going under. Arens swam about five feet toward the dog, grabbed hold of her collar, and _________ her out of the water and onto the ice. He then put the dog into the boat and slid it back to the bank, where _________ bystanders carried the dog to the home of the rowboat’s owner, a retired vet. __________ in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog. A few more minutes in the pond, the vet told Arens, and the dog would have likely __________.

The next day, Arens was again making his __________ in the neighborhood when the dog’s owner came __________ to thank him for saving Sadie. “Would you like to meet her?” he asked. Then he opened the door of his pickup, and Sadie jumped out. She went __________ toward Arens, leaping around him and kissing him. Arens said that special delivery was the __________ of his UPS career.