One of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had was in Morocco. It was a trip to the desert. We set off from Marrakesh at 7 a. m. in a minibus and headed southeast. The countryside on the way was very unusual, with dry gray cliffs (悬崖). Below them in the canyons were lots of green palm trees. When we got to the Atlas Mountains, we ran into a snowstorm, and it got very cold in the bus.

It’s incredible to think that the hot desert was so near.

After traveling for two days, we finally got to Merzuga, a tiny town on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We left our stuff in a hostel and drove to the place from which the caravans (宿营拖车) departed. Before sunset, we boarded our camels and rode into the desert over the dunes (沙丘). The dunes were amazing — they changed color depending on the angle of the sun. The ride lasted about two hours. When we reached the camp, it was dark and cold, and I was starving. We sat in the camp and waited for dinner. Several hours later, they brought a lamb dish, which five of us shared from a plate, eating with our hands.

After dinner, everyone went to sleep in tents, except me. I’ve always wanted to have the experience of sleeping in the desert, under the stars. But I didn’t realize it could get so cold at night. So I took the same blanket that I used to ride the camel and wrapped myself in it to keep warm. During the day, the temperatures can reach 50℃, but at night, they fall to 4℃. The dunes looked like snow, and the clear sky covered with stars was an amazing sight. No wonder the Moors (摩尔人) were such great astronomers. They had a planetarium above them to observe every night.

Suddenly, I saw a shooting star, and I made a wish: _________________________.

The year 2021 marks 100 years since the first Everest expedition (探险). With a height of 8,849 metres above sea level, Mount Everest is the world’s t    1     mountain. These days, more than 500 people every year try to climb it, but the very first organized expedition to Everest h    2     a century ago, in 1921.

A team of British mountaineers wanted to explore the mountain. Their first mission was to try to find a route to the mountain. After this, their s    3     task was to try to establish the possible routes that could be used for an actual climb. Finally, if everything else went well, they would then see i    4     they could actually complete the climb itself and get to the top of the mountain. They set off on May 18, 1921, from northern India and walked about 300 miles to Mount Everest. The walk was so tough that Alexander Kellas, a Scottish chemist, died before they reached the f    5     of the mountain. Once the team had set up a base camp, they set about exploring the mountain. They spent four months circling Everest to learn more about it.

George Mallory led most of the high climbing on the slopes (斜坡) of Everest. But when they attempted (尝试) to climb to the top of the mountain, they were beaten back by strong wind and s    6    .

Although the team was eventually forced to retreat (撤退), they were still successful in establishing possible routes for further attempts. Mallory himself tried twice more to climb to the top but died on the slopes. It was 75 years before his body was found on the mountain. A series of expeditions and unsuccessful attempts that used the first expedition’s original routes f    7     in the 1920s and 1930s. This was all before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary finally reached the top in 1953, making history on the planet’s highest peak.

Specializing (专门从事) in teaching English to senior high school students, Dong Yuhui has tutored about 500,000 students over the eight years since he joined New Oriental eight years ago.

After the “Double-Reduction” policy was introduced, he ________ his new job at Dongfang Zhenxuan as a host. “I was pretty sad knowing that I could no longer teach. It took a while for me to adjust to the new role,” he said. “Former (昔日的) teacher, current (现在的) ________” is how he describes himself on his personal Douyin account.

When Dong Yuhui first started to host livestreams (直播) selling all kinds of products on the company’s Douyin channel, he often only saw five viewers at a time.

“For a period of time, I felt quite ________ because I couldn’t see the point of making the effort. Those were the darkest hours and now the dawn has come. I am glad that I didn’t give up selling vegetables online,” said Dong, 29, who’s now famous on social media.

Over the weekend, videos of Dong introducing steaks in both Chinese and English went viral (走红) on social media as people began to ________ that the channel was very different from others. While talking about the quality of the steak, Dong also taught the viewers how to order steak in English at a restaurant.

________ learning some English, the viewers were also impressed with his views on different literary works including those of William Shakespeare. “I am in my comfort zone when talking about books. I can air my views about them non-stop for three days,” Dong said.

After China Daily posted the story of Dong’s ________ transitioning (转型) on its official WeChat account, Dong left a comment saying that“ as someone who had first started reading the paper while in university, it’s really unexpected to now see myself appearing in it.”

Pauline Vernon—Malaysia

My dad was teaching in Kota Bharu, Malaysia. When my mum and I flew out to visit him for three weeks, he had already organized our stay in great detail. On our first evening, we had a party on the beach. It was a beautiful empty beach: palm trees, white sand, the warm gentle waters of the South China Sea. I swam in the shallow water thinking “this is the life,” when a jellyfish (水母) swam between my legs. The sting, on both legs, was painful, and it was only then that I discovered that two people had died from jellyfish stings that year. I now understood why the beach was almost empty.

Sandy Henderson—the U. S. A.

I was camping in Yosemite National Park in California with a friend, when I awoke to the sound of screaming. I looked out of my tent and saw my friend trying to get out of his sleeping bag, with a giant black bear standing up behind him. I quickly climbed out and we both rushed in no particular direction. By pure chance, we passed a small cabin, made a dash for that, jumped inside and locked the door. Seconds later, the bear was scraping at the door trying to get into the cabin we were hiding inside of. We were so afraid that the door would be pushing open that we put all of our weight against it to keep it closed. After quite a long time, the bear lost interest and we were able to leave the shelter.

Harry Green—Denmark

I went to Denmark with my friend Dan’s family on a cycling holiday. I had been a little bit worried about what the weather was going to be like, but I needn’t have done so. It was lovely and sunny! What did end up being a problem, however, was how far we had to cycle every day. All of the members of my friend’s family were incredibly fit, and while I’m fairly sporty too, I struggled (奋力) to keep up, even though I’d had a great night’s sleep. My friend’s dad just kept saying, “Serves you right for spending so much time playing computer games!” He didn’t seem to understand how hard I was finding it. We were in a beautiful part of Denmark, but we never had the chance to stop and look at anywhere properly. And in the evenings, all I wanted to do was sleep!