Every year, hundreds of international students travel thousands of miles to study in China,    1     (leave) their homes and native languages behind. As some of them immerse     2     (they) in intensive Chinese language study at Tongji University in Shanghai, one unique assignment helps them bridge the miles     3     lie in between -writing a letter home in Chinese.

The letter-home activity has become     4     annual tradition in Tongji’s pre-university Chinese program. After months of studying vocabulary, grammar, and composition, students from all over the world     5     (task) with composing a letter to their families, written     6     (entire) in Chinese characters.

“At first, this activity was operated in a few classes. But when other students saw the letters on display, they took the initiative     7     (write) home letters on their own,” explained Zong Qian, associate dean of the International School of the university.

As the letters started coming in, the teachers were impressed and touched by the students’ efforts to express emotions across     8     (culture). Zong noted that most of the students had zero prior Chinese ability     9     arriving in Shanghai for the first time just months ago.

“We realized that these letters offered a special window into the students’ experiences and     10     (grow) in China,” said Zong. “The letters were very moving to read.”

This weekend a marathon took place in Salzburg, the city in     1     I’m currently living. I’ve never run for more than half an hour so I’m     2     (amaze) that some people manage to keep going for over four hours!

Running is     3     (difficulty) because you have to motivate yourself to keep going—it’s more solitary than a team sport. I used to get really out of     4     (breathe) while running and it didn’t feel good at all! Now I     5     (actual) enjoy going for a jog along the river in Salzburg,     6     (feel) my muscles working and breathing in the fresh air.

    7     (challenge) exercise is always rewarding. Hiking is fun because all     8     hard work, walking uphill, comes at the beginning of the day. Then at the top of the mountain you can enjoy the view and some well-earned chocolate! At the end of the day, you feel like you     9     (achieve) something.

This just shows that perseverance pays off —     10     you work hard, you can succeed.

Wearing Hanfu and sitting in front of a Chinese zither (筝), Peng Jingxuan, a young Chinese student, moves her fingers gently along the strings on a street in Paris, France.

Peng has shared more than 200     1     (origin) videos online, with the most popular one featuring the theme song of the movie A Chinese Ghost Story viewed over 16.61 million times. “I love how she’s representing her culture in a     2     (set) where people are not familiar with it. You can tell she’s proud of her background and her music,” one of her fans commented.

Chinese zither (筝), or guzheng, is an ancient musical instrument with 21-26 strings and a length of 1.63 meters. Peng     3     (fall) in love with it when young and has been practicing it for years. Hardly finding Chinese instruments     4     (play) on the streets in Paris, she took along her guzheng     5     began her street performances to sharpen her skills. The more she performed, the more she felt a greater sense of responsibility     6     (spread) Chinese music and culture.

Considering her audience’s     7     (unfamiliar) with Chinese songs, Peng made adaptations, for     8     she received positive responses. She also performed Western pop songs that local people could relate     9    , entertaining them with beautiful melodies in a     10     (refresh) style.

Hua Tuo was a famous physician in the later years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He is     1     (wide) known as the first doctor in traditional Chinese medicine to invent some anesthetic (麻醉的) herbal formulas and the first surgeon to conduct abdominal (腹部的) operations. Hua also created     2    set of therapeutic qigong exercises called Wuqinxi,    3     imitate the movement of tiger, deer, bear, ape and bird, and are still popular today.

Hua later appeared in many     4     (legend) stories. One of them is about how Hua did surgery on Guan Yu, a famous general of the Kingdom of Shu, without using any anesthetic.

According to the story, after Guan’s right arm    5     (wound) in a battle by a poisonous arrow, he invited Hua to help treat the wound. First, Hua wanted the general    6     (take) his anesthetic. The general laughed and sad that it was unnecessary since he was not afraid     7     pain. So, without applying any anesthetic, Hua used a scalpel (手术刀) to cut off the poisoned flesh from Guan’s arm and then scraped the affected bones while the general calmly played chess.    8     (listen) to the sound of bone scraping, the onlookers’ faces turned pale,    9    the general never uttered a single sound of discomfort throughout the operation.

This popular story shows both the doctor’s exceptional skill and the rare    10     (brave) of the general.

China’s first domestically made passenger jet (喷气式飞机)     1     (fly) its first successful commercial flight on Sunday,     2     (mark) a milestone in the nation’s decades-long effort to compete with industry giants such as Boeing and Airbus in the global aircraft market.

The C919 plane, carrying about 130 passengers on the flight, was built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).     3     (operate) by state-owned China Eastern Airlines, the jet took     4     on Sunday morning from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and landed less than two hours later in Beijing. Passengers received special red boarding passes     5     enjoyed a themed meal to commemorate the flight.

“I’m confident about the plane. The flight was     6     (smooth) than expected,” one of the passengers said.

The flight comes as COMAC seeks     7     (break) into the jet market in a direct challenge to Airbus and Boeing. Airbus’s A320 and Boeing’s B737 jets are the most popular aircraft     8     (typical) used on domestic and regional routes.

The C919,     9     had been in development for 16 years, has a maximum range of about 5,630 kilometers and is designed to carry between 158 and 168 passengers. It made its first flight in 2017 and had conducted numerous test     10     (flight) before Sunday’s first commercial flight. The company plans to build 150 C919 planes each year in the next five years. Over 1,200 C919 jets have been ordered, COMAC says.

Many years ago I     1     (drive) on the motorway (高速公路) when the car in front of me had a tyre blowout (轮胎爆裂). The car changed its     2     (direct) suddenly and then stopped on the hard shoulder. I pulled in behind the car and went to see if the driver was OK. The     3     (frighten) lady driver asked whether she could use my phone. I agreed and waited outside the car as she sat in the car and made a phone call to her husband. Then I     4     (ask) by the woman to drive her to the nearest motorway service station, which was about 3 miles away.

Soon we drove down to the motorway services and went inside     5     (have) a cup of coffee. The place was so empty that I didn’t like the idea of       6     (leave) her on her own. I stayed with her until her husband turned up about 2 hours later. They both thanked me     7     my kindness.

About 2 years later, I went for     8     interview for a position in a bank. The interviewer was just the lady     9     had the blowout on the motorway. In the interview she said with excitement, “I already know what kind of person you are. The job is     10     (you) if you want it.”

7 . 语法填空

Xie Xiaohua, a special education teacher has won the heart of hundreds of children with special needs and is called Mom Xiaohua by many of them.

“It is my greatest happiness and     1     (fulfill) to care for them as they grow up,” said 49-year-old Xie, who     2     (work) at Yiyuan County Special Education School for the past 27 years.

Fully aware     3    the difference between special education and general education, Xie provides     4     (specialize) care for each student according to their physical condition. In 2013, Xie’s workload became heavier after she     5     (assign) to work at the school’s rehabilitation(康复) center.     6     (ensure) every child received scientific and targeted rehabilitation training, she worked out specific plans for them. For children with mental handicaps, Xie     7     (patient) coached them to master basic skills of taking care of themselves in daily life. She also spent lots of time training children with hearing and speech impairments to work on their pronunciation, which often caused her to develop     8    swollen throat.

Several years ago, the school launched a campaign of offering door-to-door education to students     9     could not attend school because of severe physical disabilities. Xie was among over 30 teachers     10     (task) with tutoring those students. “Although we do feel exhausted sometimes, we feel our work is valuable after witnessing their progress, even just a little bit,” Xie said.

Born in October 1937 in Kunshan, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Qian Qihu has spent over 60 years studying defense engineering,    1    (help) China to build an indestructible “Underground Steel Great Wall”. “Now we are talking about the underground Great Wall, not above the ground,     2    underground,” he explained. If the ground structures are destroyed, the underground “cities” can provide shelter and store the basic supplies    3    (require) for survival.

Since the 1960s, Qian has begun to study protection    4    nuclear bomb explosions and made major contributions to building a series of defense facilities deep inside mountains. Qian also planned underground spaces for over 20 key fortified (设防的) cities, providing    5    (faith) foundations for China’s future cities. Apart from defense facilities, many national projects are linked to Qian’s work,    6    already play a key part in Chinese people’s life.

In the early 1980s, China’s research in deep rock mechanics was    7    (rough) 10 years behind than abroad. As a latecomer, Qian spared no effort    8    (make) China catch up and put forward 16 key technical solutions to dozens of troublesome problems.

Qian, 86 years old now, is the    9    (win) of the country’s top science award, the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, and     10    (award) the August 1 Medal — the highest military honor in the country — in 2022.

On Jan 22, the first day of the Year of the Rabbit, Li, a citizen of Tianjin, prepared for her daughter     1     in China is called a “red packet”, a monetary gift     2     (traditional) given by the elderly to the younger generation during the Spring Festival.

Instead of withdrawing cash from a bank and putting it in a red envelope, this year, she chose to use the e-CNY mobile application,     3     (pass) on her blessing with digital fiat currency.

This virtual red packet of 200 yuan ($29.62) has a lively cover with not only lovely animated images on it but also a message carefully     4     (select) by the mother: Try not to be bothered. “Red packet of the digital yuan is easy for the elderly like me to operate     5     interesting enough to draw youngsters’ attention,” Li said.

Issued by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, the digital yuan     6     (design) to be treated as M0, meaning cash in     7     (circulate), such as coins and banknotes. So far, 17 provincial level regions in China     8     (pilot) the use of digital yuan. During the week-long Spring Festival holiday, a large number of red packets of digital yuan have also been distributed     9     residents across the country to stimulate the consumer market. Cities including Beijing,     10     capital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in the east, and Shenzhen, Guangdong province in the south, issued e-CNY coupons.

Though once secluded (与世隔绝的), even inaccessible, Kazakhstan today welcomes intrepid travelers with open arms.

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked (内陆的) country, and the     1     (nine) largest in the world. The country is one of the most economically advanced in Central Asia, thanks to     2     (it) abundant oil reserves and other valuable minerals.

Even for some     3     (experience) travelers, Kazakhstan is still     4     unfamiliar state. While home to the raw beauty of the steppe (草原) and mountain scenery, there are no yurts (蒙古包) like in Kyrgyzstan     5     Mongolia. The country also has a fascinating history of medieval (中世纪的) Islamic architecture.

But for those     6     have stepped foot in the country, its most     7     (attract) features are its unique landscapes and freedom.

Panfilov Park in the eastern-center of Almaty has plenty     8     places of interest that offer a whistle-stop tour of the city’s history. Not far behind the     9     (large) of them is the yellow, green and red Tsaristera Ascension Cathedral (大教堂), a visually attractive structure that is claimed to be one of the tallest wooden     10     (build) in the world.