How can I describe the wonder I felt the first time I saw my favorite painting, George Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte? I     1    (admire) the work for years in art books, but I had never thought I would see the actual painting,     2     was housed far from where I lived.

The first thing that struck me as I     3    (enter) the room where the painting was displayed was the size of the work. It was huge! It covered a large part of     4     even larger wall. The painting was painted with dots, a technique     5    (call) pointillism. To create such a huge painting     6    (use) this technique seemed an almost impossible task. Seurat had done it, though, and had made it look easy!

What’s more impressive, however, was the     7    (beautiful) of the painting. Viewed from a distance, the colors looked soft and gentle, describing the happy and     8    (peace) mood of a summer day in the park.

When I approached the painting, though, its colors exploded into many more colors, showing the artist’s skill in combining colors     9    (create) a mood. Even the parts of the painting that appeared white from a distance were lively and had many different colors when viewed up close. I sat and stared     10     the painting in wonder for a good part of the afternoon.

At the beginning of last year I planned to travel to my hometown of Chongqing from Beijing,     1     I live and work, as often as possible. That plan was one of my New Year’s resolutions (决心), because both my mother and 93-year-old grandmother have been ill    2     hospital.

I wanted to see the two    3     (woman) I love most in the world much more often. However, I only saw them twice, in June and October, because of the COVID-19. On Jan.21, two days before Wuhan, Hubei province, took a lockdown (封闭) for the COVID-19, I    4     (decide) to put off my trip. It was very hard    5     (make) the decision. I worried about my family. I    6     (bad) wanted to go home to see how they were.

Messages and video chats can lie. I worried about them,     7     I could not be with them. I thought I would like to spend the rest of     8     days with them if we can control the virus. But on    9     other hand, I was worried about bringing the virus back home. I also worried about my 8- month-old son    10     (take) an airplane because he refused to wear a face mask back then. Now, he is used to it, but I feel very sorry for a young generation that will have to get used to wearing face masks.

Over the past few months, game players in China     1     (become) attracted by a traveling frog. In the game, a cute little green frog     2     (raise) in a place where it eats, writes and sharpens its pencil. Players often check their phones to see     3     their pet frog has done. But the     4     (own) has no control over where his or her frog will go or when it leaves or returns. If the players are     5     (luck) enough, they might receive postcards showing where it has been, or they have no choice but     6     (wait). However, sometimes the frog may be     7     (complete) forgotten because players don’t have to spend a lot of energy     8     it. In     9     nutshell, after raising the frog, young people can understand the feeling of       10     (be) a parent.

“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said     1     I faced disappointment. “     2     you can carry on, one day something good will happen.”  

After graduating from college, I decided to try for a job in a radio station     3     work my way up to a sports announcer. I went to Chicago, knocked on the door of every station,     4     got turned down every time. 

In one studio, a kind lady advised me to go to the countryside and find a small station,     5     big stations couldn’t risk hiring an inexperienced person. I returned to my hometown,     6     I was turned down even when I applied for a job in a sports department of a store. It wasn’t long     7     I decided to try my luck again in another city. In Davenport, Iowa, the program director of a company got me beside a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game.  

    8     I began to work in the company, I’ve always thought of my mother’s words: “Keep on trying     9     some day you succeed. Something wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous failure.”     10     job I later have done, I always think about what my mother once taught me, which acts as my guideline in life.

More and more people are     1     (use) online shopping apps during the epidemic (疫情) and it has become an important way to buy vegetables. However, online shopping     2     (have) both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of these online shopping apps are     3     (clear). First of all, it is convenient to     4     (buy) vegetables online because we can surf the Internet at any     5     (time) anywhere. Besides, there is no doubt     6     discounts on the platform are also attractive. However, its disadvantages can’t be ignored. Staring at the screen is harmful to     7     (we) eyes. Worse still, we don’t have many opportunities to go out, which can also     8     (cause) us to exercise less.

As for me, there are more advantages than disadvantages when shopping online. Just click on the screen and I can     9     (quick) get the fresh vegetables, which brings great convenience to my life. I have been using this online shopping app for over two     10     (year). It is of great help to me.

feather fan                       round silk fan                                folding fan

Last year, I went to Italy as an exchange student. Before     1     (leave), I asked my mother what gifts I should choose for the teachers and the students there. Mom said that the Chinese fan was a good choice, because it is an     2     (importance) part of Chinese culture.

I went shopping and bought three kinds of Chinese fans.     3     first kind was the feather fan for the teachers,     4     was made of bird feathers. The fans I     5     (buy) for the girls were silk fans. They are also called “round silk fans”. The silk fans show paintings of beautiful women, birds or flowers. They are very popular     6     women of all ages. As for the boys, I     7     (pick) the folding fans from Rongchang, a place in the west of Chongqing. The folding     8     (fan) are made of paper and bamboo and there are great paintings and calligraphy (书法) on them.

At the welcoming party in Italy, my new teachers and classmates were all     9     (excite) to get the wonderful fans. And they were even more excited after learning about the stories and culture behind     10     (they).

Coffee has become a popular lifestyle choice for Chinese consumers(消费者) in cities. In a study recently     1     (publish) in a magazine, people in big cities consume 326 cups of coffee on an annual     2     (base). It is a level similar to that of developed countries.     3     number, much larger than 280 in Japan, was comparable to 329 in the United States and was smaller than South Korea’s 367.

The findings are surprising     4     the surface because it wasn’t like this until 1988. At that time, Nestle was the first company     5     (sell) coffee in China, with tastes entirely new to most Chinese. Since 1999, fresh-ground (现磨的) coffee     6     (offer) by Starbucks to local consumers who were by then getting     7     (increase) used to developing consumption lifestyles.

Nowadays, Luckin Coffee,       8     is the homegrown challenger of US coffee giant Starbucks, posted great growth for the year 2021. And     9     (it) shops in China have topped more than 6,500,     10     (pass) those of Starbucks.

Glen James was a homeless man. One day last year, he found     1     bag in the door of a shop while he was walking around a shopping centre     2     the city of Boston.

At first, he didn’t know     3     to do, but when he opened the bag, he saw there     4     (be) a wallet with $40,000 in it. So then he took it to the police. Many people thought that Mr. James did a     5     (wonder) thing. Later, a website     6     (decide) to raise money to help Mr. James because he had no home or job.     7     (final), they raised over $140,000 from people of different     8     (area) all over the world. Mr. James said, “I’m     9     (surprise) and so happy. This is going to change     10     (I) life.”

I’m going to play football tomorrow with him. I’m looking forward to it!

I became a senior high student today. In the morning, I     1     (wake) up earlier than usual and couldn’t wait to rush to my new school. On the campus, I was looking at the noticeboard when     2     white-haired man came up and talked to me,     3     turned out to be my class teacher, Mr Li. In the first class, the teacher asked us to introduce     4     (we) and told us we would find it more     5     (challenge) to learn well at senior high school. He also encouraged us to realize our potential by taking advantage of our classes, learning from the teachers and classmates     6     making use of our school     7     (facility). Besides, good study habits, useful skills and a positive attitude were     8     (equal) important. Hearing the teacher’s words, now I have confidence     9     my ability to do well at senior high school. In time, I found myself     10     (grow) into a well-rounded individual and make a difference to our society.

John Li is a Chinese high school student     1     came to the UK as part of a language exchange program.     2     (fortunate), he stayed with a lovely host family and went to school with their son, Daniel. The British school day     3     (last) from 9 am to 4 pm and students usually have to learn nine subjects including some     4     (option). The classes are different from     5     (that) in China because each teacher has their own classroom and the students move around for every lesson. He enjoyed most of     6     classes, but some of them were quite     7     (challenge), such as Geography and Biology. He     8     (eat) at the school canteen     9     after lunch he often played on the sports field with his friends. Besides, he joined some clubs     10       (meet) more British students.

In a word, he met some great people and learnt a lot about life in the UK.