Carrying a message of peace and friendship, the flame for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games arrived to a warm welcome in Beijing on Wednesday.

Witnessed by organizers, sports     1     (figure), performers and students, the flame housed in a red lantern     2     (draw) crowds of onlookers as it was accompanied by volunteers into a ceremony held at Beijing’s Olympic Tower. The flame arrived early on Wednesday after     3     (fly) from Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, where it was lit two days     4     (early).

Public exhibitions of the torch and the traditional national relay (接力) in the host country have been simplified for the Beijing Games due     5     COVID-19 precautionary measures. The relay will take place in three host areas and involve about 1,200 torchbearers,     6     scheduled for Feb 2 to Feb 4, with the route     7     (connect) landmarks, historical sites and major tourism attractions in Beijing and Zhangjiakou. The shortened torch relay with reduced crowds, will help ensure the health and     8     (safe) of all participants as well as that of local communities.

“As     9     iconic (偶像) cultural element of the Olympic Games, the torch relay plays a     10     (extreme) significant role in promoting the host’s international image while spreading the message of peace and friendship,” said Zhang Jiandong, a vice-mayor of Beijing.

4 . Elsa Desmond knows she is not going to win a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. But she is ________ as the first women’s luge (无舵雪橇) Olympian from Ireland. She was the 26th to ________ the line in the first run of the women’s race on Monday night, ________ than any of the other athletes, which did not ________ her. She celebrated with a large smile on her face.

Although she did not win in Beijing, she has already won some ________. She had been given many reasons why she could not compete: she is too short, she did not start ________ at a young age, and she could not balance a(n) ________ job with competing in a sport. The biggest difficulty simply might have been that Ireland did not have a luge organization. So, she ________ one herself; she had to ________.

And now, ________, she is a luge Olympian. “I’m a doctor in general surgery, I have all these really visible challenges, but I think everyone has worked as ________ as they can to be here.” She has delayed parts of her job to compete in the Olympics, but her ________ gave her the time off. And her co-workers are becoming big luge fans, extremely proud of her.

Desmond has ________ two demanding jobs: sliding a few months out of the year and living a life in medicine. There was a(n) ________ last season when she had to take important medical examinations in hotels in Germany where other sliders were staying. “I had to ________ signs on my door saying ‘Do not disturb, exam in ________’ in about six different languages.”

Desmond got the ________ of representing her country in Beijing, and being one of two people ________ Ireland’s flag during the opening ceremony on Friday. “I don’t think I can ________ words how excited I was to lead out the team. I really hope that I can make my country ________.”

The 2022 Winter Paralympics mascot (冬残奥会吉祥物) Shuey Rhon Rhon has won global recognition since it made its first public     1    (appear). Created by a group of artists from Jilin University of Arts in northeast China’s Jilin Province,     2     lovely mascot went through a designing process of 32 versions in more than 300 days.

Shuey Rhon Rhon features the shape of a traditional Chinese lantern, and symbolizes the spirit of hospitality (热情好客) and peace, as the first “Rhon” in Chinese means“to include”, and the second means “to melt, to warm”. In ancient times, lanterns     3    (use) for lighting in China.

The joyful-looking mascot sends a     4    (hope) message to the world and symbolizes the fighting spirit of the disabled athletes     5     casts light on humanity. Shuey, meaning snow, suggests promising harvest seasons, while the Ruyi pattern on top     6    (carry) the meaning of happiness.

“One major task was to bring the unique lantern to life, as most Olympic and Paralympic mascots were based     7     animal figures, not objects. “Guo said.” It was the     8    (difficult) and most confusing task in the designing process. ”

The artists decided     9    (decorate) it with paper cutting of pigeons (鸽子) after experimenting with other animal figures, and then realized that the shapes of two pigeon tails could outline a famous landmark of Beijing, the Temple of Heaven, thus     10     (add) more cultural and historical characteristics to the design.

Standing in the National Speed Skating Oval (国家速滑馆), China’s former speed skating world champion Wang Beixing had mixed emotions. She was jealous of those young athletes who had the chance     1     (skate) on the new rink (溜冰场). And she felt very glad as the testing program in the venue (活动场地),     2     (know) as the “Ice Ribbon”, was going as smoothly as the athletes skated on the gleaming ice.

Following the     3     (success) testing program on snow in February, the “Experience Beijing” ice sports testing series for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics,     4     (consist) of five Olympic events and two para events, got underway     5     April 1 and April 10in five different competition venues, including the National Speed Skating Oval     6     the 36-year-old Wang Beixing works as the stadium’s sports director.

“The testing program in the ‘Ice Ribbon’ had three priorities. First is the ice. We need to make sure the ice will be of perfect quality during the Winter Olympics, Wang said. “The second would be the competition facilities including the safety cushions, training     7     (equip) and so on, which     8     (be) mostly relevant to the athletes, and we want feedback from them, “Thirdly, we also need to drill on the operation teams,” she said. “    9     (certain), I feel very glad because the competition went well and I am satisfied with     10     result of the rehearsals.”

9 . Directions, luggage delivery, tasty food. Those are some of the things we’ve seen robots offering at the media center of Beijing Winter Olympics. And most of the robots we’ve seen here aren’t made to look human. Instead, they present a wide range of looks.

Two of the most advanced robots regularly operate in crowded space. One greets visitors, answers questions and offers to guide people through the crowds. Another one cleans the carpeted hallways of the main press center. It speaks to passersby in a woman’s voice. It seems to be speaking English. But we can make it out well, because it also plays joyful music while its two front brushes are clearing dust and dirt like a street-sweeper.

Don’t assume these robots work all hours just because they’re robots. They have carefully managed schedules. For example, the snack robots just go around the media center for about 15 minutes every hour—usually only between noon and 17:00.

Another kind of robots helps out with logistics(物流) at the media center. These robots can carry up to 300 kilograms of goods, move freely along the relatively empty halls and automatically(自动地) recharge themselves. They send unique codes through text messages to the receivers when the delivery has arrived. Then they can pick up the goods with the codes.

There are even COVID-fighting robots, which move around pre-programmed areas spreading chemicals. Food ordering, making and serving in the dining room are fully automatic too. Reporters from around the world can enjoy various food options here.

In short, robots play an outstanding role in the Beijing Winter Olympics. But the most important goal is to reduce direct contact(接触) between people.

China kicked off the 2022 Winter Olympics with a visually stunning opening ceremony.

    1     a lively, snowflake-themed show that emphasized youth and “ordinary people,” the Games were declared officially open, prompting a burst of fireworks over the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in central Beijing. The final step was to deliver the ceremonial flame, a moment that often     2     (carry) symbolic weight based in part on who is selected for the task. Chinese officials chose two athletes, one of     3     was Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur cross-country skiier from Xinjiang.

The pair placed the flame inside a giant snowflake, a closely watched moment with symbolic weight in more ways than     4     .

With temperatures appropriately below freezing in the Chinese capital, the ceremony began with an opening sequence     5     (focus) on youth and spring. The Olympics started on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, China’s     6     (big) holiday, also known as Spring Festival.

The ceremony overall was a scaled-down affair compared with past years, and drives by both the IOC and the Chinese government     7     (promote) sustainability and rein in excess.

Though it began and ended with fireworks, there were only about 10 percent as many as the last time Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008. Renowned Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who directed that ceremony     8     this one, told Chinese state media that the performers in this year’s show would be “ordinary people.”

In contrast to the epic 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing,     9     ran for about four hours, this year’s grand display     10     (simplify) and shortened to less than 100 minutes because of the pandemic and the cold weather, according to Xinhua.

Only 3,000 performers took part, compared with 15,000 in 2008, Xinhua said.