1 . “When I was young, I had so much energy and I loved building stuff. If I had an idea, I had to build it right away using whatever I could find around me.” says Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo. When Dambo was just seven years old, he bought some materials from the local market to construct a game room in his parents’ basement. As a teenager, he built a “crazy” castle in his backyard.

Decades later, 42-year-old Dambo is proudly surveying his latest creation: a troll (巨人) called Little Lui. Towering at five meters tall, Little Lui is one of the six trolls hidden in secret corners of the Peel Region of Western Australia as part of Thomas Dambo Giants of Mandurah, an Australian-first exhibition, which will be on show for at least a year. Dambo has made many impressive trolls, which have found homes in the United States, Belgium, China, Denmark, South Korea and so on.

“For me, trolls represent the voice of nature,” Dambo says. This deep respect for the natural world is a central message of Dambo’s practice. Dambo’s troll are made almost entirely from locally sourced recycled wood: their faces from secondhand furniture and their hair from branches and leaves. Taking about 750 hours to complete, each troll is constructed out in nature.

“We are slowly turning the world into a landfill. I hope that by visiting the trolls, people will think of rubbish as a resource. I think it’s really important that the next generation is connected to nature.” Dambo says. “That’s why I tried to design the trolls to appeal to younger people. I want people to be inspired to play and experiment, and to realize they don’t need a lot to create something big and beautiful. Go out, go around the corner and take advantage of whatever is there — you will find a lot of adventure in your own backyard.”

4 . As a physically fit 89-year-old big band singer, Tony Bennett performed timeless ballads (民歌，情歌) perfectly. He was an exception to the belief of aging and decline.

However, the trouble with his _______ concerned Bennett, especially since it might impact his ability to put on his signature fine-tuned show. Eventually, Bennett was _______ with Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.

After receiving the diagnosis, Bennett insisted on continuing to perform. “Tony has always had a very _______ attitude,” his wife Benedetto says. “He was going to keep going straight ahead _______ he always has.”

As one of only a few artists to produce chart-topping records every decade since the 1950s — _______ more than 60 albums — Bennett is an American icon (偶像). His _______ “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and “Rags to Riches”, among many others — have earned him 19 Grammy Awards.

_______ the disease, Bennett’s desire to help others connect through music remained strong. He felt it _______ to make people feel good.

In February 2021, Bennett _______ shared that he was living with Alzheimer’s in an interview. Shortly after the news, the ________ from the public was overwhelmingly supportive. In October, Bennett and Lady Gaga released ________ is billed as Bennett’s final studio album, “Love for Sale.” Upon its release, Bennett earned the Guinness World Records ________ for the oldest artist to release an album of new material.

As the disease ________, music has a renewed importance in Bennett’s life. Over seven decades, Bennett’s brave and ________ voice is helping people find joy among life’s hardships. “He gives people courage and hope. And he is ________.”

The Yuan Dynasty witnessed the maturity of Chinese landscape painting. The techniques of ink and wash     1     (employ) in this period, which brought Chinese landscape painting     2     the peak of prosperity and splendor. The ink-and-wash landscape painters developed the idea     3     a stretch of landscape represents a stretch of one’s spiritual world.

Ni Yunlin, Wu Zhen, Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng were known as the “Four Masters of the Yuan”,     4     enjoyed the free clouds and green mountains of nature. Of them all Ni Yunlin is considered to be     5     typical.

In Ni’s The Rongxi Studio, colours are completely abandoned and “the level and distant” method is applied to the     6     (compose) of the painting, so as to achieve the effect of peace and detachment (超脱). The world     7    (create) here is the world in the artist’s mind: cold mountains and insignificant waters reveal the     8    (painter) desire to leave the earthly world. Withered (枯萎的) trees convey the artist’s pursuit of freedom, though it sometimes means     9     (pain) loneliness. The small pavilion under the trees is “Rongxi Studio,” the name meaning a studio big enough only     10     (hold) a knee-a reflection of a human being’s inferior position in the universe.

Wearing a traditional Chinese qipao, conductor Nucrbana Yiming’s     1     (perform) has received thunderous applause from the audience at the Chinese Lunar New Year concert in Urumqi. A 35-year-old performer from Xinjiang, often known as Bana, is the only female conductor at the Xinjiang Art Theater so far. Her passion     2     music came from her family: her father was a clarinetist (单簧管手).     3     (influence) by her father, she started her violin and piano training at the age of eight.

In 2004, she     4     (admit) into the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan to study as a conductor. “Every day I     5     (carry) thousands of pages of music sheets from my dorm to the classroom. I needed to memorize them     6     a really short time,” she recalled. “Sometimes I questioned myself and wondered     7     it was better for me to be a street vendor (街头小贩).”     8     (fortunate), all her efforts paid     9     in the end.

Before her graduation in 2009, she received an offer from the Xinjiang Art Theater. Bana has a deep understanding of her role in the theater: she considers herself as a bridge     10     connects professions, Xinjiang folk music, modern instruments and the world. “My job is to integrate the music knowledge and the concepts I’ve learned abroad into each show of our folk orchestra,” she said.

8 . When news came that the UK actor Idris Elba,46, was named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for 2018, Elba showed an interesting response to it. “I was like, ‘Come on, no way. Really?’’’ he told People. “It was nice - an ego (自我) boost for sure.”

The reason that Elba needed an “ego boost” is probably that even though he’s famous now, having starred (主演) in many famous films, Elba hasn’t always been a confident person. He went through an awkward phase growing up, not feeling good about his look. And living in London as a child of an African immigrant (移民) family wasn’t easy for him either. “I was very tall and skinny. And my name was Idrissa Akuna Elba, okay? I got picked on a little bit,” he said. However, for the rest of us, the news of his award for being the “Sexiest Man Alive” was no surprise at all.

Elba is far more than just an actor. He is the voice behind the versatile (多才多艺的) chief of police in Disney’s Zootopia. He is the director of crime drama film Yardie. He designs clothes, DJs and produces his own music. He also learned to fly a stunt (特技) plane. It was probably all these experiences that gave Elba the confidence that he has today. But still, Elba managed to keep a humble (谦逊的) attitude toward life and people around him. “I love being confident, but also I know when to contain it and just stay humble and rational,” Elba told Entertainment Weekly.

These “complicated contradictions” in Elba, as US movie producer Amy Pascal told The New York Times, “make every character he plays fascinating”. And it is this ability to fascinate that got Elba an Officer of the British Empire medal in 2016, for his “services to drama”. And it’s perhaps also these “complicated contradictions” that makes Elba charming.

A delicate pottery-making video went viral on popular video sharing app TikTok,     1     (attract) more than 45 million views and 4.2 million likes overseas, leading to the     2     (popular) of the craftsman     3     made the miniature ceramics (微型陶瓷) with his fingertips, bamboo sticks and tweezers.

Wang Wenhua, a post-80s ceramicist in Jingdezhen, who     4     (produce) miniature ceramics for more than five years, says he will proceed to develop the craft.     5     (learn) through lectures at a university, he established his own studio making medium and large-sized porcelains.

This business experience gave him the chance to shift his focus to the creation of miniature ceramics because he    6     (believe) traditional pottery doesn’t     7     (easy) grab people’s attention in the modern world.

In 2018, Wang Wenhua     8     (register) his own account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok,     9     uploaded videos of his manufacturing process. The videos soon became viral online, with the most popular viewed more than 10 million times in China. His videos also earned him a reputation overseas. On TikTok, his videos     10     (receive) over 120 million clicks, likes and comments till now.