One of the most popular city walk routes in Shanghai is Fuxing Road in the downtown area of the city. With trees     1     (give) shade from the sunlight, the street is home to many historic buildings of special     2     (significant) to China. Among them is the former residence (宅第) of a famous Chinese architect.

Zhuang Jun (1888-1990),     3     name was also spelt as Chuang Tsin, was one of the first professional architects in modern China, and     4     (create) a series of landmark buildings in Shanghai and other major cities across the country. He also compiled (编写) the first English-Chinese dictionary of architectural engineering terms in     5     1950s.

The residence was designed by himself and constructed in 1921.     6     (locate) at 45 Fuxing Road West in Xuhui District, it is a brick-concrete three-storey garden house. It occupies a long and narrow L-shaped area of 306 square meters, consisting     7     two sets of units. The outer wall is light yellow, while the corners     8     (decorate) with tooth-shaped red bricks. Two fireplaces were built in the sitting room     9     the guest room.

Zhuang and his family lived in the house for decades and he died there in 1990. The house was listed as a     10     (culture) relic preservation site of Xuhui District in 2017. Today it is still a private residence and visitors can only appreciate it from the outside.

2 . Combining a vertical (竖的，直立的) farm and office space into a single 51-storey idea out of Chinese tales, an Italian architect is completing the Shenzhen skyline with a shocking farmscraper (农场摩天楼).

Jian Mu Tower was designed for a leading Chinese supermarket to be a place where renter can grow, sell, buy, or consume produce in the same place they work.

Lying in the south Chinese city of Shenzhen, the Turin-based Carlo Ratti Associati Company has showed plans to build a 650-foot tower in which 100,000 square feet of the glass outside (外墙) is used to produce food — 590,000 pounds of it per year, which would also contain around a million square feet for office space, a supermarket, gardens, and food court (美食街).

Hydroponic (水栽法的) gardening involves using nutrient-rich water rather than soil, and allows plants to be grown in tubes piled up vertically. Working with ZERO, an Italian-based company that specializes in new approaches to agriculture, Jian Mu’s farm is made full use of to produce everything from salad greens to fruits, while remaining efficient and sustainable. An AI scientist would watch most of the hydroponic systems, water and nutrients, planning planting and harvest cycles, and other matters.

“Small-scale urban farming is happening in cities all over the world — from Paris to New York to Singapore. Jian Mu Tower, however, takes it to the next level,” writes Ratti, who is also a professor at MIT. “Such approach has the potential to play a major role in the design of future cities, as it engages in one of today’s most urgent architectural challenges: How to integrate the natural world into building design.”

The recent hit in China is all about Harbin, Helongjiang. Numerous netizens have expressed their longing for this northern ice city,     1     (enthusiastic) declaring, “Harbin, I’m coming!”

Among those highlights,     2     journey of 11 kids from Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has melted hearts across the Internet. Chinese netizens have been eagerly following their adventures online.

Fondly (深情地)     3     (describe) as “Little Tangerines (柑橘)” for their orange-colored coats, the kids also visited China’s northernmost town,     4     they sang the national anthem. The firefighters there had prepared snow sculptures and snowmen, eagerly expecting the     5     (arrive) of the “Little Tangerines”. Mr. Liang, the leader of the group, confirmed their coming in Mohe.

This study tour, under the spotlight of the entire Internet,     6     (draw) a lot of attention. The parents are grateful for the concern shown by netizens and the care provided by friends in the Northeast China. They feel more     7     ease with everyone’s collective support.

    8     was reported that the residents organized a fleet of about 300 private vehicles,     9     (provide) free rides to tourists. Despite the city’s freezing climate, its residents work diligently     10     (create) a warm environment for their guests.

4 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess (过度的) energy use, disrupted (扰乱) biodiversity or the heat island effect.

The 236, 806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.

The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces (之字形梯田) of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds, The excess water is directed into four storage ponds — with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.

The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grown crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted (把……制成堆肥) to fertilize the farm, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.

The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability curriculum. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and so on,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”

Li Zhuang, an ancient village located by Yantze river     1     over 1000 years of history, is the birthplace of Yan from Inkston. However, due to     2     (politic) reasons, the village was “hidden” from Chinese history till early 21st century.

    3     (consider) as a museum of traditional Chinese architecture, Li Zhuang has over 40 temples built between Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, the village plays     4    important role in traditional Chinese architecture history and has attracted many architects. The History of Chinese Architecture,    5     was written by famous architects Liang SiCheng and Lin HuiYin, referred to many ancient buildings in Li Zhuang. For example, Luo Xuan Dian built in 1596 was a     6     (complete) wood-structured temple, a perfect example of traditional Chinese building structures.

In 1940s, when Japan was invading China, this village made a great decision to invite top Chinese universities that had no place     7     (move) to. Suddenly this small village attracted over 12,000 scholars and students. During 1940s, quite a few academic achievements     8     (make) in Li Zhuang.

In the recent ten years, this ancient village     9     (arise) in Chinese official history. Though it is still quiet and calm, soon it will attract numerous     10     (tourist). I hope tourism will not disturb the calm and beauty and more people will know what was happening here in the 20th century.

6 . We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda. Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a(n) ________ while it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was pleasant, and we had a rental car and a ________ schedule ahead around the country, expecting that we could ________ as many places as possible during the holiday.

However, just within a few days, we had a car accident at a park. I lost ________ of the car, and it rolled over, ________ windows, the frame and the engine.

________. we were alive! My right arm was severely ________, but we managed to reach a nearby American hospital in Masindi. However, we were asked to stay in town for a few more days owing to my ________.

In the duration, we were amazed to find that Masindi is such a(n) ________ town that we can’t resist to ________ our paces. Hence the ________ of our stay were the market and our daily visit to the hospital. We looked for delicate goods, ________ with medical staff, hotel staff and the people in the market, and learned more about their custom.

Before our ________ , we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. Then we focused on ________ its unique nature and people. What a journey for experience and ________!

8 . Summer is always a busy travel season, but even at peak times like July, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see lots of hotels with No Vacancy (空房) signs. More and more travelers are choosing instead to stay in vacation rentals: decorated private houses, rooms, or apartments that only you and your party share for the period of your stay. Or you can get adventurous and book a cabin, a tree house, a houseboat, or even a castle.

The idea appeared in 2007, when Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, the owners of a hotel, realizing that a San Francisco tech meeting would make hotel rooms in the area harder to come by, let travelers sleep on air mattresses (充气床垫) in their apartment for a fee. They called it Air Bed and Breakfast, and the company—now known as Airbnb—is worth almost $100 billion today and has six million listings worldwide.

More space is a major attraction of this accommodation (住宿): the average hotel room measures just 330 square feet, while the average vacation rental room tops 1,300. And in 20 of the largest U. S. cities, average daily rates are comparable to (or slightly lower than) those of hotels.

If you’re willing to share your own digs while you’re away, Love Home Swap pairs you with like-minded travelers for stays in each other’s homes for a membership fee as low as $ 11 per month. If you’d like to list your home, check your local zoning laws, as some areas have strict rules on short-term rentals. In parts of Honolulu, a new law taking effect in October will up the minimum stay to 90 days.

9 . Standing on a hill at Cliveden Gardens on a sunny winter day, its dark-green lake surrounded by centuries-old trees took my breath away.     1     It’s just a local park near London that I’d never heard of during my eight years living in the UK. As I admired the serene garden, it taught me a lesson about the British culture of understatement.

“The English landscape is more beautiful because its beauty is understated,” my friend Will said to me later as we walked through an exhibition at Tate Britain. He pointed to a painting of a peaceful countryside. “This is the landscape I grew up with”, he said. Unlike grand waterfalls or wild forests, this scenery doesn’t shout about its beauty.     2    

I wonder if Chinese tourists will explore beyond London.     3     Indeed, Oxford and Cambridge and the beloved Lake District National Park are some iconic symbols of Britain. But it would be a pity if they miss out on the lesser-known parts of the English landscape.

    4     I remember a straight-A classmate once telling me he “survived exams” and another friend from Oxford introducing himself as “studying in the countryside”. This modesty also has its mirror in Chinese culture. I remember my parents’ telling me to work hard but not to brag about my achievements. Chinese culture is full of proverbs such as “real gold will shine sooner or later”, to encourage long-term dedication to one’s chosen area of expertise.

Experiencing both cultures, I’ve realized that the English and Chinese both express achievements with understatement.     5     It reflects the unspoken charm in both British and Chinese traditions. And it’s an off-the-beaten-path attraction well worth exploration.