Before I arrived in China last fall, I had already spent six years    1    (learn)Chinese However, I was only able     2    (increase) my vocabulary and study for tests.When it came to speaking, everything I'd learned would     3    (sudden) escape me.When I started my freshman year at Beijing University, I got to know    4    to improve my Chinese.

Even if I found quite a few    5    (method), my Chinese didn't improve so quickly.I still struggled with grammar, tones and confidence, but when my freshman year ended, I felt    6    confident than ever.With the term over, I     7    (take)a trip alone to Shanghai and put what I had learned into use.

As I look back on my first year of learning Chinese at university, I have benefited a lot owing     8     the support of my Chinese teacher.Although next year's Chinese class is going to be very     9    (challenge), I know that I won't    10     (judge) by my grades.I'm improving, and that's all that matters.

When I was a student, I     1     (perform) better in Chinese language and history. But when     2     (surround) by a variety of bronzeware (青铜器) dating back thousands of years at an exhibition, I often feel I should brush up on my knowledge of the Chinese language. Characters, such as zun and ding, are widely used to describe various types of bronze vessels. But many others are rarely seen, and therefore difficult for us     3     (recognize) and correctly pronounce. Qingong Bo is a musical instrument to produce sounds similar to that of a bell. It also bears an inscription of 135 characters,     4     can help historians learn more about the history of the Qin state.