Guan Yu, an ancient general known for his loyalty and bravery in battles, has been widely worshipped (敬奉). The Temple of Guan Yu in Xiezhou, North China’s Shanxi Province, is the     1    (large) one among countless temples worshipping the general across the country and also a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level.

In 2020, a research institute     2     studied the culture behind this folk belief in Guan Yu was founded in Xiezhou, and eight graduate students were hired. This summer, researchers of     3     institute are compiling chronicles (编年史) for the temple, and studying the fine elements of traditional culture contained in the temple.

Across the country, historical and cultural heritage sites are protected and studied to discover and learn about traditional Chinese culture, amid the nation’s efforts     4    (build) a modern Chinese civilization.     5     total, there are 5,058 major historical and cultural sites protected at the national level. “    6    (witness) the long history and splendid culture of the Chinese nation in the past years, the historical and cultural sites offer     7    (we) rich ‘spiritual nutrients’ in the midst of building a modern Chinese civilization,” said Gao Jiangtao, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In Shanxi, with local protection work     8    (trouble) due to understaffing, a project was started in 2022 to enroll a total of 600 students for a span of five years,     9    (specific) for 117 localities across the province in need of protection professionals. These students will     10    (offer) general education on relics protection during college.

On May 15, 2021, the Tianwen-1 probe,     1     (consist) of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, touched down at its pre-selected landing area in Utopia Planitia, a vast Martian plain, marking the first time China     2     (land) a probe on the planet. The orbiter and rover have completed the targeted scientific exploration missions and have acquired 1,480 GB     3     raw scientific data.

Chinese researchers have conducted a     4     (comprehend) study of typical landforms at the landing area. Through camera images and spectral data, researchers found water-bearing minerals in plate-like hard crust rocks near the landing area,     5     proved that there had been a lot of liquid water activities in the landing area since 1 billion years ago.

“    6     liquid water activity has been found, we believe that there may have been some suitable climate conditions for the origin of life or the     7     (exist) of such conditions in the past billion years on Mars,” Liu Yang, a researcher at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), told CCTV.

These new results strongly support the assumption     8     there was once an ocean on Mars’ Utopia Planitia and also     9     (rich) human scientific understanding of the geological evolution and environmental changes on Mars.

“The fact that the Tianwen-1 gives Chinese scientists first-hand data means that we can most fundamentally analyze our scientific story     10     (base) on the raw data,” said Pan Yongxin, Tianwen-1 mission science applications chief scientist.

On an early August morning, craftsman Zhang Xi drove his car quickly along a winding mountain road in Longquan, Zhejiang province,    1    (hope) to reach his destination—a century-old kiln (窑) —as soon as possible,    2    hundreds of pieces of pottery (陶器) that had been given their final celadon glaze (青釉) were finally ready.

The 51-year-old craftsman     3     (use) the old kiln, which is located on a mountain near Xitou village, for many years. Every time he removes his     4     (create) from the kiln, seeing them in their finished celadon color remains as exciting and nerve-jangling as ever.

“It’s like opening blind boxes. The same formula of glaze     5     (apply) to different vases can look     6     (total) different on each one,” says Zhang.

Their colors usually fall in the spectrum (色谱) between lavender gray and plum green. However, sometimes they end up being brown or yellow. All these colors depend on temperature changes during the two-day firing,     7     process described by local craftsmen     8     “a song of clay and fire”. The     9    (tradition) firing technique of Longquan celadon pottery, which dates back further than 1,600 years,     10    (include) on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List in 2009.

Cheering, dancing and singing, local people and tourists gathered around the fire during the Torch Festival of the Yi People in Bijie’s Hezhang county, Guizhou, on Aug 12. The festival was listed     1    a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Though there are many     2    (describe) of the origin of the festival, it mostly relates to the natural worship of fire. For the early Yi people who lived in high-altitude-mountainous-areas, fire     3    (be) essential to light, warm, and cook food. There was     4    old practice: Before bringing animal meat into the home, a small fire must first be lit outside the door and the meat should     5    (smoke) on the fire to drive away filth. That’s     6    the Yi people have a proverb that says, “Everything you eat must ‘see’ fire.” In farming, they used to light     7    (pile) of branches and leaves and bury them in the ground later,     8    (use) them to fertilize the land.

The Yi people used to celebrate the festival as a way to pray for a good harvest and to drive away evil from their home and farmland. Today, it has become a     9    (society) event, through     10    the Yi people not only share their joy and thanks for their good life, but also get more people to understand their lifestyle and traditions.

Do you love American country music? It is     1     (real) popular not only in America but also all over the world.     2     you love American country music, come to Nashville. It’s the home of American country music.

Nashville is    3     capital city of Tennessee. In Nashville, you don’t have to go to big auditoriums(音乐厅)     4     (enjoy ) country music. You can always hear the beautiful and sweet country music in the open-air restaurants or on the streets. All the singers are young     5     they play their guitars while they sing. The song they sing are very     6     (touch). If you listen to them with your heart, you can feel they are singing with their souls rather than with their voices.

When you visit Nashville, you can find shops     7     (sell) music records and tapes everywhere. Many records     8     (make) by famous singers and they are sent to many countries all over the world.

The country songs most of the singers sing come from the rural areas in the southern United States. The songs often describe those day-to day situations and the     9     (feeling) of the country people. Singers often sing country songs     10     praise of heroism and true love.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15 young people lay comfortably on colorful carpets and throw pillows arranged in    1    circle. Their eyes were closed, some with their legs spread forward and    2    curled up, looking as if they were asleep.

Kong Yi sat cross-legged before them, using a special stick to hit lightly metal bowls in front of her, making a sound    3    reverberated(回荡)long inside the quiet room. Following Kong’s    4    (instruction), they went in for a two-hour sound treating and meditation(冥想)course. Listening to the slowly disappearing sounds of age-old musical instruments such as singing bowls and gongs, the members reached a deeper center and a semi-conscious(半意识)state.

After, they were guided into supposing that they    5    (talk) to a wise man dressed in white, during which they could ask questions and get answers from the wise man in half an hour. In the final part, they were pulled    6    (share) their heart conversations with other members. “In that class, many people asked the meaning of life in the end    7    everyone gave different answers from the wise man —     8    (actual) themselves, ” said Kong, who runs a work room offering treating courses connected with art forms    9    painting, music and dance.

Such spiritual, meditative experiences that can lower stress and worry have become the    10    (late) choice for the country’s stressed-out younger generation looking for relaxation and heart exploration.

Nature inspired us to figure out ways to solve the problems we faced. Birds inspired us to fly, beavers gave us ideas on how to build dams (大坝) and even tiny white ants demonstrated building ideas that we could use. By means of     1    (study) the workings of wildlife, we've come up     2     some pretty brilliant inventions. Here' re some examples to inspire students to explore their own ideas.

Bats (蝙蝠) can use     3    (they) mouths and ears to identify high-frequency sound waves, allowing them to avoid barriers and catch insects in the air. They do this by making sounds     4     can be reflected off a surface in a process     5    (call) echolocation. It is no big surprise that researchers are working on ways that poor-sighted people can use a system like echolocation.

Spider (蜘蛛) silk is one of the strongest materials in nature, believed to be five times     6    (strong) than steel. But unlike steel, spider silk is both flexible     7     lightweight. Scientists recently created a new type of medical tape based on the features of spider silk.

Even plants can inspire invention.     8     electrical engineer named George de Mestral noticed that burrs from burdockplants (牛蒡植物的芒刺) stuck fast to his unfortunate hunting dog. From that bit of inspiration, he invented Velcro, one of the most     9    (wide) used fastening systems in human history.

Students should     10    (encourage) to study the characteristics of a plant or animal and see what inventions or ideas they can design.

Henry dreamed of becoming a writer. In order to realize his dream, he read many books and often practiced     1     (write). He wrote his first story     2     he was ten. After his parents read     3    , they told him that he really had a gift for writing. Henry     4     (encourage) a lot after hearing that. He wrote many stories in the     5     (follow) years. People around him all told him that he     6     (become) a writer one day. However, it was not easy.

Henry finished his first novel     7     the age of 20. However, no publishers were interested in it. Henry was     8     (great) discouraged (使……泄气). He felt sad and doubted his ability. But it didn’t last long. Several days later, he picked up his mind and decided     9     (keep) writing.

It was a story he read that encouraged him. It was about a father and a son who wanted to build a bridge. Nobody at that time considered it possible. Although the father and the son did have great difficulty     10     (build) the bridge, they made it at last.

Henry finally kept on writing. He knew there was hope as long as he didn’t give up.