The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It     1     (build) originally to protect the city     2     the Tang dynasty and has now been completely restored (修复). It is possible       3     (walk) or bike the entire 14 kilometers.

We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.

After     4     (spend) some time looking at all the defensive equipment at the wall, we decided it was time for some action and what     5     (good) than to ride on a piece of history!

We     6     (hire) our bikes from the rental place at the South Gate. My bike was old and shaky     7     did the job. It took us about 3 hours to go all     8     way around the Xi’an City Wall. Supposedly you can do it in two hours, but we stopped at the different gates and     9     (watchtower) to take pictures or just to watch the local people going about their     10     (day) routines.

In 1998, an eco-museum was established in Suojia Miao, Yi and Hui Township, China’s Guizhou Province. Consisting of 12 villages, including Gaoxing Village, the eco-museum is different from traditional ones. It isn’t enclosed by walls and    1     it showcases is more than various collections.

Xiong Shaozhen, a 77-year-old resident of Gaoxing Village, weaves every day with a loom (织布机) in a wooden house, her daughter-in-law busy    2    ( learn )the craft from her．“The costumes, language, music and even the way of production of the local community are all living     3    (significance) exhibits,” said Luo Gang, head of the museum.

A decade ago,Gaoxing Village    4    (list) in a traditional Chinese villages catalog (目录).However,Luo found there were few looms left in the village.He    5    (apply) for a budget from relevant departments and invited professional craftsmen to produce looms for the villagers. He asked each villager that received the machine    6    (use)it and train an inheritor (继承者) of the local weaving technique. In addition, most of the old folk houses with their    7    (roof) made of straw needed regular replacement and Luo had their original appearance     8    (restore).

There are 25 such eco-museums in the province, which are in line     9     sustainable development principles. Not only do they guide villagers to perform independent-management and activate their passion for preserving their traditional cultures, but they create more jobs and give     10    boost to local tourism.

Whenever you have to write a paper, a letter, or any other document for work or school, you probably head toward the computer. Now, most people reach for     1     (keyboard) faster than they pick up pens. In a Scottish primary school, however, Mr. Norman Lewis is taking a different approach. He feels that neat handwriting     2     (be) still an important skill, so he has his students write not only by hand but also     3     old fashioned fountain pens.

Fountain pens     4     (use) in schools long ago and have been regaining popularity lately because they are refillable. Today, a writer     5     (simple) throws an empty pen away and gets     6     new one.

So far, Mr. Lewis is pleased with the results of his experiment. He reports that his students are taking more care with their work, and their self-confidence has improved as well. He is happy with the     7     (improve) he sees in his students’ writing     8     in his own writing. He knows that computers are here     9     (stay) and that they will not disappear. However, he believes that the practice with fountain pens helps students to focus, to write faster, and they can feel proud of     10     (they).

Doctors in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have followed the meal-time habits of more than 500 people for six years,     1    (find) weight change is most affected by the size and     2    (frequent) of meals rather than the interval (间隔) from first to last meal. It challenges the popular trend of intermittent fasting (禁食疗方)     3     a useful weight loss strategy.

Intermittent fasting, also referred to as time-restricted feeding, is a dietary strategy where all meals     4    (consume) during a short window of time each day. These windows can extend from 6 to 10 hours, resulting in a person essentially fasting for up to 18 hours each day.

The idea reveals     5     is no link between the lime of a person’s eating window each day and weight changes. “Based on other studies that have come out, including     6    (we), we are starting to think timing of meals most likely doesn’t produce     7     instant impact on weight loss,” said doctor Bennett. “What does matter, however, is the total number of medium and large meals a person eats over the day.” It suggests simply eating smaller meals, less frequently, is     8     ultimately leads to weight loss.

All of this doesn’t mean intermittent fasting strategies won’t help. But what does seem increasingly clear is that the weight loss benefits occasionally     9    (see) with these eating strategies may be primarily driven by a reduced caloric intake. It doesn’t mean you can simply eat all you want in a short window each day and still expect     10    (lose) weight.

In Ningbo city, a young woman has made the bamboo product brand of her family’s company famous around the world,    1    (help)a fair number of bamboo farmers increase their income.

Wang Xiaoqing, born in the 1990s,    2    (find) that in the US, Chinese bamboo products were popular among customers,    3    many of them carried foreign brands, despite China being the “kingdom of bamboos”. She decided to return to China and build a bamboo product brand after finishing her education abroad in 2013.

In 2018,a bamboo table    4    (produce) by the company of Wang’s family shined at the first Global Bamboo Congress.“    5    fascinates westerners is the Chinese bamboo culture and its long history. It provides a sound foundation for the global    6    (expand) of China’s bamboo industry”, Wang said. Her company is    7    (current) engaged in the design, manufacturing and sales of bamboo products. It produces over 10 million bamboo products each year, 85 percent of which     8     (sell) in the global market.

Serving    9    vice president of the entrepreneurship promotion association for returned overseas students in Ningbo city, Wang plans to contribute more to rural vitalization. “I hope that we can turn villages into more beautiful places and make villagers get     10     (rich),”Wang said.

Huishan clay figurines (泥人) are produced in the western suburb of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and are one of China’s most famous folk arts, having a history     1    (stretch) back over a thousand years.

The craft originated in the Southern Dynasties and reached     2    (it) peak in the Qing Dynasty. During the Qing, an artist made five clay figurines for Emperor Qianlong(1711~1799) and     3    (reward) with high praise from the royal family.

Huishan figurines differ from those of other localities in that they are always small and always feature a big head. They divide into two types - mold-pressed and hand-crafted. The     4    (cheap), molded figures often serve as children’s toys while the hand-crafted pieces are more refined and original.

The characters depicted (描绘) come     5    (large) from legends and Chinese opera plots. Da A Fu, a plump(微胖的) boy holding a fish, is the most popular figure in Huishan clay art. The legend     6    (go) that long, long ago, a god, disguised as a boy, beat a fierce lion     7     saved the children in Huishan.

    8    (express) appreciation, local people started to make clay figures of their boy savior Da A Fu. One-third of the overall figure is taken up by Da A Fu’s large head,     9     a face round as a full moon and big ears reaching down to his shoulders. It is     10     image implying happiness and good fortune.