Few people actually know much about Argentina, in spite of the Country’s size and importance. Argentina,     1    means “land of silver”, is the eighth largest country in the world and the second largest in South America. Early European     2    (settler) thought the country was rich in the valuable metal.

The country     3    (be) once home to some of the world’s largest dinosaurs! Over the past years, the bones of many huge dinosaurs have been discovered. One huge creature, “Giganotosaurus” was thought to be 13.2 meters long and weigh nearly 15 tons!

South America’s hottest and coldest weather has been recorded in Argentina. Covering over 2,780,400 square kilometers, Argentina has     4     (impress) mountains, rivers, water falls and glaciers.

Iguazu Falls are made up     5    around 275 waterfalls. The natural wonder,     6     (locate) between Argentina and Brazil, draws more than one million visitors each year. The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world and stretch(延伸) almost 7,242 kilometers. A world-famous glacier can also be found in Argentina. The country’s Perito Moreno Glacier is     7    (especial) famous for its size and beauty. It is a     8     (grow) glacier. As     9     result, building-size icebergs often break off and crash into the lake.

With so much to discover in this beautiful country, why not see it for     10    (you)?

In the mountains of southwestern China, widespread karst (喀斯特) landforms have given rise to numerous natural caves,     1     (offer) unique resources for tourism.     2    (equip) with safety facilities and opened to the public in 1985, Zhijin Cave in Guizhou’s Bijie city has emerged as a famed scenic spot. This summer, it has attracted numerous sightseeing tourists and curious students alike, forming large crowds of enthusiastic     3    (visit).

Two weeks ago, more than 100 students and teachers from No. 8 Middle School in Bijie took on an exploration of the cave     4     (learn) about the formation and types of karst caves, as well as ways to protect them. With headlamps on, the students     5     (guide) by interpreters as they ventured into a “karst museum”   where they experienced     6     (extreme) awesome sights. Along the stone steps, they encountered interconnected caves of     7    (variety) sizes and witnessed stalactites(钟乳石)hanging or standing     8     diverse forms.

Study tours are     9     innovative means of linking school education with extracurricular learning. Through the immersive (沉浸式的) learning experiences, the children couldn’t help be amazed at the wonders crafted by nature.   “We have gained knowledge     10     can’t be found in books,” said a student. “Now I know how karst caves were formed.”

As archaeologists explored ancient tombs in Turfan in western China, they discovered some surprisingly well-preserved and hardened dumplings.

Exactly     1     invented dumplings remains a mystery. But some scholars suspect they were first spread around the ancient world by peoples living in western China and Central Asia more than 1,700 years ago.

Dumplings continued to take off and diversify in China over the next thousand years. Instead of the     2     (tradition) meat filling, some communities preferred vegetable dumplings. And because wheat was     3     (hard) to grow outside of northern China, those in other regions began making dumplings using rice and sweet potato. The relationship     4     Chinese dumplings and those in other areas is hard to trace, but food historians     5     (make) their best guesses based on available clues.

Turkic (突厥) tribes spread and     6     (eventual) established the Ottoman Empire around 1300 CE, bringing wrapped food west with them.

Some scholars believe that the Mongol Empire also helped dumplings go farther, perhaps     7     (introduce) them to parts of Eastern Europe. These dumplings could have come by way of China or directly from some of the Turkic peoples the Mongols hired to run their empire.

Later, after Chinese dumpling     8     (variety) were introduced to more countries, English speakers began calling them dumplings. The term is thought     9     (use) firstly in 16th century England to describe dough balls dropped in liquid. During the Second World War, Chinese “jiaozi” was brought to Japan,     10     it became known as “gyoza” and was more typically pan-fried.