The Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing,     1     specializes in jingju, is a very important theater group in China. Jingju is also known     2     Peking Opera.

The theater company was started in 1979 by bringing together different jingju troupes (剧团) from Beijing and other opera schools. It wants to keep its rich traditions alive while also     3     (look) ahead to a bright future. It aims to become famous worldwide.     4     (achieve) this, it takes good care of the artists and the art itself by practicing good theater     5     (manage). It believes it has the potential (潜力) to make jingju even     6     (good).

Since the company was set up, it     7     (travel) to many other countries around the world. like the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and many more. It performs jingju there, making people     8     (interest) in jingju and Chinese culture.

In recent years, it has been invited to perform in famous     9     (theater) in the United States, like the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as in the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia. This gives people from different countries a chance to see     10     enjoy jingju.

Open AI officially announced the launch of its     1     (late) text-to-video AI model, Sora, in February. The model outperforms (优于) others of its kind by creating diverse videos at suitable aspect ratios (屏幕高宽比) for different devices and social media. It can make smooth and realistic videos with     2     (detail) multi-character scenes and realistic movements. Imagine typing a     3     (describe) of a scene, like a snowy street in Tokyo with people and flying sakura (樱花) petals, and Sora turns it     4     a real video just from your words! How amazing!

Before Sora, making videos from text was tough and the results weren’t that great. But recently Sora     5     (improve) a lot. It understands your words really well and knows how things move and look in the real world. Sora works by “learning” from     6     large number of videos. It first breaks them down into pieces     7     then generates (生成) a new, better video from the pieces.     8     (current), Sora is still being tested and not for everyone to use. When     9     (create) videos, the model may mess up a character’s movement or show scenes     10     don’t follow the rules of physics. For example, one of its videos shows a whole cookie even after someone has taken a bite out of it.

It was a cold February day. Dangwen and his wildlife monitoring team patrolled (巡逻)along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. That day, they     1     (meet) 220 blue sheep and five white-lipped deer. Through the camera, they found a mother and two baby leopards (豹) — and the babies had grown much     2     (big) than three months earlier.

Dangwen comes from Yunta, a village located in Sanjiangyuan, Qinghai Province on the Tibetan Plateau. Sanjiangyuan serves as an important habitat     3     rich and unique species.

Dangwen is neither officially a researcher     4     an activist. But he has taken upon himself the task of monitoring local wildlife with a team of other villagers, as part of a conservation project driven by the Shanshui Conservation Center,     5     Beijing-based non-governmental organization. When the organization brought up the idea of     6     (organize) villagers to watch over wildlife and protect their lands, Dangwen volunteered     7     (immediate). Having grown up in the village, he knows very well the land, the river and the wildlife, and he is especially proud of the sacred mountains     8     are around all of them. This is the fourth year that Yunta villagers have carried out this monitoring, patrolled the village to identify poachers (偷猎者), and managed rubbish     9     (keep) the land and rivers clean.

Monitoring data shows that local wildlife     10     (population), including snow leopards, are increasing.

Do you know? At present you can not only watch the giant panda from a distance,     1     you can join in the panda volunteer program. And among the 3 panda bases       2     (provide) this volunteer program, namely Dujiangyan Panda Base, Bifengxia Panda Base and Shenshuping Panda Base, Duijiangyan Panda Base is very     3     (convenience) for it is near Chengdu City. Bifengxia Panda Base provides more chance to see little panda babies and its     4     (locate)—Ya’an city is     5     the world first giant panda was found. However, if you want to experience the more natural and primitive living environment of pandas, you       6     (recommend) to go to Shenshuping Panda Base at Wolong National Nature Reserve     7     (get) close lo giant pandas and enjoy the real living treasure place of pandas.

Join     8     the panda volunteer program at Wolong Panda Base! You can be a panda cleaner, learn to prepare cakes for     9     (panda), visit them by yourself…and know about the daily duty of staff around pandas in Wolong Panda Base. Apart from that, you can learn a lot of facts and knowledge of pandas to know why they are so cute to be the national treasure of Chinese people and even favored by people worldwide, and have a clear understanding about what we could       10     (possible) do to protect the giant pandas to save this precious species on our planet.

International Left-Handers Day is celebrated every year on August 13 in an effort     1     (recognize) the differences and uniqueness of left-handed individuals in our society. Most of us have grown up around right-handed people. Some of us have been taught that using our left hand to carry out some essential tasks     2     (be) disrespectful. Consequently, left-handed individuals often find     3     (they) in an awkward situation in a world that is mainly right-handed. Left-handers are often ignored when it comes to design and technology     4     are tuned to suit the requirements of the right-handed majority. Even simple chores like using     5     pair of scissors or using the ATM are inconvenient for most left-handers.

International Left-Handers Day     6     (observe) for the first time in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell. On this day, left-handers are confident that having a dominant left hand is     7     (absolute) normal. Left-handedness should be recognized     8     a unique strength instead of an oddity. This day is very significant as it spreads awareness about the importance of     9     (appreciate) left-handed persons across the globe. This ensures that the historical biases (偏见) against left-handers are corrected and that the world is made as     10     (comfort) for left-handed persons as it is for right-handers.

It’s common to see a barista (咖啡师) create coffee art (咖啡拉花). However, it’s a whole different ball game doing same thing with tea. Over the past several years, Han Zheming, a 40-year-old Shanghai resident,     1       (manage) to perfect the skill, creating tea art in cups, or dian cha in Chinese. “It is similar     2     the foam (泡沫) on top of a cup of coffee, except that it is made of tea rather than milk. ”

Chinese tea culture started to enjoy     3       (popular) during the Tang Dynasty. After hundreds of years of evolution, it thrived throughout the Song Dynasty,     4       tea had become a necessity for almost everyone, just like other items as rice, oil and salt. In the eyes of people of that time, good tea should be white and fine. The better the tea, the whiter it should be, and the     5     (long) the foam should last.

Han is curious about the patterns     6     (create) on the tea foam and he often goes to museums to observe Song paintings. “    7     (usual), it takes a year of practice for one to fully grasp tea-whisking.” It is through trial and error that Han gets going. Now, he can deliver a piece of tea-whisking art in “one take”.

“It’s like     8     (add) bells and whistles to tea and giving people     9     stronger sense of occasion, so drinking tea is more fun,” Han says. It’s also his intention     10     (bring) the old ritual (礼仪) and culture back for more people to appreciate.

China     1     (have) over 1.09 billion netizens (网民) by the end of last year, 24.8 million more than the amount in 2022, a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center said on Friday. The report showed that 2,577 websites and mobile phone applications optimized (优化) functions     2     provided barrier-free services for old and disabled users last year so that     3     (them) could benefit more from the Internet.

Digital technologies have also been     4     (wide) applied in public services, such as travel and healthcare,     5     (make) more people live better lives. The number of netizens using online car-hailing and medical services increased significantly last year, up to 90.57 million and 51.39 million respectively from December 2022. In addition, the rapid growth of the Internet has stimulated     6     (consume) and promoted the sustainable development of the digital economy.

Wang Changqing,     7     official from the center, said while introducing the report that live streaming platforms have become major channels to advance cultural and     8     (economy) development. For instance, in March last year, a large number of Internet users watched basketball matches     9     (organize) by Guizhou province through live streaming platforms, attracting more people to visit the province and contributing a lot     10     local tourism, he added.

In my forties a number of people suggested that I should benefit     1     and enjoy tai chi. At the time I thought I did not have time to add another activity to my over-busy life as a parent and full-time worker. Twenty years later,     2     (drive) by my 62nd birthday and a health scare, I arrived at the Box Hill Central and     3     (nervous) started the class.

That was over six years ago, and how     4     (please) I was that I found the Celestial TaiChi College. Mind you, my first thoughts were not “Eureka, this is     5     I have been looking for”! In fact I was rather daunted (失去信心) by everybody else’s competence (能力) and my body’s unwillingness     6     (learn) new tricks. I recall feeling quite frustrated (沮丧的) by the slowness with which I was able to learn new moves, and I began to understand why several of my friends     7     (start) tai chi but then given it up.

Grand Master Eng Chor Khor and my other patient teachers always gave us positive encouragement, although they also stressed     8     necessity of practising. Eng Chor would often tell us     9     (beginner) that, although progress might appear slow, we would see it with the passing of time. And we did! I worked hard and completed each level with a real sense of     10     (proud).