China is     1     (wide) known for its ancient civilization     2     has continued all the way through into modern times, despite the many ups and downs in its history. There are many reasons why this has been possible, but one of the main factors has been the Chinese writing system. At the beginning,     3     (write) Chinese was a picture-based language. It dates back several thousand years to the use of longgu-animal bones and shells on    4    symbols were carved by ancient Chinese people.

Marie Kondo is     1     internationally known expert on cleaning. Her first book, called the “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up,”     2     (publish) in Japanese in 2011.     3     has sold more than 10 million copies in more than 40 countries.

Yet fans want more help and     4     (inform). So Kondo is launching a television show ‘a team of workers who will visit clients’ homes, and a set of special paper boxes     5     (keep) things organized. A set of three costs $89.

Kondo says the boxes were not part of her     6     (origin) idea. In her book about tidying up, she gave two main pieces of advice. First, keep only things that give you joy. Second, store those things in places they can be     7     (easy) reached and put away.

Kondo did not tell readers to get special containers     8     their things. Instead, she suggested people use containers they already had, such as shoe boxes.

But fans still ask Kondo     9     kinds of containers they need to achieve her special way of organizing. So Kondo recently appeared in New York City to launch her new boxes. They are about the shape and size of shoe boxes. They are colored light pink, gray, brown and purple. The insides are painted with designs such as a tree branch dotted with small white flowers.

Kondo says the idea behind the boxes is not to hide things.     10    , it is to make the things inside feel happy.

The Internet has become part of young people’s life. A report     1     (show) that 38% of students often use the Internet. Most of them get     2     (use) information on the Internet     3     use the Internet to help in their studies. But many students don’t use it     4     a good way. Some play games too much, and some visit websites     5     shouldn’t look at. So bad things may happen if students spend too much time on the Internet.

It is important for students to use the Internet     6     (proper). Now we have a textbook that uses many examples    7     (teach) students some good ways to use the Internet. It gives them useful     8     (advise).

Some students also make friends on the Internet. But if you want to have     9     face-to-face meeting with your online friends, let your parents     10     (know) and meet in a proper place.

The Chinese war film The Battle at Lake Changjin     1     (arouse) enthusiastic discussion on Chinese social media since it debuted around the country on September 30.

The film tells the story about how Chinese People’s Volunteer soldiers held their ground during fierce cold and the enemy’s more     2     (advance) weapons. However, the real battlefield is far     3     (impressive). Changjin Lake     4     (locate) in North Korea. The war was on in severely cold winter     5     temperature of around -40℃. CPV soldiers did not only need to fight against enemies, but had to battle over the nature with their strong will. Chinese People’s Volunteer Army won the battle by     6     (fight) against impossible odds. The Battle of Changjin Lake became a critical moment in the war. It is not the film itself but the     7     (hero) of the war years who fought     8     (bloody) for our country and the people     9     make people moved.

Song Zhongping,     10     military expert and TV commentator, emphasized that the film shows that the Chinese people don’t provoke troubles, but never flinch (退缩) when troubles come their way and are able to defeat provocations.

“Military-style” travel has become the     1     (late) fashion among Chinese college students. Videos of them taking such trips     2     (trend) on social media platforms in recent years. The reason why it has become so popular is     3     college students can spend as little money as possible traveling to as many places as they can during the weekend. They usually hop on a regular-speed train on a Friday night, arrive at the destination city and travel     4     (extensive) there on Saturday. Then, they can repeat the same busy schedule     5     returning to their universities on Monday morning.

Different people have different views, with some netizens     6     (praise) these college students for their high ability to implement their plans. However, others doubt     7     such a tight schedule is healthy.

According to some experts, the “military-style” travel is a form of budget travel appealing to specific groups of people who are less     8     (concern) with in-depth experiences and more focused on checking off popular tourist destinations. Therefore, this has led to the emergence of a type of tourism     9     travelers are willing to sacrifice comfort for     10     (affordable) and convenience.

Alice was a stubborn girl     1     always wanted to be a singer. Music was the     2     important thing in her life. She took lessons for years and     3     (practice) hard, but in spite of all the efforts she made, her voice didn’t improve. In fact, it didn’t get better, it just got     4     (loud).

Her teacher     5     (final) gave up and stopped the lessons,     6     Alice refused to give in, and one day she decided to give a concert and invited her teacher     7     (attend). The teacher was very worried about     8     to say after the concert. She knew it would be terrible and it was. She didn’t want to tell a lie, but she didn’t want to hurt Alice’s feelings, either. Then she got an idea and went backstage (后台) to greet her pupil.

“Well,” said Alice, “What do you think of     9     (I) singing?”

“My dear,” said the teacher, “you’ll never be better     10     you were tonight.”

Tea is a simple drink. And it is central to the lives of millions of people worldwide.

There are six major types of tea in China-green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, dark tea, white tea, and reprocessed tea, distinguished     1    (main) by different methods of production.

China,    2     (recognize) as the homeland of tea, is a leading producer and consumer, and the     3    (discover) and the usage of tea have a history of 4, 000 to 5, 000 years. Drinking tea first    4    (start) to become popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The origin of tea is lost among history and legend.    5     can be roughly confirmed is that tea originated in southwest China. In Yunnan and elsewhere, some wild tea trees that     6    (be) over 1, 000 years old still exist.

Many traditional Chinese families drink tea after dinner or when     7    (greet) visitors. This is not only a     8    (health) habit but also reflects rich culture and history. Chinese people can chat with a friend or enjoy themselves for a whole afternoon     9    a pot of good tea.

It was in the Tang Dynasty that teahouses came into being, and in some big cities then, there were also tea shops,    10     stored large quantities of tea leaves and prepared tea for their customers.

The use of chopsticks has been     1     big part of Chinese food culture for centuries. When cooking food or picking it up, a pair of chopsticks always comes for use.

So how did chopsticks come into being? It’s said that a leader of ancient China, Dayu,     2     helped his people fight floods, invented them. In those days, people     3     (eat) only with their hands. But Dayu was busy    4     (prepare) for flood control work and often had his meals     5     the wild. In the summer in particular, he hurried to deal with unexpected accidents and didn’t want to wait to eat. The meat     6     (cook) in the pot was too hot to pick up with his hands. So one day Dayu picked up some twigs (细枝)     7     (help) him hold the meat. Then the twigs     8     (final) became the chopsticks we know today.

But of course, this is just a story. The     9     (early) chopsticks archaeologists (考古学家) have found so far are more than 3000 years old, dating back to the Shang Dynasty. The six bronze chopsticks were found in Yinxu, one of China’s oldest archaeological     10     (place), in Anyang, Henan province.

The story of The Farmer and The Mule (骡子) makes us smile.     1    , it does have wisdom in it. It reminded me about defeating adversity (逆境).

    2     we handle adversity determines our success in life. One of my     3     (thought) on adversity is, “Adversity is a fact of life. It can’t     4     (control). What we can control is how we react to it.”

When     5     (face) with adversity, we can give up the negative attitude. Or we can look on adversity     6     an opportunity to find other ways to do things. We should be     7     (determine) and persistent. It all comes down to your choice and it is a choice of attitude!

You see, the farmer thought the mule was not worth     8     (save) when it fell into a well accidentally, and he just put it out of its misery by burying it. Despite the farmer’s best efforts to bury it, the mule resist (抵抗) until it was able to climb out of the well on top of all the dirt that was thrown in after it.

The mule, despite the fact that it was     9     (constant) in a deep well, would not give up. The mule simply     10     (shake) the dirt off little by little, never giving up the will to live by climbing out of the well.

Yu Rong, a Chinese artist, thinks of a new way to introduce     1     ancient story of Hua Mulan in her picture book. In the book, I Am Hua Mulan, she tells the story by     2     (combine) Chinese paper-cutting with international artistic styles. She places Shaanxi papercuts over western-style pencil sketches (素描)    3     (create) typical presentation of Chineseelements (要素), which turns out to be a     4     (success) and impressive breakthrough.

Hua Mulan,     5     story has been told by generations in China, was a fighter from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). As a devoted daughter, she dressed herself as a man to serve in the army     6     place of her father. Mulan’s character, such as courage, kindness and a disinterested attitude towards fame and fortune, made     7     (she) one of the most respected historical Chinese heroines. Mulan’s story has been adapted     8     (frequent) in modern media. For example, in 1998, Disney produced a film named Mulan, which     9     (consider) a great success by critics and the public right after its release.

To better tell the story, Yu Rong takes inspiration from her several     10     (visit) to sites of ancient battles and Henan Province’s Yu Opera. After years of preparation she finally makes this extraordinary work.