Pico Island, the second largest of the volcano-born Azores, is one of the most hard-won wine regions in the world. By the 19th century, Pico’s wine industry was at its peak,     1     (produce) three native white grape varietals: arinto dos Azores, verdelho and terrantez do Pico. But it wasn’t long before disease and desertification     2     (destroy) most of the island’s vineyards, nearly putting an end to its wine production. But some of Pico’s winemakers regrouped, centering their operations around the village of Criacao Velha,     3     high-quality grapes could still be grown.     4     only around 10 percent of Pico’s original vineyards have been restored (恢复), the appellation of origin has earned some of the country’s top wine honors.

    1     (locate) in the northeast of the Tibetan Highland, Qinghai Lake is usually No. 1 on “Most Beautiful Lakes in China” list. It has very different scenery in different seasons. In spring, the surrounding mountains and wetlands take on a fresh green look with     2    (colour) flowers and white snow. In summer and autumn, the lake     3     (decorate) with golden clothing, as thousands of hectares (公顷) of rape flowers spread out from Qinghai Lake’s shores. In winter, snow and ice cover the surface of the lake, and the lake becomes quiet.

Ink as one of the Four Treasures of the Study (brush, ink, paper and inkstone), is a    1     (necessary) in Chinese painting and calligraphy. Ink is     2     (typical) produced from an ink stick with a little water. Ink stick, the solid form of ink, can last much longer than the liquid variety and is easier     3     (transport). The most famous ink sticks in China are the Hui Ink Sticks produced in Anhui Province. The Hui Ink Sticks use pine wood     4     its main raw ingredient,     5     is then mixed with another about 20 different materials. The manufacturing procedure includes lighting the smoke, blending the materials together, pressing the ink sticks, drying by airing, filling the margin     6     boxing them up. The ink produced from these sticks is shiny black. For centuries, the Hui Ink Sticks     7     (produce) through the traditional methods.     8     simple and single, ink sticks are essential in Chinese calligraphy and painting,     9     (present) the splendid artistic conceptions to people. What’s more, ink sticks make it possible that modern people today still can appreciate the masterpieces     10     (create) tens of centuries ago.

New York City is a city that     1     (lie) at the mouth of the Hudson River, southeastern New York State. It is     2     (official) called the City of New York. The city has five parts: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island — each having its own lifestyle.     3     (move) from one city to the next may be like passing from one country to     4    .

For the past two     5     (century), New York City has been the largest and     6     (busy) American city. Over half the people and goods that ever entered the U.S. in the past came through its port (港口). New York City means     7     (possible) because it is always on its way to something better. However, it has also become a goal for international terrorism (恐怖主义). The World Trade Center,     8     had been the most important symbol of the city for 30 years,     9     (attack) on September 11, 2001. Whatever happens, New York City is a place that provides people     10     all kinds of food, languages, and experiences.

There’s a rarely-visited, dusty corner of the world where something magical happens. The place, which looks like Mars with its red rock landscape, is the Tatacoa Desert, in Colombia.

Tatacoa is located in the region of Huila, south of the country’s capital Bogotá. Although Tatacoa, with its protruding cacti and red rippled rocks, is called a desert, it is in fact a dry tropical forest. But the exciting, and very     1    , feature of this desert, is what happens above it, at night.

Thanks to its remote location — it’s almost 30 miles and an hour’s drive over bumpy winding roads to the nearest town — Tatacoa has no light pollution to     2     with the night sky.

Up to 88 constellations (星座) are visible on a clear night, as well as both hemispheres — something that happens nowhere else in the world.

The warm and dry climate helps with stargazing; a     3     atmosphere, which happens in dry spots or places of high elevation, decreases something called scintillation, which is when a star’s light rises and falls rapidly. It’s why stars twinkle, which looks beautiful but isn’t so great for astronomers.

Not only is Tatacoa a natural wonder, but the DIY observatory that’s run by a Colombian man named Javier Fernanda Rua Restrepo has become a star     4     too. In fact, this humble building attracts stargazers from all over the world, from China to Iceland to Australia. And Restrepo has also become well-known in astronomer circles, with a few scientists     5     their own telescopes to support the grassroots observatory.

The Colombian, who is     6     from Cali, fell in love with the stars thanks to his father’s interest in astronomy and science, and first visited Tatacoa in 1997, to try to see the Comet Hale-Bopp. He stayed for a couple of days before heading back to his hometown. But within a month, he returned to Tatacoa — and never left, camping out for weeks on end     7     for the night to come so that he could watch the stars.

At first Restrepo had worked at the Colombian government’s observatory, which he helped staff for 15 years. But after budget cuts meant he lost his job, he figured he would     8     build his own.

In 2015, Restrepo opened the doors to his observatory — Tatacoa Astronomia — with just one telescope. Now, as Colombia has grown in     9     as a tourist destination, hundreds flock to Restrepo’s star party, which he holds once a year in July.

Tatacoa Astronomia is only open on starry nights, and Restrepo remains the sole employee. But that doesn’t distract from the intimacy and the specialness of the place. The structure sits on a small patch of land that Restrepo bought himself, and is cordoned (隔离) off by tarpaulin (油布) to add an extra sense of     10     and intrigue (阴谋) for visitors.

“The stars… they put my life into its tiny perspective,” he says, “and they constantly remind me there are greater things out there.”