Beethoven was born in Germany. He is regarded     1     one of the greatest composers in the history of music. Unfortunately, he     2     (begin) to lose his hearing in his twenties. He thought about giving up, but he continued to write music until his death in 1827. Beethoven produced some     3     (amaze) pieces, including his Symphony No. 9 in D minor.

One day in February 1824, Beethoven’s ninth symphony was     4     (final) completed. Before the performance, Beethoven was afraid that the performance would be     5     disaster. After all, he could not hear his orchestra — even if he is a musical genius.

The audience did not hesitate     6     (clap) and cheer loudly as Beethoven walked out onto the stage. For more than an hour, Beethoven jumped about in front of the orchestra,     7     (wave) his arms wildly in the air, and madly turning the pages of his score.

As the final,     8     (joy) note signalled the end of the symphony, the audience jumped to their     9     (foot), clapping, cheering and waving their hats. But Beethoven continued conducting, his head buried in the score. It was not until one of the singers took his arm and turned him to face the audience     10    Beethoven realised his symphony was a success.

Nowadays, one of the common     1     (phenomenon) is to see ordinary people listening to music with headphones,     2     (absorb) themselves in their own world. Moreover, people often share     3     (satisfy) records with their friends. In     4     (add), we can gain relief from pressure in the deepest part of our being.

    5     is proved that music can be used as a cure     6     diseases. Listening to positive and peaceful music will have     7     positive impact on people, which enables many patients     8     (reduce) pain. Classical music has reached a stage     9     it is often used in cancer treatment     10     the aim of relieving aches and side effects.

Charles Darwin, a young man just out of university in 1831,    1    (offer) a job on a ship on a voyage of discovery around the world. Life on board was tough. Darwin was    2    (terrible) seasick and was only happy when he was ashore collecting plant samples and observing animals. It was to be the most important journey in his life. It    3    (last) for five years. 

Darwin studied nature in South America and in a group of small islands in the South Pacific. On each island there were birds. They were very similar,    4     the shape of their beaks, and even their eating habits varied. Darwin wondered why they were different. Then he realized that over millions of years, all plants and animals have gradually changed into the forms we see today.    5     we call “the survival of the fittest” he named “natural selection”. He also called this slow process of change “evolution”. 

By 1846,he had published an article describing his voyage. Darwin spent the years    6     followed developing his theories and making them perfect. In 1859, he published them in The Origin of Species. It caused a huge    7    (argue). His The Descent of Man, 1871, pointed out that mankind    8    (come) from the same ancestor. Other scientists agreed with his ideas and took up    9    (he) cause. The church prohibited the    10    (teach) of The Theory of Evolution in some countries. However, today most people believe that Darwin is right.

Unlike most of her fellow postgraduates, who found jobs in big cities, Zhang Xiaoyang, after graduation from Zhejiang University three years ago, chose to go to DunHuang Academy,     1     (land) a job as an archaeologist.

Despite being the world’s largest treasure of Buddhist art, living conditions in Dunhuang, which sits in the Gobi Desert in Northwest China’s Gansu province,     2     (be) tougher than in China’s big cities. People working here have to battle with sand and wind and suffer from     3     (lonely).

Zhang,     4     her late 20s, has an intense routine. Assigned two stressful tasks, she spends most of the day       5     (work) with the excavation team in Tianwangtang. At night. she writes academic reports on the discoveries in Cave 254, which     6     (create) during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534).

“Dunhuang is a place of magic. For those who once planned to work here     7     (temporary), maybe it will be a few years     8     they move to bigger cities. But I’m totally fascinated by the site and amazed at     9     the ancient people lived in the desert around then. So I have decided to stay for decades,” said Zhang Xiaoyang.

Her story is featured in The Master of Dunhuang,     10     three—episode documentary, currently available on the streaming site Tencent Video, which has gained a lot of attention online.

The reasons why people write poetry are different and poets use many different forms of poetry to express     1     (them).

Some of     2     first poems a young child learns in English are nursery rhymes, which are usually the     3     (tradition) poems or folk songs. They have a strong rhythm and a lot of repetition. Despite the fact that some of them may not make sense and even seem contradictory, they are easy to learn and recite. List     4     (poem), one of the simplest kinds of poem, have a flexible line length and     5     (repeat) phrases which give both a pattern and a rhythm to the poem. Another simple form of poem is the cinquain,     6     is made up of five lines. This kind of poem can convey a strong picture in just a few words. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that consists     7     17 syllables and     8     (be) very popular with English writers. It is easy to write. English speakers like Tang poetry in particular. A lot of Tang poetry     9     (translate) into English already. With so many different forms of poetry     10     (choose) from, why not have a try and write poems of your own?

Li Daiyu and her cousin Liu Qian were on a trip to Canada to visit their cousins in Halifax. They decided     1     (fly) to Vancouver first and then take the train. The thought of crossing the whole country by rail was     2     (excite) for them.

They spent two days in Vancouver. There they took a boat ride,     3     (visit) an island and saw the beautiful mountains looking out over the city.

Then they boarded the train to Lake Louise, where the blue water took     4     (they) breath away with its exceptional beauty. They spent the night and then headed north to Jasper.     5     (look) at the spectacular scenery, they both agreed it was the most awesome journey     6     they had ever taken.

From Jasper, they caught the train bound     7     Toronto. One of the train’s first stops was in Edmonton, whose daily     8     (temperature) in winter average -10℃. From Edmonton, the train headed southeast across the great Canadian Prairie.

After another day on the train, they     9     (eventual) reached Winnipeg. They travelled through the night and the next morning they reached Toronto,     10     capital of Ontario. Their trip from Vancouver to Toronto had taken four days in all.

Chen Sifang, a 23-year-old student from Beijing Normal University, gives movie     1     (appreciate) classes to children in Xinghai county, Qinghai province to promote art and culture.

The class is part of a nonprofit project     2     college students volunteer during their vacations in remote areas and give art and culture classes to local children.     3     (launch) in July and lasting almost a month, the project has sent more than 100 college students to six regions.

Chen recalls that it took the volunteer lecturers six hours     4     (travel) from Xining to the county, which has     5     average altitude (海拔) of 3,900 meters. As the bus approached, they saw clear blue skies, vast grasslands and roaming (漫游) cattle,     6     (make) them feel refreshed.

After consulting with her fellow volunteers, Chen selected 30 movies     7     coaching materials for nearly 70 local students from three primary schools and two junior middle schools. A young girl said one of Zhang Yimou’s movie was her favorite because the romance between the two main characters was similar to     8     of her own parents`. “It is very interesting. I have never had this kind of class before,” says 14-year-old Yang Chengyan,     9     is eager to read more sci-fi tales now because of this class. A film could     10     (true) leave a mark on their lives.