On March 3, 2022, Jiang Mengnan    1    (receive) the “Touching China” (感动中国) award for 2021.

In 1992, Jiang Mengnan was born in Hunan. When she was six     2    (month) old, she lost her hearing. From then on, she couldn’t hear anything at all and     3    (she) world became silent. Her parents began to teach her to read people’s lips (嘴唇) and speak. It was not easy, but her parents never gave up. After a lot     4    practice, Jiang Mengnan learned to speak.

When Jiang Mengnan    5    (be) old enough, she went to school. She tried to understand what the teachers said by     6    (read) their lips. She worked very hard and overcame a lot of difficulties. She     7     (final) became a top student. In 2011, she got a high score in gaokao and went to Jilin University. In 2018, she was accepted by Tsinghua University as a PhD (博士) student.

“I think I am    8    (luck). I want to thank my parents, teachers and friends,    9     have been helping me all the time. And     10    best way to pay them back is to do something good for society,” Jiang Mengnan said.

There is a food festival near Madison Square Park in New York each May. This time about 30 sellers came to attend it. Huge, colorful     1     (umbrella) stood over 40 small, round tables. Jack and Betty decided to visit the festival     2     (try) new foods. It was 8:30 pm     3     they arrived there on foot. “It should be a place filled with fun. I just hope it’s still open, ”Betty said to     4     (her). So they went to the festival and visited each table. They read each menu     5    (careful). They walked around the tables and looked at what people were eating.

Suddenly Betty saw something she was     6     (interest) in. She said to the diner, “Excuse me. The food you are eating looks delicious. Can you tell me     7     it is? Where did you get it?” The diner told her the table was over there. Betty went over to that table quickly and asked for that dish. The cook said, “I’m sorry, but that dish     8     (sell) out just now. In fact, we’re getting ready to close down. Don’t worry. We will cook     9     same dish tomorrow. To enjoy the dish, you should be here     10     (early) than today. ”

People’s fingernails and toenails, according     1     a recent study, are nowadays growing more quickly. Research carried out at the University of North Carolina indicates that the speed at     2     human nails are growing     3    (increase) by close to 25 percent over the past 70 years.

The results of the study show that the average human fingernail now grows about 3.5 mm a month,     4    (compare) with just 3 mm seven decades ago. Toenail growth, although only about 2 mm per month, is also up on the figure obtained in     5    similar survey done 70 years ago.

Researchers put the rapid increase down to changes in lifestyle, particularly the greater awareness of the     6    (important) of regular exercise and a healthy diet. This, they point out, is in line with similar     7    (trend) in the height and weight of present-day adults.     8     (interesting), it appears that nails tend     9    (grow) fastest in warmer conditions, with the     10    (quick) growth rate among young people, and men. The fastest-growing nail is on the middle finger, while that on the little finger is by far the slowest, at only a little over 3 mm each month.

There is no question that afternoon tea is popular in Britain. And it has     1     (certain) changed a lot over the last two hundred years. These days afternoon tea     2     (enjoy) by many, but most of all it’s a way for chefs (厨师) to express their creativity and add some new     3     (change) to the British tradition.

The custom of afternoon tea     4     (begin) with Anna Maria, the 7th Duchess of Bedford around 1840. At the time,     5     was usual for people to take only two main meals a day: breakfast and dinner (around 8 pm) and Maria is said to have complained (抱怨) of     6     (get) hungry during the late afternoon. So, the solution for the Duchess was a pot of tea and a light snack taken privately in her bedroom during the afternoon. She then started to invite friends     7     (join) her in her rooms at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire and the tradition became popular within fashionable society.

Basic afternoon tea includes finger sandwiches, scones (司康饼) and cakes on a plate, all washed down by a pot of tea set in either a lovely garden     8     a good hotel. But nowadays, it has become     9     artistic experience.

“In recent years, we have seen chefs getting more adventurous with their afternoon tea menus. Most still stick to the     10     (tradition) afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones and cakes but let their cooking skills go to town with delicious new sandwich fillings and flavoured (有添加味道的) breads,” said Afternoon Tea. co.uk managing director Keith Newton.

A team made up     1     eight members has created an AI painting project. The creative concept gives robots the power     2     (create) art using colors, canvas and a paintbrush.

The AI painting project features a robot     3     (inspire) by human artists — it has a robot arm that holds the paintbrush to bring new art to life through paintings     4     are not generated at will, but rather based on a set of     5     (concept) that the AI technology uses to create art. To do so, one or multiple values     6     (give) to the AI robot to generate a picture through a collection of brush strokes (画笔笔触).

The images created by the robot are based on the evaluation standard of “most like the presented concept”. The robot arm then uses the paintbrush and colors to create art. It currently works with both acrylic paint (丙烯颜料)     7     watercolors and mixes the colors with water as well.

The team believes that the paint strokes, colors, and images produced by AI have the potential to lead the world into a new category of art     8     (full) created by machines. Going forward, the team is in the process of     9     (design) a visual feedback system that will allow the robot to see the painting in progress, making human intervention (介入) and co-creation     10     (possibility).