The polar bear was a tiny point in a frozen white world. A film crew began to follow at a distance, gradually getting_________, hoping to get a good picture. However, the bear came to a rest at a hole in the ice and started to_________. So did the crew.

For 12 hours the bear lay half asleep, half ________ without a move. It was too long; the crew had been working for 22 hours ________ on the sea ice. Cold and exhausted, they ________ defeat.

Hours of waiting for little reward is not_________. “It’s the price we pay to get unique images,” says award-winning photographer Florian Ledoux. “It is a ________ for us to get each shot in Arctic — we push our limits.” The battle is intense especially during winter:_________ darkness affects your mood, the lack of routine_________ your body clock, you are forever fighting the bitter cold, and everything you touch with_________ hands sticks to your skin. However_________ your clothes are, the cold bites through.

An Arctic photographer for years, Ledoux has witnessed the significant ________ there. It is heating up, causing ice to melt and ________ the whole ecosystem. “Am I just photographing? No,” he says. “I try to catch some unique beauty of ________, to give a voice to the one that cannot ________.”

Milo is a rescue dog, adopted by 20-year-old Makayla Swift. One morning in November 2021, Swift opened her front door and Milo _________ running. “I couldn’t catch him,” she said.

Milo ran to a house across the street. He seemed _________ with this house, so he ran to the one next door, Swift on his _________. When it started scratching on the front door, Swift was _________. Not everyone wants a _________ dog on their property. But as she tried to _________ Milo away, she could hear a sound coming through an open upstairs window. It was a voice crying “Help!”.

Hours earlier, Sherry Starr, 85, had just _________ around 4 am, for she had heard the front door bell ring. She walked to an upstairs bathroom, opened the window and looked outside. But no one there. Starr turned to exit. “All of a sudden, standing there between the toilet and the bathtub, I _________,” she said, “I went down hard on the floor. I could not move at all,” said Starr, who was _________ between the toilet and the bathtub. Starr was feeling __________ all over, but more than anything, she was scared. “I’m thinking: I’m just going to die here.”

Her best __________, she decided, was to listen for the telltale squeak of her mail box lid when the letter carrier stopped by and scream at the top of her lungs. For the next few hour, Starr __________ crying: “Help! Help! Help!”

“Her voice was very __________,” said Swift. “You had to be right on the spot to hear Mrs. Starr cried for __________ unless you were Milo, who had __________ heard Starr the instant I had opened my front door.” Swift called 911 and soon medical staff helped her out.

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.”