The marching band, _______ the members of the football team, ran as fast as they could toward the buses _______ avoid getting soaked by the rain.
The marching band, along with the members of the football team, ran as fast as they could toward the buses to avoid getting soaked by the rain.
The marching band, like the members of the football team, ran as fast as they could toward the buses to avoid getting soaked by the rain.
The blanks in the sentence can be filled with words that indicate an action that is happening simultaneously. In this case, the marching band is performing an action that is happening at the same time as the members of the football team. One possible word that can fill the first blank is "like" because it shows that the marching band is similar to or acting in the same way as the members of the football team.
To find the appropriate word to fill the second blank, we need to look for a word or phrase that expresses the purpose or reason for their action. In this case, the purpose is to avoid getting soaked by the rain. Therefore, a suitable word to fill the second blank could be "to."
So, the completed sentence would be: "The marching band, like the members of the football team, ran as fast as they could toward the buses to avoid getting soaked by the rain."