Shanghai’s past and present meet in Xintiandi. Just twenty years ago, Xintiandi was a     1     (crowd) old community of houses known as shikumen, which means “stone gate.” Shanghai’s first shikumen     2     (build) in the mid-nineteenth century to accommodate thousands of refugees.

Construction of shikumen continued during the 1900s. Some were smaller than the     3     (origin) shikumen, while others were larger. At one point, there were almost 9,000 shikumen in Shanghai, and they filled more than half of the city’s housing area. During the 1990s, developers began to pull down aging shikumen and replace them     4     modern skyscrapers. Before long, however, Shanghai’s residents began to realize that the     5     (remain) shikumen were an important part of the city’s heritage and needed     6     (preserve) and restored.

Today, restored shikumen are among the special features of Xintiandi. Their exteriors (外部) open into restaurants, art     7     (gallery), boutiques, bars and cafes, many of     8     are open until late at night. As a result, Xintiandi is one of Shanghai’s     9     (hot) nightlife destinations and a magnet for tourists. As photographer Guo Changyao comments, “In the 21^st century,     10     you don’t go to Xintiandi, then you haven’t seen Shanghai.”

In central China, there is a mysterious forests region. According to Chinese mythology (神话), Shennong, one of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, also known as Yandi, once tested a variety of herbs himself     1     (find) the right one that would save the sick. Another widely circulated tale around the place is that wild men were once spotted.

Legend has it     2     during Shennong’s journey, he came across a steep mountain covered with dense forests. He built a wooden ladder, and climbed up the mountain,     3     (discover) 400 kinds of medicinal herbs. In memory of his contribution to the health of society, the mountain was named Shennongjia, which    4     (literal) means “Shennong ladder.”

Shennongjia     5     (locate) in the northwestern part of Hubei Province, bordering the Yangtze River in the south and facing the Wudang Mountains in the north. It is a place     6     the Daba Mountain Range and the Qinling Mountains meet. It spans     7     area of around 3,250 square kilometers, with the highest peak, the Shennong Peak, reaching 3,106.2 meters in height, and the lowest point, the Shizhu River Valley, only 398 meters     8     sea level.

One of the first things many people learn about Shennongjia     9     (be) the tale of the wild man, but after visiting the area, they find that the pristine (原始状态的) natural landscape and biological    10     (diverse) in that area add more mysteries to this region.

Mount Wutai, located in the northeastern part of Shanxi province, is 230 kilometers away from the provincial capital city Taiyuan. It was named after five peaks that resemble five giant columns (柱子)     1     (rise) straight from the ground. With its high peaks, snow covers for much of the year. Even in midsummer days it remains cool and pleasant,     2     has given rise to another name: Qingliang Mountain as     3     ideal place for escaping summer heat.

Mount Wutai is a     4     (unique) beautiful mountain landscape with a cultural heritage that is at least as     5     (value) as the mountain’s natural beauty.     6     (refer) to as one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China, it is home     7     forty-one monasteries (寺院). Within their walls     8     (be) a rich collection of over 100,000 superb sculptures and paintings, along with a great quantity of Buddhist cultural relics. For example, the east main hall of the Foguang Temple is the highest wooden building in China that     9     (survive) since the Tang Dynasty.

Wutai Mountain displays its outstanding     10     (combine) of the natural landscape and Buddhist culture, religious belief in the natural landscape and Chinese philosophical thinking on the harmony between man and nature.

Before it was brought to New Zealand about a century ago and became world-renowned as kiwifruit, this humble fruit     1     (plant) as “Chinese gooseberry” for almost 1,500 years. Back in its hometown in northwest China, it has brought good     2     (fortunate) to over 120,000 people.

Deng Xiaoqing, a farmer in Baoji city of Shaanxi province, sold out all of this year’s kiwifruit harvest. “The kiwifruit farmers     3     sales goal was completed ahead of schedule this year are enjoying great happiness,” said the     4     (ambition) farmer who was optimistic about the kiwifruit industry in his hometown. The fruit was recorded in China’s ancient medical book, Compendium of Materia Medica during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644),       5     it was cultivated (耕种) in fields and gardens as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The juicy fruits     6     (dry) for one day after being harvested in autumn can be better preserved in the county’s shared cold storage. Stored at a temperature     7     minus one degree Celsius and one degree Celsius, the fresh kiwifruit is kept hydrated (吸水) with automatic sprinklers and sufficient nitrogen.

    8     kiwifruit-themed museum has been set up in the county     9     (display) the fruit’s history and modern industrial development. The local government has teamed up with universities to     10     (far) improve the production efficiency and taste of the fruit.