The Starry Night was painted by Vincent van Gogh during his stay at a home for the mentally ill. Besides the clouds, he also painted the     1     circles of white and yellow     2     across the sky. His unusual use of colour has     3     experts to think that his mental illness may have affected his sense of sight. Unfortunately, Van Gogh’s unique paintings weren’t very popular during his life time.

The Scream shows a thin     4     with an expression of fear—his mouth is wide open and     5     out a powerful scream. Munch said what     6     him was his experience of walking down the road with two friends when the sun     7    .

The Empire of Light shows a beautiful house lit by lights from inside, surrounded by the     8     of night. It seems like quite a mysterious scene and has produced different     9     in viewers. Magritte’s paintings were visual experiments as he tried to play with     10    .

Li Daiyu and her cousin Liu Qian went to Canada to visit their c    1     in Halifax on the Atlantic coast. Rather than travel b    2     commercial airline all the way, they decided to f    3     to Vancouver and then take the train. For both of them, the thought of crossing the whole c    4     by rail was exciting.

B    5     starting out, they spent a couple of days in Vancouver, seeing the sights. During their first day, as is typical of Vancouver, it r    6    . Despite the weather they were able to take a boat ride out into the bay, and later v    7     an Island that had wonderful shops selling crafts and antiques. The next day was clear and mild, and they were p    8     to see the beautiful mountains looking out over the city. Later they took a pleasant h    9     in a forest just a short d    10     away.

Yuan Longping, known as the “father of hybridrice”, is one of China’s most famous scientists, Yet, he considers himself a farmer because he continually works the land in his research. Indeed, his slim but strong body is just like that of miliions of Chinese farmers, to whom he has     1     his life.

Yuan Longping was born in 1930 in Beijing. His parents wanted him to pursue a career in science or medicine. However, what concerned him most was that farmers often had poor harvests and somnetimes even had a serious    2     of food to eat. To tackle this     3     , he chose to study agriculture and received aneducationat Seuthwest Agricultural College in Chomgqing.

After     4    in 1953, he worked as a researcher. Yuan Longping realised that larger fields were not the solution. Instead, farmers needed to     5     yields in the fields they had. How this could be done was a challenging question at the time.Yuan was     6    that the answer could be found in the creation of hybrid rice. A hybrid is a cross between two or more varieties of a species One characteristic of hybrids is that they usually attain a higher yield than    7    crops.

However, whether it was possible to develop a hybrid of self-pollinating plants such as rice was a matter of great debate.The common     8    then was that it could not be done. Through intense effort, Yuan    9    enormous technical difficulties to develop the first hybrid rice that codld be used for farming in 1974. This hybrid enabled farmers to expand their    10    greatly

Living Legends

In the world of sports, Lang Ping and Michael Jordan stand out as living legends.

Lang Ping, a celebrated athlete, made a remarkable transition to a renowned c    1    . Her leadership guided the China w    2     volleyball team to numerous world championships and Olympic medals. During the p    3     for the 2015 World Cup, adversity struck as her team faced injuries and challenges. Her unwavering determination and b    4     in her young players turned them into world c    5     in just two weeks. In 2016, Lang Ping led her team to Olympic gold in Brazil.

Michael Jordan, known as “A    6     Jordan,” redefined basketball with his graceful m    7     . Beyond his impressive skills, it was his m    8     strenghth that set him apart. Jordan’s ability to find victory in the final seconds of games became legendary. He attributed his success to learning from failures, famously saying, “I can accept f    9    ; everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” Jordan’s commitment extended beyond the court, evident in the lasting impact of the Boys and Girls Club, which he started in Chicago in 1996, providing s    10     for countless young people.

These two legends, in different sports and on different continents, share a common thread of perseverance, determination, and a commitment to inspiring the next generation.

This year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Tu Youyou (co-winner),     1     research led to the     2     of artemisinin, a     3     new treatment for malaria. Artemisinin has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and has led to improved health for millions of people.

Personally, I have     4     quite a lot from technological advances. I found my     5     as an AI designer     6     a social media network. My health monitor, which I wear all the time, has also helped me get into the best shape of my life. Of course, when new technology changes the way we live, it can be a scary     7    . Nevertheless, I will always look on the     8     side of change and accept it rather than resist it.

Francis Galton, born in 1822, was a     9     man. He was one of the first men to discover that every human being has a different set of fingerprints. He also invented the word association test and wrote a book on heredity that changed the ideas of a generation. But it is his genius for     10     life’s everyday problems that makes him endearing.