Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
At first, the scientists wondered whether it was a mistake. Just 21 days 【小题1】 leaving the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, an arctic fox had arrived in Greenland. And in less than three months, the fox made it to Canada.
The fox averaged nearly 30 miles a day — some days, though, it walked almost 100 miles. The data was real, the scientists decided as the fox kept going. The creature’s traveling last year, 【小题2】 (document) in a recent paper, wowed Tarroux and his fellow Norwegian researcher Eva, 【小题3】 the animal is known for its endurance and ability to survive in harsh polar areas.
Scientists already knew that some of the foxes, native 【小题4】 Arctic areas all around the Northern Hemisphere, made long journeys: DNA exchange links far-flung fox populations in areas connected only by sea ice.
But the fox these researchers followed stood out for just 【小题5】 fast it covered more than 2,700 miles — and shed light on far-north fox sighting which explorers wondered about as far back as the 1800s.
“We didn’t really know how they 【小题6】 (do) that and how long it would take for an individual to do this kind of trip,” Tarroux said.
The coastal fox the researchers tracked, also known as a blue fox, landed in Ellesmere Island in Canada on 1 July 2018. Of the 50 or 60 animals the scientists put trackers on for a study, it was the only one 【小题7】 ventured outside of Norway.
The researchers think the fox 【小题8】 have set off because of a food shortage, but they’re not sure. The tracker stopped 【小题9】 (work) in February, so researchers no longer know the fox’s whereabouts, but it 【小题10】 (detect) for the last time on the same Canadian island in the Nunavut territory.
