I was studying English literature in Italy, and I had to study in an English-speaking country for one year as part of the course. I     1     (offer) a chance to go to Boston University and I took it.

As soon as I saw Boston, I fell in love with it. I live in a small city, and I’ve always wanted to live in a big city. Boston was exactly    2     I needed for my first-time-away-from-home. Boston is     3     (definite) a big city but not big enough     4     (make) you feel overwhelmed. The weather is also great and you get to enjoy all four     5     (season) in true New England style.

I stayed with a family.     6     (They) house was on Commonwealth Avenue,     7     is one of the busiest streets in Boston. It was great to be there as Boston University is spread out along Commonwealth Avenue. The only bad thing is that it’s a bit busy. One of my friends had to wear a cast for months after he was hit by a car trying to cross Commonwealth Avenue — Boston is famous     8     its horrible drivers.

Boston is a(n)     9     (attract) place to live as a college student. College students make up twenty percent of Boston’s population. This increases the energy of the city,     10     (make) it a wonderful place to live and study.

2 . Festivals     1     (celebrate) all around the world. Of all the     2     (tradition) festivals, the harvest festival can be found in almost every culture. This important agricultural festival takes place after all the     3     (crop) have been gathered in. People celebrate     4     (show) that they are grateful for the year’s supply of food. Customs play     5     significant role in festivals, but sometimes they can change over time. With the development of modern society and the spread of new ideas, some traditions may fade     6     and others may be established. Festivals are becoming more and more commercial, with businesses     7     (take) advantage of the celebrations. Online shopping websites and social media apps have made     8     much easier for the public to spend more on gifts for their loved ones. Festivals are an important part of society. They reflect people’s wishes, beliefs, faiths and attitudes towards life. They are occasions     9     allow us to relax and enjoy life, and forget about our work for a little while. They help us understand where we came from, who we are, and what     10     (appreciate).

Statistics show that there are more than 1.9 billion videos related to stove-boiled tea on social media platforms.

“Stove-boiled tea”, a     1     (new) emerging social activity among young Chinese people, has been filling up social media feeds. Usually     2     (consist) of several friends who gather to sit around a fire stove, they together enjoy the smell of charcoal-grilled (炭烤的) snacks and socialize     3     waiting for the tea to boil. Though it has recently regained     4     (popular), cooking tea on a stove actually has     5     long history in China. “Stove-boiled tea” is originated from an intangible cultural heritage from southwest China’s Yunnan Province: huotang roasted tea. Huotang is a type of kang, a stone stove,     6     (use) for heating in Yunnan. As an important source of heat and light     7     aids cooking, sleeping, and even interpersonal relationships and     8     (gathering) in the households of ethnic minorities in the region, a kind of huotang culture thus formed around it.

Stove-boiled tea acts as a social way of combining ancient     9     modern elements, attracting many young people who love both tourism and traditional tea culture. In many ways, it is a perfect activity     10     (spend) the winter, warming body and soul in the cold months.

Every April, people of the Dai ethnic group in Yunnan Province celebrate their biggest festival of the year—the Water Splashing Festival (泼水节). This marks the official New Year celebration for the Dai people     1     live in China, mainly in Xishuangbanna and Dehong of Yunnan. It     2     (general) starts in mid-April and lasts for three days.

On the first two days of the festival, people clean their houses, have their hair cut, and take baths.     3     (vary) activities are also staged. Many send     4     (burn) lanterns into the air, dance and sing in the streets,     5     watch colorful dragon boat races on the Lancang River. The third day of the festival marks the first day of the New Year on the Dai calendar. In the morning, people often visit a temple     6     (hold) a ceremony. After that, the mass water splashing     7     (begin). People use anything at hand to splash water on each other, from friends and neighbors to     8     (stranger) in the streets, as     9     expression of their wishes for good luck and prosperity for whoever is on the receiving end.

The Water Splashing Festival of the Dai people     10     (include) in China’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006.

Learning Chinese calligraphy     1     (list) as one of the must-do things when I came to China. Now, I’m in the course of learning this unique art,     2     value is considered very high in China, even across East Asia today. It is not only     3     ancient artistic form of human language, but it also reflects Chinese traditions.

As someone who paints, draws, and loves all     4     (create) things, at first, I assumed I would be rather good at Chinese calligraphy. I was     5     (total ) wrong. Using thick brush tips to produce awkward brush strokes (笔画)     6     (be) very difficult for a beginner. I have no idea about the different types of calligraphy and the meanings     7     ( hide) behind each one. Also, I have to hold the paintbrush     8     a very specific way; unlike a pen or pencil, the paintbrush is held upright in the hand. I need to be extra careful when changing the angle or     9     (direct) of the brush, especially if I press too hard on the paper.

After taking the lesson, I now understand the difficulty of calligraphy and that it will take efforts and commitment     10     (master) this art form. Yet, I am grateful to learn such a special Chinese tradition.

A 63-year-old Chinese grandpa’s traditional carpentry skills are delighting tens of millions of viewers online as he creates woodwork     1     glue, screws or nails.

The Chinese master carpenter, Wang Dewen,     2     (know) as “Grandpa Amu” on YouTube, has been referred to as the modern day Lu Ban,     3     famous Chinese structural engineer during the Zhou Dynasty, thanks to his vast carpentry knowledge.

    4     (unexpected), the video of him making a fantastic wooden arch bridge went viral on the platform,     5     (gain) more than 42 million views. Grandpa Amu follows an ancient Chinese mortise and tenon technique,     6     means that no nails or glue     7     (involve) in the whole process of building the arch bridge. Grandpa Amu has also made several wooden     8     (toy) for his grandson using the same technique. Among all the items, a walking Peppa Pig and a bubble-blowing toy are his grandson’s favorites.

The master carpenter     9     (attract) over 1.19 million subscribers on YouTube so far. Grandpa Amu’s son and daughter-in-law, who work on his videos, hope to bring the rural culture to others and draw more people     10     (learn) about these ancient Chinese techniques.

With the power of AI text-to-image generators, you can create images even     1     any art skills. You just need to have some experience with technology as well as a computer.

Al text-to-image generator s are trained through a process called machine learning. In this process, the generator’s “brain”     2     (feed) huge numbers of images and learns to distinguish what they are,     3     the generator doesn’t just learn to tell the difference between a banana and a balloon. Rather, it will categorize every possible detail. These pixel details are then stored in a mathematical space. When someone gives the generator a     4     (describe) such as “A soldier riding a white horse”, the program uses algorithms (算法) to “think”. Moments later, the program will create a     5     (request) image for you to use or improve.

Some artists worry that they are being replaced by this technology while other artists like to cooperate with the generator,     6     (use) its power for ideas and inspiration.

Generators like Stable Diffusion are trained with     7     (mass) images gathered from all over the Internet, but     8     training process doesn’t exclude images that are violent or inappropriate. Despite this, Stable Diffusion’s founder Emad Mosta que talks about how people will use the generator rather     9     (optimistic). For better or for worse, AI text-to-image generators     10     (become) as common and easy to use as search engines in the near future.

With its charming attractions, Harbin, the picturesque ice city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China,     1     (become)a social media hit so far.

Among these fascinating sights were a group of 11 children from Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in South China, who fearlessly took a “brave” camping trip to Harbin, instantly     2     (win) the hearts of online communities.

Wearing bright orange clothing, they are fondly nicknamed “the little tangerines”,     3     symbolizes both their cute orange outfits and Guangxi’s outstanding citrus (柑橘) production.

Wherever they went, they were     4     (warm) embraced and showered with affection by the locals. In Harbin, they tasted local cuisines and watched     5     fireworks display amid the snowy landscape. In Jilin, the children showed a lot of     6     (enthusiastic) for skiing. Some of them just lay down to feel and play with the snow.

At the northernmost police outpost of China, the children showed respect and admiration     7     the border guards and sang the national anthem, marking an important part of their     8     (education) trip. Moreover, the police officers at the station prepared snow sculptures and snowmen     9     (treat) the “little tangerines”.

To express gratitude for the hospitality     10     (receive) in Heilongjiang, a free batch of tangerines from Lipu of Guangxi was sent to the province. During the three-day New Year holiday, Harbin welcomed over 3 million visitors, receiving nearly 6 billion yuan tourism income.