Imagine biting into a juicy burger that was produced without killing animals. Meat grown in a lab is turning that     1     (imagine) into a reality. Several companies are developing lab-grown beef, pork, poultry and seafood. And the field is attracting millions in funding.

If widely used. lab-grown meat, also     2     (call) clean meat, could reduce much of the cruel treatment of animals     3     are raised for food. It could also reduce the environmental costs of meat production     4     (great).

The meat     5     (produce) by first taking a muscle sample (样本) from an animal. Scientists collect stem cells from the sample and multiply (使繁殖) them to form more muscles. It’s said that one muscle sample from a cow can produce enough meat     6     (make) 80,000 hamburgers.

Many companies say they expect to have products for sale within the next few years. But clean meat will have to overcome     7     number of difficulties, such as reducing the cost and proving the safety     8     the meat before it appears on the market. The good news is that despite all these     9     (challenge), the clean meat companies are keeping trying. If they can succeed, clean meat could make our lifestyle     10     (green) and more ethical than before.

Dumpling is a Chinese cuisine. Actually, the tradition of eating dumplings during winter solstice has its     1     (originate) in early times.

It is said that dumplings were invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a     2     (fame) physician from the Eastern-Han Dynasty. He was once     3     official in Changsha.When he returned home for private life, he saw people lived an     4    (extreme) hard life and that their ears were red with cold in the snowing winter. He was sad and let his follower cook     5     (drive) out the chill with mutton, hot pepper and some medicine. Zhang let him boil them first and cut them up, then wrap them with flour. After     6     (boil) them, he gave the medicinal food to the people there on the day of the winter solstice. Zhang Zhongjing called it “cold dispelling dumpling soup”. By eating this kind of ear-like food, people’s ears     7     (cure).

Thereafter, every winter solstice Zhang Zhongjing made “cold dispelling dumpling soup” in order to prevent and cure ailments     8     (cause) by the cold. Then there became a saying that     9     you eat dumplings during the winter solstice, then you won’t freeze your ears off.

Afterwards, Zhang Zhongjing died on the day of winter solstice.     10     honor of him, every household makes dumplings every year on the day of the winter solstice.

Jennifer, a teenage girl, fainted at school after    1    (skip) meals. She    2    (send) to hospital immediately for treatment due to dangerously low blood sugar levels.    3     (fortunate), she is now out of danger. Her doctor says she will make a full     4    (recover) in a day or two. 

Her classmates hope to see her back at school soon. They say that she    5    (struggle) with eating problems for a long time. “Jennifer thought dieting would be a simple way    6    (reach) her target weight,” a friend reported. 

    7    is often the case with teenagers, they would adopt    8    (proper) weight-loss behaviours under peer pressure despite (尽管) health experts repeated warnings    9    such extreme methods. 

Experts maintain it’s important for teenagers to have    10    healthy balanced diet since they are still growing and their bodies need a lot of nutrition to function well. Teenagers should keep regular hours and get plenty of exercise to get into shape.

“Food is the first necessity of the people,” said historian Sima Qian of the Western Han dynasty. Today, these words still ring true. The Chinese respect and passion for food are     1     (deep) rooted in the cultural landscape.

In Zhengzhou, the main city of Henan Province, thick noodles are braised(炖)in a rich meat soup     2     is made mainly with mutton. According to legend, Li Shimin,     3     second emperor of the Tang dynasty, was ill and tired while     4     (escape) from his enemies. A poor farmer’s wife cooked him a bowl of noodles     5     the only meat she had — some elk(麋鹿)meat.     6     (support) by the hot meal, he recovered quickly, won the battle and established himself as an emperor.

In Shanxi, sliced noodles, or daoxiao mian, is a typical one. In the 13th century, the Mongolians     7     (establish) the Yuan dynasty. The Han people lived under strict rules, including the rules about the ownership of     8     (knife). Several families shared only one knife and noodle making became almost     9     (possible). One day, a smart cook decided to use a small piece of metal to slice the dough directly into the pot, so daoxiao mian     10     (make).

In our class Mayank is the    1     (noisy)—of all boys. His voice is like that of a bull frog, but the volume is louder. In this noisy bunch is a girl who hardly ever opens her mouth and her name is Padma. The boy who    2     (sit) next to me is such a gentle and soft creature.

Then there is Disha, our class monitor. She sits right in front of the teacher’s table. She is such a model student    3    all the teachers love her. We all love her because she does not boss us around. All she does is to make sure that the    4     (teacher) have sufficient chalk to write on the board and that the classroom is clean.

Right at the back of the class sits our sleepy-head. Manish seems to need more sleep than others. He catches cat-naps    5    between lessons. The funny thing is that he can fall asleep almost    6     (instant).     7    moment the teacher leaves after a lesson, Manish’s snores (鼾声) start up and we know he is at it again.

Every class has a clown. Our class has Jimmy. He is always up to some prank or the other, putting tails on the boys’ pants, frogs in the girls’ desks and powdered chalk on the teacher’s chair. So when we hear a girl scream or see men-teachers    8     (walk) around with chalk on the seat of their pants, we know that Jimmy has     9     (strike)again.

The other classmates too have their own unique     10     (personal). All in all, we are a group of young children who perhaps are a bit noisy at times, but on the whole, are well-behaved and pleasant to be with.

Katie Booser is a third-grade teacher in California, USA. Every day she sings encouraging sentences with her    1     (student) such as “I believe in myself”, “I am strong”, and “I am smart”. This is something she    2     (do) before every class and every test for the past 10 years. She    3     (believe) these sentences are important, because they set the tone (基调) for the whole day. She wants to give her students the tools for a(n)     4    (success) life, which she thinks starts with confidence (自信).

Booser was inspired (启发)     5     her teachers who taught her when she was at school.“As a student    6     (I), I was nervous, especially before a test or a big exam,” Booser says.

“What    7     (help) me a lot were those ‘I am’ sentences from my teachers.”

Booser does this routine (常规) both inside    8     outside the classroom, especially during The time of COVID-19. “It has really worked during this    9     (difficulty) time, with so much out of our control,” says Booser. “The sentences we sing are great in class, and they’re also helpful out in the real world.”

Booser considers being a teacher a gift. It gives her a chance     10     (make) a difference in the kids’ life that she hopes will in turn make a difference in the world.

Tea is an important part of Chinese traditions. Chinese tea has enjoyed a history of more than 4000 years. Green tea and black tea are familiar     1    many people, but there’s more. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)     2    (recent) released a document from Chinese experts classifying tea into six types. The basic tea types are black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong tea, dark tea and yellow tea, according to the new standard     3    (establish) by Anhui Agricultural University in Hefei, Anhui province.

The standardization work was led by Wan Xiaochun, professor and director of the State key laboratory of tea plant biology and utilization at the university. For the new standard, Wan     4    (cooperate) with 31 experts from other countries since 2008. Chen Chuan, a pioneer in tea science, put forward the classification standard as early as in 1979. It has been widely adopted     5    had not become an international standard until March, when the document was released, Wan said during     6     news conference.

    7     (process) fresh tea leaves is the most important step of tea production. The six tea types can be further processed or reprocessed to create     8    (product) such as scented tea (花茶) and instant tea, the ISO document said. The classification will allow consumers, world tea traders and governments     9    (have) a clear understanding of the different type of tea through their advanced techniques, which have a significant     10     (affect) on Chinese tea industry.

In Japan, Chen Jianyi was a household name. He devoted his life to cooking and adapting the hot and spicy Chinese dish for Japanese     1     (customer). His career and life even inspired a Japanese artist     2     (create) Cooking Master Boy, a household cartoon     3     became a common childhood memory among the Japanese born in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1952, Chen’s father moved to Japan. 6 years     4     (late), he opened the first Sichuan cuisine restaurant in Tokyo. Then he set up an “Institute of Chinese Cuisine”     5     the help of his wife. It has trained 15,000 chefs, making a great     6     (contribute) to the spread of Chinese food in Japan.

In 1990, Chen took over the Sichuan restaurant at     7     age of 34 after his father’s death. He improved their family’s signature dish (招牌菜) even further to give it a “spicy and     8     (slight) sweet taste.” In a cooking competition in 1993, he broke a record and     9     (claim) the title of “First Chef of Chinese Food” in Japan.

Sadly, chef Chen passed away in March, 2023. The news of his death made media headlines in Japan. It shows just how much the Japanese love the dish he cooked and Chinese cuisine, and how food culture has played an important role in promoting communication and     10     (culture) exchanges.

The Lantern Festival (also called Yuanxiao Festival) is     1     the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month. It is closely     2     (relate) to Spring Festival.

In the old days, people began     3     (prepare) for the Spring Festival about 20 days before. However, the Lantern Festival, everything    4    (return) to normal. Yuan literally means first, while Xiao refers to night. Yuanxiao is the first time     5     we see the full moon in the new year. It is    6    (tradition) a time for family reunion.

Today, the displaying of lanterns is still a big event on the 15th day of the first lunar month throughout China. People enjoy the brightly lit night. Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, for example,    7     (hold) a lantern fair each year in the Cultural Park. During the Lantern Festival, the park is literally an ocean of    8    (lantern)! Many new designs attract countless visitors. The most eye-catching lantern is the Dragon Pole. This is a lantern in    9    shape of a golden dragon, spiraling up a 27-meter -high pole, spewing fireworks from its mouth. It is quite an     10    (impress) sight!

Museums play a big role in our society. They are also     1     important classroom for primary and secondary school students. During holidays, groups of young museum guides     2     (see) everywhere in museums all over China. Since 2011, museums in the whole country     3     (carry) out thousands of public training activities for volunteer guides.

In July, 2021, I was chosen     4     (be) a volunteer guide in the museun of my city.     5     it was my first time to serve there, I didn’t know what to do. Luckily, the teachers there gave many interesting training classes, including “Public Places and Manners”, “Red History and Red Culture” and so on. I was deeply touched by the stories of     6     (pioneer) like Qu Qiubai and Zhang Tailei. They had risked     7     (lose) their lives to create a new China.

In the following month, I guided hundreds of tourists and did my job     8     (good). This experience had a great intluence     9     me. I know more about my hometown and the meaning of life. I feel     10     (pride) of being a volunteer guide to help more people learn about Changzhou.