Standing on the top story of Basantapur Palace in Nepal, Yuan Mengxi is having a hard time connecting today’s reality with     1     she saw seven years ago.

The palace complex, located in the middle of Durbar Square in the country’s capital Kathmandu, was badly damaged in     2     massive earthquake in April 2015. The 9-story palace, a tourist landmark, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

The palace not only has great historical     3     (significant), but is also an architectural feat (功绩).

“You can see the whole place from here, and everything is beautiful and     4     order,” says Yuan, a 33-year-old originally from Zhengzhou, the capital of Central China’s Henan province. She is     5     (current) working for the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage and is in charge of a team sent     6     (rebuild) the palace.

She made her first work trip to Kathmandu in October 2015, six months after the earthquake     7     (shake) the city.

She says she was in shock     8     (see) the city after the quake at the time. Heritage buildings in Durbar Square     9     (destroy), with wooden statues buried and spread over a wide area. “Kathmandu Valley was still covered in the dust from the quake,” she recalls.

After the earthquake, both the Chinese and Nepali governments agreed to launch a project     10     (intend) for restoring the nine-story Basantapur Palace complex.

The Chinese war film The Battle at Changjin     1     (arouse) enthusiastic discussion on Chinese social media since it debuted around the country on September 30.

The film tells the story about how Chinese People’s Volunteer soldiers held their ground during fierce cold and the enemy’s more advanced weapons. However, the real battlefield is far     2     (impressive). Changjin Lake     3     (locate) in North Korea. The war was     4     in severely cold winter with temperature of around minus 40℃. CPV soldiers did not only need to fight against enemies,     5     had to battle over the nature with their strong will. Chinese People’s Volunteer Army won the battle by     6     (fight) against impossible odds. The Battle of Changjin Lake became a critical moment in the war. It is not the film itself but the     7     (hero) of the war years who fought     8     (blood) for our country and the people     9     make people moved.

Song Zhongping,     10     military expert and TV commentator, emphasized that the film shows that the Chinese people don’t provoke troubles, but never flinch (退缩) when troubles come their way and are able to defeat provocation (挑衅).

Scientists have wondered whether domesticated(驯养的)animals can recognize different human faces. Scientist Lea Lansade did an experiment     1     (find)out how well horses can recognize individual people in     2     (photograph). She and her team first taught the horses how to “choose” between two side-by-side images by     3     (touch)their noses to a computer screen. Then, the horses     4     (show) photos of their current keeper alongside faces of unfamiliar humans, and never had they     5    （see）photos of any of the people before. The horses     6     (correct) recognized their current keeper and ignored     7     strangers’ faces about 75 percent of the time, significantly better than chance.

What’s more, the horses also picked photos of their previous keeper, the person     8     they hadn’t seen in six months. In fact, even though the horses didn’t get it right every single time, they were at least as accurate in picking out their previous keeper as they were at recognizing their current one. The results suggest that not only can horses tell the difference between familiar     9     unfamiliar human faces, they understand the fact that photos are virtual representations of real life without any other help. And they’re even     10     (good)at this than our oldest animal friend: the domestic dog.

A math teacher from Peking University     1    (bring) into the spotlight over the past few weeks. In a video, he introduced himself as one of the most common students     2     graduated from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University and a gold medalist in the Mathematics Olympiad. Internet users immediately recognized that this unassuming teacher was a real big shot     3     (know) as “Chen Jingrun's successor” and a rare mathematical genius — Wei Dongyi. But the viewers were impressed by his humble lifestyle as he     4     (hold) a bottle of water and a bag of steamed buns.

Born in Shandong province in 1990, Wei showed great interest     5     mathematics from a very young age. When he was a junior student at High School Attached to Shandong Normal University, Wei joined the school's Olympia training team. But it was his     6     (amaze) performance at the 49th and 50th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) that set the world on fire. Wei got two gold     7       (medal) with full marks. After that, Wei enrolled into Peking University and got his master's degree and PhD in only three and a half years. In 2019, Wei completed his post-doctoral work and became     8     assistant professor of the university.

To avoid disturbances, the university called for reducing attention on Wei himself. “We     9     (sincere) hope that society will join us in creating an environment for young scholars     10     (focus) on research,” the university wrote in a statement.

Even though it was only October, my students were already talking about Christmas plans. With each passing day everyone became more eager to wait for the final school bell. As soon as the bell was ringing,     1     (immediate) everyone would run for their coats and go home, everyone except David.

David was a small boy in ragged clothes. I had often wondered what kind of home life David had, and what kind of mother could send her son to school who was dressed so improperly for the cold winter months, without a coat, boots, or gloves. But something made David special. I can still remember he was always wearing a smile and willing to help. He always stayed after school to straighten chairs and mop the floor. We never talked much. He would just simply smile and ask what else he could do, then thank me for letting him stay and he slowly headed for home. Weeks passed and the excitement over the coming Christmas grew into restlessness until the last day of school before the holiday break. The day     2     something happened would be remembered by me forever. I smiled in relief as the last of them hurried out the door. But then I was aware     3     something. Turning around, I saw David quietly standing by my desk.

“I have something for you,” he said and pulled from behind his back a small box. I said to him, “The box     4     (hold) by you now. What is in it?” He handed it to me and said worriedly, “Open it,     5     you?” I took the box from him, and thanked him. While the box was being opened by me, I looked at David. I lifted the lid and to my surprise saw nothing. I looked at David’s smiling face and back into the box and said, “The box is nice, David, but it’s empty.” I felt unusually     6     (confuse).

“Oh, no, it isn’t,” said David. “It’s full of love. My mum told me before she died that love is something     7     you are not likely    8     (see) or touch unless you know it’s there. My father and I are spending our holiday in another city the day after tomorrow.”

Tears filled my eyes as I looked at the proud dirty face to which I had rarely given attention. After that Christmas, David and I became good friends and I never forgot the meaning behind the little empty box set on my desk. I made a     9     (propose) that we should keep in touch with each other from then on. The incident had a deep     10     (effective) on my life.