Champs-Elysées turns into garden

The mayor of Paris has said a € 250m makeover of the Champs-Elysées(香榭丽舍大街改造工程)     1     (go) ahead, though the    2     (ambition) transformation will not happen    3     the French capital hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Anne Hidalgo said the     4     (plan) work, unveiled in 2019 by local community leaders and businesses, would turn the 1.9 km stretch of central Paris into “    5     extraordinary garden”. The plans include     6     (reduce) space for vehicles by half, turning roads     7     pedestrian and green areas, and creating tunnels of trees    8    (improve) air quality.

Before the COVID-19 crisis halted international tourism, the architect Philippe Chiambaretta said that of the estimated 100,000 pedestrians on the avenue every day, 72 percent were tourists and 22 percent work there. “The eight-lane highway    9     (use) by an average of 3,000 vehicles an hour, most passing through, and is     10     (pollute) than the busy périphérique ring road around the French capital(巴黎环城公路), ”he added.

Have you heard about online haircuts? Not a chance, you might say, but one barbershop in Tokyo is trying to make the impossible possible.

Mr. Brothers Cut Club,     1     is located in Harajuku, has launched what it calls a “telecut” service, in which its barbers will offer customers self-haircut tutorials (教程) in real time via the Zoom video-conferencing app.

“Many people are getting     2     (annoy) at how their hair keeps growing while they're staying at home,” said Saito Kon, one of the Mr. Brothers barbers. “But the only option they have at the moment is either to risk being exposed to pretty horrible     3     (infect) by going outside to get a haircut, or to do nothing,” So the barbershop decided to offer a temporary solution     4     that problem. Customers interested in the telecut service need to prepare     5     simple collection of necessary tools     6     (them), such as scissors, clippers a garbage bag and a portable mirror. There are two service options—one for parents trying to cut the hair of their children, and the other for adults     7     (look) to cut their own hair.

“We can't,     8     (confident) guarantee that customers can get the perfect, high-quality haircut they would look for at barbershops. The best we can do is teach them how not     9     (mess) up,” he said, adding that he, along with his colleagues,     10     (be) just trying to make a social contribution.

The Olympics Through the Years

The first modern Olympics was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. At    1    opening ceremony(典礼), King Georgios I and a crowd of 60,000 onlookers welcomed 280 athletes,    2    would compete in 43 events, including track and field, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cycling, tennis and so on. The    3    (office)symbol(象征)of the modern Games is five interlocking(紧密相连的)colored    4    (ring), representing(代表)the continents(大陆)of North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. The Olympic flag, featuring(以……为特色)this symbol on a white background,    5    (fly) for the first time at the Antwerp Games in 1920.

The Olympics    6    (true )took off as an international sporting event after 1924, when the VIII Games were held in Paris. Some 3,000 athletes from 44 nations competed that year, and for the first time the Games featured a    7    (close)ceremony. The Winter Olympics was first held that year, such events as figure skating, ice hockey, and the biathlon    8    (include). Eighty years later, when the 2004 Summer Olympics returned    9    Athens for the first time in over a century, nearly 11,000 athletes from 201 countries competed. In a gesture that joined both ancient and modern Olympic traditions, the shotput(铅球)    10    (compete)that year was held at the site of the classical Games in Olympia.

The origin of facial makeup used in Peking Opera can go back to the Northern and Southern dynasties,    1     was a time when leading actors used to wear masks. As the operatic arts developed,    2     (performer) gradually took off their masks and painted colorful patterns on their faces instead, so people could better see    3     (they) facial expressions.

Chinese Opera facial makeup is a special makeup method with Chinese cultural characteristics.     4    painting technique for Chinese facial makeup in dramas is closely related to the character's personality. Over the past years of development, it     5       (become) an important part of Chinese culture.

There    6     (be) four roles in facial makeup, sheng, dan, jing, and chou. Chinese facial-makeup is     7     (extreme) stylized in the colors and patterns used, but no two painted faces are alike. For example, there are more than 100 face-painting styles     8     (design) for Xiang Yu, the hero in Farewell My Concubine, and each one is different. Various types of Chinese facial makeup let the audience able     9     (know) a character easily and get more involved     10     the appreciation of the performance.

In the 1920s an event changed China's knowledge of its history. Archaeologists discovered many prehistoric human bones in a small village, Zhoukoudian, near Beijing. The bones came from     1     unknown species of man and proved the     2     (exist) of a human species who lived in China thousands of years ago. The archaeologists also found some evidence     3     Beijing Man used fire for cooking and also for light, warmth and protection from wild     4     (beast). Unfortunately, during World War Ⅱ, most of the fossils disappeared, which have never been found. In 1987, Zhoukoudian     5     (list) as a world heritage site. Today, however, Zhoukoudian is     6     (endanger). Rain, exposure to the air, weeds and pollution from nearby factories badly affect the site. It is expensive     7     (maintain) the site, so at the moment, visitors are not allowed to visit the caves. Zhoukoudian is on the World Cultural Heritage List, which is     8     (constant) checked. Therefore, if the site were not protected well, it could be removed from the list. The Chinese Academy of Sciences thinks it is     9     vital importance to protect the site and requests that the government     10     (get) involved.