Final answer:
The water cycle is driven by the energy from the sun and involves processes like evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Water moves between the atmosphere, land, and oceans in a continuous cycle. The correct answer to fill in the blanks is 'evaporation; atmosphere; precipitation'.
Step-by-step explanation:
The water cycle essential knowledge involves the continuous movement of water within the environment, which is driven by solar energy and gravity. The sun provides the energy for evaporation of water from reservoirs like oceans, lakes, and rivers into the atmosphere. When the water vapor cools down, it condenses into clouds and falls back to Earth as precipitation. The water that lands on the surface may go through surface runoff, percolate into the ground as groundwater, or return to the atmosphere through evaporation or transpiration, continuing the cycle.
Different parts of the water cycle include processes such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. The correct answer to the student's question is that water cycle processes are propelled by the energy from the sun, and the two blanks in the question should be filled with 'evaporation; atmosphere; precipitation'.