1 . About a year ago, my department invited me to submit a 5-minute video clip about my research laboratory to be screened at a secondary-school summer camp. With many ________ under my belt (已获得的) after five years as a main investigator, I was quite ________ about getting this ________.

Three seconds into ________ myself on my phone in my office, I realized that I had been too ________. I had to press ‘Pause’ ________ I couldn’t help looking around the room. And while watching myself on camera, I couldn’t obtain the excitement I brought to the classroom—all my ________ trained teaching method didn’t work well for a video clip. Admitting that my acting career had ________ a wall, I decided to ________ to a directing role and asked my graduate students to help me to film and present the video.

The 5-minute clip ________ taking 2 hours to finish, but it was so well received by the audience that it ________ me to create an account on Bilibili, one of the leading video-sharing websites in China. I got my lab to ________ making short films in Chinese on the main topics of our ________, which include digital fabrication (数字制造) in architecture and adaptive structures that can respond to stimuli (刺激物). In the nine or so months since I created that ________, our lab videos have attracted more than 20,000 subscribers and received nearly 3 million ________, mainly in China.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

In modern society, many Chinese traditional festivals are still an important part of Chinese culture, and     1     we must protect them and maintain them.

Some traditional festivals teach us a lot about our nation’s history. For example,     2     the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in honour of Qu Yuan. By celebrating the festival with rice dumplings and dragon boat races, the story of Qu Yuan is passed down from generation to generation.

Moreover,     3    传统节日使我们更多了解中国人的价值观. Festivals, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, have a caring, family-centre d message at their heart.     4     The full moon on the festival is considered to stand for family togetherness.

Finally, traditional festivals are a source of national pride and help shape our national identity. For example,     5     我们有腊八节 with unique customs, and these shared experiences bring us together as a people. Traditional festivals tell us who we are and fill us with pride in being Chinese.

8 . The next day would be Christmas. Jim was shopping for a gift for his wife Della. With an income of twenty dollars per week, life was really _________ for the couple, but Jim wanted to buy a perfect gift for Della. He thought of the beautiful set of _________ Della had wanted for so long in one of the shop windows on Broadway. Tomorrow, Jim decided, he was going to make Della’s dream come true.

Jim and Della _________ two things they were both proud of. One was Jim’s gold watch, and the other was Della’s beautiful _________. Jim looked at the gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. _________, Jim knew what he had to do: he would sell his watch.

That afternoon, Jim _________ the watch, went to the shop for the combs (发插) and returned home with a package in his pocket. He was sure that they would be the most wonderful gift for Della. He was _________ about what Della was going to think when she saw the gift the next day.

The door opened and Della walked in. Jim looked at her with a puzzled _________. “Jim,” Della cried, “don’t look at me that way. I sold my hair to buy you a watch chain. Give me your watch. Let me see how it looks on it.”

Jim smiled. “Della,” he said, “I sold my watch to buy you a gift.” Jim _________ the package from his pocket and __________ it on the table. Della opened it. There lay the set of combs that she had always wanted. Now they were hers, but her hair was gone.

Are you thinking about traveling alone? You must have a million questions: What should be the first destination? Will there be someone to talk to? How can it be safe? In fact, travelling alone is not as scary as it seems. Here are some good tips.

    1    

It is true that traveling alone for the first time is more about the experience than the destination. So choose a place that you feel comfortable with. It could be somewhere close to home or somewhere you have been with your friends.

    2    

This can make you less nervous when you’re travelling alone for the first time. Besides, when you book your hotel, ask if they will send a driver to pick you up.

Talk to people

If you’re going to a tourist place like Thailand, there are lots of other people who are traveling alone. Most likely, they’ll be easy to talk to and they’ll want to communicate. They might also ask you to join them for dinner or a beer. That happens a lot.

    3    

Your family and friends love you and probably worry about you every day, so text them and let them know what you’re up to throughout your trip. That will make you and them feel safer. And in case something did happen, they’ll know where you are.