Earlier this year, the Ugandan Ministry of Education introduced the Chinese language as a subject in secondary schools to some 60, 000 students and urged them     1     (acquire) the language in the next four years. Uganda is not alone in adding the Chinese language     2     the school curriculum. Other African countries, including Tanzania, South Africa and Cameroon, have already made the similar     3     (decide) .

Besides having six Confucius Institutes, South Africa has rolled out Chinese language courses at 45 primary and secondary schools. More and more young people in this country are     4     (gradual) turning to the language as a way of     5     (find) their dream jobs in China.

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian said that Beijing had provided technical and financial support to improve Chinese language teaching in the country. “Over the past 16 years, China and South Africa     6     (conduct) all-round cooperation (合作) in such fields as inter-school exchanges, language teaching and academic research and achieved     7     (amaze) outcomes,” Lin said. Sept. 17 has been chosen as South African Chinese Language Day     8     is to be observed annually.

Angie Motshekga, South Africa’s minister for basic education, said that teaching the Chinese language has been at the heart of education and cultural exchanges between Pretoria and Beijing     9     that language is the key to promoting understanding and friendship between the two     10     (people).

In recent years, shared vegetable plots (地块) have been appearing in Shanghai’s suburban districts as more white-collar workers turn to farming to relax and escape the pressures of city life.

Among these individuals     1    (be) Yang Rui, who, on weekends, drives his family from their home in downtown to the All-Happy City,     2     shared ecological farm in Minhang, where he has rented a 20-square-meter vegetable plot for 1,600 yuan per year. The family tends carrots, lettuce and other vegetables they have planted. When they aren’t around during the week,     3    (professional) take over the work and perform whatever chores     4    (need).

This farm has about 200 members, some of     5     even raise chickens and ducks that wander in the fields.

    6    (found) by Chen Yougui in October, the shared farm has an area of 13.33 hectares     7     comes with shared vegetable plots and leisure areas. According to Chen, the monitoring system     8    (cover) the entire farmland allows members to view their vegetables and fields remotely through their phones. The farm also uses technology to ensure that the chickens and ducks raised     9     customers don’t go missing or end up in someone else’s plot — each animal comes with its own QR code.

Chen notes that many of his customers are parents who rent plots     10    (primary) to teach their kids about science and nature and how farming works.

Sichuan province is the birthplace of many dishes that are well-received globally. Sichuan food, originating    1     the Southwestern region of China, is the most widely served cuísine in China itself. The dishes of Sichuan cuisine    2    (know) for their deep and rich flavours, especially the taste of Sichuan pepper,     3    is rare in other regional cuisines.

Sichuan cuisine holds a reputation for its    4    (vary) of seasonings used, as each dish     5    (require) different cooking methods. As the saying goes, “one dish with one flavor, with one hundred dishes come hundred flavors.” Sichuan food is most well-known for    6    (it) hot and spicy flavor, though it may sport sweet and sour flavors too. The most    7    (common) used spices you can find in most households and eateries are “The Five Fragrances(香料)” which consist of fennel, pepper, and so on.

Sichuan cuisine cannot do without Sichuan pepper, black pepper, chili, broad bean chili paste, shallots, ginger, and garlic. These are must-have seasonings that bring out the intense flavors the     8    (dish) are famous for. The other fresh produce    9    (use) ranges widely from pork to beef, fish, vegetables,     10    even tofu.

I spent many years of my life pretending(假装). I told myself that I was happy with my job, although I knew from the first day that it wasn’t fit for me. I pretended to agree     1     everyone around me to avoid the risk of disagreement. After spending so much time hiding my true self, I     2    (final) felt that I’d had enough of pretending.

I made a decision     3     (stop) pretending. It’s easier to pretend than to be truly honest with ourselves,     4     it comes with a heavy price. If I pretend my job is satisfying, I probably won’t make the necessary changes to create a new job     5     will bring pleasure to my life. If I pretend to be happy in a relationship when my true     6     (feeling) clearly say something else, how can I improve my relationship?

These days, I’m always saying what’s true for me. When I     7    (ask) to work on a new project, I said that I wasn’t good at it because I had little experience with it. In the past, I always     8    (hide) that fact and felt bad about it for days or even weeks. During parties, I admit(承认)that I hate my job and can’t wait     9     (leave). In the past, I pretended I liked it just to fit in with everyone else.

Pretending is costly. It is not money we give away but peace of mind and     10     (happy). 1 stopped pretending from then on.

Whenever celebrations or major events take place, people in Wenxi county, North China’s Shanxi province, roll out huamo, flour and flower-shaped buns(馍)that can date back     1     the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)     2     (dynasty), to entertain guests for promising outcomes in the future.

“I grew up     3     (watch)my grandmother and mother make the flower-shaped buns,     4     I learned to make huamo after watching them. The buns are always     5     (close)connected to local folk culture, ” says Zhi Jiankang, a provincial inheritor (传承人)of the skill that was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Wenxi huamo has evolved into four categories with more than 200 varieties over the years.     6     (difference)from traditional dough(面团) modeling that is mostly just for artistic appreciation, huamo can     7     (eat)by guests after serving the symbolic purpose.

In 2006, Zhi filmed a 70-year-old village woman making the traditional food. The 15-minute film,     8     was recorded by Zhi with the purpose of introducing Wenxi huamo, created a national sensation. From that moment on, huamo made its presence     9     (feel)across the country and beyond.

So far, there     10     (be)two large huamo enterprises and 12 cooperatives in Wenxi, with more than 1, 000 locals working for them. The annual output value has reached 10 million yuan.

This is a true story about something that happened to me last summer. I was spending the holiday    1    (happy) with my family at a beach in the south of England. I was very    2    (interest) in exploring the local area, so one morning I    3    (wake) up early and set off along the quiet road. In my eagerness to discover the local area, I forgot     4    ( tell ) my parents where I was going.

It was a hot, sunny morning and I soon felt thirsty, but I was determined to challenge    5    (me) by walking to the highest point. I’m a good walker and so I pushed my way up the hill, although it was quite hard work. At the top, I saw many birds    6     (fly) around their nests(鸟巢). Feeling curious, I left the road and moved towards the nests. Aha, there were some baby birds in the nest. “If I take     7     picture of the baby birds, will I be attacked?” With     8    (butterfly) in my stomach, I held my camera up and pointed it at the birds.

Just then, one of the birds made a loud noise. I was so surprised     9    I dropped my camera! I didn’t have time to worry     10    it, though. To protect their nests, the birds started to fly at me one by one to make me go away. I rushed back down the hill. Near the bottom of the hill, I heard a car engine. It was my mum’s car! I jumped in and shut the door, looking at her in panic.   “Go! Go! Go!” I shouted. I spent the rest of the summer saving up for a new camera.

A video of a 66-year-old man called Erjiu, has gone viral on Chinese social media after his nephew Tang Hao shared the man’s brief but heartwarming life story on short-video platform Bilibili on Monday.

In the video, Erjiu is shown as a “young genius” who always performed well     1    (academic) at school during childhood. However, while he was a teenager, a high fever was misdiagnosed (误诊) and he     2     (give) the wrong medicine,     3     resulted in Erjiu losing the use of his left leg.

Erjiu, who     4     (lie) in bed in low spirits afterward, then learned carpentry by watching a carpenter     5    (go) about woodworking tasks for three days, and he later did woodworking in the village and the town.

According to Tang, it would be inaccurate to merely define Erjiu     6    a carpenter, since he demonstrated his broader     7     (skill) by fixing an electrical socket patch panel, a gas stove and a toy car. He also makes erhu — a traditional Chinese musical instrument — with wood, using fishing line as strings     8     snakeskin as covering.

The man, who uses a cane due to a longtime     9     (disable), is portrayed as a common hero who never bows to life’s difficulties, but struggles instead     10    (lead) a full and meaningful village life.

People say that the real culture of Beijing exists     1     the culture of hutong and siheyuan. The hutongs     2     (locate) in Beijing are formed by lanes of siheyuan, which is a type of residence in     3     houses are purposely built to form squares or rectangles.

In the mid 20th century, several hutongs in Beijing were torn down to pave the way for the     4     (develop) of the city. However, since then, thanks to efforts designed to safeguard this     5     (significance) aspect of the Chinese architectural culture, many hutongs     6     (preserve).

Because of the interlacement (交织) of the lanes, every house is connected to the other, making     7     easy for local people to keep in touch with their neighbors.     8    , once one enters any of them, one can feel the deep and warm relationships among people, which is rarely found in this modern world.

Gossiping in these lanes     9     (be) a common scene as it is the main way for people     10     (strong) their relationship. Where there is such a lane, there is a story.

In Jeff Kinney’s book Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Greg Heffley’s mother suggests a family road trip. Family road trips are     1     (normal) full of fun, right? But this family is not a normal one. The family is full of good hopes when the trip starts,     2     things don’t go as they wish. They spend their first night at a terrible hotel sleeping on the floor. The days go on     3     more bad luck. They spend a sunny day at a water park but their car keys and wallets     4     (lose) there. The trip continues and several more     5     (accident) happen. Along the way, however, the family finds time     6     (enjoy) themselves.

As one of the     7     (great) writers in the world, Kinney is doing really well in telling stories about people     8     may appear in our real life. We may find that some of the Heffley family life is the same as some part of our own family.

I strongly suggest this book to young readers. It’s really interesting and     9     (include) family fun and lots of humor. I found myself always     10     (laugh) while reading it.

Many factors have made China’s ancient civilization continue all the way through into modern times, one of     1     has been the Chinese writing system.

Several thousand years ago, the Chinese language     2     (base) on pictures. People in ancient times carved symbols on animal bones and shells.     3     was not until the Shang Dynasty that the symbols developed into a fairly good writing system. Over the years that followed, people lived apart from each other geographically,     4    (contribute) to a wide variety of dialects and characters. Therefore, the system developed into different forms. However, Emperor Qinshihuang, who united the seven states into one country, demanded that the writing system     5    (unify). It was really an important move     6     that meant people could communicate with each other wherever they lived. Besides, thanks to it, people in modern times can read classic works     7     (write) in Chinese.

The Chinese have a high regard     8     the writing system, which serves as a great way to connect China’s present with its past. As China is playing an     9     (increase) important role in the world at present, many foreign students are learning this amazing language for the     10     (appreciate) of its culture.