The Spring Festival family dinner is a big event for Chinese families. For this year’s, my son has booked a table at the best restaurant in town,     1     I’m a bit unhappy about it. For me, it just won’t feel like Spring Festival having the dinner out.

When I was a little boy, the dinner     2     the eve of Spring Festival was     3     I looked forward to most. It was not only for the delicious food that we seldom got to eat, but for the opportunity     4     (have) our whole family gathered together. I would run around the house     5     (listen) to the adults chatting about their year. I’d get under my mother’s     6     (foot) in the kitchen, watching her make dumplings. She’d put tokens in some dumplings: candies for     7     sweet life and peanuts for a long and healthy one. In the evening, all of us would sit around the table, enjoying the food and being together again. We toasted each other, we laughed, and the simple, homemade dishes     8     (taste) more delicious than anything cooked by a top chef. I hope my children and     9     (they) children will still value our memories of preparing the dinner together. To me, the process is even     10     (important) than the dinner itself.

The Nobel Prizes in science     1    (win) mostly by men in the past. But this year, everything has changed.

Jennifer Doudna from the US and Emmanuelle Charpentier from France    2    (share)the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. It’s     3    first time in history for two women to win the prize without having to share it with a man.    4    the same time, US astronomer Andrea Ghez became the fourth woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics,    5    she shared with two other scientists.

Doudna and Charpentier were awarded for developing CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors (基因剪刀), a technology that can rewrite DNA in the cells of plants, animals and micro-organisms (微生物). It has had a great     6    (effective) on the life sciences,” according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

On     7    (hear)they were the sixth and seventh women to win the Chemistry Prize, Charpentier said that she hopes girls and young female scientists will understand that nothing is     8    (possible).” They can “find great discoveries. It’s     9    (depend)of the gender.”

Ghez, who was awarded for her research on black holes, had the same feeling. “I’m delighted to be part of the change where more women succeed. I think that’s an important way in which we encourage the next generation,” Ghez said. In     10    (add) to her research, she was also one of the authors of the 2006 children’s book You Can Be a Woman Astronomer.

Are computers going to be smarter than people someday? Maybe. But are they going to tell    1    (story) and have a sense of humor? Ray Kurzweil believes this will happen. Ray Kurzweil is an author, and    2    (invent), a computer scientist and a futurist. He makes predictions (预测) about computers. He believes that by 2029, computers will do things    3    (good) than humans. He predicts that by 2045, computers will be more powerful. Someday soon, he says, we    4    (have) little computers in our brains.

Kurzweil is good     5    making predictions. For example, here are a few of his predictions from his book. The Age of Intelligent Machines, written in the late 1980s: Documents will include more than just words and they will include voice, music,     6    other sounds; computers will be as common as pencils and books in schools; we will use wireless networks    7    (share) information.

Kurzweil is now working on a project     8    will improve the way computers search. He predicts that one day computers will     9    (actual) understand our questions. He also thinks technology is going to help     10    (we) live longer.

The United Nations is not only committed to protecting people. It     1     (look) after places, too. One of the aims of UNESCO——the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization——which was founded     2     1946, was to protect places of great cultural importance. Its first major task was in the 1950s,     3     it launched a campaign to protect two ancient Egyptian temples. The temples were going to be     4    (complete) flooded with the construction of the huge Aswan Damn. The temples     5    (take) to pieces and rebuilt on dry ground. Fifty     6    (country) donated money to the project.     7    (it) success led to other projects to protect Venice, in Italy, a unique city built on water,     8     Moenjodaro, in Pakistan, one of the cradles of civilization.

If a site is put on the List of World Heritage in Danger, it means that it will receive money from the World Heritage Fund     9    (help) protect it. However, countries must make as much effort as they can to look after their special places and preserve the world’s remaining cultural and     10    (nature) heritages for the future.

Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We     1     (love) basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. My favorite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favorite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy     2     played for the Charlottee Hornets, although we     3     (actual) agree that they are both champions.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the     4     (short) player ever in the NBA. Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! During all those hours of doing jump shots     5     his own, he used Bogues as his     6     (inspire). Paul once said. “If Bogues could make     7    , why not me?”

Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for     8     (make) the team. He was still usually on the bench,     9     was really tough on him. Everyone knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for     10     team. However. Paul didn’t get a chance.

Autumn celebrations around the world

Countries around the world have     1     (they) own special ways of celebrating autumn.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also     2     (know) as the Moon Festival, is one of the biggest and most widely celebrated harvest festivals in the world, with people from many Asian     3     (country) including China, Malaysia and the Philippines, marking the day with festive celebrations. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar,     4     typically lands in September. The festival     5     (celebrate) as a public holiday, with schools and offices closing their doors so that families can gather and give thanks for the harvest and full moon.

Oktoberfest(啤酒节) is another major autumn celebration that, while originating in Germany, has inspired local versions around the globe. The world’s largest folk festival     6     (fall) in September and runs for about two weeks, featuring traditional Bavarian food, music, clothing, and most importantly, lots of beer!

    7     (interesting), many other countries also enjoy foraging for seasonal treats during the autumn months. In France, for instance, the mushroom-picking season runs from mid-August     8     mid-September with thousands of people taken to the forests to participate. Not too dissimilar to how Americans pick pumpkins and Brits can be found collecting conkers, Germans often collect chestnuts, acorns and beechnuts throughout autumn. Keen to make     9     most of the season’s weather, Germans can also be found flying kites while enjoying the changing scenery and     10     (power) winds.

If you don’t use your arms or your legs, they become weak; when you start using them again, they     1     (slow) become strong again. Everyone knows that. Yet many people don’t seem to know that memory works in     2     same way. When someone says that he has a good memory, he really     3     (mean) that he keeps his memory in practice by using     4     . When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means that he does not give it enough chance     5     (become) strong. If a friend says that his arms and legs are weak, we know that it is his own fault. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory, many of us think that his parents are to blame, and few of us know that it is just his own fault. Have you ever found that some people can’t read     6     write but usually they have     7     (good) memories? This is     8     they can’t read or write and they have to remember days, names, songs and     9     (story), so their memory is the whole time being exercised. So if you want to have a good memory, learn from them. Practice     10     (remember) things in a way as these people do.