It was a very cold day. However, Li Yungang and his classmates even ________ hot. After all, the 14-year-old student from Xi’an Jingshan School was cutting grass for three hours with them.

This was ________ first time that these students from cities had done some farm work. “It was not that easy. My legs and arms were sore,” Li said.

From now on, more Xi’an middle school students will be taken to the farm ________ the similar farm work. About 250 ________ from Xi’an Jingshan School took part in it from Oct. 25 to 30. They ________ to dig peanuts (花生), cut grass, sweep fallen leaves and do other farm work.

Lin Ruohan, 13, thought although the work was hard, she found ________ great to learn these simple life skills. “When we dig peanuts out, we must be quick to pick them ________. If not, they may be covered in the ground again. It was simple but needed time, so we must be ________ and work as a team,” she said.

The program was meaningful. Some students said they used to just eat peanuts, but didn’t know ________. Now they know the best time to grow them. They also know the ways to care them. All the knowledge could hardly be gained from the textbooks.

The farm not only gave them knowledge but also gave them a new view. “The colorful leaves and endless fields made ________ very comfortable, and I felt closer to nature,” said Qin Yupeng, 14.

Cave (洞穴) paintings are the oldest pictures. Some of them in the north of Spain are almost 30,000 years old. The paintings do not have written words. But when we look at them, we can get an idea of the feelings the people felt when they drew them. The paintings tell stories of hopes and fears. They are an early form of communication.

Sometime between 4,000 and 3,000 BE, people in Egypt and Mesopotamia developed the skill of writing. They engraved (雕刻) text on stones first. But it was impossible to carry stones from place to place. The invention of papyrus (纸莎草纸) allowed documents to be moved easily. Writing on papyrus made it easier to correct mistakes, too. When a scribe—the person who wrote the documents made a mistake, he needed to clean the ink off the papyrus quickly before it got dry and made his corrections!

People made the first book from papyrus and thin animal skins. Paper was invented in China as early as 105 AD. The world’s oldest known printed book is from China, too. It was published on May 11, 868 AD. In Europe, books were written manually (手动地) until the 15th century when Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany. Since then, many books have been published around the world. For many people, one of life’s greatest pleasures is spending a few hours looking through the books.

Books will be around for many years. But now some people prefer reading e-books.They are easier to take when you travel, and you can download them from the Internet. Now you can buy your books whenever you want without leaving your home.

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项是多余选项。

Every year, with the Spring Festival on its way, it’s time to start thinking about everyone’s favorite topic: gifts! More specifically (确切地),     31    .

This means that each place has different gift habits due to its culture. I have found gift-giving to be quite different in China from my home country.

One example is the time of when to open a gift. The person who gives a gift is called the “gifter”. The person who gets a gift is called the “giftee”. In the US,     32    . The gifter wants to see the giftee’s reaction of excitement and joy. In China, however, it’s more polite to thank the gifter for the gift but open it later in the giftee’s home.

    33    . Although people in the US might give money to their children, it is usually done very secretly with the money put in a card and not discussed out loud. In China, it is much more open. For example, kids get lucky money from parents during the Spring Festival.

Finally, the value of the gift can play a big role in China.     34    . An expensive gift in the US is usually greeted with great excitement. But in China, it can make the giftee feel embarrassed because of a sense of having to return the favor in the future to the gifter.

As the old saying goes, “When in Rome, does the Romans do.”     35    . So, next time you give a gift to somebody, remember that culture and meaning are part of every action we take.