Fame can sometimes come at unexpected moments, like an uninvited but welcome guest     1     (knock) at the door. This was the case for Wang Xiukun. In a live webinar (网络研讨会) organized by the United Nations’ Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth,     2     23-year-old graduate student, as the only Chinese youth representative (代表), introduced China’s anti-pandemic (抗疫) experience and achievements     3     young people throughout the world. She also shared her stories of volunteering.

When Wang was still in primary school,     4     (encourage) by her parents, she started taking part in community services such as helping clean the streets     5     (protect) the city’s image (形象) in her hometown.

And it was the contribution     6     she made to the city during the epidemic that made her stand out. Wang Xiukun, along with other four ambitious young people, organized “Caring for Children of Frontline Medical Staff” program and     7     (match) more than 1,500 volunteers from WHU with the families of 641 healthcare workers. The program provided     8     (profession) online lessons and psychological counseling (心理辅导) for teenagers aged from 5 to 18 years old.

While doing the online service, Wang     9     (full) realized that volunteering is not only about helping others, but it also greatly inspires her to overcome the difficulties and make a     10     (different).

Migrant worker Zhu Yanjun left a good impression on audiences when he won the silver medal on Chinese Poetry Conference,     1     show launched in 2016 to rekindle (使复苏) people’s appreciation for Chinese poetry.

The 50-year-old developed an interest     2     poetry when young. The first poem he came across is Li Shen’s Sympathy for the Peasants.     3     (read) the poem, he thought of his father     4     grandfather plowing (犁) the field in the hot sun and instantly grasped its meaning. Throughout his childhood, he enjoyed reading poetry while herding (牧放) the family’s sheep.

After completing junior high school, Zhu left his hometown, like many of his peers,     5     (seek) better opportunities in the cities. Every time he travels to a new city, he will look for a bookstore or a library close to the construction site     6     he’s working. He works during the day and goes to the bookstore or the library at night to transcribe (抄录) and recite poems. Rainy days are the     7     (good) for him, because there will be no work and he can spend the entire day surrounded by books.

Up to now, he     8     (memorize) about 1,000 poems. No matter how     9     (physical) tiring the day may have been, he feels a sense of     10     (relieve) when he can escape from this world into that of Chinese poetry.

Machines work well at a constant speed ― and the faster the better. Whether they are spinning cotton     1     dealing with numbers, regular, repetitive actions are what they excel at.

Increasingly, our world is being designed by machines and for machines. We adapt to machines and hold ourselves to their standards: People     2     (judge) by the speed at which they respond, not the quality of their response. “Always on” becomes something to take pride     3    . When I ask people     4     they are doing, they almost always answer “busy”. Ticking things off the “to do” list becomes     5     means of defining ourselves.     6     (occupy) if not with work then with family or our social networks, most of us feel exhausted.

A few years ago, I became very interested in what it meant     7     (pause). I started to notice where pauses show up in my own work and life. For example, I realized when I was writing, a short walk was a(n)     8     (effective) way to focus than concentrating harder. The small walk acted as a pause,     9     (enable) me to rest, reflect or refresh, appreciate and break a block in my     10     (creative). I realized that pause is not nothing!

A minute eating ice-cream is not the same as a minute doing push-ups. Even time itself isn’t a uniform raw material ― as the physics of Einstein shows.

The time for the palace examination came. Ouyang Xiu was appointed by the emperor as the chief examiner. The approach to this most critical moment of a scholar’s life     1     (fill) with keen excitement, tense hope, and a nervous fear of failure. It was the moment to     2     all his years of hard work and hours of burning the midnight oil were supposed to lead.

The candidates had to get up in the middle of the night and come to the palace at dawn,     3       (bring) their cold meals with them. During the examinations, they were shut up in small rooms     4     the watch of palace guards. There was a strict system to prevent cheating. The candidates’ papers were recopied by official clerks     5     they were submitted to the judge, to avoid     6     (recognize) of their identity by their handwriting.

After the examinations, the judges were shut up within the palace until the papers were properly graded and submitted to the emperor. The candidates were examined first on questions of history or     7     (principle) of government. There was     8     second examination on the classics, and finally, there was one under the direct supervision of the emperor.

Emperor Jentsung (宋仁宗) was     9     (especial)anxious to hire good talent and took a personal interest in these tests. He sent out the subjects for the papers by his own personal servants, and sometimes, to prevent leak, changed     10     (they) at the last moment.

I had to wait for them to call number 63 before I could get my food.     1     (give) a plate by a lady, I felt ashamed, embarrassed. I wondered if she thought that I was worse than her.   However, before I knew it, I received my food: a little container with a meal and some pudding. I did not have to look at the woman any more.     2     feeling of shame slowly disappeared.

Ivon suggested that we walk to Bayside. When we arrived, Ivon told me     3     desperately had to use the bathroom. He began to take     4     from his pocket that he wanted to leave with me. I thought it was a phone,     5     it was a knife. “You never know when you have to use this,” he said.

After about twenty minutes, Ivon came back. He suggested     6     we move nearer to the Miami River where it was cooler. I walked down the street,     7     (hold) the plastic bag with my food. We settled down under some coconut trees. He pointed out some police officers     8     (stand) in an area where the     9     (home) used to sleep next to a hotel.

“I guess they didn’t want us next to the hotel. You can’t have people looking     10     of their windows and seeing us,” he said.