How deep can a person dive underwater without any     1     (breathe) equipment? As one of the world’s top female freedivers, China’s Xu Tongtong’s answer is beyond the limit.

Freediving is gaining     2    (popular) across the world. Divers rely only on their lung capacity to plunge as far as they can-either in open water in so-called “depth” events or in the swimming pool,     3     (simple) called “pool” events.

This year, the 35-year-old Xu     4     (dive) 100 meters underwater successfully in both constant weight (CWT) and constant weight bifin (CWTB) contests, becoming only the third female freediver on the planet     5    (reach) this depth. “When I dived 100 meters and grabbed the depth tag, I knew I had done it and     6    (swim) back to the surface with a smile,” Xu joyfully recalled of her     7     (history) feat (壮举).

Hailing from East China’s Anhui province, Xu changed from swimming to freediving in 2014. “I was able to enter the three-dimensional world from a two-dimensional space. That is     8     I fell in love with freediving,” she told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview. The biggest attraction of freediving lies     9     facing up to and overcoming our fears. The training is a process of constantly knowing oneself, said Xu. After three months of training and competing this year in Panglao, Xu decided to stay on the island to continue her training and coaching,     10     major source of income for this world-class freediver.

The Shenzhou-17 crewed spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 11:14 a. m. Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The China Manned Space Agency is quite     1    (confidence) that the mission will be a success.     2     spaceship was transferred vertically across 1,500 meters from the assembly building to the pad.

    3     (equip) with multiple advanced systems, the spaceship will carry three astronauts who are eager     4       (carry) out the Shenzhou-17 spaceflight mission. Shenzhou-17, considered to be one of the most important space     5     (mission) in recent years, is the 30th flight mission of China's manned space program and the 12th manned mission of the program.

The launch will use a Long March-2F carrier rocket,     6     will be filled with fuel soon. The Shenzhou-17 spaceship will connect to the space station core module Tianhe,     7     (form) a combination of three modules and three spacecraft. The crew is scheduled to return in April next year. They     8     (land) in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Product qualities of the Shenzhou-16 spaceship and the Long March-2F carrier rocket are     9     control. The astronauts have made all preparations for the launch     10     are ready to go to space.

Parents     1     (advise) to include fish into their children’s diets after     2     study found eating one to three servings of fish each week is linked with higher IQs and better sleep.

The US researchers analyzed the IQs, fish-eating habits and sleeping patterns of over 500 Chinese children     3     (age) 9 to 11. They found children who ate fish weekly scored nearly five points higher on IQ tests than those who didn’t. Children who had fish sometimes had a roughly three-IQ-point advantage     4     those who didn’t or rarely ate it.

The finding builds on     5     (exist) research about the positive effects of Omega-3 fatty acids. “Omega 3s in fish have been tied to intelligence and sleep independently,     6     they’ve never all been connected before,” a researcher said.

The study also questioned parents on their children’s quality of sleep, including how often they wake in the middle of the night and “daytime sleepiness.” It found, “increased fish     7     (consume) was associated with fewer disturbances of sleep.”

Researcher Pinot-Martin said parents could give children fish as young as 10 months old and should start by about 2. For infants (婴幼儿), she said, make sure the fish is     8     (fine) chopped (切碎) and has no bones.

“Introducing the taste early     9     (make) it more acceptable,” Pinot-Martin said. “It really has to be a lot of efforts, especially in a culture     10     fish is not as commonly served.”

Chinese tea culture is divided into four parts that show the origin (起源) of it, the philosophy (哲学) behind it, the     1     (connect) with other cultures and its modern development.

The origin is often connected with the story of Shennong     2     is said to have discovered the medicinal use of tea leaves in ancient times.

    3    (drink) tea includes more than just preparation and beautiful tea set, and also shows the philosophy of how the Chinese get along with the outside world. The ancient Chinese used the word chadao, the way of tea     4     (honor) their dream of living an honorable life, as well as of keeping a good relationship with nature and the world.

In history, many emperors were tea addicts. Over ten teahouses     5     (build) in Beijing by Emperor Qianlong, a die-hard tea lover. The teahouse is     6     mix of different cultures. It also shows the openness and tolerance (包容) of     7     (high) civilized Chinese culture. As for tea culture, we can see the development of Chinese culture is     8     (color) and tolerant.

Apart from the tea sets and paintings, tens of tea bricks of different sizes and shapes     9     (make) in different places during the Qing Dynasty are on show. People can sit in a modern teahouse, examine different kinds of leaves     10     finally, have a cup.

Once upon a time, there was a man     1     kept thirty sheep.

One morning, he was     2     (surprise) to find that one sheep was missing. Where had it gone? Soon, he     3     (find) that his fold (羊圈) was damaged (破坏). During the night,     4     wolf had broken into the fold and taken the sheep.

One of his     5     (friend) advised him to repair the fold quickly,     6     the man said: “The sheep had already been eaten by the wolf. What is the use of repairing the fold?” He refused     7       (listen).

The next morning, he discovered that during the night the wolf had broken into the fold again and killed another sheep. Then, he realized that his friend’       8     (suggest) was right.

    9     (thankful), he repaired the fold at once so that more sheep would     10     (save).

Rice, commonly planted in many countries, serves     1     a major source of food for more than half of the global population.

People in ancient China     2     (begin) growing wild rice, learning how to cultivate rice in fields and improve its quality.     3     is widely believed that the cultivation (种植) of rice originated in China’s Yangtze River basin, around 13,500 to 8,200 years ago. Since then, rice     4     (pass) around the world through migration and trade.

Around 4,000 to 3,000 BC, rice was introduced to Southeast Asia, and during the Middle Ages people from India and southern Europe got to know the plant and took it home. Currently, half of the world’s population consumes rice,     5     (primary) in Asia, Southern Europe, and certain tropical regions in America and Africa. Over time,     6     (variety) of rice were developed to suit different regions and preferences. There are different rice dishes     7     (find) all over the world, including paellas, sushi, the bibimbap, risotto and jambalaya.

Today, rice plays a vital role in feeding billions of people while food     8     (short) is a worldwide problem. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of rice. Yuan Longping, a renowned Chinese scientist     9     devoted his life to developing high-yielding rice, made significant contributions to improving rice quality and meeting the     10     (rise) demand for food around the world.

The first time I entered the busy Chinese hotpot restaurant, I was immediately impressed by the delicious smells and lively chatter. The waiter handed me a menu, but it was predominantly written in Chinese,     1    characters were completely beyond my comprehension. With some hesitation, I decided to take     2    leap of faith and pointed at a few items on the menu that looked     3    (invite).   

As the bubbling pot was set     4    (boil), I watched with fascination as the waiter poured a fragrant broth (肉汤) into it.     5    (mix) with chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and other mysterious spices, the pot released a mouthwatering aroma into the air.   

The moment of truth came     6    I tentatively dipped my chopsticks into the broth and added a slice of thinly sliced beef and a handful of vegetables. The first bite was an     7    (explode) of flavors.   

The numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns danced on my tongue, and I understood the reason for the restaurant’s name, “Spicy Heaven.”

I continued to experiment, trying various ingredients and    8    (marvel) at not only the food, but also the adventure, the    9    (delight) surprise of a world of flavors in a single bubbling pot.     10    my limited knowledge of the Chinese language, I laughed with my newfound friends and shared stories.

Fall marks cricket fighting season in China, a sport     1     (believe) to date back more than a millennium. In recent years, it’s gained     2     (popular) with new generations.

Here’s     3     the game works. Two crickets ——always males     are weighed to the closest hundredth of a gram     4     then paired off by weight class. They     5    (place) in a clear plastic ring nearly the size of a dinner plate, with a dividing wall     6     (separate) the two insects. A referee signals go time, then slides out the ring divider to let the bugs face off.

The owners poke a special reed (芦苇) in to brush their crickets, which drives them to fight. A referee closely monitors the tiny fighters, noting     7     number of attacks and retreats.Cricket enthusiasts w ax poetic about a certain province because of the fierceness of its six-legged fighters. Ningyang county in Shandong produces especially desired bugs, the sale of which brings     8     about 600 million yuan in revenue a year.

Zhao Jiuling is a     9     (commit) cricket competitor. Each night, he cooks a nutritious meal of grain and bean powder for crickets.“They’re very     10     (pick) about both their food and mates,” he said. “Sometimes they don't like each other. Domestic violence happens both ways. Sometimes the females eat the males,” he added.

A black slate (石板), an alloy steel needle and decades of practice are     1     Li Yahua needs to create the perfect Huihe stone shadow carving work of art. With her left hand     2     (gentle) leaning against the mirror-like stone to support the heavy chisel (凿子) she’s holding in her right hand, the artist creates a black-and-white landscape by intensively chiseling dots in various sizes and density on the stone.

    3     (difference) from traditional Chinese art types that emphasize the beauty of lines, stone shadow carving highlights the size and     4     (deep) of dots.

“We use an alloy steel needle to chisel white dots to create images on a polished and smooth black slate,” Li explained, adding the pressure     5     (use) to chisel them was the key to getting the carving right.

“On an A4-paper-size black slate, we need to chisel about 100 million dots     6     (create) an image,” she continued, adding it would take 7 to 20 days to complete the work depending on its level of complexity.

Born into a family of stone carvers, stone and alloy steel needles     7     (be) Li’s best friends since childhood and the sound of chisel     8     (knock) on the slate is the soundtrack to her life.     9     56-year-old has devoted nearly 40 years to the craft. For her, shadow carving is about preserving history, culture and art,     10     recording the stories of the times.