1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The Last of Shanghai’s Historic Shikumen Houses

As Shanghai’s booming population move into new apartment towers, the city’s historic Shikumen courtyard houses are struggling to survive.

New Zealand photographer Cody Ellingham’s “Shanghai Streets” series explores the colonial-era lanehouses, now     1     (tear) down for new housing developments at a rapid speed.     2    (build) between the end of the 19th century and World War II, these buildings took influence from traditional Chinese hutongs and colonial French and British Art Deco architecture. Neighborhoods of shikumen, with narrow and pedestrian-friendly streets,     3    (make) up an estimated 60 percent of the city’s housing stock at their peak.

But in the 1990s, Shanghai started to favor tall apartment buildings     4    (keep) up with the city’s fast-growing population. “I really felt     5     they were waiting in the shadow of the encroaching (入侵) skyscrapers,” Ellingham said when he was photographing the houses. Shikumen are barely holding on in Laoximen; in areas like Tianzifang and Xintiandi, redevelopment projects have tried to turn the historic buildings into tourist attractions.     6     some preservation efforts, many residences have already been erased.

“At one location near Laoximen, an entrance was left open, so I popped my head in and saw a local     7     was smoking cigarette amongst the ruins inside and talking into his phone,” Ellingham said. “I walked in and nodded to him. How many places like this had I seen?”

Demolitions (拆除) aren’t systematic --- families continue to live in neighborhoods where empty buildings or rubble are everywhere to be seen. “The only clue to their presence     8     be a light on at night time, or the sounds of cooking or television,     9     the rest of the area is bathed in silent darkness,” Ellingham said.

The photos’ cool blue and purple tones     10    (mean) to highlight the contrast between old and new, and reflect how the city feels at night.

“Like in all cities, the change does not seem apparent until it is too late,” said Ellingham.