Atule’er, a 200-year-old village in Sichuan province, made beadlines around the world when photographs emerged in 2016 of schoolchildren     1     (go) down the cliff (悬崖) on unstable hand-made ladders     2     “sky ladders”, as locals called them.

The two-hour climb     3     (be) the villagers’ only way to access the outside world. In recent years, local authorities have replaced their hand-made ladders with a steel one,     4     (extreme) reducing their travel time.

This week, however, 84 households of Atule’er left the ladders behind     5     good, resettling in apartment blocks closer to     6     town centre of Zhaojue county, 46 miles away. New apartments they live in, ranging from 25 square meters to 100 square meters,     7     (equip) with modern kitchens, toilets, running water, electricity and gas.

Not all villagers have been relocated, however — about 30 households are planning to stay. Atule’er has become a tourist attraction.     8     (far) development will facilitate that industry, with a cable car (缆车) being constructed     9     (intend) for transporting tourists up and down the cliff.

In 2019, the Chinese government had made a     10     (commit) to lift all of its 1.4 billion people out of poverty by 2020. The clifftop villagers’ resettlement is part of that broader drive, and they are not alone.

She used to sleep on the sidewalk of the Fifth Street Post Office. I could smell her before I came close. She     1     (wear) dirty clothes and her mouth was nearly toothless. If she was not asleep, she talked to     2     (she). What a poor old lady!

On Thanksgiving, we had lots of food     3     (leave) over. I thought about the old lady. She might be still hungry. So I     4     (pack) the food up and rode over to the Fifth Street. There was hardly anyone out on such a cold night. But I knew she’d stay at the same place and I’d find her easily. There she was,     5     (sit) against a tree near the post office, dressed as she always was. I went to her and said, “I’ve brought you some food. Would you like some turkey and apple pie? ”

However, the old woman didn’t seem to be very     6     (excite) about this. She looked at me, saying “Oh, thank you very much, but someone has offered me food earlier and I’m quite full now. Why not take it to someone else who really     7     (need) it?”

Her manners were gracious(和蔼的). I was the person     8     didn’t know what     9     (say). An old lady whose life was     10     (tough) than most of us still thought about others. Why don’t more of us do that?

My friend has a daughter named Alice     1     always wanted to be a singer. Music was the most important thing in her life. But to tell you the     2    (true), she took lessons for years and practised every day, but her voice didn’t improve.     3    (honest), it didn’t get better. It just got     4     (loud).

Her teacher finally gave up and     5    (stop) the lessons, but Alice refused     6    (give) up. When she graduated     7     school, she decided to give a concert and invited her former teacher to attend. The teacher was very     8    (worry) about what to say after the performance. She knew it would be terrible and it was. She did not want to tell a lie,     9     she didn’t want to hurt Alice’s feelings either. Finally, she got     10     idea and went backstage to greet her former pupil.

“Well,” said Alice, “what did you think of my performance ?”

“My dear,” said the teacher, “you’ll never be better than you were tonight.”

Soon, Laurent Simons, 9, of Belgium, will become one of the     1     (young) people in the world to graduate from a university. For this, his teachers and others have called him a talent.

Laurent is studying electrical engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He entered when he was 8 and is set to complete     2     three-year program in 10 months.

If all goes well and he completes his final project-about a brain-connected electrical chip, he will walk out a graduate in March. “Then, I want to study     3     (medical), and do a PhD and make artificial     4     (organ),” he said. Laurent explained     5     he wanted to create artificial hearts in the future. The grandparents whom he lived     6     have heart conditions. “I'd like to help people like them,” he said.

While Laurent comes from a family of doctors, so far his parents     7     (receive) no explanation as to why their child is capable of leaning so quickly. Also, though Laurent is     8     (obvious) able to learn faster than most, his parents are being careful to let him enjoy     9     (him) too. He enjoys playing with his dog Sammy and     10     (chat) on the Internet, like many young people.