Summer holiday was coming, and I could not wait to join my grandparents on a trip to the desert. We lived in Chicago, far from the burning sand. I wasn't ____ the heat because we would be ____ in my grandparents’ new recreational vehicle (野营车). It’s called an RV for short. This would be their third trip in it and the first one to the ____.

After several days of seeing amazing places, including the Grand Canyon, Grandpa ______the RV in an area set up just for campers and RVs. The park was near a ____ and dusty riverbed. The weather was sure ____ where we were.

We were eating dinner inside the RV when suddenly we ____ a park manager shouting, “Pack up and get to ____ ground! A flash flood(山洪) is coming!”

Grandpa shook his ____, “A flood? Not here.” He pointed at the burning sand outside our windows. The hot air ____ from the sand was like snakes squirming(蠕动) in the heat.“That ____ must have spent too much time in the sun today!”

Out the front window of the RV, I could see other people ____ folding up chairs and umbrellas they had set up outside. They were taking the manager’s ____ seriously.

Should we? Grandpa noticed them, too. He thought for a while and ____ his computer. A warning rolled across the ____. “Anyone near White Gully should ____ higher ground at once. Flash floods are on their way!”

“This is White Gully! Hurry up, Kayla, "Grandpa shouted and ____ his chair. He headed for the driver's ____. Grandma hurried outside to fold up chairs and ____ back. I had never seen her move so fast!

___ we drove away from the riverbed, I looked out of the window. In the far distance, a dark wall was rushing toward us. What a terrible experience!

I used to travel to make myself relaxed. Two years ago, I was rather busy with my business and under a lot of ________, so I went to Las Vegas for a holiday. I just wanted to get away and ________ for a while.

When I was on holiday, an ________ suddenly came to me. I had long wished to pay a visit to the Greek island of Sanatorium. Therefore, the idea of a two-week European ________ alone was born.

I’d driven ________ across the US before, but traveling to other ________ whose languages aren’t the same as mine ________ me. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to ________ with anyone.

But I soon ________ that if I wanted to follow my dreams, I had to ________ out of my comfort area (舒适区). If I let ________ take control of me, I’d get nowhere.

As I was ________ more places to visit on my trip, I found Mykonos, Greece, which I ________ just as much as I liked Sanatorium. When I arrived in ________, it was like I was in a dream.

What I appreciated best was the bus ride to Venice. As I rode the bus and enjoyed every new thing I saw, I was completely ________ from the pressure (压力) of my work. How ________ it was to see people riding their bikes to the ________ they would like to go to!

Some people might say, “It’s not a big ________; it’s just Venice. Thousands of people go there every day.” But is was more than that to me. It was about having a ________ and when it was time for it to come true, don’t let it ________.

Who’d let a stranger stay with them? A lot of people, as you can see.

If ever any anxiety existed – and there is always a sense of anxiety when ________ into the unknown – it disappeared when my first host met me at the train station in Helsinki. Ari looked like my idea of a ________ Finn: tall, golden hair, and blue-eyed. However, Finns were also supposed to be ________ reserved. Ari was anything but. He was lively, _________ me a warm welcome and hiking with me to his apartment, _________ he showed me the sleeper sofa, served me tea, and also handed me a _________ with an instruction to come and go as I pleased. If this was what couch surfing was all about – ________ and welcome, then I had gotten off to an impressive start.

I quickly discovered one of the bitter-sweet aspects of couch surfing: having to say goodbye so soon _________ getting to know somebody. _________, I had miles to go before I slept, and so, after two days, I _________ to my train and the coastal city of Turku, where my next host, Juri, met me. Thin and wild-haired, Juri was the anti-Ari, but no less __________. He wanted to hang out and _________ a big part of his day to showing me around his city. In another city, a family of five received me like a long-lost _________, and chatted with me into the night. Now they are always asking when I will be _________.

As I boarded my next train for the north of the country, I began to think about this couch-surfing idea. What __________ these people to open their homes to strangers? I _______ that there was a burning curiosity, but also a wish to _________ to those in need and lend a hand to like-minded folks who might, at some level, _________ their own lives.   

Before I left for my Finland adventure a friend asked, “Aren’t you afraid?” I wasn’t sure of an ______ response then, but I am now: Of what? If couch surfing taught me anything, it’s this: Most people are good. Most people are generous. And there is a basic human tendency to __________.