1 . The Silk Road is the name of different roads that connected Europe, Africa and Asia long ago. It _______ by Fvon Richthofen, who was _______ famous German geographer. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3000 years ago and that people _______ these different places along these roads. By the time the Chinese silk trade became important in the world, the Silk Road covered almost 7, 000 kilometers. It went _______ China to the West.

Businessmen travelled along the Silk Road to carry silk, of course. _______ also carried and traded _______ things like spices（香料）, cloth, jewels and gold.

Along and around these ancient paths（小路）, many fascinating（吸引人的）and mysterious stories happened.

It is said that Roman soldiers who _______ a war travelled through central Asia. They decided _______ somewhere near the ancient Chinese villagers. Some of these Romans _______ local Chinese women and the stories of the blond-haired, blue eyed tribes（部落）of China was started.

During its ________ period, the Silk Road allowed people from many different cultures and countries ________ each other and mix. The Silk Road allowed the sharing of valuable things and new ideas. It included people and trading goods from different areas. All these people travelled the Silk Road, ________ they shared goods, stories, languages and cultures.

In modern times, the old Silk Road route（路线）are still used, but now they are crossed ________ train instead of camels and horses. There ________ even a Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35, 000 objects from all along the Silk Road. ________ China protects the history of many countries and people.

The king and the rice

A long time ago, there was a king in     1    . The king’s favorite game was     2    . One day, a     3     old man came to the palace and the king     4     him to a game. The king     5     the old man, “You can have any     6     if you win the game.”

Great inventions

Thomas Edison     7     the first     8     light bulb in 1879. Before the invention of the light bulb, people had to use oil lamps or     9     to see at night. With light bulbs, people can do as many things as they can in the evenings as they can in the daytime. Can you     10     living without them?

4 . It may be hard to believe, but the American Revolution (革命)—the war that freed the American states from British control—began over a cup of tea. Tea was not the only thing that caused the war, of course, but it played a very big part.

The British people’s love of tea is well-known. When the British won control over much of North America in the early 1700s, they brought their tea-drinking habits with them. Tea quickly became the continent’s most popular drink. As tea could not be grown locally, just as in Britain, it was shipped into the country—mostly from India.

In the early 1700s, the Britain government made a special deal with the East India Company, an English trading company. They agreed that no other company was allowed to bring tea to Britain or any country controlled by Britain, including America. It was a great deal for the East India Company, since it meant that the company could decide whatever price it wanted for its products. And it always decided on a high price!

In North America, the local people did not like having to pay such high prices. Instead of overpaying for tea from the British, they turned to Dutch traders, who secretly brought tea to the country that was just as good—and much less expensive. Although this broke the law, the American people didn’t care. They got the same cup of tea at a much lower price.

The East India Company, however, didn’t like this at all. By the 1760s, they were losing millions of pounds each year to Dutch traders—a huge amount of money in a time when £60 a year was considered a good income. Instead of reducing their prices to compete with the Dutch, the company asked the British government for help and the government agreed.

In 1767, the British introduced new laws that increased the prices of all goods which were brought into America. These laws helped make the East India Company even richer and forced local people to pay much more for everything. The American leaders asked the British government not to do so, but the British refused to listen. These unfair laws increased Americans’ anger about British rule and the rest, as they say, is history.

5 . London’s Chinese community (社区) dates back to the 18th century, when a small number of Chinese sailors moved to the city to work in Limhouse, east London. As time went on, other Chinese people came to this area and Limhouse began to be known as “Chinatown”. However, London’s Chinese community remained very small for many years: at the start of the 20th century, there were just 545 Chinese people in Britain.

After the Second World War, many farmers in Hong Kong lost their jobs and came to London. As Limhouse had been almost destroyed during the war, they settled (定居) in a different area, a part of central London near Leicester Square. This area is now what Londoners call Chinatown.

At first, the new immigrants (移民) found it difficult to get jobs. In the 1950s, however, a small Chinese restaurant opened in London. Many British people visited it and said that Chinese food was wonderful! Suddenly, Chinese restaurants and take-aways started opening in every part of the city. Instead of too little work, the new Chinese immigrants now found that they had too much! They worked as cooks, managers or waiters. Most of them enjoyed their lives and asked their friends and relatives to join them from overseas.

As time went by, London’s Chinese community became more and more successful. The sons and daughters of the original restaurant workers studied and worked very hard. And most went on to get highly paid jobs. Many Chinese families left Chinatown and moved to the more expensive outskirts. Chinatown, however, is still as lively as ever.

6 . Thousands of years ago, people didn’t live in cold places because they don’t know how to keep themselves warm.     1     When an animal was killed, they made use of its skin to cover (覆盖) their bodies.     2    

Nature is our friend. It helped us discover (发现) fire when lighting hit a forest and stared a fire.     3     The fire kept people warm, and also frightened (吓跑) wild animals. Soon people found that their food tasted better when they cooked it, so they began to use fire to cook food.

But people still didn’t know how to make fire themselves. When they get fire from the forest, they tried to keep it burning.     4    

But later, they found different ways to make fire. For example, they made fire by burning wood or rubbing two pieces of stone together.

Today, it’s easy for people to make fire because we have matches, lighters and different kinds of heaters.     5    

7 . Today there are policemen everywhere,     1    . A few old men used to protect the city streets at night and they were not paid.

About 300 years ago, London was starting to get bigger and more and more people began to live there.     2    . There were so many thieves (小偷) who stole money in the streets that people stayed in their homes as much as possible.

In 1750,     3    . They were like policemen and were called “Bow Street Runners” because they worked near Bow Street.

Fifty years later, there were 120 “Bow Street Runners”,     4    . So in 1829, the first London Police Force was started with 3,000 officers.     5    , but a few rode horses. Until 1920 all the police in London were men.

Today, London police are quite well paid and for the few police officers who still ride horses, the pay is even better than for the others.

Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb? The answer is no. The real i    1     of the light bulb was Joseph Swan. He invented the electric light bulb in 1860. But Swan’s light bulb could not glow（发光）for a long e    2     time to be useful.

Ten years later, Thomas Edison decided to improve on Swan’s light bulb. He did a lot of experiments to find a better bulb wire. Finally, he f    3     the right one. It could glow for about 1,200 hours and, at the same time, it was cheap. In the 20th c    4     , light bulb began to be widely used all over the world. Even street lamp began to use light bulbs i    5     of oil. Since then, the light bulb has helped humans see things clearly anytime. It is one of the greatest inventions in history.