A total of 29 provincial regions have started or made plans to reform the national college entrance exam or gaokao,     1     (offer) more options to students taking the critical test, the Ministry of Education said on September 15.

Wang Hui, director of the ministry’s Department of College Students Affairs, said 14 provincial regions have already implemented(实施) gaokao reforms. Seven regions will     2     (official) implement them in 2024, while eight others will do so in 2025.

Before the reforms, high school students     3     (divide) into liberal arts(文科) and sciences categories, in     4     the former needed to answer questions related to politics, history and geography in the gaokao while     5     latter concentrated on physics, chemistry and biology. Now, students can choose any three of these six subjects     6     (test) on.

High school and university officials said they think the changes encourage students to learn more about the different subjects and     7     education officials have made progress in testing students based on their abilities.

To ensure fairness in the national college entrance exam, the ministry has cancelled the bonus-point system(加分政策) considerably for students     8     exceptional ability in the sciences and sports.

Athletes, winners of academic Olympiads, including in math, physics, chemistry and biology, winners of science     9     (competition), provincial model students and students who     10     (undertake) exceptional moral deeds, are no longer being granted extra points in the gaokao.

In 2014, 40.8 percent of the people in the village of Bianjiang in Guizhou Province     1     (be) struggling with poverty. The village,     2     (surround) by deep mountains, was 80 kilometers from Yanhe County. It took villagers four hours     3     (make) a round trip to buy daily     4     (necessary) outside the village, given that no roads were     5     (access) except for a narrow pass along the cliff’s edge.

As poverty alleviation (扶贫) proceeds and the road system in the village improves, industries such as fish, chicken farming and growing mums have been developed. Now, a family of five can earn an average of 10,000 yuan ($1,435) a year through employment and industry bonuses. China     6     (rebuild) 108,000 schools since 2013 to improve compulsory education in poverty-stricken areas. Over 98 percent of villages have access to optical fiber communications and 4G technology.

Through the alleviation project, China, home to nearly one     7     (five) of the world’s population, has     8     (complete) got rid of extreme poverty,     9     (make) an important contribution     10     the cause of global poverty alleviation.