Although Chinese is known as one of the     1    (hard) languages to learn, a lot of people from different cultures are studying it.

November 2nd saw more     2     120 people from 105 countries compete in the finals of the 12th Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for foreign secondary school students.     3    (hold) in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the finals included speech contests and talent shows. While reasons     4     learning Chinese were different among contestants, a common one was love for the country’s rich culture and rapid development.

For Fekete Marcell Zoltan, 17, from the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual School,     5    (study) Chinese may help him become a Hungarian diplomat to China. Fekete said he     6    (will) further his study in China after     7    (graduate).

Now that a bridge has been established between the contestants     8     China, where will their     9    (journey) take them? Robert Davis, director of the Chinese-language program in Chicago’s public school system, may give you a hint “Chinese isn’t the new French.     10     is the new English”.

Low-Hanging Fruit

If you are the first person to arrive at an apple tree during harvest time, you can easily find some low-hanging fruit. These are the apples that     1     (be) on the branches closest to the ground. Low-hanging fruit describes the most obvious or     2     (easy) things to do to help you reach a goal. Anyone or anything     3     can be won over or gained very easily is low-hanging fruit. Here is an example: “Changing the company logo is low-hanging fruit. It won’t cost much, and I can do it in an hour.”

Since the early 1970s, photographer David Hurn has been documenting those typical scenes     1     has defined his mountainous county in Wales. Unavoidably, landscape and agriculture have been a     2     (centre) focus in his photographs. “We only have a couple of reasonably large     3     (city) in Wales. If you travel around, you see open space, and farms everywhere,” says Hurn. “Part of the Welshness of Wales is the farmers. I like farmers. They are warm and open. They work very hard and I like people who work hard.”

Hurn, who has lived in rural Wales for the past 40 years, has seen various positive changes in all areas of Welsh life. In his village of Tintern, for example, he has noticed a decrease in residents working in the dirty coal industry     4     which the country once relied.

    5     (unfortunate), sometimes with improvements come bad changes, too. Much of what Hurn has documented over the years has now disappeared     6     is disappearing. So he considers his work as producing a historical record.

Hurn     7     (be) worried that if Wales’ agricultural life goes     8     same way as heavy industry, the nation’s very culture will disappear. “But the land and agriculture are a major part of Welsh life. If both the heavy industries and farming disappeared in Wales, then Wales would lose     9     (it) identity,” he says. “I have been trying my best     10     (preserve) our identity.”

Napoléon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. He began his military career    1     a regular officer in the French army and     2     (quick) moved up in rank. He became the leader of the French army. He wasn’t satisfied     3     being the leader of the army, though. He wanted to be the leader of all France. In 1804, Napoléon became the Emperor of France. He ruled not only France but also all the countries which     4    (conquer) by France. By 1808, Napoléon had controlled most of the     5    (Europe) countries. Now he turned his attention to Russia,     6    (expect) more victories. In June 1812, Napoléon led     7     army of about 600,000 men into Russia. The soldiers were well trained, efficient, and well     8    (equip). This military force was called the Grand Army. Napoléon,     9    confidence was extremely expanding, predicted the conquest of Russia in five weeks. The Russians knew    10    (they) weak army could not defeat the great army of Napoléon. They had to think of another way to defeat the invader.

The flame lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games     1     (hold) at the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing on March 2nd.     2     first torchbearer (火炬手) is 73-year-old climber Xia Boyu.

Xia Boyu,     3     (born) in 1949, made his dream come true after four failed attempts. Xia’s first attempt     4     (climb) Mount Qomolangma was in 1975 as part of a group of 20 Chinese climbers. The harsh     5     (condition) resulted in severe frostbite in Xia’s legs and the doctor had to amputate (截肢) his both feet. Nevertheless, he did not give up and made up his mind to devote     6     (he) to pursuing his goal. He made three separate attempts between 2014 and 2016, but snowstorm and avalanches stopped him from success. On May 14th, 2018, Xia, committed     7     one dream, reached the world’s     8     (high) mountain from the south side in Nepal, at an age     9     most people are enjoying life. These precious moments are recorded in a documentary, To the Summit, which recently opened in movie theaters nationwide.

His journey still     10     (continue) and he plans to climb peaks on all seven continents and explore the South and North Poles.