In Southwest China,     1     group of grandmothers sit in front of a traditional-style house,     2     (skillful) sewing colored thread into a piece of blue cloth and occasionally bursting into waves of laughter.

Such is the scene in Hejiayan Village, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing. These women learned the craft (手艺) as children, but they never expected that it     3     (bring) them together in old age, injecting some fun into     4     (they) later years.

This local     5     (recover) of the craft started in 2013 when Chen Guotao, opened a Miao embroidery (刺绣) shop in Youyang.     6     (raise) in a rural area, Chen was keen to help fuel China’s rural boom, and in 2016, she set up the first of several embroidery workshops. They offered job opportunities to unemployed female villagers who had stayed behind     7     (care) for the family while relatives sought higher salaries elsewhere.

But the workshops are more     8     just workplaces. They are also social clubs for local senior citizens, most of     9     would lead rather dull lives otherwise, sitting at home with little social interaction. Sitting in the warm sunshine and enjoying the peace of embroidery, these senior citizens are now an     10     (establish) feature in the village.

China traditional tea processing techniques and their associated social practices were added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Tuesday. The tea     1    (fascinate) the world for more than one thousand years and finally has received global recognition.

The status was honored by UNESCO     2    (protect) the cultural treasure. It consists of knowledge, skills and practices about the    3    (manage) of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, and the processing, drinking and sharing of tea. According to UNESCO, the tea processing techniques are closely associated with geographical location and     4    (nature) environment, resulting in a distribution range between 18°-37° N and 94°-122° E.

Tea-related customs are not only found across the country, but also influenced the rest of the world through the ancient Silk Road and trade    5    (route). As a document from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to UNESCO explained, tea is everywhere in Chinese people’s daily life. Steeped (浸泡的) or boiled tea    6     (serve) in workplaces and tea houses, which provides groups and individuals    7    a sense of identity and continuity.

In China, forty-four     8    (register) national-level intangible cultural heritage entries are related to tea. This element is     9    43rd entry from China on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,     10     total tops all other countries.

With a fascinating past and more than four hundred years of history, St. Augustine is one of the nation’s oldest cities and a     1     (nation) treasure. Located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, it is home to many fine examples of European architecture and wild scenic views.

In 1513, an explorer found this land,     2     he called La Florida. Then, in 1565, a Spanish conqueror(征服者) built a settlement there, and named it St. Augustine.

Apart     3     a 20-year period of English rule, Florida remained ruled by Spanish     4       (govern) until the United States took control in 1821. In the years after     5     (it) founding, St. Augustine was attacked by     6     range of people, the French, the English and the natives. They are said to     7     (shoot) flaming arrows at the city’s defensive building,     8     (set) it on fire. More recently, nature has stricken the city with two hurricanes. Still, St. Augustine     9     (exist)   now.

After the city recovers, visitors shouldn't overlook it. It has suffered much in history. Hopefully, visitors will come and perhaps support the coast recovery while discovering Florida’s     10     (century) of history and miles of coastal beauty.

China Post issued a set of stamps showing the paintings of famous structures in the Forbidden City on Saturday     1     (celebrate) the 600th birthday of the ancient palace.

The set includes four stamps, each     2     (present) a single construction (建筑物). The total face value of the set     3     (be) 11.4 yuan.

The stamps are designed like paintings, and in the four paintings, the Forbidden City’s sceneries (风景) are presented in different seasons. At     4     same time, to present the stamps with different charms (魅力) of the ancient buildings, a special set with digital information was issued. By taking a photo of the stamps with a special WeChat program or scanning a QR code (二维码) alongside the stamps, more content about the Forbidden City could     5     (provide).

Construction of the Forbidden City was started in 1406, and the whole project was completed in 1420, during the Ming Dynasty. It is the     6     (large) and most complete wooden-structure palace in the world.

Having served as the imperial palace for the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City was changed into a museum and has been open     7     the public since 1925. So, it is also     8     (know) as the Palace Museum, which not only houses millions of cultural relics,     9     is itself also a living archive (档案馆) of imperial history.

This year also marks the 95th year of the Palace Museum’s     10     (establish). Many celebrations have been promoted, with the stamps being part of them.

The impact of pandemic (流行病) on life expectancy (预期寿命), one of the most widely used standards to assess population health, was assessed by a study    1    (publish) in the Informational Journal Epidemiology. The study    2    (conduct) by the Oxford University's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic (人口的) Science.

The study revealed that women from 15 countries and men from 10 ended up    3    a lower life expectancy at birth in 2020 compared to 2015.     4    biggest drops in life expectancy, however, were witnessed in men instead of women in most countries. American men were the worst off, with 2.2 years shaved off their life expectancy at birth. Men in Lithuania faced the second    5    (large) impact on their life expectancy, with a cut of 1.7 years.

Reductions in life expectancy overall    6    (occur) in 27 of the 29 countries analyzed by the study. Only men and women in Denmark and Norway and women in Finland managed to    7    (successful) avoid drops in life expectancy, the study said. Non-pharmaceutical interventions and strong healthcare systems in these countries were cited as    8    (factor) that could help explain this.

All the countries    9    life expectancy dropped had taken an average of 5、6 years    10    (achieve). Just a one year increase in life expectancy. The pandemic wiped out of this progress, the study said.