Adrift (漂流) in a Sea of Green

Living in the forest of steel-and-cement structures, urbanites are impatient to embrace nature on weekends. A natural forest in     1     people in Sichuan province tend to spend leisure time is the Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea in Yibin. The 120-square-kilometer Bamboo Sea is the     2     (large) primitive bamboo park in China.

The Bamboo Sea     3     (recognize) as one of the country’s 10 most beautiful forests has served as a popular tourist attraction since scenes from the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon     4     (shoot) there. The bamboo forest got an ecotour rating when it was listed as     5     world-class bamboo reserve in December 2003, the fourth tourism destination in China to get the Green Globe 21 certification, allowing itself     6     (admire) by more people around China and worldwide.

Located in Australia, Green Globe sets the global benchmark (基准) for certification of environmentally friendly tourism sites.       7     (reflect) the principles for sustainable development and based on Agenda 21, the certification was approved by     8     (represent) of 182 countries and regions from around the world during the United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992.

Amazed     9     its vast expanse, Huang Tingjian, a poet from the Song Dynasty (960- 1279), described it as “bamboo waves”. As Huang was an     10    (influence) man of letters, his description gave rise to the forest's popular nickname — the Bamboo Sea.

Hangzhou is recognized as the “City of Well-Being” in China. Hangzhou made its name     1     (know) to the world in 2016 by hosting the G20 Summit.     2     (bless) with pleasant climate and few wars, Hangzhou has gradually formed its own urban character.     3     busy Shanghai, you will slow down and relax once you are here. It seems that Hangzhou people don’t have many things to rush to in their     4     (day) life. No wonder Hangzhou is expanding annually by 500, 000 to 600, 000 people.

The lifestyle, however,     5     (lay) down by two historical men of letters. One was Bai Juyi,     6     rebuilt the West Lake and made a new bank     7     (benefit) the locals. People love him. When it comes to him, it doesn’t sound like one is talking about a person who lived a thousand years ago. The other was Su Shi. His open-minded     8     (personal) and diligence for his people left many much-told tales.     9     (seeming), mentioning his name gives people joy even after a thousand years.

Surely, it is even     10     (brilliant) in 2023 when it hosts the 19^th Asian Games.

4 . Four Places Named After Scientists in Antarctica

There are many scientific breakthroughs made by women in Antarctic. Here are four landmarks in Antarctica and the female pioneers they’re named for.

Jones Terrace (梯田)

The ice-free terrace in eastern Antarctica’s Victoria Land bears Jones’ name. In 1969, geochemist Lois M. Jones led the first all-female research team from the U.S. to work in Antarctica. Jones and her team studied chemical weathering in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an ice-free area of Antarctica. Through chemical analyses of rocks they had collected, Jones and her team discovered many geochemical characteristics of the valley’s ice-covered lakes.

Mount Fiennes

8,202-foot-high Mount Fiennes, located on Antarctica’s largest island — Alexander Island — is named for Ginny Fiennes. She established and maintained 80-foot-tall radio towers in the Antarctic. In 1985, Fiennes became the first female who was invited to join the Antarctic Club, a British supper club open to individuals who have spent extended time in the Antarctic region.

Francis Peak

The 3,727-foot-tall peak on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island is named after Dame Jane Francis, who is the first female director of the British Antarctic Survey, the national polar research institute of the UK. Her collection of fossils on Seymour Island helped conclude in a 2021 paper that Antarctica’s abundant plant fossils indicate the continent once had a much warmer climate than it currently does.

Peden Cliffs

Peden Cliffs near Antarctica’s Marie Byrd Land are proof of the labor of Irene Peden. She was the first American female scientist to both live and work in the Antarctic, where she used radio waves to study ice sheets. Peden and her team determined how very low frequency radio waves spread over long polar distances by measuring pathways in the ice. They also used varying radio wave frequencies to measure the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets.

7 . Standing on the shore of a lake, I can’t help but feel surprised at the thousands of small rocks that surround my boots. They were all created from _________ surfaces, their edges softening over time. I wonder, “Can we learn from a pile of rocks?”

Even the tallest mountains have _________; none are as tall as they were 1,000 years ago. And much like a rock, I’ve found my _________ has softened and my desire to better understand others has expanded with each trip around the sun.

_________, I was also a sharp rock covered in pointy edges. Today, after decades of the waters of life coursing over me, my edges are softer and I’m more _________. I’m less likely to judge and more interested in learning how we can _________ together.

But I’m not a _________. I’m a human filled with all the drama built into my DNA.

Two years ago, while traveling in the Pacific Northwest, I watched a restaurant owner ask several young men to _________ for not wearing masks. Not _________ and not rude. On the door read a sign, “Please wear a mask before entering our restaurant. We don’t like it either, but let’s all do what we can to __________ this together.”

The group of young men wanted to __________ about the note. I sat at the restaurant watching, understanding both sides. I’ve been one of them before, using my youthful edges to chip away at (削弱) the world. What I lost, __________, was the ability to grow from __________ by looking through the eyes of others. In learning to be more __________, I’ve also found more happiness and success.

You can fit more rounded rocks in a jar than those with sharp edges. The former look for ways to __________ and make room for others, while the latter never give an __________ to accommodate others.

__________, like the waters rolling against once sharp stones, changes us by washing away our resistance to __________ the world from someone else’s point of view.

I placed a __________ stone into my jacket pocket. Mother Nature is holding a __________ again.

Are you impressed by the mountains in Avatar? The real ones are in Zhangjiajie. For those who love nature, Zhangjiajie is a must. Zhangjiajie National Park is now     1     UNESCO World Heritage site, one that has seen tourism boom, stimulating economic     2       ( grow), and providing a lot of job     3     (opportunity) for the locals. Over the years, the rock caves and karst (喀斯特) formations     4     (lead) people to call it a “fairyland”.

The park has thick forests, deep canyons, unusual peaks, caves, and pillar-like (像柱子似的) rock formations blanketed throughout the park. These pillar-like rock formations are what the park is famous for around the world. One of the fastest and most     5     (effort) ways to experience the area is by     6     (ride) up the world’s tallest outdoor elevator. The 326-meter-tall glass Bailong Elevator     7     (build) onto the side of a cliff at the start of this century and offers amazing views of the park.

Many endangered species of animals and plants can be found there,     8     inspired the Chinese government to begin conservation efforts     9     (protect) the landscape of Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie is also home     10     the world’s tallest bungee jump as well as the famous Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge — which is the highest and the longest glass bridge of its kind.

10 . Lakes that are called seas

People are always full of imagination to the deep and mysterious sea. However, the waters known as the sea are not always the endless seas we remember, but may also be beautiful or magnificent lakes.

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is an inland lake that lies to the north of Uzbekistan and to the south of Kazakhstan. Aral occupied a vast area of about 68, 000 square km for a long period of time, but its area has been constantly reducing over the past two centuries and today it’s believed to be less than 10% of its original size.

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is located between Israel and Jordan in the Jordan Rift Valley. It is actually a salt lake and one of the world’s most salty water bodies. The elevation (海拔) of the Dead Sea’s shores is the lowest and it also enjoys the little of being the world's deepest hypersaline lake. The high salinity (含盐量), of the Dead Sea means it does not support life, hence the name.

Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake with “sea” in its name. It is the second-lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea with the surface elevation ranging from 705 feet to 686 feet below sea level. The Jordan River is the primary source of water for the Sea of Galilee. Underground springs also feed water to the lake.

Erhai Lake

Erhai in Yunnan Province, China, at 1, 972 meters above sea level, covering an area of 250 square kilometers, is one of the seven biggest freshwater lakes in China. It means “sea shaped like an ear” in Chinese. Erhai is reputed as “Pear of Plateau”.