Canada is like a blooming flower,     1    (unfold) with breathtaking beauty and richness. It is a broad country,     2     stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Rising to the east of the Pacific coast, the grand Rocky Mountains     3    (be) home to high peaks and deep valleys. Apart     4     its geographical diversity, Canada is also one of the most     5    (ethnic) diverse nations in the world. This ethnic variety in turn brings about cultural diversity. For example, in Vancouver,     6     dynamic city with the highest percentage of Chinese Canadians, you can participate in the celebrations of the Chinese New Year.     7     you are looking for something off the beaten track, you may visit Cape Breton Island     8    (enjoy) the cultures and traditions of Celtic settlers. Given these cultural differences,     9     comes as no surprise that Canada     10    (celebrate) Multiculturalism Day since 2002.

6 . The comedy genre has drawn laughs from audiences since the early 1900s and the birth of moving pictures. Comedy films lighten moods and allow audiences to escape from reality and lose themselves in humor. The format of the comedy genre is either comedian-led or a humorous description. A variety of subgenres exists within the comedy genre, all of which make people laugh, but each includes different characteristics slightly changing the overall tone of the film.

Slapstick’s (打闹剧) origins are firmly rooted in the silent movies of the early 20th century. This type of comedy relies heavily on overplayed visual action and uses harmless violence to raise laughter. Timing and polished performance skills are vital to effective slapstick. The name slapstick comes from the wooden sticks that clowns slapped together to draw laughter. Laure l and Hardy, Abbot and Costello and Harold Lloyd are famous actors of slapstick comedy.

The mid-1930s saw the coming of screwball comedies (怪诞剧). This subgenre typically features satirical (讽刺的) views of society combined with crazy, energetic action accurately timed. Screwball comedies make fun of society and use satirical ways to explore romantic conflicts whereby the usually upper class male suffers disorder and chaos in his life at the hands of a socially mismatched female. The film involves a happy settlement of differences between the male and female characters. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn play their screwball comedy roles to perfection in Bringing Up Baby.

Romantic comedy (RomCom) remains ever popular at the box office. The American Film Institute describes romantic comedies as “a genre in which the development of romance leads to funny situations”. Romantic comedy tells of the problematic, joyful relationships between a man and a woman in love, and shows the audience in the most pleasant and humorous way that love can defeat all. There’s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents are the best examples of the RomCom.

Black comedy takes a dark subject such as death or war and presents it in a humorous way. Black comedies tell satirical stories about issues that usually make people feel uncomfortable. MASH and Kind Hearts and Coronets belong to dark humor.

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7 . States will be able to force more people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a Supreme Court decision Thursday that will leave shoppers with lighter wallets but is a big financial win for states.

The Supreme Court’s opinion Thursday overruled a pair of decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collect sales tax on certain online purchases.

The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a customer’s purchase to a state where the business didn’t have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, the business didn’t have to collect sales tax for the state. Customers were generally responsible for paying the sales tax to the state themselves if they weren’t charged it, but most didn’t realize they owed it and few paid.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the previous decisions were flawed. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States,” he wrote in an opinion joined by four other justices. Kennedy wrote that the rule “limited States’ ability to seek long-term prosperity and has prevented market participants from competing on an even playing field.”

The ruling is a victory for big chains with a presence in many states, since they usually collect sales tax on online purchases already. Now, rivals will be charging sales tax where they hadn’t before. Big chains have been collecting sales tax nationwide because they typically have physical stores in whatever state a purchase is being shipped to. Amazon.com, with its network of warehouses, also collects sales tax in every state that charges it, though third-party sellers who use the site don’t have to.

Until now, many sellers that have a physical presence in only a single state or a few states have been able to avoid charging sales taxes when they ship to addresses outside those states. Sellers that use eBay and Etsy, which provide platforms for smaller sellers, also haven’t been collecting sales tax nationwide. Under the ruling Thursday, states can pass laws requiring out-of-state sellers to collect the state’s sales tax from customers and send it to the state.

Retail trade groups praised the ruling, saying it levels the playing field for local and online businesses. The losers, said retail analyst Neil Saunders, are online-only retailers, especially smaller ones. Those retailers may face headaches complying with various state sales tax laws. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council advocacy group said in a statement, “Small businesses and internet entrepreneurs are not well served at all by this decision.”

Baiyang Lake, also known as Lake Baiyangdian, is located in the Xiong’an New Area of Baoding. As the largest freshwater lake in North China, it has gained     1     (recognize) as the “Pearl of North China” due to its breathtaking scenery and unique ecological functions. It is referred to     2     the Kidney of North China.

The old Chinese movie “Zhang Ga, the Soldier Boy” is famous for the lake     3     Zhang Ga lived. With the beautiful lotus, flourishing reeds and plenty of fish. Lake Baiyangdian is     4     (precise) like that lake.

    5     (serve) as a crucial waterway, Baiyangdian Lake occupies an import ant location in the ancient basin of the North China Plain. Throughout the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial court continually     6     (expand) the marshlands, resulting in the formation of a winding “Water Great Wall.” Over time, Baiyangdian Lake     7     (remain) steadfast (不变的) in fulfilling crucial ecological roles from storing floodwater to regulating the climate.

However, the lake almost dried out because of climate change from 1983 to 1988. Local governments launched 26 rehabilitation projects in 2005     8     (restore) and improve Lake Baiyangdian’s ecological environment. Now, the beauty of Lake Baiyangdian resembles the one     9     (describe) in “Zhang Ga, the Soldier Boy”, attracting visitors who hope to take     10     glance at the vivid lotus, flourishing reeds and the clear lake water.