“Since late July, there have been large-scale and high-intensity high temperatures in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River due to an    1    (normal) strong subtropical high pressure system in the western Pacific,” Chen Tao said. “    2     (base) on our analysis, the system will continue and high temperatures will persist in those regions for the coming two weeks.”

Chen Lijuan, chief forecaster at the National Climate Center said, high temperatures     3    (stay) in many parts of southern China since June. “While this year’s duration of regional high temperatures is set to break the record and become the    4    (hot) year since 1961,” she said. Shanghai,    5    entered its 41st day of temperatures above 35℃ on Sunday, has experienced six days with high temperatures above 40℃ this summer. The city’s temperature hit 40.9℃ on July 13,    6    (equal) the highest temperature in Shanghai since records began in 1873.

Affected by the high temperatures, some areas in the Sichuan basin and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have already experienced drought and may continue or get     7    (bad), said Chen Tao. The high temperature weather has a certain unfavorable impact     8    agricultural production in the southern region, and continuous high temperatures are not     9    (benefit) to the     10    (grow) and development of some crops.

At the Shenshuping base in the Giant Panda National Park, there were 24 new panda babies born in 2021. Zhenzhen, a mother panda, saw her first baby, she     1     (quick) held it in her arms to kiss the newborn baby. And fresh bamboo leaves     2     (prepare) for her in the pen (围栏). That was really a moving scene.

The giant pandas are     3     protective that they hold their babies in their arms, always alert against anyone     4     (approach).

After giving birth to the babies, a panda can only nurse one baby, and others are artificially bred. In the nursery of the center, the nursery staff become “daddies”     5     (carry) out the hard work of “taking care of the baby”. Li Dehong,     6     is an animal care expert, says the artificial breeding of newborn babies cannot allow even the slightest error, and     7     human babies, the “dads” must feed milk every two hours. After the end of feeding, the bottles and measuring cups are all disinfected. After that, they have to record the amount they have given. With related data     8     (record), they can better look after the panda babies. From this time on, the giant panda babies enjoy a comfortable life in the national park. Li Guo, an expert at the Shenshuping base’s     9     (manage) office, says that the high birth rate of pandas in the base     10     (reflect) the improvement of giant panda breeding.

The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It     1     (build) originally to protect the city     2     the Tang dynasty and has now been completely restored (修复). It is possible       3     (walk) or bike the entire 14 kilometers.

We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.

After     4     (spend) some time looking at all the defensive equipment at the wall, we decided it was time for some action and what     5     (good) than to ride on a piece of history!

We     6     (hire) our bikes from the rental place at the South Gate. My bike was old and shaky     7     did the job. It took us about 3 hours to go all     8     way around the Xi’an City Wall. Supposedly you can do it in two hours, but we stopped at the different gates and     9     (watchtower) to take pictures or just to watch the local people going about their     10     (day) routines.