At each stage of our life, we meet different kinds of people. Some are funny; some teach us lessons in life while others occupy a special space in our heart. The people     1     (call)“best friends” are just these special     2    (friend).

In our childhood, “best friends”might have meant the persons who are always by our side, whether it may be in the classroom or in the dining hall. However, as we are getting     3     (old) than before, our definition(定义)of “best friends” changes. In my opinion, best friends are those who love you     4     who you are and help you become who you should be. People in our life come and go, but some people stay. They are the people we should never lose.

True friends are those     5     will never leave you when you need them most. They are always there waiting for you and they love you when you forget to love     6     (you). The best feeling in the whole world is knowing that there is     7     person who always prays for us and always keeps us in his/her thought. Friendship may not     8     (necessary)be based on age, but it is based on     9     (understand). Even our parents also can be our best friends! So let us build our friendship and try our best     10     (see)the good side of everyone!

TRAVEL PERU

Amazon Rainforest Tour A short flight from Cusco takes you from the Andes into the Amazon rainforest. From there, you'll spend one day travelling by boat to your     1     (accommodate) in the middle of the forest. You can then spend three days     2     (explore) the rainforest with a local guide and enjoying the plants and animals unique to the rainforest.

Machu Picchu Tour This four­day walking tour will take you on     3     (amaze) paths through the Andes Mountains on the way     4     the city of Machu Picchu. After reaching your destination, you will have a day to explore and be amazed     5     this ancient city.

Cusco Tour Spend four days enjoying the unique Spanish and local Indian culture at Cusco,     6       capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th     7     the 16th century.

Lake Titicaca Tour Enjoy the beautiful countryside     8     you spend a day driving along the new highway     9     (connect) Cusco to Lake Titicaca. There, a boat will take you to stay with a local Uros family on an island for three days.

For     10     (many) brochures about other package tours around Peru, contact us at tourinfo@travelperu. org.

With the improvement of life standards, there are a     1     (grow) number of people traveling each year,     2     is a good way to enjoy life. Some people would like to take a package tour (跟团游),     3     others would rather travel on their own. I prefer the latter, because I feel that it's much more convenient and cheaper than taking a package tour as I     4     (do) before.

First of all, traveling on my own, I can arrange my time and route     5     (free). For example, when I get to someplace I like, I choose to stay longer and don't have to think about others. Secondly, the schedule is relatively tight joining package tours, and tourists can only stay very short time in tourist attractions.     6     is difficult to enjoy every landscape carefully.     7     (three), in order to earn money, some travel agencies force tourists     8     (buy) things. In the meantime, traveling on my own is much cheaper. Finally, the trip is designed to relax. However, many people say that package tours are not to make them feel really     9     (relax), but even more tired.

On the whole, I feel like     10     (travel) on my own, which is more convenient.

First impressions

As a huge art fan, I knew exactly what I was looking forward to most about my trip to Paris: visiting the Musée d'Orsay.     1     (house) in an old railway building, this world-famous art museum features some of the best-known paintings from the Impressionist movement of the 19th century.

As I wandered through the Impressionist gallery, I     2     (appreciate) masterpieces like The Ballet Class and The Card Players. Even though I had admired them hundreds of times on my computer screen,     3     could have prepared me for the wonder I felt when I finally laid eyes on the real thing. While it was hard     4     (pick) a favourite painting out of so many amazing works, the artists who made the deepest     5     (impress) on me were two of the greatest Impressionist painters, Claude Mone Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

I could see from Monet's works that he was     6     (great) inspired by nature. In the last three decades of his life he painted mostly scenes from his garden. One of these scenes     7    (show) in the famous piece Blue Water Lilies,     8     I studied for quite a while in the gallery. I couldn't believe it when I heard he did around 250 paintings of the same water lily pond, all     9     different colores and styles. It is     10     (amaze) that every time Monet studied this simple scene, he brought the pond’s beauty to the canvas in a unique way.

Li Bai and his romantic poetry

Li Bai's love of reading and travelling from an early age contributed to his romantic style. He started studying the classics     1     he was only five years old, and was reading ancient philosophers of different schools at the age of ten, including Confucianism and Taoism. By reading books of all kinds, from legends to historical stories, he     2     (familiar) himself with classical Chinese culture, and more     3    (important), he acquired the wisdom of previous generations.

    4     (drive) by a burning desire for adventure and travel, Li Bai left home and started to travel around in his early twenties. His footsteps covered almost     5     whole country. During his travels, he visited famous mountains and great rivers,     6     (encounter) different customs and practices. These travelling experiences also nourished his love of nature and inspired him     7     (write) numerous poems in the romantic style.

Li Bai's romantic style was also deeply rooted in the social and historical context in which he lived. Li Bai grew up in the most     8     (glory) period of the Tang Dynasty, a time of economic boom and social     9    (stable). This open and tolerant atmosphere allowed Li Bai the liberty to develop a free and unconstrained personality,     10    , in turn, had a huge impact on his poetic production.

How to read a poem

Poetry is a combination of "sound" and "sense". More than any other type of literature, it usually implies a deeper meaning     1     the words on the page. So, how to reveal this hidden dimension?

First, follow your ears. While you may ask "What does it mean?" as you begin reading a poem, it is     2     (good) to ask "How does it sound?" Even if its true meaning appears to be your grasp, you can always say something about     3     the poem sounds when you read it aloud.

Second, approach the poem as if you     4     (be) an explorer in an unfamiliar landscape. As you explore the poem, you will begin to see images in your mind. As you     5     (slow) explore your surroundings, you will start to dig up clues that give you     6     greater understanding of the poem.

Third, if you are still struggling     7    (interpret) the meaning of a poem even with much painstaking effort, just have some patience. You cannot really understand a poem that you have only read once.

Finally, remember that you do not have to fully understand a poem to appreciate     8    . You might need to abandon logical thinking to discover its true inner beauty.

Poetry's combination of "sound" and "sense"     9     (make) you see the world in a new way and allows you to go beyond normal     10     (real) for the everlasting beauty.

Qingming Scroll

Zhang Zeduan's Qingming Scroll is a masterwork of Chinese art. Painted on a five-metre-long silk scroll, it offers an important insight into life in China in the 12^th century. It is commonly believed that the city     1     (describe) in the painting is Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The ancient has survived the test of time     2     (remarkable) well, and is currently housed in th Palace Museum in Beijing.

The scroll consists of three main sections. The first section presents a peaceful scene of rural life near Bianjing,     3     (feature) crop fields, a river winding through the landscape, and farmers hard at work. The second section shows the riverbanks and central bridge alive with activity     4     boats sail in and out of Bianjing. Civilians can also be seen     5     (walk) through the city gate in both directions. The third and final section     6     (picture) life inside the city itself. Here, hundreds of people from all walks of life, including butchers, hairdressers and government officials, can be seen going     7     their daily business. The     8     (combine) of these three sections gives the viewer an idea of what life was like for the people of Bianjing.

Zhang's amazing artistic technique is apparent all across the scroll. Using ink on silk, he creates     9     (reality) images of scenery, buildings and people, and displays a remarkable mastery of perspective. The most impressive aspect of the painting,     10    , is probably Zhang's precise brushwork.

Beethoven: a remarkable life

Symphony No. 9 was Beethoven’s last major piece of music in a vast body of works written throughout his remarkable life. As a     1     (gift) child, Beethoven was pushed by his father to study music day and night. Not long after, he began     2    (appreciate) for his piano performances. By the time he was a teenager, he had already enjoyed a reputation as     3     wonderful young musician. Many important figures in the music world, including the brilliant musician Mozart, started making     4     (predict) about Beethoven’s extraordinary future. However, life took a sharp turn. In his late twenties, Beethoven suffered one of the     5     (bad) possible twists for a musician: he started to lose his hearing.

The loss of his hearing deeply     6     (depress) Beethoven. He was so upset that, at first, he wanted to keep it a secret. Even in his darkest moments, however, Beethoven never abandoned hope.     7     his hearing loss, he was determined to find a way to continue living a life full of music. He used a variety of hearing aids to try to increase the amount of sound he could take in. When     8     (compose) music at the piano, he would put one end of a pencil in his mouth and place the other end against the instrument so that he could feel the notes.     9     Beethoven was able to continue composing music, it became     10     (increase) difficult for him to perform in public. When Beethoven presented Symphony No. 9 in Vienna in 1824, it was his first time on stage in over ten years.