Mount Everest, which is part of China,     1     (lie) between Nepal and Tibet. On Tuesday, Nepal and China made a surprising     2     (announce) on the height of the world’s highest mountain. After years of not reaching an agreement on the mountain’s height, both sides have measured again and discovered it’s higher    3    anyone thought.

Sir George Everest, after     4     the mountain is named, was the main surveyor (测量员) of India in the mid-1800s. Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian man who worked for Mr. Everest, was the first     5     (realize) it was the highest mountain in the world. He     6     (exact) calculated the height as being 29,000 feet. But Mr. Sikdar’s boss added two feet to the height because he was afraid people wouldn’t trust     7     round number like 29,000.

But the height most people have been using for Mount Everest came from a 1955 survey     8     (conduct) by India, which put the mountain’s height at 29,029 feet   (8,848 meters) . Since that time, other attempts     9     (make) to measure the mountain, each coming up with a different result.

Last year, four surveyors from Nepal climbed Mount Everest and made new measurements, using GPS and satellite information. And in May, China sent up     10     (it) own team of surveyors, who were the only ones to climb Mount Everest this year. Working together to determine the mountain’s exact height, the two countries announced the new height: 29,031.7 feet (8,848. 86 meters).

People say that the real culture of Beijing lies in the culture of hutong and siheyuan. The hutongs     1    (form) by lines of siheyuan, which is a type of residence     2     houses are purposely built to form squares or rectangles (长方形) in order to create a type of     3    (tradition) courtyard. In the mid 20th century, several hutongs in Beijing had been torn down     4    (pave) way for the development of infrastructure (基础设施).     5    , thanks to efforts designed to safeguard this significant aspect of the Chinese architectural culture, many hutongs have been preserved.

Because of the interlacement (交织) of the lanes, every house is connected to the other,     6    (make) it easy for local people to keep     7     touch with their neighbors. Therefore, once one enters any of the lanes, one can feel the deep and warm relationships among people, which are     8    (rare) found in this modern world.

In the twisted lanes one can experience the life of the locals. It is just like a community. These    9    (lane) have witnessed the development of Beijing. Where there is such a lane, there is a story. If one wants to explore the culture and experience Beijing hutong food and hutong shopping,     10     hutong tour should not be missed.