They say that “travel is the best teacher” and there is no better example of this idea than the Ming Dynasty travel writer and geographer Xu Xiake. His book The Travel Notes of Xu Xiake, not only encourages a(an) ________ for traveling among Chinese people but provides important scientific information about the country’s land and geography.

Born into a(an) ________ Jiangyin family, Xu became interested in books about different places at an early age and wanted to travel. When he was 18, however, Xu’s father died and so, it seemed, did his ________ dreams. He was responsible for the family farm and taking care of his mother as ________ required.

________ his mother had different ideas. Understanding her son’s love for traveling and valuing the knowledge he could get from such ________, this modern-thinking woman ________ to keep her son at home. She agreed that Xu could travel for three months every year, when there was ________ farm work.

So at the age of 21 and with his mother’s support, Xu ________, leaving behind not only his mother but his new wife as well. He would ________ this goodbye each year for most of the next 30 years. During this time, he traveled throughout the country, carefully studying the land he passed through and recording ________ experiences and many discoveries in a diary. This diary, which once had over 2,600,000 words, eventually became The Travel Notes of Xu Xiake.

Although rich, Xu avoided comfortable travel, preferring to go almost everywhere ________. In this way he could research the environment in detail and get a true ________ of the natural world. Many of his trips were to hard-to-reach mountain areas, and through wild forests where few people lived. His willingness (意愿) to face difficulties came at a(an) ______ however. Progress was slow and tiring and he was frequently sick, robbed and beaten during his journeys.

Sadly, Xu became seriously ill during his ________ and longest journey, a 4-year trip through the southwest of China. He died in 1641, soon after returning to his hometown for the last time. When his diary was finally printed years after his death, much of it had been destroyed or lost. Although incomplete, it still made Xu a traveling legend around the world.