In recent weeks, a group of 15 wild elephants on a long, strange trip out of the jungles of far southwestern China have attracted millions of people across the country. Since the elephants left a wildlife reserve near China’s border with Laos and Myanmar last year, they have _________ steadily northward and have been wandering the suburbs of Kunming, a city of 8. 5 million residents.

Millions have _________ to watch the elephants’ 300-mile journey on television and on internet live streams, or tracked their movements on social media. While _________ with the creatures, some increasingly see the elephants and their journey as a lesson on the risks of nature and a rapidly urbanizing China crashing into one another, especially as development _________.

Videos of the _________ elephants, wandering down empty streets, breaking into a car dealership and in the case of one mother elephant using her trunk to lift her baby out of danger, have gone _________. Along the way, the elephants have broken into villagers’ homes, eaten their food, drank their water and destroyed their crops. All told, the group has now caused more than 400 separate incidents of damage, worth some $1. 1 million.

_________, authorities have formed a government task force. They mobilized hundreds of people, and distributed drones with infrared (红外线的) capabilities to _________ them as they wander through China’s Yunnan province. To keep the elephants away from more densely populated villages, authorities have blocked roads with trucks. Local authorities have been experimenting with snacks to _________ the elephants, laying out corn, bananas and pineapples. The __________ so far: The elephants like corn, while the pineapples have been largely ignored. The elephants have shown a continued interest in wooden buckets of alcohol.

Some specialists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have assumed that a recent solar storm may have __________ the creatures’ inner compass (指南针) and triggered (引发) a(n) __________ to head north. Some scientists have theorized that the elephants are on the move because their __________ has shrunk while their population has grown.

In recent days, the __________ obsession among the elephants’ new fans has given way to __________ over the unintended consequences of China’s prosperity and economic development. “We’ve made a lot of money, but all these human activities have also caused a lot of trouble for the elephants,” says Mr. Liao, the truck driver, who says he has been inspired to pay more attention to wild animals and their habitats.

Scott Poore is an animal lover. He moves into an animal shelter’s kennel (犬舍) with the ______ of helping unwanted young dogs get adopted (收养). Queen, a 3-year-old dog, has just got the most ______ roommate despite the narrow living room.

Since Poore is a (n) ______ visitor at the animal shelter, he is familiar with all of the ______. However, little Queen has ______ his attention in particular. Poore says that he recently began to notice that Queen seemed to be “losing ______” in finding a forever home. “I have been visiting the shelter every single day for over a year and I can ______ see Queen’s giving up. She used to get so ______ when I would arrive, but now she just lies in her bed.”

So to raise awareness of Queen’s situation, Poore packed a suitcase and moved into the kennel to keep it ______. Poore says it has been ______ managing his work while also living at the shelter, but he is ______ to stay in the kennel until someone adopts Queen. After he ______ the kennel earlier this week, he and his new puppy roommate have been ______ the headlines of a lot of national news, but no possible ______ have stepped forward.

Delightfully, this dog has eventually been given a loving home after his path ______ with that of a woman living on the other side of the country.