China is widely known     1     its ancient civilisation which has continued all the way through into modern times, despite the many ups and     2     in its history. There are many reasons     3     this has been possible, but one of the main     4     has been the Chinese writing system.

Put simply,     1     is your natural ability that can be developed when you try hard enough. Who knows what beautiful works of art you will create, what medical     2     you will make or what     3     technologies you will develop! The possibilities are endless, and I have confidence     4     your ability to make a     5     to your family, to your community and to your country. Over the next three years, you will discover your potential while you develop as a student and as a person.

Hi! My name is Adam and I’m a freshman at senior high school. Going from junior high school to senior high school is a really big     1    . The first week was a little     2    .

First, I had to think very carefully about which courses I wanted to take. The school adviser helped me choose the     3    ones: maths, English, chemistry, world history, and Chinese. I know that Chinese is a very difficult language, but I hope to be     4    when I graduate. My adviser     5    that I should     6    for advanced literature because I like English and I’m good at it.

I had to choose extra-curricular activities, too. I tried to join the school football team, but the coach told me that I didn’t play well enough.     7    , I was unhappy, but I won’t quit. I’ll find a way to improve on my own so that I can make the team next year. I joined a     8    club instead. Every Wednesday, we work at a soup kitchen and hand out food to     9    people in the community.

One medical text from the fourth century suggested using the e    1     from sweet wormwood to treat a fever. Tu’s team t    2     a collection of dried wormwood leaves but found no e    3    .They then tried boiling fresh wormwood, and using the l    4     obtained from this to treat malaria, but this did not work either. Their project got s     5    .However, Tu Youyou would not a    6    defeat. She analysed the medical texts a    7    , and by c    8    , she found one sentence suggesting a d    9    way to treat the wormwood. She concluded that boiling the sweet wormwood apparently destroyed its medial p    10    .

I thought I knew a lot about Hamlet. As     1     high school student with English literature as one of my main subjects, I have to! Shakespeare’s Hamlet is probably the most important play by the     2     important writer in English. Almost everybody knows “To be, or not to be”, right? Having s    3     quite a few productions of Hamlet and read the play many times, I was full of c    4     until the Peking Opera came to town!

D    5     back to the 18th century, Peking Opera has over two hundred years of history. Does this mean it’s easier than a Shakespeare play to understand? To find out the answer, I just had to go and see The Revenge of Prince Zidan — the Peking Opera v    6       of Hamlet.

Easily my favourite part of the show was how the characters moved on stage. I had never seen Prince Hamlet do a backflip before! That was simply i    7     . It was so dazzling and energetic that I wasn’t sure if the characters were performers     8     athletes! Everyone was clapping.

Before experiencing The Revenge of Prince Zidan, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. But, in fact, I was on the     9     of my seat! Feeling the strong emotions of love, anger, fear and grief in the performance, I could easily recognise the theme of Hamlet. So, if you want to see a show that combines music, singing, drama, poetry and costume design with explosive effect, The Revenge of Prince Zidan     10     all the right boxes!

The newly     1     digital camera is fascinating: you can take pictures without film. You can     2     and exhibit your picture     3     in a few seconds through the Internet. ... Digital cameras also satisfy impatient photographers     4     allowing them to view their masterpiece in real time.

The stores in the Chinatown offer a     1     range of souvenirs, goods, and clothing. All kinds of traditional Chinese herbal medicine can be found, too, and there are Chinese tea stores,     2     visitors can taste and buy     3     of Chinese tea.

But perhaps     4     many tourists and San Franciscans treasure most about Chinatown is its food. There is Chinese food to     5     everyone’s taste, with traditional dishes from all over China.

Chinatowns are     6     important part of the diverse culture of the USA. They allow visitors who have never been to China to experience traditional Chinese culture first hand.

As a five-year-old girl, Lin Qiaozhi was deeply     1     by her mother’s death. At age 18, instead of following the     2     of marriage like the majority of girls, she chose to study medicine. “Why should girls learn so much? Finding a good husband should be their     3    !” her brother complained,     4     the high tuition fees. She responded, “I’d rather stay single to study all my life!”

China’s space programme started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has     5     in a short time. China became the third country in the world to     6     send humans into space in 2003, when Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Then Shenzhou 6 and 7 completed a second     7     orbit and the first Chinese spacewalk,     8     the vehicle Jade Rabbit being sent to the moon to study its surface. After that, China launched the Tiangong 2 space lab into space and Tianzhou 1 to dock with it. This     9    one step further in China’s plan to establish a space station in the future. More recently, China has sent Chang’e 4 to explore the surface of the     10     the moon to make measurements and observations.