Those who make great discoveries must often overcome many challenges along the way — as was the case with the explorer Christopher Columbus.

Columbus insisted     1    searching for a direct sea route to the East Indies by sailing across the Atlantic ocean. After continuous attempts, he received    2    (finance) support from the King and Queen of Spain. On 3 August 1492, he departed from Spain with three ships    3    (carry) about 90 crewmen. The journey was full of challenges: it took longer than expected, they faced a    4    (short) of food, and one of the ships was leaking badly,     5     put everyone on this ship in grave danger. The men on board were in panic. Regardless of all the challenges, Columbus managed    6    (keep) everyone out of danger with his knowledge and bravery across the ocean.     7    (Final), on 12 October, the crew spotted land in    8    distance. Columbus called the natives living on the islands Indians because he    9     (convince) that he was in the East Indies. However, the shores they     10    (reach) were of the Caribbean, not the East Indies.

When digging outside the city walls, researchers     1     (discover) thirty to forty bodies lying one on top of another. They had been murdered.

The men dug with great care, trying not to disturb the       2    (evident) of what had happened. Everyone was curious     3    why all these people had been killed at the same time. Was it just     4     coincidence?

Deep in the ground below the bodies, they found a tomb     5     was made of stone. It contained many valuable things,     6     (include) much gold and many jewels. Inside it lay the body of a man that was     7     (good) preserved. It was clear that the man had been a king,     8     explained why the other bodies were there. The workers who had built the tomb were killed shortly after the king     9     (die). That was because they wanted to keep the tomb a secret, and to make     10     (they) companions for him in death.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay succeeded       1     climbing to the top of Mount Everest, at 11:30 am, on May 29. They were the first people     2    (reach) the top of Mount Everest.

Edmund Hilary was a New Zealand mountaineer,     3     (explore) and philanthropist (慈善家)，and Tenzing Norgay was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer. Both of them were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest     4     (lead) by John Hunt in 1953. For this expedition, Hunt selected a group of people who were     5     (experience) in climbing mountains in the whole British Empire. In the group, Edmund Hilary    6     (select) from New Zealand, and Tensing Norgay was actually recruited (招收) from India where he lived. Before climbing, the expedition had been organized and planned for months. They made nine camps on their way up, some of     7       have been still used by climbers up to now.

In fact, the first team made     8     to the place which was just 300 feet below the summit,     9     they left on May 26. They actually had already reached the point that no man had reached before. They were forced to leave because of the bad weather and because there were     10     (problem) with their oxygen tanks.