Putting lion statues(雕像) outside buildings is quite common in China. It was especially _________ in ancient times. They can be seen at the gates of temples, government offices and the homes of _________ people. The statues are usually made of _________. People believe they can scare away evil spirits and bring good _________ .

However, the lion is not a _________ of China. It was not until about 2,000 years ago, when lions were _________ to Chinese emperors as gifts, that the animal _________ be seen in China. Emperors loved lions because they looked _________. They kept lions as pets and as a symbol of power. The animals were also believed to look _________ Suan Ni(狻猊), one of the nine legendary sons of the dragon.

Lions became even more popular in Chinese culture as Buddhism(佛教) was __________ to the country later. Buddhas(佛祖) ride lions and the lion’s roar(咆哮) was __________ to be the teachings of the Buddhas.

Since ancient times, people have put lion statues outside their houses to __________ their families. They usually put a __________ of stone lions on each side of the gate to their home. A male lion stands on the __________ playing with a ball. It stands for power. A female lion is on the right with a baby lion under her paw. She stands for a large and thriving(兴旺的) __________.

Feeling hot? So is Earth. Because of problems like climate change and bad ways of farming, much of the planet’s land is drying up. What can we do to solve this problem?

One thing the United Nations did was to create a holiday. In 1994, the UN started World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (世界防治荒漠化和干旱日), to let more people know about desertification. It is on June 17 every year.

Desertification happens when healthy land — land full of water and nutrients (营养)— becomes desert, which is dry and unhealthy. Every year, 20,000 to 50,000 square kilometers of Earth’s land is lost to desertification. In Africa, scientists expect that two thirds of Africa’s healthy land will be lost by 2025.

Desertification sometimes happens because of climate change, as big, fast changes in temperature can kill plants and trees.

However, it also happens because people use land too much, and in bad ways, to grow food on their farms. Growing too many plants in the same soil, in too short a time, can take away the soil’s nutrients faster than the soil can make new ones. That can turn the soil into dry sand, like a desert.

The UN suggests some different actions to stop desertification. One is to teach people better ways of farming, including the use of better fertilizers (肥料). Another is reforestation which means planting more trees. One country that has done a lot of that is China. Today China has 61 million hectares of reforested land — more than anywhere else in the world.

If you step into a bookstore, you might notice shelves labeled (标记为) “self-help” that are filled with rows of books. Self-help books are typically written by famous people and psychologists. They teach you how to deal with problems in your life — for example, how to manage your time well and how to find happiness.

Paul Sweetman, the owner of City Books in the UK, said the current political climate (政治环境), the world has seen terrorist attacks (恐怖袭击), trade wars and woman’s rights movements (女权运动).

“People come into the shop and they’re really tired about things. They’re looking for reassurances and peace of mind,” Sweetman told Guardian.

In addition, younger readers — such as millennials, or people born after the 1980s — tend to be more aware of their own faults.

Self-help books used to be something people laughed at. Many people didn’t take “chicken soup” stories or “success theory (成功学)”books seriously. But now they’re more respected and “as good to read as any novel,” Sweetman said.

Whatever the reason for the growing interest in self-help books might be, it’s good to know that help is at hand if we need it. But are these books really helpful? Read one and find out.

50. Without modern machines, ________ (挖) such a big hole wasn’t an easy task in the past.

52. Beating the world champions is   ___________ (surely/of course) a big challenge for our team.

On the fourth Sunday of every November, Americans gather around the dinner table to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The special tradition in the US has been around for many years. H    74    , some people don’t always stop to think about where some traditions came from. Now the f    75     are about four popular Thanksgiving traditions and how they started.

A big feast (大餐) is the major event for every Thanksgiving Day. The first Thanksgiving feast was in the autumn of 1621 when the first settlers (定居者) from     76     celebrated their first harvest. But it wasn’t made into an official holiday u    77     1863. The first feast had turkey, fruits and vegetables, which are still common today.

Giving thanks is what the holiday is mainly about. Historians say the first settlers invited Native Americans to the feast to thank them for teaching them how to g    78     crops and get food so that they could live on.

Every year, there is a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City, which includes giant balloons that     79     like cartoon characters and beautiful floats (花车) that carry famous people. There are also many musical plays for people to w    80    . This parade first a    81     in 1924, and today over 44 million people can see it on TV or in NYC.

American football is also something that people are the most i    82     in on Thanksgiving Day. Many people started to c    83     Thanksgiving Day by watching football games a few years after the day became an official holiday. Today, the National Football League takes advantages of this popularity and hosts three NFL games every Thanksgiving Day.