Yellow River Valley is the birthplace of ancient Chinese     1    （civilize）, and for that reason the Yellow River is often called "Mother River." The valley     2    （surround）the principal river of northern China and is at the center of thousands of years of Chinese history. It is called the Yellow River     3     its waters carry soil, which gives the river     4    （it）yellow-brown color, and when the river overflows, it leaves a yellow residue（残留）behind. While the river helps create fertile land that is suitable     5     farming, during certain times of the year the Yellow River frequently overflows. The water damages     6    （house）and crops across the North China Plain, an important     7    （agriculture）region. For thousands of years, the Chinese have carried out major public work projects     8    （control）the water from the Yellow River. Despite the possibility of flooding, many of China's cities,     9    （situate）along the river, are growing increasingly in the valley,     10     have become the center of Chinese culture, society, and learning.

If you live in northeastern China, you expect long, cold winters. People     1    (live) in Harbin don’t just stand the cold, however, they welcome it. The city is home to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival,    2    is considered to be the largest ice festival in the world. Even with temperatures usually close to zero, thousands of people head to city parks     3    (see) great ice sculptures, many bathed in colored lights.

The festival includes several thousand ice sculptures. Some of these works are the recreations of castles, historic landmarks and famous people, lit up at night in bright colors. There     4    (visitor) can climb ice stairways and go down ice slides (滑坡). They can also take part    5    sporting events, including skating, ice football     6    well as ice swimming.

The city started     7    (it) icy event in 1963 with the Ice Lantern Garden Party, a     8    (celebrate) of the tradition of creating lanterns out of blocks of ice. The larger festival     9    (begin) in 1985 and added sculptures, which have grown in number and size over the years. As it has gotten bigger, the festival has become popular outside the city.    10    (official), the festival starts on January 5th and lasts over one month.

6 . When you think of the Arctic, you imagine an icy land of pure white snow, which is considered to be the last really clean place     1    (leave) on Earth. Yet plastic trash has now reached the remote regions of the Arctic and the Alps. A team of     2    (scientist) has discovered large quantities of microplastics(微塑料) — very small pieces of plastic waste — in the Arctic snow. While microplastics have been found in sea-water, drinking water, and even in animals over     3     past several years, this is the first study to show microplastics in snow,     4     indicates it is an airborne pollutant that must be paid attention to.

The researchers state that microplastics in snow suggest that microplastics may be in the air that we     5    (breath). Therefore, it is really important     6    (assess) if microplastics also reach lung tissues.

Previous research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans,     7    (damage) ecosystems along the way. They start in our wastewater, when we wash clothes     8     plastic fibers. The wastewater then flows into rivers and out to sea, where they     9    (eat) by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we’re     10    (probable) eating the plastic as well.

China’s Liangzhu Archaeological Site     1    (declare) on the list of World Heritage sites on Saturday by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee during its 43^rd session in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The site,     2    is located in Yuhang District in Hangzhou City in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province, showcases the civilization of prehistoric rice agriculture between 3,300 B.C.     3     2,300 B.C. The ruins of ancient Liangzhu city were discovered in 2007, and then large dam sites     4    (surround) the Liangzhu ancient city were unearthed continuously after 2009. It was     5     (official) submitted to UNESCO in 2019, hoping to win     6     (recognize) as a World Cultural Heritage Site. The site     7     (include) archaeological remains and unearthed cultural relics of the Liangzhu Ancient City as well as a wetland that covers     8     area of 908. 89 hectares in a plain river network. It is also found that the Liangzhu ancestors started to use characters about 5 ,000 years ago, 1 ,000 years     9     (early) than previously thought, according to Colin Renfrew, a retired professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

The World Heritage Committee added Liangzhu to the UNESCO list    10     (encourage) better protection of the site, considered to be of “outstanding universal value” to humanity.