Wandering sounds, irregular rhythms and a carrier of gentle emotions. This is the musical language of guqin, a plucked seven string instrument created in ancient China.

The earliest piece of guqin in China,     1    (unearth) in Hubei province in 2016, dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. The body of a guqin is made of lacquered wood and the strings of twisted silk.    2     its seemingly simple appearance, making a guqin is extremely demanding.     3     outstanding piece can take anywhere from two to several decades to craft. It is a crystallization of art and time.

The guqin was favored by the literati in ancient China. The most renowned guqin     4    (music) was Yu Boya in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.     5     he played his guqin in the mountains, a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi heard the music and understood exactly     6     Yu wanted to express.

This deep understanding formed a strong bond between them,     7       they became close friends. This is the famous tale behind the guqin masterpiece, Flowing Water, High Mountains. The piece     8    (pass) down through generations and is considered one of the most famous and important     9    (compose) in Chinese guqin music. This graceful dialogue,     10    (flow) from brushed fingertips and travelling for thousands of years, is continuing to this day.

5 . African countries have retrieved some historic relics(遗物), which reflects the important development of human society, from European countries. Recently, Germany signed a deal for the return of hundreds of valuable artworks from the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, in what is today Benin.

But many artifacts(手工艺品) are still unluckily missing and some are on their way back. One is an eight-legged seat from the old kingdom in Uganda. The important artifact now sits at a museum thousands of kilometers away in Britain. The wooden seat is housed at the University of Oxford. It is one of at least 279 relics there taken from the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom.

Apollo John Rwamparo is a leader of Uganda. He really values the country’s cultural relics. He requested the British to return the artifacts. Ugandan leaders are preparing to meet with the University of Cambridge in Britain about the return of such historical artifacts. The school has an unknown number of artifacts from Africa. Through many efforts,an artifact was returned to its home.

The British Museum holds a large collection of artifacts from Africa. Rose Mwanja said she had been trying hard on it and believed it could have some good effects. She is a director of Uganda’s museums. She added she could start with those that are more willing to cooperate.

Many of the artifacts from Africa cannot even be found. That led to an organization started by late Congolese art collector Sindika Dokolo. The organization offers to buy African art from collections in foreign countries, By 2020, when Dokolo died, his group had successfully recovered 15 items. However, for African governments, the recovery of artifacts remains a struggle and will take much time.

7 . I ran into quite a few language problems while vacationing ( 度假) with my family last summer. The most embarrassing was when my Mom apologized to the people we were staying with because her “pants were dirty”. They looked at her in amazement, not knowing how to react. You see, Mom had fallen over and gotten mud on her jeans. But in Britain, “pants” means underpants or knickers( 内裤；衬裤), not trousers as it does back home.

Katie — From America

I went to stay with a friend on the west coast last summer. Her flat was on the first floor of a high-rise building so I got the lift up. Then I wandered round for ages looking for her flat but couldn’t find it. Fed up and tired, I finally had to go out to find a phone box. She explained that her flat was on the first floor, which for me meant the ground floor.

David — From Britain

When I asked for the “restroom” in a big department store, people kept directing me to a room with seats where I could sit and “rest”. It took me years to get through to (使...明白)someone that I only wanted the toilet!

Tom — From America

Last summer we went on a two-week family touring holiday, so Dad hired a car over the Internet. This was an old vehicle and there turned out (结果是；证明是)to be lots of things wrong with it. When he phoned the hire company and tried to explain that the lock on the boot was broken, they thought he was talking about footwear! He had no idea their word for “boot” was “trunk”. In the end we went to a garage and just solved the problem.

Mary — From Britain