The Chinese Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, celebrates the beginning of spring and is the occasion     1    families show respect to their ancestors by visiting and cleaning their tombs. The festival takes place on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (春分), which falls on April 4th    2     5th. As Qingming comes, temperature rises and rainfall increases,    3    (indicate)an important time for sowing seeds.

The Qingming Festival     4    (date) back more than 2,500 years and it originated from Hanshi Day, meaning “a day with cold food only”. One story has it that Jie Zitui, who was a loyal man to his lord Duke Wen, died in a fire in 636 BCE. So Duke Wen ordered three days without fire     5     memory of Jie. The next year, he ordered that the day after Hanshi Day should be the Qingming Festival, a day to honor     6     dead. Over time, the two festivals     7    (eventual) combined and the traditions of eating cold food and honoring ancestors became     8     (attach) to the Qingming Festival.

While there is much sadness surrounding Tomb Sweeping Day, there is also     9    (celebrate) , happiness and a festive atmosphere. Nowadays, the Qingming Festival is a time of multiple     10    (activity) , such as tomb sweeping, spring outing, flying kites and eating festive food like Qingtuan.

2 . Dreaming of photographing the world’s beauty, I wrote a travel wish list and hung it on my wall, not expecting to actually go anywhere. However, a local photo contest gave me a _________. I chose the Grand Canyon, one of my bucket list places to visit, since I got my first camera.

The journey was _________, with unique touches like aspen trees towering and lizards (蜥蜴)rushing about. After a day’s _________, I decided to have a good rest and start fresh the next day for the mission to _________ the Canyon’s grandeur.

The next morning, I woke up early to capture (拍摄) the _________. Reaching the overlook, I found an elderly man alone on a bench. After exchanging _________, he noticed my camera and _________if I’d captured any favorites. I _________ shared a couple of photos, not anticipating any further conversation that followed. He _________, revealing that he and his late wife, Betty, visited the Grand Canyon annually for their anniversary. Her __________the previous year marked his first return without her and he spent each sunrise reflecting on their treasured __________. His heartfelt tales __________ me deeply, as I, too, had experienced a recent loss, making the moment __________.

Returning home with numerous photos, I __________the best from my adventures for the contest. This journey taught me the value of chasing dreams, embracing challenges, and __________with others through shared moments, making it a truly enriching experience.

3 . Sensory-based food education given to 3-5 year-old children in the kindergarten increases their willingness to choose vegetables and fruit, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.

The researchers used the sensory-based food education method Sapere, which makes use of children’s natural way of relying on all of the five senses when learning new things. In the Sapere method, children are given an active role around food, and they are encouraged to share their sensory experiences. For example, kindergartens can introduce different vegetables and fruit to children in hands-on sessions, they can involve children in baking and cooking, and they can offer children opportunities for growing their own vegetables in the kindergarten backyard. Food-related themes can also be included in books and games.

“There are several different ways to do this. However, it always starts from sensory-based learning and child engagement. Doing and experiencing things together is also an important aspect,” says Kaisa Kähkönen, a researcher and nutritionist from the University of Eastern Finland.

The researchers compared children in different kindergarten groups. Some were offered sensory-based food education, while others weren’t. Children were offered a snack buffet containing different vegetables and fruit to choose from, and the researchers took photos of their plates to analyse their willingness to choose and eat these food items.

The findings show that sensory-based food education increased children’s willingness to choose vegetables and fruit, especially among children whose mothers have a lower educational background. On average, children of lower educated parents tend to eat less vegetables and fruit. This is how food education given in the kindergarten can help even out dietary gap between families.

“Another interesting finding is that the Sapere food education method also seems to improve the eating atmosphere in kindergarten groups. This encouraged children who were picky eaters to choose a more diverse selection on their plate,” Kähkönen explains.

Positive and personal food-related experiences gained in the kindergarten can help adjust dietary preferences in a direction that is beneficial for health. Dietary preferences learned in early childhood often stick with a person all the way to adolescence and adulthood.

4 . Hummingbirds are small birds but they’re the Olympic gymnasts of the flying world. They have strongly muscled bodies and rather long wings. They fly around at remarkable speeds and fly in all directions, including backward and upside down.

To achieve such agillity（敏捷）, hummingbirds use distinct modes of visual processing to control different types of flight. Their brains can make rapid transitions from visual signals to motor outputs. They take in lots of complicated visual information and make a flight plan out of that. Recently, the researchers have uncovered a unique mode that guides hummingbirds’ speed when they are flying forward.

The findings come from an experiment of more than 3,500 hummingbird flights inside a 12-foot-long tunnel（通道） with a branch at one end and a feeder at the other. Moving light patterns cast on the tunnel walls influence how the hummingbirds see things while flying.

The researchers expected that if the hummingbirds were using visual clues to control their forward flight speed, they would see the birds speed or slow with lights cast on the side walls. But instead, it seemed that they had their own way of knowing how fast to go for forward flight. When moving up or down, however, the birds based their motor commands on the cast light patterns they saw.

This special ability helps hummingbirds fly safely and quickly. This knowledge could be useful for improving drone（无人机）technology, helping engineers develop better ways for drones to predict and respond to changes in their surroundings. “If we can develop a mathematical model for this visual processing, it could be very useful for drones.” says Bo Cheng, a mechanical engineer, at Pennsylvania State University.

5 . When she was 61, Sian Davies decided to row across the Atlantic Ocean. In March 2021, she was one of the 12 crew members who set out on the 3,000-mile journey from Tenerife to battle sun, salt and fierce currents. “We would row in three-hour shifts and only sleep for an hour or so every six hours,” she says. “For the first 15 days, I was seasick, so I hardly ate anything. I was just rowing and collapsing. I went through some pretty dark times.”

But after 42 days on the water, Davies reached Antigua to become one of the only six women in the world over the age of 60 to have rowed across an ocean. “I was exhausted and I was also so proud of myself,” she says.

Davies began rowing when she was 53, after spotting a six-oar (桨) rowing boat in Bristol harbor. Attracted by its size and appearance, she spoke to the crew and was encouraged to do a trial run. “As soon as I got on the water, I fell in love with it,” she says. “Feeling your whole body working and the fresh air on your skin is amazing.”

It wasn’t until 2017, though, that her Atlantic plans were born. Suffering from a herniated disc (椎间盘突出), she was only able to crawl out of bed. “I began thinking of things I could look forward to after I had surgery,” she says. “One day I was reading about women adventurers when it hit me that once better, I would row across an ocean.”

After successful surgery, Davies began driving to meet other women who had undertaken rows. Hearing the experiences and advice of them gave Davies the confidence. Soon after, she heard that a new boat producer was organizing a team for a voyage across the Atlantic and she joined it immediately.

“In June, I’m planning to break a few world records by rowing around the UK when I’m 64, and I want to motorcycle through the Himalayas later in the year. After all, we need things to look back on.” she says.

The “Understanding Contemporary China” Foreign Language Contests were held in Beijing from December 4 to 8．

Nearly one million college students from more than 1,300 universities participated , with about 2,500     1     (enter) the national final. The contests aimed to     2     (deep) college students’ understanding of China, enhance their linguistic (语言的) abilities and intercultural communication     3     (competent), and provide a platform for them to tell China’s stories well.

The champion of the English group     4     (determine) through a simulated (模拟的) “Global Youth Summit”. Three contestants discussed     5     (topic) including cultural diversity and the future development of mankind with Xinhua News Agency’s reporter Simon Keith Robinson,     6     tested their knowledge and ability to handle diverse subjects.

Xu Chengcheng, from Beijing Foreign Studies University, won     7     national championship of the International Communication Contest. She demonstrated a high-level of English proficiency(熟练)and strong communication skills in the prepared speech     8     the Global Youth Summit session(会议).

A special session of “Multilingual Champions Showcase” was part     9     the closing ceremony, where champions used their foreign language skills     10     (share) stories about their understanding of China and communication with the world, showcasing youthful insights.

10 . Sarkar is a nanotechnologist (纳米技术专家) and assistant professor at MIT. She is conducting her research on brain diseases that _________ the minds of millions of people worldwide.

Born in Kolkata, India, Sarkar credits both of her parents as early _________. Her courage as a researcher comes from her _________, who as a young woman went against social norms (常态) in her village by _________ to fund her own education. Meanwhile, Sarkar’s father _________ her interest in engineering. Sarkar recalls her father finding time for his _________, fashioning devices to make home life more _______, including an electricity-free washing machine. “That got me very _________ in science and technology.” Sarkar says.

After _________ a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad, Sarkar __________ California to study nanoclectronics. There, she tested new ways to __________ nanodevices that could reduce the amount of __________ consumed by computers and other everyday electronics. __________, she made a breakthrough by developing a standout nanodevice.

Along the way, Sarkar became fascinated with the __________, which she calls “the lowest energy computer”. She hopes to put nanodevices between human neurons (神经细胞) to improve the computing speed of the processor in our brains. “Our brains are __________, but we could be better than what we are.” she says.