Chinese weddings are as much about the happy couples as they are about their families. The weddings are     1     (impress) affairs that focus on blessings of happiness. The date of the wedding ceremony is chosen not     2     chance. Many couples carefully choose a favorable date     3     (bring) success to their marriage. The ceremony can last anywhere from four hours to three days,     4     depends on how many Chinese wedding traditions are observed.

The Chinese wedding invitation is     5     (typical) red with a golden Double Happiness symbol, with dates for the wedding and names of the couple     6     (include) inside.

While Chinese wedding traditions have modernized, the journey to pick up the bride     7     (be) still a lively affair. It can involve     8     use of firecrackers, playing drums, or even a lion dance.

Another vital tradition, the Chinese tea ceremony (Jing Cha),     9     (perform) at Chinese weddings to show the new couple’s respect, gratitude, and     10     (appreciate) for their parents’ love and effort in raising them. A red tea set with a Double Happiness symbol is used for the tea ceremony.

Farm life can be quite fun and memorable. One day down on the farm, something funny happened and my cousin and I got into big trouble with sheep.

It was one of those hot and     1     (peace) days in summer. We were harvesting apples to sell. The sheep pens (围栏) were near the orchard (果园). The sheep were always allowed to eat under the trees. But this time, when harvest was over, they     2     (escape) and got into the baskets! This was serious business. Part of the family income depended on the sale of the apples. Anyway we     3     (give) orders to fix the pens.

We two knew nothing about farm work, not to mention     4     (fix) pens. We finally put the sheep back in. Then we used some pieces of wood to patch (修补) up the big holes,     5     (leave) one small hole untouched due to the shortage of wood.

We hurried to the cottage for more wood, but when we got back, we were     6     (surprise) to see that the sheep had squeezed through the untouched small hole and three of     7     (they) were out in the orchard again. We had to patch up the hole and ran     8     the sheep again. After all this was done, my cousin and I looked into each other’s eyes and laughed with a sense of     9     (achieve).

We were exhausted, but we found farm work rather interesting and we enjoyed it a lot. What     10     memorable day on the farm!

Last year when Tom graduated from school, he came to Sydney. He didn’t like to work on his father’s farm and hoped     1    (find) a job in a big city. He went from one company to     2     but no one wanted him. With little money     3    (leave), he got to the station, sad and     4     (tire). All he wanted to do was go back to his small town. It was very late at night and the station was full of people. They were waiting to buy tickets of     5     last train. He bought the last ticket, and he was very happy.

At that time, a woman with a     6    (cry) baby walked to him and asked him to sell her the ticket. He gave her the ticket because he thought they needed it more than he     7    (do). After the train left, he sat on the bench and didn’t know where to go.     8    (sudden), an old man came and said, “Young man, I have seen     9     you did to the woman. I am the     10    (own) of a big company. I need a good young man like you. Would you like to work for me?”

By recycling paper we save our trees, but we also recycle glass bottles, paper and plastic.     1     is known to all that recycling protects many non-renewable resources and reduces greenhouse gases. Now cleaners send     2     (little) household waste to landfill sites and less energy     3     (require) when making new materials from old ones.

Health regulations once prevented recycled plastic     4     being used for food containers but new technology has seen this ban lifted in some countries.

Rain water     5     (collect) from roads and the roofs of buildings is also recycled. Water treatment plants treat millions of liters a day ,     6     (remove) something unwanted. The recycled water can’t be drunk or used for cooking     7     can be used to wash cars , water parks and fight fires, etc. This means there is     8    reduced demand on drinking water supplies.

New technology is     9     (rapid) improving recycling techniques in Europe, America and Japan, but countries with small populations may find these new     10     (develop) too expensive to use in the immediate future.

The problem of robocalls has gotten so bad that many people now refuse to pick up calls from numbers they don’t know. By next year, half of the calls we receive will be scams (欺诈). We are finally waking up to the severity of the problem     1     supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late. By the time these “solutions” become widely available, scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it’s not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you     2     (hear) is actually real.

That’s     3     there are a number of powerful voice manipulation and automation technologies that are about to become widely available for anyone to use. At this year’s I/O Conference, a company showed a new voice technology able to produce such a convincing human-    4     (sound) voice that it was able to speak to a receptionist and book as reservation without detection.

These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data breaches (数据侵入) of personal information     5     (lead) to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother’s name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they’re able to carry out individually     6     (target) campaigns to cheat people. This means, for example, that a scammer could call you from     7     looks to be a familiar number and talk to you using a voice that sounds exactly like your bank teller's, tricking you into “confirming” your address, mother’s name, and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be     8     (bad) hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies    9    weaken that gradually.

We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by, or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications — using apps like FaceTime or WhatsApp,     10     can be tied to your identity.

Credibility is hard to earn but easy to lose, and the problem is only going to get harder from here on out.

Great Britain is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 16th century, Wales    1     (join) to England. In the 18th century, they were linked to Scotland. They were united     2     (peace) instead of by war.     3    , just as they were going to get Ireland     4     (connect) to form the United Kingdom, the southern part of Ireland broke away, so only Northern Ireland was joined to the Great Britain.

England is     5     (large) than the other 3 countries and for     6     (convenient) it was divided into three zones: the South of England, the Midlands and the North. Most of the population are settled in the South, but most of the industrial cities lie in the Midlands and the North.

The United Kingdom has a long history to explore,     7    can help you understand much more about the country and     8     (it) traditions. London is the capital city     9     the great historical treasures. It has the oldest port built by     10    Romans in the 1st century AD, the oldest building begun by the Anglo-Saxons in the 1060s and the oldest castle constructed by later Norman rulers in 1066.