Huang Xiaoling is     1     expert in polychrome porcelain (多色瓷器). She enjoys creating porcelain works, which allows her to maintain her innovative spirit.

From childhood, Huang enjoyed visiting the porcelain factory where her father worked. She loved to draw designs,     2     (especial) flowers and birds. By the age of 12, she could design small porcelain objects. She regularly communicated with the great     3     (master) of the factory who passed on the key techniques to her.

As an adult, when she was out of work, she didn’t give up and followed her teacher to Shanghai to try her luck. The trip opened new perspectives for her as she discovered the high demand for porcelain.    4     her head full of inspiring new ideas, she returned to her hometown to found the Liquanyao porcelain company with former colleagues. Her     5     (strong) lies in her mastery of craft techniques. In 2003, she     6     (win) a silver medal at a competition in Beijing,     7     was a turning point not only for herself but also for Liling porcelain. The porcelain products became known to the general public. The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics boosted business.

Porcelain-making in Liling     8     (date) back to the Han Dynasty. It developed at the end of the Qing Dynasty, when polychrome porcelain was introduced in 1908. A porcelain vase won gold at the Panamaific International Exposition in 1915,     9     (make) it known worldwide.

Huang’s mission is not limited to the continuation of polychrome porcelain; she is also actively promoting this art.“    10     it doesn’t make us millionaires, working in the porcelain industry allows us to have a comfortable life while preserving the skills and culture of our ancestors,” Huang said.

Villagers in Africa     1     (watch) hundreds of movies outdoors in the past three years, thanks to a project launched by Nan Gengxu, president of Global Max Media Group in China. Cinema is not     2     (wide) available in most African countries, some of     3     have no more 10 movie theaters. The project     4     (call) Scene Travel aims to satisfy local residents’ spiritual needs and to help     5     (they) learn more about the outside world by bringing movies to towns and villages. Kids and old people are very happy when     6     (see) films. A simple scene from a movie not only brings audiences cultural enjoyment but also lights up their minds and even their futures.     7     (local) show great interest in the Chinese subtitles and lines in     8     movies and even want to learn Chinese and Chinese culture. As head of a group, Nan is committed to using the media to promote understanding among Chinese and African people. Nan said he doesn’t mind being considered     9     a businessman who fails     10     (make) a profit from such projects. For him, promoting exchanges between China and Africa is of more importance.

Emojis are widely used in our daily lives and have become     1     important way of communication. The first emojis were created in 1999 by Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita,     2     worked on a mobile Internet platform     3     (call) i-mode. Kurita attempted to develop a simple way for people     4     (express) emotions in short text messages.

As emojis gained     5     (popular), they faced a significant technical hurdle (障碍) : early emojis could not     6     (send) across different mobile platforms, since there was no standardized encoding (编码). This issue was resolved in 2010 by the Unicode Consortium, an organization responsible     7     maintaining a standardized encoding of text and symbols across platforms. This allowed for cross-platform communication and continued expansion in emoji usage worldwide.

Given     8     (they) origins in Japan, many early emoji characters were reflective of Japanese culture. As they’ve spread     9     (global), new characters have been added to account for cultural differences and provide a more universal means of communication. Users must also consider cultural sensitivities when     10     (communicate) via emojis, as certain symbols can have hugely different meanings across different cultures.

Gail Devers, an American athlete and also a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, got her first one in 1992.     1     made Devers’ win so special was not just the nature of the race but also the journey she had taken     2     (get) there.

In the years leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Devers experienced a series of     3     (extreme) unpleasant health complications (并发症) which brought her close to retirement before her athletics career had even begun. It was not until she visited many health experts     4     Devers finally learned she had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder (自身免疫紊乱). She cried the moment she knew it. Luckily, somebody appeared and had a     5     (solve) for her.

Thirty years went by. Today, Devers wants to raise awareness for the disease and     6     (it) symptoms (症状). “If there are 10 million people who could have Graves’ disease, then our job is to make sure that 10 million people can     7     (treat),” says Devers.

She also says, “My Graves’ disease has made me who I am. Therefore, I always tell people that if I had my life to live over, I would ask for this disease again,” she says. “I believe I’m stronger at     8     (have) to go through what I went through. Everybody is faced     9     challenges. We all feel like sometimes walls are closing in on us     10     there’s no way out. What do you do? You remember that strength and resilience that you have when you step on the line.

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.

For centuries London has been the center of the United Kingdom, but it was     1     (actual) an army outpost (前哨) nearly 2,000 years ago.

There     2     (be) more than six million Londoners at the very     3     (begin) of the 20th century. It was lucky     4     them that their hometown would become the largest and wealthiest city on the earth in the new century. However, wars     5     (fight) from World War Ⅰ to World War Ⅱ. Luckily, this city survived and their country became a country of “freedom and glory for mankind”, as Winston Churchill once said.

London, though badly ruined, remained a good choice for people     6     were looking for chances. In     7     1950s, a new wave of immigrants (移民) changed the face of the city. Millions of people went there in hope of     8     (find) better jobs and higher pay. Now, London is an international capital of commerce, an     9     (attract) tourist destination (目的地), a center of culture, and one of the most lively     10     (city) under the sun.

In ancient China which was far away from modern medical technology, Chinese people    1    (cure) themselves by a wide range of traditional Chinese medical practices,    2     (include) herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, Qigong and so on.

According    3    research, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was very popular during the Qin and Han dynasties and many books on TCM    4     (write), which are lost today. In the following dynasties, more medical writings came out gradually, among    5    the “Sheng Nong’s Herbal Classic” and the “Compendium of Materia Medica” are the most famous ones.

Nowadays, TCM is still very popular among Chinese people even if the western medical technology produces effect    6     (fast). The most important reason for that is Chinese people believe that TCM makes less side-effects. For a long time, TCM makes    7     deep influence on Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese medical science. Today, TCM is classified as alternative medicine. In China,     8    (course) of both western medicine and TCM are    9     (common) provided in medical colleges, and students can even choose a college of traditional Chinese medicine where they have a chance    10    (study) more about TCM.

I’m in the Sarek National Park, which is viewed as Europe’s hidden natural treasure.     1     (listen) to the sound of the wind buffeting the tent, I wake up and walk out the tent.     2     (branch) of the Rapa River flow through the valley. Sarek’s mountain     3     (cover) by vast sheets of ice originally. After the ice melted, reindeer arrived. Following them were the Sami people,     4     made this territory their home. In 1909, Sarek was made a national park in order to keep the land in     5     (it) natural state. At the far side of the valley,     6     ancient Sami cottage is visible. Since reindeer were always on the move, the Sami would pick up their tents and     7     (company) them. This morning, I eat a piece of bread     8     (warm) over a fire, dried reindeer meat, and some berries. After breakfast, I pack my bag and set off     9     (immediate). The land to my destination on the other side of the valley is difficult, which means it will be a day full of sweat.     10    , I will not complain because being in such a beautiful place makes me feel blessed to be alive.

Stephen E. Wilhite, a computer programmer who was renowned for the     1     (invent) of the GIF, the looping animations that became a     2     (universe) language for conveying humor, sarcasm and angst on social media and in instant messages, died in Cincinnati     3     March 14. He was 74.

In 1987, while Stephen Wilhite was working for CompuServe, he led a team of engineers who revolutionized     4     people could share video clips on the internet.

They called the format and they created a GIF, short for Graphics Interchange Format, “I saw the format I wanted in my head and then I started     5     (program),” Wilhite told The New York Times in 2013. Tributes to Wilhite spread online after his death     6     (report), many of them, fittingly, in the form of GIFs.

In 2012, Oxford American Dictionaries recognized GIF as its “word of the year”. While     7     usefulness of Wilhite’s innovation was undisputed, the pronunciation of “GIF” was a     8     (frequent) debated topic—and even the subject of a “Final Jeopardy!” answer.     9     was pronounced with a soft G. Until now the term “GIF”     10     (function) well in every corner of our daily communication.

We only have nine days in Xinjiang. It’s     1     huge province, bordering eight countries and is impossible to     2     (full) explore in such a short time.

Our next stop, is Turpan—one of the world’s     3     (low) basins. The fast train from Uruqmi takes 1.5 hours     4     (reach) Turpan. It travels fast past vast wind farms in the red desert, but also oil and gas fields, a     5     ( remind) of why Xinjiang is so important to China.

In Turpan, an amazing karez(坎儿井) irrigation system has channeled water from the mountains for hundreds of years,     6     (keep) this desert oasis(绿洲) very fertile. Tourism hasn’t exactly caught on yet. When I ask to buy a bottle of the red wine     7     (produce) here, our host directs us to the local supermarket.

The boiling hot desert outside of Turpan is home     8       the remains of ancient towns long ago swallowed and kept by the sand.

As the temperature climbs to 38℃, we find Tuyoq, one of the few existing ancient villages,     9     the mud-built homes appear hidden against the sandy landscape. Only a green round roof can be seen. Outside one of the mud homes     10     (stand) a sign: “Former residence of Albert Von.”