The history of the Great Wall is said to start from the Spring and Autumn Periods. Many countries appeared at     1     same time. In order to protect themselves, they all     2     (build) walls on the borders.

In 221BC, Emperor QinShihuang set up the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. He ordered the previous wall sections of different states be linked together and extended. The Great Wall of Qin seemed like a dragon, which runs from Lintao in the west     3     Liaodong in the east. Thus it     4     (name)“Wanli Changcheng”.

In the Western Han Dynasty,the Huns(匈奴人)in the north became much more powerful. The Han court started to build more     5     (wall) in order to guard the frontier. The following dynasties all built their own walls but on a       6     (small) scale than the walls in the Han Dynasty. The strong Tang Dynasty saw peace between the northern tribes       7     central China for a long time, so few Great Wall sections were built in this period.

The Ming Dynasty is the peak of wall building in Chinese history. The Ming suffered a lot by troubles from minority tribes. The Ming court, from     8     (it) first emperor to the last, endlessly built walls in the north. Those countless walls and watchtowers made the country much safer in this period.

Owing to its long history, natural disasters and human activities, many parts of the Great Wall are     9     (bad) damaged and disappearing. Being a world-famous engineering project and seeing the rise and fall of the Chinese history, the Great Wall needs us to take immediate action     10     (protect)it.

Big Ben is one of London's best-known landmarks, which is     1     nickname of a bell hanging in the clock tower at the     2     (north) end of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London. Some believe it got     3     (it) name from Sir Benjamin Hall. Officially, the tower itself is called Elizabeth Tower. It was     4     (previous) known as just the Clock Tower, but was renamed in September 2012 in honor of Queen Elizabeth II. However, most people,     5     (include) those that live in London, call the tower "Big Ben", because it is very large.

Designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, the clock took 13 years to build and it     6     (complete) in 1859. It has worked continuously since then except for a few months in 1976 when it     7     (break) down and had to be fixed. Since August 2017, repair work is being done on the clock, which will take four years. For the     8     (safe) of those doing this work, Big Ben no longer rings out every hour. It will still be heard     9     special occasions, such as the New Year and Remembrance Day.

The Elizabeth Tower has become one of the most important     10     (symbol) of the United Kingdom and is often in the establishing shot of films set in London.

A material can be really special when it was named after the place     1     it was created originally. That’s certainly the case with china. And of all types of china, white porcelain (瓷) is among the most famous.

Nowadays, the     2     (tradition) material has taken on a modern look in the hands of four Chinese artists in the Modern White Porcelain Exhibition. And the key word here is “modern”. One of the works     3     (be) a porcelain boat. But look     4     (attentive) and you’ll see that the boat     5     is built with porcelain     6    (look) like a takeout box. Inside the boat is a statue of a baby. The baby stands     7     humans and the boat is what supports life. It suggests that some damage     8     (do) to the environment and that we’re treating life like fast food.

All the four artists gave white porcelain a modern style, each in     9     (they) own way. And this is what the exhibition’s theme comes from. It’s a dialogue between the past and     10     present.

Many artists draw with pens and brushes, but few “paint” with knives. Wang Jing, a woman from Shenyang city in northeast China’s Liaoning Province,     1    (work) on this novel artform for 27 years.

In 1995, Wang was inspired by an     2    (accident) cut by a knife on a piece of red paper, which left a white line.     3    (use) knives and paper, she then completed a painting of a pair of peacocks.

Unlike traditional paintings, onto which colors are “added”, “knife painters” apply varied pressure on the paper in different directions     4    (create) different colors and tones.

The novel art form was known to few people just after Wang created it. Even Wang herself was not expecting to make     5     something big at the beginning. But thanks to her huge interest in the art form, she has carried     6     it for the past 27 years. Wang has completed hundreds of paintings about Chinese culture, figures, landscape, flowers and birds, of which her favorite is a 2.8-meter-long painting     7     shows 20 lifelike egrets (白鹭).

“Painting on paper with knives needs careful     8    (treat) and each line in the painting is as thin as a hair. Once the marks are left on the paper, they cannot     9    (cover), so it requires the painter to be     10    (complete) concentrated on the work,” said Wang.

Ballet is a formal kind of dance performance with a rich and interesting history. The word “ballet” comes from the French language, and     1     (be) based on the Italian word “balletto.” “Balletto” means a little dance. Ballet’s early roots began in Italy in the late 1400s. But it was in France     2     ballet developed into the form we know today.

The French ruler Louis the Fourteenth had a big influence     3     the direction of ballet in its early history. He ruled France for seventy-two years,     4     (start) in 1643. He started dancing as a boy and worked hard daily.

Louis the Fourteenth turned ballet into a form of dance that reflected     5     (he) power and influence. Ballet’s many rules and     6     (extreme) detailed movements expressed a person’s power and social relations. The king made sure that ballet became a     7     (require) for the people of his court. He also started the Royal Academy of Dance,     8     important people could learn this art. The aim of this dance was self-control, order and perfection.

Ballet slowly changed from a dance at the king’s court to one     9     (perform) by professional dancers. When Louis the Fourteenth died in 1715, ballet     10     (bring) to other parts of Europe and was developing in other ways.