During the “golden week” national holiday that began on October st,hundreds of thousands of sightseers flocked to Lijiang,a picturesque historic town in the south-western province of Yunnan. Among its    1     (attract)are the symbols printed beneath the Chinese characters on road signs and shop fronts (Starbucks included).They are Dongba pictographs,     2     ancient form of script(文字)that originated among the Naxi,a local ethnic group.It almost    3     (die) until about a decade ago,     4     local officials began to realize its value and covered the town with it.

Dongba was never    5     (wide)used by the Naxi,of whom there are about 300,000 8living in the Himalayan foothills near Lijiang. as well as in Tibet and Sichuan province. The pictographs, which evolved as early as the seventh century,     6     (develop) by shamans(巫师) of the Dongba faith, which has roots in Tibet.

Over 20,000 of these religious records survive. They provide rich insight into how Naxi people thought about war, geography, astronomy and agriculture. But they are extremely hard    7     (read).Linguists are helped by the area’s Dongbapriests(神职人员). There are about 600, most of them very old, including Yang Guoxing, who ran a school from 2010 to 2015 to teach Dongba to children    8     (live) in the mountains. When Mr Yang was growing up,“everyone was too busy farming to learn it. Now they are all busy soaking up the pop culture," he says.

Signs at bus stations in rural Yunnan encourage locals to use written and spoken Chinese. But the Naxi get off lightly compared    9     other ethnic minorities. Primary schools in Lijiang teach the Dongba script twice a week, as well as Naxi nursery rhymes.Li Dejing, head of the Dongba Culture Research Institute, says this is not just about keeping alive the pictographs,     10     letting children grasp “the very spirit of their own culture”.And this will also help tourism to develop in Lijiang.

In western countries the only person who might dare to tell you that you are fat is your     1     (person) doctor. Then he would probably tell you how to lose weight. In China, there is no such inhibition (拘谨) as to     2     (talk) about people’s weight. It     3     (be) common for Chinese to go to foreigners, saying, “You are fat.” While talking with     4     Chinese friend about this, she told me that I was wrong and that Chinese will normally say, “You are so fat.” There are several reasons     5     people will say this. Firstly, there aren’t many fat people in China. It is almost a     6     (curious) to see someone fat. Secondly, there are     7     (few) private issues. Thirdly, people just feel freer to speak exactly what is on their mind. Try feeding Western dessert to Asians     8     you will always hear “too sweet, too sweet”. Some Chinese think that all Westerners are fat. Once I     9     (play) basketball when a guy said, “Why are you so skinny? I thought all people from America were fat. Perhaps if more people in American comment on others’ weight, then it might help remind people     10     (try) to stay fit.”

With a score of 2-0, China’s women’s table tennis team won against     1     (they) competitors from the Netherlands during the class 6-8 final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Thursday.

Wang Rui, one of the three Chinese gold medalists, came     2     Chengdu in Southwest China and was a survivor of the Wenchuan earthquake. In 2008, Wang lost her leg at     3     age of 15 in the earthquake. With the support from her family, she     4     (join) the Chengdu table tennis team for the disabled in 2009. At a training center, Wang began to learn how     5     (play) table tennis. She worked hard and practised swinging the paddle for eight     6     (hour) every day. She fell in love with the sport and     7     (gradual) overcame the trauma (创伤) of losing her right leg.

Through her own efforts, Wang     8     (choose) for the Sichuan provincial table tennis team for the disabled, and then to the     9     (nation) team. The sport of table tennis gave her a second life as well as a chance to realize her Olympic champion dream. She was thankful to her parents,     10     gave her unconditional love and support.