Modern inventions have sped up people’s lives amazingly. Motor cars cover a hundred miles in     1    (little) than an hour, aircraft cross the world within a day, and computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed    2    (seem) never ending.

All this saves time,     3    at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling     4    (know) as jet lag: our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long on computers results in     5    (pain) wrists and fingers.

What do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax. In today’s fast-paced life, we find    6     difficult to sit and do nothing or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone     7    we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting     8    (imagine) take us into another world.

There was a time when some people’s lives     9    (go) on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. We might envy a lifestyle like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to make     10    (tool) from wood and stone.

Every insect has its own way of finding    1    unique kind of food. So do bees though they seem to fly aimlessly when    2     (search) for the sugary liquid called nectar (花蜜). Flowers act as the insects’ air-traffic controllers and give bees clues about how much a plant can offer. Those clues can be the color, the type and the smell of petals(花瓣), all of    3    tell bees whether to land or not. Among them the colors play the most significant role. The insects keep track of the color of the flowers that are     4     (extreme) rich in nectar.

However, color can’t guarantee bees a good meal as it may change according to the angle of sunlight hitting     5     (it) petals. A yellow flower, for example, may look somewhat blue from one angle and red from another.

Beverley Glover, a biologist at the University of Cambridge in England, together with her colleagues,     6     (study) the effect of the color of petals on the flight of bees for many years, guessing that the     7     (strong) of petals’ iridescence (色彩斑斓) might     8     (relate) to how bees find the petals. Glover and her colleagues tested their assumption in the lab.     9     their surprise, they found that bees felt confused sometimes when the petals were very iridescent     10     bees had no problem finding the flowers with more nectar when the petals were not very iridescent.

Formed in 2001, the China International Search and Rescue Team ( CISAR ) brings help and hope to those     1     lives are changed by natural disasters.

The team went     2     its first international rescue mission (使命) in 2003. It was the first time that a Chinese team had worked outside China, and the team won high praise for their     3     (brave) and skills. The list of people to whom help has been given ever since     4     (be) long. The team treated more than 3,000 people who were injured in the 2006 earthquake in Indonesia, and spent several months     5     (give) aid to over 25,000 victims (受害者）of the 2010 floods in Pakistan.

Rescue workers     6     (train) to find people, treat the injured, and hand out food, water, and other supplies. There is     7     (usual) no electricity or water after a disaster and diseases and accidents may appear.     8     (save) lives, rescue workers have to work day and night, and sadly they must also bury     9     dead, which means they have to be strong in both the body and the mind. Rescue workers must have big hearts, too. Of course, they’ll have to take     10     (effect) measures in action. The members of the CISAR are always ready to go wherever help is needed.

In the near future, we may be using knives     1    (make) from wood. Materials scientists from the University of Maryland in the USA have created a wooden knife     2     is three times sharper than the stainless steel knives we use for dinner. Researcher Teng Li said wooden knives would diversify the type of wooden utensils (厨具) currently found in kitchens across the world. He said, "In our kitchen, there are many wooden things that     3    (use) for a very long time, like cutting boards, chopsticks, or rolling pins. These new knives will also have a long life span if you resurface them,       4    (sharp) them and perform the same regular upkeep."

Traditionally, knives have been made of steel. Now, the scientists have improved the     5    (strong) of the wood in their knives by     6    (add) the cellulose (纤维素) it contains. Teng Li said the new cutting material was hardened to the extent that it could effortlessly slice through the     7    (tough) steak in the world. There is     8     extra advantage of wooden knives-they are environmentally-friendly. With them, we may become less     9    (dependence) on plastic utensils. Also, the scientists have developed wooden nails, which is a piece       10     good news for the building industry as they are special-unlike conventional nails, they will not rust (生锈).

In the past 40 years, the power of China     1     (see) by the world. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, our country has become one of the     2     (strong) countries of the world from an     3     (extreme) poor one, including economy, military and science and technology. With a rapid development of our country, some western countries especially the USA are     4     (will) to see a powerful China, so they make troubles for China in all aspects in the international society. But our country is not what she used to be now, we will never give     5     to any stress.

Our country showed its advantage of socialism system again in 2020,     6     the COVID 19 broke out quickly in the world. Unfortunately, many western countries were wondering     7     to do at that time while people from all     8     (walk) of life in China worked together to take action. So we could get the epidemic     9     (control) quickly and began to recover our economy. During this period, many heroes like Zhong Nanshan and Li Lanjuan, who didn’t think about     10     (they) personal safety, became “the most beautiful reverse walkers”. We are proud of them and we also take pride in our country.

Cyclist Agustin Navarro was coming fourth in the contest (比赛) in Spain. But as he got close to the finish line,     1     (sudden) he saw that his competitor had suffered a puncture (轮胎破了). Ismael Esteban was running toward the line     2     his bike over his shoulders. Mr. Navarro slowed down and refused     3     (pass) him. Instead, he rode behind Mr. Esteban,     4     (allow) him to win the bronze medal (铜牌).

The people     5    stood along the way applauded (为…鼓掌) Mr. Navarro’s     6     (behave) and cheered the two men as they made     7     over the finish line ---one, on foot; the other, on his bike. Mr. Esteban later tried to give     8    prize to Mr. Navarro, but he refused it.

Mr. Navarro     9     (praise) online for his unusual act and he told people that he didn’t want to win like that. That’s where the spirit in a sport lies: respect competitors, teammates,     10     (coach) and even themselves.