A few weeks ago, a friend and I, both travelling in the south of France,     1    (decide) to go to the chocolate festival     2     (call) “Feria du Chocolat” in French. I had     3    fantastic time.

There were stalls (货摊) selling boxes of chocolates, sweets, dessert wines, etc. All the stall owners were very friendly and happy to see the    4     (arrive) of foreigners like us. They explained their methods of    5     (make) chocolate, showed us photos of their factories, and, of course, let us try their products! My friend bought some chocolate cups,    6    I think are great novelties (新鲜事物)- you drink your drink, and then you can eat the chocolate cup !

We then went to a masterclass where we learnt how to make chocolate. I was a little    7    (worry) before the masterclass, as there were only 12 people in a class, and I wasn’t sure if my French would be good enough     8     (understand) everything! Luckily, everyone was     9    (extreme) friendly - the lady next    10    me was making notes of everything we did, so she explained when I didn’t understand. At the end, our class stayed in the room and chatted about how much we were enjoying the day and eating lots of chocolate!

Whenever anyone asks me where my favorite place in China is, I say Dali without hesitation. Dali,     1    (surround) by mountains for hiking and lakes for bicycling around , is the kind of place that everyone likes.

Last year I met a couple of young students I’d known    2     I travelled to Dali, and we agreed     3    (cycle) along the lake in a small town outside of Dali. The lake     4     (it) was pretty easy to cycle around ,     5     flat paths passing through a lot of little villages. While cycling, a woman recommended an hour-long boat ride for about 40 RMB each--a bit expensive but     6     adventure we felt like having, so we paid for it.

In about 20 minutes we witnessed in     7    (excite) how a fisherman fished with his fishing birds. A string was tied around each bird’s neck so that when it dived for fish, it was unable to swallow them. The birds     8     (give) a fish as payment for their service after the fisherman had a satisfactory catch. I’d     9           (previous) read about this fishing method, but it was pretty exciting to see first-hand.

The day finished with a brilliant sunset,     10     I climbed onto a roof to get a photo of.