Food from the air

Everyone has seen plants growing, but have you ever thought     1     they get their food? In the seventeenth century, a European scientist     2     (call) Van Helmot asked this question. Like most people, he thought that plants must get their food from soil. However, Van Helmot decided       3     (test) the theory with experiments.

First, he dried some soil, put it into a pot and weighed it. Next, he weighed a small tree, planted it in the pot and added rain water. Then, he watered it     4     (regular) with rain water.

After five years, he removed the tree from the pot and weighed it again. He found that the tree had gained     5     huge amount of weight. When he weighed the soil, however, it was almost exactly the same as it had been five years    6    . So Van Helmot drew the    7    (conclude) that the tree grew by drinking water. Though it turned out to be wrong, he showed the importance of the use of scientific evidence to support ideas.

We now know that plants and trees make their own food. Their leaves, when exposed     8     the air and sun, are like factories    9     can change the energy from the sun into chemical energy. During this process (过程), oxygen and sugar     10     (produce). The oxygen is released back into the air, and the sugar is used by the plant as food.

10-year-old Kyuta Kumagai stood out among all the young wrestlers (摔跤运动员)     1     entered the match. He     2     (weigh) 85 kilograms. That means he is twice the size of the other children at his age. His big size and     3     (fit) make him very fit for the sport. He is so good that Kyuta was named the under-10 world champion.     4     particular, he defeated the competitors from as far away as Britain. Kyuta is a shy boy of few     5     (word). When reporters asked him why he liked to wrestle, his answer was simple: “It is fun to compete with people     6     (old) than me.”

His father created his training routine. And the training is not easy. The 10-year-old boy trains six days each week and does many different exercises. He lifts weights, moves huge tires, swims, and runs. The goal is     7     (build) up flexibility and quickness, two things needed for wrestling. Kyuta     8     (demand) to be on this routine since about the age of six and he didn’t give way     9     any difficulties. That is when his father first entered him in a competition. “I didn’t teach him anything,” his father said, adding that Kyuta could wrestle naturally. After     10     (win) that first competition, Kyuta’s father thought Kyuta may have a special talent for wrestling.

The earliest Chinese kites     1     were made of wood were called muyuan (wooden kites) They date as far back as the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) at least two thousand years ago. After the     2     (invent) of paper, kites began to be made of this new material, paper, and this paper kite is called zhiyuan.

The method of making a kite can be divided into three parts. Firstly, use thin bamboo strips (条)     3     (make) a kite frame (框架), and according to taste, kites can have     4     (attract) shapes like a dragonfly, a swallow, a centipede or a butterfly. Secondly, glue paper onto the framework. The paper     5     (require) to be thin. Finally, decorate the kites     6     colorful paintings and ribbons.

Although the basic method remains the same, styles of kite making are presented     7     (different) in every place. The kites in the “World Kite Capital” of Weifang in Shandong Province are well known for     8     (they) fine materials, painting, sculpture and flexible flying movement. One of these kites, which was over 300 meters long and in the shape of a centipede with a dragon’s head, won the     9     (one) place in the International Kite Festival held in Italy. This kite is now shown in the Weifang Kite Museum. Every year, the World Kite Festival will be held there and is expected to draw many fans with a love for     10     (fly) kites.

According to UNESCO, deep in the sea     1     (lie) a great number of valuable relics—around 3 million boats, many cities and thousands of human relics. Today, these relics of human heritage are suffering serious damage from commercial and industrial exploitation (开发), making     2     (they) protection even more urgent.

    3     (protect) and inherit (传承) our hard-to-notice yet still important underwater cultural heritage, the National Base of Underwater Archaeology for the South China Sea     4     (launch) by China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration in Feb, 2023.

The base is planned to cover     5     area of 74 mu and a total construction area of 31,085 square meters. It is expected to perform various     6     (function), including underwater cultural heritage surveys and protection measures, cultural heritage repair and archaeologist training, according to the administration.

Li Qun, vice-minister of culture and tourism, told Xinhua     7     the South China Sea is the     8     (large) in scale and richest in underwater cultural heritage among China’s waters and is an important area of the Maritime Silk Road.

Building the base is an important step toward strengthening the country’s underwater cultural heritage protection work and is     9     great importance in passing on traditional Chinese culture and     10     (safeguard) China’s sovereignty (主权), security and maritime rights, Li added.

When Xu Beihong(1895~1953)     1     (return) to his home country in 1927, the painter had lived and studied art in Europe for nearly ten years, primarily in France,     2     has long been known as the “land of art”.

As one of the earliest Chinese    3    (artist) to study fine arts in Europe,   Xu was well received in art and education communities back home. It then seemed a natural choice for him    4     (put) his time and effort into teaching at art schools     5     holding exhibitions (展览) of modern Chinese painting.

However, Xu     6     (touch) by the bad situation of his country and     7     (it) people at that time, so he spoke for the serious condition of the people through painting. The subjects in his works included those    8     (live) in mountainous Chongqing who had to go up and down to get water, boatmen working on the Yangtze River and women praying (祈祷) for the     9     (safe) of husbands who worked far away from home.

For those in the art community, Xu is remembered mostly for blending (融合) Eastern and Western styles and doing a great job on the higher education of fine arts in China. While for his people,     10     artist is best known for showing the true life of those at the grassroots.

“Radish knives” have become a hot-sale product in shops near schools. They are also a hot-sale product online. So far more than 400, 000 “radish knives”     1     (sell) online.

The rising popularity of these toys has raised worries among parents about their possibility to lead     2     violence (暴力) among teenagers, reported a local news outlet called Shunwang in Jinan, Shandong province.

A radish knife is a colorful plastic toy that looks just like a radish. It is made of plastic, and usually 5 centimeters in     3     (long). If a radish knife is pushed against the skin too hard, kids may get     4     (injure). Parents are confused about its popularity. “My daughter brought one home yesterday. She told me that it helped     5     (she) to reduce stress,” a parent told Shunwang.

“Playing with a toy knife may have     6     bad effect on children’s health,” said Yang Si-fan,     7     is an official at Chongqing Normal University. Children may pretend     8     (use)a toy knife to cut others after watching similar actions from movies and TV shows. Parents should be responsible for     9     (choose) suitable toys for their kids. If people find nearby stores selling these dangerous toys, they should report it to the government     10     (immediate). Toys like radish knives shouldn’t be allowed to be brought into schools.