Books are the most valuable intellectual wealth of humanity. However, there are quantities of ancient Chinese     1     (classic) suffering from different degrees of damage due to various reasons. This led to the     2     (emerge) of the profession of ancient book restorers. “People call us the ‘ancient book doctors’,” said Yang Mingli,     3     ancient book restorer at the Wuhan Library in Hubei province.“I really like this name, and our     4     (young) ‘patient’ is at least 100 years old.”

Yang started off in the library     5     (work) in reader service and data entry for ancient books. In 2012, she     6     (voluntary) requested to further her studies in the ancient book restoration skills courses offered by the China National Centre for the Preservation and Conservation of Ancient Books. Since then, she     7     (go) on to become a full-time restorer for the next 10 years and has restored about 10,000 pages of ancient books.

The fragments (碎片) of the book range in size, with the smallest being only a few millimetre     8     length. “It could disappear with just one blow,” she joked. The primary causes of illness     9     (see) in damaged ancient books are aging, acidity (酸性), fire, and other factors,     10     may bring about easily broken pages as well as deterioration (变质) and yellowing of the paper. In some cases, the pages of the book could be completely stuck together as solid as a brick

The Chinese New Year, beginning on Feb.10, 2024, will be the Year of the Dragon. In Chinese culture, the dragon is     1     mythological (神话的) animal. It represents beauty, good fortune, pride and     2     (honest).

China Philately, a well-known stamp company, always makes efforts     3     (promote) Chinese culture and share Chinese art and culture     4     (global) through stamps and souvenirs. So as usual, it     5     (launch) a series of postage stamps and souvenirs    6     (feature) a variety of dragon patterns on January 2, 2024 in Beijing to mark the coming of the new year. New issues include an album of all the albums of this year and an album of selected stamps over the past four decades.

Gold plates, silver coins, and bracelets,     7     (decorate) with color stones and fur toys and combining traditional and modern elements, are provided for collectors of varying ages. Pop culture themes     8    enjoy a large base of youngster fans have also been integrated into the design of this year’s     9     (collection), such as the Minions and Panghu, the cartoon tiger.

The launching ceremony ended     10     a fashion show presented by children wearing clothes designed with dragon themes and displaying new souvenirs.

3 . The first word on an ancient Roman scroll carbonized by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 C.E. has recently been decoded, opening the door to eventually decoding the rest of the texts which haven’t been read in the past 2,000 years.

The scroll, along with some 800 scrolls unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, looks more like a burnt log. It’s so fragile (易碎的) that it would fall apart if researchers tried to unroll it. Early attempts to unroll and read it caused irreversible (不可逆的) damage and no such attempts have been made since the 19th century.

Brent Seales, a computer scientist from the University of Kentucky has been perfecting CT scan technology to see what’s inside the scrolls without actually touching them, a process he calls “virtual unwrapping”. Because commonly the ink contains metal, it can be seen on Seales’ CT scans. Unfortunately, the Herculaneum scrolls were written in carbon-based ink made from charcoal (木炭) and water. When Seales scanned them, nothing appeared to the naked eye.

Earlier this year, Seales’ team launched “the Vesuvius Challenge”, encouraging people to use AI to further explore researchers’ scans. In early August, a contestant called Casey Handmer got a reward of $10,000 for being “the first person to find substantial, convincing evidence of ink within the unopened scrolls.” As a follow-up, a 21-year-old computer science student Luke Farritor drew inspiration from his discovery and created a machine-learning algorithm (算法) that identified ten clear letters spelled as the English word “purple”, marking the first dive into an unopened ancient book.

These discoveries are critical steps toward decoding the remaining unopened scrolls. “Some 95 percent of the material from this important philosophical periods of humanity is lost,” says Robert Fowler, a classicist at the University of Bristol. “Recovering them would transform our knowledge of the ancient world in ways we can hardly imagine. The impact could be as great as the rediscovery of manuscripts during the Renaissance,” he adds.

Next Tuesday, September 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate(海盗)Day. It     1    (create)by John Baur and Mark Summers. They had     2     idea when one of them fell down during a racquetball game and shouted, “Arrr!”. In 2002, Dave Barry, the humor columnist, publicized the sound     3     it soon caught on across the country.

Some people have wondered in recent years, “How true does this funny noise sound like the pirate speech?”

“It’s far from true, “says Molly Babel, Professor of Arts and Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. “But there are some     4    (point)that carry through.”

According     5     Professor Babel, many original pirates came from southwest England,     6     “arrr!” was a kind of expression like the“eh?” of Canadians. As more pirates joined from all over the world, Pirate English,     7    (base)on the West Country, became a kind of common language for pirates.

Professor Babel     8    (believe)that much of our idea of how pirates spoke dated back to the 1950 Disney film of Treasure Island. Robert Newton, a British actor from the West Country, played Long John Silver, with his theatrical West Country accent. He was also invited     9    (play)Long John Silver in other films.

“The pirate talk is still used and celebrated because it’s expressive, engaging, and     10    (color),” explains Professor Babel.

The old bridge had stood for generations, connecting the two villages across the roaring river. Over time, its weathered timbers and worn stones had become a symbol of resilience, unity, and shared history. People crossed the bridge for daily activities, their footsteps echoing stories of the past. However, with modernization, plans for a new, sleek bridge were introduced to accommodate the increasing traffic and faster-paced lifestyles.

Despite the convenience the new bridge would bring, the villagers faced a dilemma. They couldn’t bear the thought of parting with the old bridge, the embodiment of their heritage. After passionate discussions, they decided to preserve the old bridge as a monument of cultural significance. The new bridge would serve as a testament to progress while the old bridge would stand as a tribute to history.

Years later, tourists from around the world marveled at the harmonious coexistence of tradition and modernity in the village. The old bridge, though retired from active use, continued to bridge the gap between generations, reminding everyone of the importance of honoring the past while embracing the future.

Shuang Jiang, or Frost’s Descent, is the last term of autumn, marking the transition from autumn to winter. Literally, Shuang Jiang refers to the time     1     frost starts to descend in China due to cold weather. In the north, with large fields     2     (do) for the season, farmers can take a break. But in the south, farmers are still busy taking sweet potatoes home before they     3     (destroy) by the coming frost. They must also protect the winter wheat and rape (油菜)     4     major pests and diseases. It is said that Frost’s Descent is the best time to adjust to a nourishing (滋补的) diet and lifestyle. Besides putting on     5     (many) clothes to keep warm, people also eat various fruits to keep healthy. Persimmon (柿子) is the favorite fruit in many areas, which not only wards off the cold,    6     strengthens the muscles and bones.

    7    (additional), honey, jelly fungus (木耳) and sesame (芝麻) are believed to help provide the necessary nutrition for the human body. For protein, chicken or mutton soup is advised to be included in the diet. With golden maple     8     (leaf) turning to red, people often go hiking in nature and enjoy the scenery during this period of time. In the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, people celebrate the Frost’s Descent Festival by     9     (offer) fruits and desserts in addition to dancing and singing folk songs on the day of Frost’s Descent in honor of Cen Yuyin, a heroine who     10     (fight) against foreign aggression in the Ming Dynasty.

With just five weeks before King Charles Ⅲ’s coronation (加冕典礼), workers at Duchess China (瓷器) Factory in the central England city of Stoke-on-Trent     1     (be) busy producing “God Save The King” china teacups and plates     2     (meet) the expected demand for the historic event.

“Duchess China Factory,     3     started producing china tableware in 1888, has struggled in recent years. But this year we’ve received many orders from many countries, including New Zealand, Canada, Australia     4     America,” said Jason Simms, the company’s managing director. “We hope that the coronation will help us to sell our royal souvenirs across the globe.”

The teacups and plates for King Charles Ⅲ’s coronation feature the Union Jack (国旗)     5     (color) of red, white and blue and they are decorated     6     the words “God Save the King”. The chief     7     (design) said he was inspired by the tableware     8     (produce) in the 1930s for the coronation of King George Ⅵ,     9     (Charles) grandfather.

When Charles is crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey on May 6, the ceremony will be the UK’s first coronation since his mother, Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ,     10     (become) queen almost 70 years ago.

10 . In China, tea has become an important part of everyday life for thousands of years. As the tea-processing methods and tea culture have evolved over the years, tea sets have also changed to meet the practical and cultural needs.

During the Tang Dynasty(618~907AD), tea leaves were traded across the country and Asia. For the convenience of transportation and storage, tea leaves were pressed into bricks. To prepare tea, drinkers had to cut them into small pieces and boil them in heat-resistant teapots.

By the Song Dynasty(960-1279), drinkers started to turn the hard bricks into powders (粉末) that could be whipped (搅打) in a cup with boiled water. This whipped tea is most commonly associated with Japanese tea ceremonies today.

By the 1500s, tea bricks gave way to the form of rolled leaves. This innovation led to the invention and use of teapots as we know them today. These teapots originally came from the Yi Xing region of China and were soon copied throughout the world. Then Japanese teapot-makers moved the handle from the side to the top of the teapots.

Tea finally reached Europe in the 1600s, along with the necessary tea sets made in Japan and China. As English teapot-makers began to adapt the tea sets to their country men’s tastes, they eventually added a handle to the tea bowl because of the English habit of drinking hot black tea, which was consumed at higher temperatures. The size of teacups also grew to accommodate milk and sugar in their tea.

By the early 1900s, innovations in tea drinking became an American affair. The most revolutionary one was the tea bag, which was accidentally commercialized by Thomas Sullivan. He had been sending customers tea wrapped in silk bags. Rather than take the leaves out of the bags, as Sullivan intended, the customers put the bags into their teapots instead. Not only did the tea bags push the teapot back to the sidelines of tea service, they were also too large for teacups and led to the modern practice of drinking tea from mugs.