Chinese green tea: A mouthful of cool summer

China, home of most of the world’s tea, also has a series of customs    1    (concern) tea making and tea choice according to the seasons.

In the summer, the most recommended one is green tea, for     2     character is “cold” in traditional Chinese medical theories, suitable    3     (relieve) the restlessness caused by hot summer. Below are just some examples of these green teas:

    4    (produce) in Wu county in East China’s Jiangsu province, the tea got its name for its curled     5     (leaf) that look like snail shells.

Different than other tea, leaves of Lu’an Melon Seed, without buds or stems, are picked    6     (separate) from each branch. Produced in Lu’an city in Anhui province, the tea has the fragrance of orchid flowers.

In a popular TV-drama Treading on Thin Ice (Bu Bu Jing Xin), which     7     (air) in 2011, Taiping Houkui was often mentioned by the     8     (four) Prince who later became Emperor Yongzheng (1691-1731). In fact, the tea appeared in 1859, more than 100 years later after the emperor’s death. Grown in Anhui province, Taiping Houkui was one of the ten most well-known Chinese teas and was given     9     a gift to the 37th US President Richard Nixon     10    he visited China in 1972.

Nowadays many people like making bread at home. Thousands of years before the coming of agriculture, people were already making bread. That’s the surprising     1     (conclude) of a new study based on a curious find in northeastern Jordan.

At its most basic, bread is the combination of     2     (process) grains and water that have been baked, fried or steamed. The process leaves behind chemical and structural qualities that researchers can use to identify the principal food. And that’s just     3     archaeologists found when they investigated a 14,000-year-old site known as Shubayqa 1 in Jordan’s Black Desert. The inhabitants, who     4     (be) hunter-gatherers, left their home     5     a hurry, with the contents of their most recent meal still smoldering (焖) in two sunken fireplaces.

With     6     help of a scanning electron microscope, which uses electrons to return incredibly complicated zoomed-in images, the researchers     7     (identify) 24 pieces of char (炭) that were decidedly breadlike. Though the bread’s exact grain remains unknown,     8     (it) structure resembles grain species.

The find is the     9     (old) example of bread yet discovered and predates (先于) the arrival of agriculture in the region by some 4,000 years. The discovery, which could help researchers better understand how ancient cultures met their nutritional needs, suggests knowing how     10     (grow) grains isn’t essential to making bread from them.

Xiaoxue (Noel) is an exchange student, now studying international relations at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Since Xiaoxue showed great interest in Chinese martial arts (武术), she decided to try Chinese wrestling (摔跤) after     1     classmate introduced her to it.

She had never learned Chinese martial arts before she came to China,     2     she had learned a little bit of Taekwondo   (跆拳道) in her country. At first, she     3     (think) it would be similar because they’re both martial arts. But then she found that Taekwondo and Chinese martial arts have     4     (they) own uniqueness. And she also found that Taekwondo usually uses the feet     5     (fight), but in Chinese martial arts, they use force from the hands to attack.

According to her, she feels very happy and very     6     (relax) after she learned to wrestle. She’s also happy that she can learn new skills every day. She says friendliness is the     7     (big) feeling she has had about China and Chinese people since she came to China.

When she was not familiar     8     China, many of her Chinese friends helped her to get used to the life here. She also took part in many exchange     9     (activity) to feel the culture and traditions of China. Now she tries to share the culture of her country with everyone. She     10     (believe) it is a good chance to improve understanding between the two countries.

Liang Zhenqing     1     (deliver) an online livestream broadcast about agriculture. From his home in Hefeng county, Hubei Province,     2    81-year-old technician’s lessons reach at     3     (little) 30,000 people across China.

Liang studied agricultural techniques in 1973 after     4     (leave) the army. He has devoted five decades     5    the agricultural industry in Hefeng county of Hubei Province since that training course.

Liang retired in 1988 but he kept     6     (he) busy for the next nearly 20 years training farmers in the field.

In 2017 he    7     (help) farmers avoid damage from pests and disease in orange fields of nearby Tielu township.

“I go to the township to give lectures every year and the fruit     8     (farmer) welcome me,” Liang said.

With the     9     (encourage) of his family, Liang started offering live broadcast lectures on January 19.

    10     surprises him most is that within less than one year since he registered for live lectures, at least 30,000 fans follow him.