It's known to all that human beings are social animals. We spend a lot of our     1    (wake) hours communicating with others, and the possibilities of conversation are seemingly     2    (end)—we can make plans and jokes, talk about the past, dream about the future, share ideas and spread information. This ability to communicate has played     3     part in our species' ability to not only survive, but also develop.

Do you choose how     4    (use) this powerful tool—communication? Do your conversations serve as doorways to new ideas and experiences? Or do you     5    (usual) just like to talk about yourself? If you're like most people, your own thoughts and experiences may be your favorite topics of conversation.     6     average, people spend 60 percent of conversations talking about themselves—and this figure     7    (jump) to 80 percent when they are communicating via social media plat forms.

Why, in a world full of ideas to discover, develop, and discuss, do people spend the majority of their time talking about themselves? Recent research suggests a simple     8    (explain): because it feels good. Self-reveal produces a burst of activity in neural region     9    (associate) with pleasure, motivation and reward. But feeling good may be no more than a means to an end—it may be the immediate reward     10     starts a cycle of self-sharing, finally leading to wide varieties of long-term benefits.

Why do people make their banks in the shape of a pig? Pigs have nothing to do with money. They don’t store food like squirrels. So how did we end up     1    (use) a pig as the style of a bank?

During the fifteenth century, metal was very expensive. Dishes and pots were made from a type of orange clay (黏土) called “pygg”,     2     was pronounced just like “pig”. At the time, there weren’t banks like we have today, so people would store their money at home. When     3    (housewife) had extra coins to save, they would place them in clay jars or pots. As the type of clay was called “pygg”, people     4    (refer) to the jars as pygg banks. Over time this evolved into piggy banks.

    5     a few hundred years, people forgot that the word “pygg” was associated with the clay the banks     6    (make) from. The English language was also changing and the word “pig” was more commonly used     7     before. So when English potters began to receive request     8     piggy banks, they assumed their customers were asking for banks     9    (shape) like pigs, not banks made from pygg.

Today piggy banks are made from all kinds of materials, and they also come in a     10    (vary) of shapes and animals. But the term “piggy bank” is still used to refer to these adorable containers for loose change.

The Silk (丝绸) Road was a route that connected people from the East and the West for hundreds of years and allowed     1     (they) to trade valuable goods with each other. But there’s more to the story. The Silk Road should     2     (real) be called the Silk Roads. The Silk Road,     3     started in China, went west and branched out into many routes.

The Silk Road started to take shape (成形) in the second century BC. Most people know that valuable goods travelled along the route: silk and tea from China; jewels and wood from India; gold and animals from East Africa. These goods     4     (trade) in cities along the route or ended up as far west     5     in Europe.

But the people     6     (travel) along the Silk Road were carrying something far     7     (valuable) than their goods. They were carrying ideas and technology. European travelers returned home with stories of huge Chinese ships they had seen. The compass (指南针) is an example of an     8     (invent) that came west from China. Europeans learned from Korean maps, which were advanced for the 1400s.

    9     was the Silk Road that shaped the world we know today. Many routes were a way for different people     10     (meet) each other and talk about the developing world.

Every year, at the end of October, tens of thousands of people flock to a Buddhist temple in China to see a huge gingko biloba tree (银杏树) drop its foliage (枝叶) and turn     1     temple from green to gold. The Gu Guanyin Buddhist temple,    2     (locate) in the Zhongnan Mountains of China’s Shaanxi Province is home     3     a 1,400-year-old gingko biloba tree. It was planted for the Tang dynasty (618-907) emperor Li Shimin,     4     is one of the greatest     5     (rule) in Chinese history. It towers superbly over the temple,    6     for a few days every autumn, it rains down a gold carpet of     7     (leaf) that stands out against the muted tones of the season. Because of its     8     (strike) appearance, it has been called the world’s most beautiful gingko biloba tree, and     9     (become) a tourist attraction in its own right.

Due to the increasing     10     (popular) of its ancient gingko biloba tree, the Gu Guanyin Buddhist temple has reportedly increased daily visitor capacity to around 7200, between 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.

About 800 meters above sea level and next to the picturesque Taiping Lake, Houkeng village in Huangshan, a region in the south of Anhui Province, seems     1     (bless) by nature and is home to the handmade tea variety Taiping Kowkui. Every spring     2     foggy days moisten the emerald hillsides, villagers know their harvest will come. “    3     any of the three key factors — proper location, plant variety, or processing technique — the perfect Kowkui will not be born,” Fang Jifan, the fifth-generation tea farmer says. “It’s     4    signature of our home”.

Kowkui’s exceptionally large     5     (leaf) often lead to its being     6    (mistake) for   “vegetable”   by first-time viewers, but this “king” of green tea in Fang’s eyes beats other varieties at more than just size. “Its fragrance and flavor also stand out, thanks to the time-consuming work to process them.”   Fang says.

Last November, traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in   China     7     (add) to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. “The tea culture not only reflects a refined taste in life, it also shows the beauty of craftsmanship     8     people’s creativity.” says Zheng Yi, deputy head of Anhui Tea Culture Research Society. “For centuries, the scent of tea     9     (offer) nutrition to this land. This intangible cultural heritage of tea processing techniques is deeply rooted in people’s everyday life. This     10     (whole) handmade version of this famous tea showcases its soft and clean-flavored heirloom cultivar with a sea mineral aftertaste and signature fresh bamboo aroma. ”