It definitely feels good     1     (be) back in San Francisco again. In 1906 a big earthquake    2     (strike) the city. Amazingly, it was able to rebuild itself.     3     (locate) on top of big hills, many beautiful old buildings offered great views of the city, the ocean, and the Golden Gate Bridge. There is the Mission District near downtown, one of the     4     (old) parts of the city. Many of the people living here are from Mexico or Central America. This district used to be a poor area of town, but is now a centre for art, music, and food. An art movement that started here     5     (call) the “Mission School”.     6     (walk) around and looked at the street art for a few hours, she ate some delicious Mexican-Chinese noodles for lunch. In the afternoon, Li Lan headed to a local museum,     7    she learned a lot about the history of California. In 1848, gold     8     (discover) near San Francisco, which made over 300,000 people from all over the world rush here     9     (seek) their fortune. The museum did a really good job of showing     10    America was built by immigrants from different countries and cultures.

After breakfast, I pack my bag and set     1    again. Since I must carry all of my food and supplies with me, my bag weighs about 30 kilograms. If today is anything like yesterday, it will be full of sweat and hard work as I hike over this difficult land to my destination on the other side of the valley. However, I cannot complain.     2    (be) in such a beautiful and wild place makes me feel     3     (bless) to be alive. Here I am, alone under this broad sky, breathing the fresh air, and enjoying this great adventure. What could be better?

Li Daiyu and her cousin Liu Qian went to Canada to pay     1     visit to their cousins in Halifax on the Atlantic coast. They flied to Vancouver on the Pacific coast and decided     2     (cross) the whole country by train. Then they took the train to Lake Louise     3     they saw the blue water which literally took their breath     4     with its exceptional beauty. Later, the train ran north to Jasper. On the way they enjoyed the spectacular mountain peaks and forests, seeing many different creatures     5     (include) deer, mountain goats and so on. From Jasper, they caught the train towards Toronto. One of the train’s first steps was in Edmonton, the centre of Canada’s huge oil and gas drilling industry, where there is also one of the     6     (large) shopping malls in North America. From Edmonton, the train     7     (head) southeast across the great Canadian Prairie, going through two wheat-growing provinces. They didn’t anticipate seeing such an open country, and were truly    8     (amaze).

After another day on the train, they arrived at Winnipeg. The train thundered on and they found the bushes and maple trees outside their windows were red, gold and orange.     9     (final), they reached Toronto. In a word, their trip from Vancouver to Toronto     10     (take) a duration of four days.

A short video showing a member of the cleaning staff at the Summer Palace in Beijing explaining Buddhist scenic spots drew a lot of traffic on different social media platforms recently, with netizens     1     (impress) by his mastery of traditional Chinese culture.

In the video, the worker, Zhang Xu, 40, explains the cultural connotations of the sites     2     several tourists, who were doing research. What makes it special is his recitation of a list of dozens of Buddhist sites, which are hard     3     (pronounce). He speaks with such ease and confidence     4     it seems he is doing a tongue twister. People thought he must be a tour guide or expert,     5     he was wearing the uniform of a janitor and holding a broom. After his     6     (explain), Zhang smiled and returned to his work as though nothing had happened. The video,     7     was posted by the researchers on social media platforms on Oct 7. immediately became a trending topic online. Zhang was even given the name of “the most powerful cleaning monk” by netizens, one of the     8     (character) in Louis Cha’s (金庸) novel Tianlong Babu.

Devoted to     9     (study) books on ancient architecture in his spare time, Zhang said “it’s just a hobby and all I wanted is to help the tourists who seemed puzzled.” He     10     (join) the cleaning staff at the palace in late 2021 and walks about 40,000 steps inside the palace every day, so he knows a lot about it.

Yueyang Tower is     1     ancient Chinese tower on the shore of Lake Dongting. It is one of the Three Great Towers of Jiangnan. Yueyang Tower became famous for Memorial to Yueyang Tower (《岳阳楼记》)  written by Fan Zhongyan,     2     was an excellent officer of the northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in China.    3     (lie) on the city wall of the west gate of the ancient city in Yueyang City, Hunan province, China, Yueyang Tower faces Junshan Island and     4     (overlook) Dongting Lake, being extremely beautiful and     5     (impress). Since ancient times, it     6     (enjoy) the good fame that Dongting Lake is the     7     (good) among lakes, and Yueyang Tower is incomparable among towers. It is the only ancient     8     (build) with a helmet (盔) roof structure in China. Before the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Yueyang Tower was     9     (main) used for the military purpose. After the Tang Dynasty,     10     gradually became a famous scenic spot in which men of letters chanted poetry and wrote fu.

I recently visited Beijing with my parents and younger brother. We had     1     wonderful time on the two-day tour we arranged through the Beijing Forbidden City travel agency.

On the morning of July 11^th, the day after we arrived in Beijing, our guide Miss Wu took us to visit the Ming Tombs. We spent about an hour     2     (look) around the tombs. Then we visited a factory producing     3     (tradition) cloth shoes. They were really beautiful, and it was fun to see how the products     4    (make). My mother even bought two pairs of cloth shoes. After leaving the factory, we were taken to a restaurant     5     served delicious Beijing roast duck. After lunch, we headed to Badaling Great Wall. We took a car up the hill and got onto the wall at the top. The walking on Badaling Great Wall took     6     (we) two hours. The views from the wall were just     7     (amaze). That hike was a bit tiring,     8     it was my favorite part of the tour.

The next morning, we went to see the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, the main Olympic stadiums which was built     9     the 2008 Olympic Games. In the afternoon, we were taken to see the Forbidden City, which was one of the most famous     10     (attraction). It was huge, so we spent the whole afternoon there.

It has been reported that     1     31st FISU World University Games came to a close on Tuesday night in Chengdu, Sichuan Province,     2    (win) wide praise from officials and athletes alike. Declaring the games closed, Leonz Eder, acting president of the International University Sports Federation, said the event has made the dreams of student-athletes come true     3     they have won medals or not, because their experience in the city has been gold medal standard.

The closing ceremony was held at the Chengdu Open Air Music Park. It is the first time in the world that the closing ceremony of a large international sporting event     4    (hold) in a park, according to the organizers of the games. “It was aimed     5    (leave) the audience worldwide with fond memories of a unique Chengdu, from     6     they got to know China and fell in love with its people,” the organizers said. A total of 6,500 student-athletes from 113     7     (country) and regions competed     8     269 events of 18 sports at the Chengdu games, which opened on July 28.

China     9    (successful) got 103 gold medals, 40 silver medals and 35 bronze medals. Japan was in second place with 21 gold medals. Republic of Korea and Italy both won 17 gold medals and 18 silver medals and ended up in third and fourth places, respectively. During the ceremony, the FISU flag was handed to a     10    (represent) of Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, which will host the next FISU World University Games in 2025.

Mount Tai has been a source of     1     (inspire) for poets and thinkers for thousands of years. Many people like climbing to the top of Mount Tai, no matter    2     challenging the journey is. Confucius once     3     (reach) its top and said there: “Climb Mount Tai and the whole world looks small.” His words express the idea that the higher you climb, the     4     (great) your vision (视野) is. For me, the higher I climbed, the more steps I saw, until finally I got to the steps that led up to the cable car (缆车) station. Of course, Confucius didn’t take a cable car, but I wasn’t Confucius. I spent two hours climbing steps, and that was enough for me.

We got up at 4 a.m. to position     5     (we) for the sunrise. We were lucky enough    6    (enjoy) a clear sunrise among hundreds of others. After breakfast, we walked for about five hours down the mountain and through Peach Blossom Valley,     7     beautiful walk through pine trees, flowering peach trees,waterfalls and     8     (pool) of water. The green plants up the mountain contribute     9     a unique climb. This valley walk was wonderful for me, not just because there were no steps up. It was peaceful,     10     (allow) me to admire the greater scenery I got.

Li Daiyu and her cousin arrived in Toronto, and they went up the CN Tower and looked across the shores of Lake Ontario. They were     1     (astonish) to see misty clouds rising from the great Niagara Falls,     2     is on the south side of the lake. Around dusk, the girls met Lin Fei, one of Li Daiyu’s mother’s old schoolmates, who     3     (move) to Canada many years earlier.

The train left late that night and arrived in Montreal early the next morning. At the station,     4     contrast to Toronto, they heard people talking in French. They were surprised to see that all the     5     (sign) and advertisements were in French and many people spoke English with     6     accent.

They spent the afternoon in lovely shops and     7     (visit) artists in their workplaces along St Paul Street. That night the train was speeding along the St. Lawrence River towards the Gulf of St Lawrence and down to the     8     (distance) east coast towards the province of Nova Scotia and its     9     (large) city, Halifax. The cousins dreamt     10     (happy) of the beautiful cobblestone streets, old brick buildings, and the red maple leaves of Montreal.