Tea is a simple drink. And it is     1    (center) to the lives of millions of people worldwide.

There are six major types of tea in China-green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, dark tea, white tea, and reprocessed tea, distinguished mainly by different     2    (method) of production.

China,     3    (recognize) as the homeland of tea, is a leading producer and consumer, and the discovery     4     the usage of tea have a history of 4, 000 to 5, 000 years. Drinking tea first started to become popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

    5     origin of tea is lost among history and legend. What can be     6    (rough) confirmed is that tea originated in southwest China. In Yunnan and elsewhere, some wild tea trees     7     are over 1, 000 years old still exist.

Many traditional Chinese families drink tea after dinner or when     8    (greet) visitors. This is not only a healthy habit but also reflects rich culture and history. Chinese people can chat with a friend or enjoy     9    (they) for a whole afternoon over a pot of good tea.

It was in the Tang Dynasty that teahouses came into being, and in some big cities then, there     10    (be) also tea shops, which stored large quantities of tea leaves and prepared tea for their customers.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site today, the ancient town of Pingyao in Shanxi province formed China’s economic backbone during the Qing Dynasty. The town was home     1     the country’s first piaohao (money exchange house) that financed the empire during a period when all bookkeeping was on paper, and the only way     2     (deal) with numbers involved the abacus (算盘) .

In the 19th century, merchants from Shanxi were making their     3     (present) felt in many other nations. They had to rely on security guards for transferring their wealth--gold and silver. The method was hardly safe and thus     4     (lead) to the emergence of piaohao.

The bank of Rishengchang, which     5     (literal) means “sunrise prosperity”, was established in 1823 and it became the prototype (原型) of China’s early financial system. At its peak, the Rishengchang bank had more than 30 branches across the country, with business     6     (reach) as far as Europe and the US.     7     more than a century later, in 1932, the exchange house halted (终止) its operations, the antiques displayed in the museum today continue to fascinate people.

In 2006, Rishengchang museum was named     8     “major national cultural relic” under protection by the State Council. Since then, it     9     (make) its way across the country and abroad. The museum now preserves original account books, letters, bills of exchange and seals,     10    existence reflects the spirit and wisdom of the Shanxi merchants.

Chinese archaeologists(考古学家)announced Saturday that six “sacrificial pits”,     1     (date) back 3200 to 4000 years, were newly discovered in Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan, southwest China's Sichuan province.

Sanxingdui went viral among netizens again and some     2     (be) even eager for some hands-on experiences.

Therefore, Archaeological blind boxes rolled out by several museums in China were trending on a major online shopping platform, with     3     (buy) saying that it allowed them to “experience the joys of digging cultural relics     4     an archaeologist.”

Henan Museum integrated the blind box concept with cultural relics, and hid “miniature cultural relics” such as bronze and china in the soil. Using a Luoyang shovel(铁铲),and a brush     5     (sweep) away the dirt, and digging a blind box, you can harvest a piece of bronzeware from the Shang Dynasty     6     a china bottle from the Song Dynasty.

The idea has proved     7     (wild) popular with many young people. Most of the blind boxes     8     (sell) out as soon as they are restocked. Those who were lucky enough to place an order shared     9     (they) experience of digging the blind box online. One said, “Wearing gloves, I feel like     10     archaeologist !”

In this book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe (长颈鹿) learns its     1    (one) lesson.

When a baby falls to the ground, the mother waits for about a minute, and then kicks her baby. When the baby doesn’t get up, the violent process     2    (repeat) again and again until the baby giraffe stands     3     its shaky legs. Then the mother kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it gets up. In the wild, baby giraffes,     4     are easy victims for enemies, must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the group for     5    (survive).

The late Irving Stone     6    (understand) this too. He spent a lifetime studying greatness as well as     7    (write) biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin. Once     8    (ask) if he had found a thread that ran through the lives of all these     9    (excellence) people, he said, “If they have a dream of something to be accomplished, they then go to work.”

“They are beaten over the head, and knocked down. For years, they get nowhere. But every time they’re knocked down, they stand up. And at the end of their lives, they’ve accomplished some modest part of     10     they set out to do.”

It is believed    1     Li Bai wrote the poem “A Night Stay at a Mountain Temple” in his teenage years. His early experiences contributed to his romantic style,     2     his poetry was characterized by. He familiarized himself     3     classical Chinese culture and acquired the wisdom of previous generations. He visited famous mountains and great rivers,     4    (encounter) different customs and practices. These travelling experiences inspired him     5    (write) numerous poems in the romantic style. Li Bai grew up in the most     6    (glory) period of the Tang Dynasty, a time of the economic boom and social     7     (stable).     8    (give) his personal experiences and the historical background, it is natural to see that the majority of his poems are characterized by the romantic style. With his extraordinary imagination, free expression of strong feelings and mastery of language, he is     9    (wide) recognized as the greatest romantic poet after Qu Yuan. Ezra Pound, a 20th-century American poet,     10    (fascinate) by his poems and translated some of them in his poetry collection entitled Cathay. Today Li Bai’s poetry continues to be enjoyed by countless readers around the world.

In an old building in Peking University, a yellow light shone into the old and dark hours of the night. The famous translator Xu Yuanchong     1     (sit) behind the window and staring at the computer screen. He enjoyed working by     2     (he) from 10:00 p. m. to 4:00 a. m. For him, the quiet night was a     3     (value) time to focus on translation. He was exploring how     4     (spread) Chinese culture abroad by translating Chinese beauty into Western beauty.

Xu was born into a literary family in Nanchang     5     April 18th, 1921. When he was little, he     6     (influence) by his mother who was interested in literature. Xu began to translate Chinese poetry into both English and     7     (France) when he was still a teenager. He soon learned that Chinese and European languages were very different. Only about half of the words in these languages could be translated word for word. This is why translators should have     8     creative mind. They are always trying to improve their translations to make sure they are correct and beautiful.

Xu’s motto is: Good, better, best. Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.     9     Xu was widely considered to be the best, he never stopped trying to become better. The more you learn and the     10     (hard) you study, the better you will become. There is always room for improvement.