5 . With the pandemic under control, China’s film industry is thriving. And it’s doing so without any help from Hollywood.

The country’s box office _________ $775 million over the lasts Lunar New Year weekend - its most ever for a single weekend. Much of that was due to Detective Chinatown 3, a heist comedy made in China, which grossed $424 million _________. That was the biggest opening of all time for a film in a _________ market. Avengers: Endgame only made $357 million during its opening weekend in the US in April 2019.

These massive figures prove the movie business in China is well on its way to _________. Since China began allowing foreign films into the country in 1994, films produced outside of China routinely accounted for more than 40% of the _________ of the Chinese box office. Hollywood is _________ for about a third of the highest-grossing films in China of all time.

But, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s homegrown film industry was growing and depending less and less on Hollywood movies.

As recently as 2017, films produced outside China _________ 46% of the country’s box office revenue. In 2020, with Hollywood all but shutdown, foreign films accounted for just 16% of Chinese box office revenue.

The first few months of 2021 suggest that _________ could continue. Most big-budget Hollywood films have been _________ until later this year - and yet China’s theaters clearly don’t need any of them to have their own success. China’s huge weekend at the box office came even though most of its theaters are still operating at 75% _________. Its impressive totals, _________, may have been helped by the country’s travel restrictions, which kept consumers at home over the holiday.

China first accepted Hollywood films into its country to boost its own film ambitions, hoping the rising _________ created by the US film industry’s funding and expertise could lift all boats. Chinese consumers responded in kind, turning out in droves for films from blockbuster Hollywood franchises like Fast & Furious.

In 2012, China expanded the quota of foreign films allowed into the country to 34 per year. That agreement expired in 2017, and still hasn’t been renewed. With relations between the US and China _________ - and China improving its own ability to produce blockbuster films - China is in no rush to codify a new pact.

If the recent box-office returns are any _________, Chinese audiences are increasingly becoming accustomed to a movie selection that is entirely Chinese. That China’s box office recovered from the pandemic is a _________ sign for the US when its theaters return to some semblance of normal operation later this year. But that China’s box office did this without Hollywood’s assistance is a far more ominous sign for the long term future of the US film industry.

How the Victorians Invented the “ Staycation ”

Holidays feel like an important refreshment after such a tough year. While international travel is possible, it’s not exactly easy, so many are choosing to stay closer to home, taking a “staycation ”. This year holidaymakers are discovering the     1     of the UK’s coast and the beauty of its landscapes.

Domestic tourism as we know it began in the 19th century when the idea of the holiday was just becoming     2     . Expanding railways and changing work practices meant people had more leisure time for travelling. International travel was becoming easier but wasn’t     3     to all, so the Victorians chose to spend this newfound “ free ” time in the UK.

This gave way to the     4     of hot new holiday destinations, mostly on the UK’s coast. Great British seaside towns, from Bournemouth to Brighton, appealed to people with     5     of fun, sea and clean air — many of the things that continue to attract people today.

The great summer holiday as we know it was designed by the Victorians. The 19th century saw the industrial     6     and the rise of industrial capitalism, where factories were booming and work structures were more clearly and severely defined and presented. This led to the emergence of administrative     7     , like clerks, and an emerging middle class.

There was more     8     working time, including shift work in factories and time off on Sundays. As a result, working-class people had leisure time to use, and by the 1890s some skilled workers had half days on Saturdays, leading to the birth of the “ weekend ” — though this was not     9     until much later in the 20th century.

In 1871 the Bank Holidays Act was passed. This appointed certain days as holidays on which banks closed, though, over the years, more businesses began observing these days off work. Before 1830, banks closed only on the 40 saints’ days of the year, though by 1834 this was just four days, including Christmas day. From 1871, any day could be     10     a bank holiday, not just saints’ days.

9 . Otters, are cute, this no one can deny. They have big eyes, short and flat noses and claws (爪子) like tiny hands. They look even cuter when they wear hats and throw food balls into their mouths as if they were bar snacks, like Takechiyo, a pet otter in Japan. Documenting Takechiyo’s funny behavior has earned his owner nearly 230,000 followers on Instagram, a photo-sharing app.

Takechiyo’s fame reflects a craze across east and South-East Asia for keeping the cute creatures as pets. Enthusiasts in Japan visit cafés where they pay to hug them; Indonesian owners parade their pets around on leads or go swimming with them, then share their pictures online. But these enjoyable photos mask a trade that is doing a lot of damage. Even before they became fashionable companions for humans, Asia’s wild otters faced plenty of threats. Their habitats are disappearing. They have long been hunted for their coats, or killed by farmers who wish to prevent them consuming fishes. The pet trade, which began picking up in the early 2000s but appeared to speed up a few years ago, has made things worse. The numbers of wild Asian small-clawed otters and smooth-coated otters, two species that are in highest demand, have declined by at least 30% in the three decades to 2019.

The international agreement that governs trade in wildlife, known as CITES, now prohibits cross-border trade in these species. But laws banning ownership are often poorly implemented, as in Thailand, or full of holes, as in Indonesia. And the otter-keeping craze has been dramatically improved by the internet, says Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University. In 2017 TRAFFIC, a British charity that monitors the wildlife trade, spent nearly five months looking at Facebook and other social-media sites in five South-East Asian countries. During that time, it found around 1,000 otters advertised for sale online.

In any case, otters do not even make particularly good pets. Every year the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, a charity in Indonesia’s capital, receives some ten otters from people who have struggled to look after them. Faizul Duha, the founder of an Indonesian otter-owners’ group, admits that his two animals emit a “very specific” (read: fishy) smell. They bite humans and chew on furniture. Their scream can be heard blocks away. And their cages need cleaning every two-to-three hours. That is how often they empty their bowels (肠道).

I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house     1     (consist) of a large square room and a small one where the servant slept. It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the farmhouse to be used occasionally. Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an arbor. The little porch     2       (hide) from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It was the favorite place of humming-birds and bees.

The Keller farmhouse,    3    the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called “Ivy Green”    4    the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful English ivy. Its old fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.

Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges, and,    5    (guide) by the sense of smell, would find the first violets and lilies. There, too, alter a fit of temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass.

What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot,    6    coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also were trailing clematis, drooping jasmine, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile petals resemble butterflies wings. But the roses—they were     7     (lovely) of all. Never have I found in the greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home. They used to hang in long festoons from our porch, filling the whole air with their fragrance; and in the early morning, washed in the dew they felt so soft, so pure, I     8    not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God’s garden.