From voluntarily collecting historical materials related to the section of the Great Wall in his Shanxi province hometown to becoming an official cultural heritage protector, Yuan Xuerui has dedicated over two decades of his life     1     safeguarding the ancient fortification（要塞）.

Yuan, 54, was born in Qingxibao at the foot of the ancient wall in Shanxi’s Daixian county,     2     is part of the city of Xinzhou. The county is home to more than 48 km of the Great Wall, including sections     3     （construct）during the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, according to the county government.

Yuan grew up     4     （hear）stories about the ancient wall. Yuan’s love for the ancient wall motivated him     5     （protect）it. When not engaged in farm work, most of the time he would walk along the wall to collect     6     （origin）bricks that had fallen off due to the damage of time and prepare for repairs. "     7     others see as a difficult and dull task of cultural heritage preservation often brings me many unexpected     8     （discover）.” Yuan said.

Yuan     9     （official）became a cultural heritage worker in 2018, and his duties have since expanded from collecting bricks to organizing ancient documents related to the wall to better tell stories about it. So far, he     10     （gather）more than 500,000 words worth of materials related to the Great Wall, as well as the culture and history of Daixian county.

Art is influenced by the customs and faith of a people. Styles in Western art     1    (change) for many years. During the Middle Ages, the main aim of painters was     2    (represent) religious themes. During the Renaissance, new ideas and values gradually replaced those     3     (hold) in the Middle Ages. People began to concentrate less on religious themes and adopt a more humanistic attitude     4     life. One of the most important     5    (discovery) during this period was how to draw things in perspective. If the rules of perspective had not been discovered, no one would have been able to paint such realistic pictures. In     6     late 19th century, Europe changed     7    (quick), from a mostly agricultural society to a mostly industrial one. Naturally, these changes also led to new painting styles. Among the painters     8     broke away from the traditional style of painting were the Impressionists. The Impressionists were the first painters to work outdoors. In a sense, without the Impressionists, many of modern art styles might not exist. On the one hand, some modern art is abstract; on the other hand, some paintings of modern art     9    (be) so realistic that they look like photographs. These styles are so     10    (difference) that no one can predict what painting styles will come into being in the future.

Nathan Sawaya’s childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and so on. Nathan Sawaya showed a strong     1    (prefer) for building blocks when he was young. At the age of 5, his grandparents bought his first set of building blocks and he     2    (play) with them ever since. He even took his building blocks to college with him. Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village     3    (make) of bricks on his desk.

Nathan started as a lawyer     4     gave up his well-paid job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks     5     are used by him to make pieces of art in his office in New York. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait. It took him two days just     6    (build) the eyes. Nathan’s works have appeared in museums around     7     world. People love his arts because they are     8    (fascinate). Since it began in 2007, Nathan’s exhibition “The Art of the Brick” has been very popular with museum     9    (visitor) everywhere.

“I have fulfilled my childhood dream, and I have actually made a job out of it,” Nathan says     10    (proud). “To do what you love in life is the most important thing.”

In the field of sports there are some famous living legends, such as Lang Ping, and Michael Jordan.

As a player, Lang Ping brought not only honour but also glory to     1     (she) country. As     2     coach, she led the China Women’s volleyball team to medals at world championships as well as the Olympic Games. As a person, she is     3     (love) by fans at home and abroad. Before the 2015 World Cup, she     4     (face) a great challenge — two important     5     (player) had to leave because of health problems. However, Lang Ping didn’t lose heart and she led her volleyball team     6     (win) the championship.

Known as “Air Jordan”, Michael Jordan changed basketball with his graceful moves and jumps. Jordan’s skills were impressive but the mental strength     7     (make) him unique. The secret to his success is learning     8     his failures. In life, Jordan has learnt to share his     9     (succeed) with others. The Boys and Girls Club     10     he started in Chicago has been helping young people since 1996.

    1     (get) from one city to another used to leave travelers with very few choices. But all the things     2     (change) a lot over the past fifteen years.

Take taking a trip from Shanghai to Beijing as an example. For those under the pressures of the clock,     3     quickest and most convenient mode of travel would be the plane. New airports have sprung up in every major province, opening up ways     4     (go) to areas of China, which are     5     (leave) unexplored by previous (先前的) foreign travels.

But     6     the price of planes is a bit high or if the fear of heights gets you down, taking a bullet train (动车) is a great way. The bullet railway is just hardly longer than the plane trip and watching city and countryside views from     7     (it) window is an experience.

And the     8     (choice) don’t stop there. Why not take the wheel yourself? Nowadays car rental is easy and inexpensive. The newly paved roads are welcoming and GPS systems are just as advanced (先进)     9     any international area. Take to the back-roads and explore the     10     (different) of the countryside, which have taken a great jump in living standards.

A Chinese university has built the world’s longest 3D-printed bridge. The creation has a     1    (long) of 26.3 meters and a width of 2.6 meters. Its design came from the historical Zhaozhou Bridge     2    (build) in AD 605.

    3     the ancient Zhaozhou Bridge required a decade to build, the team spent only 450 hours    4    (complete) all of their new bridges concrete parts. Besides, the bridge’s cost came in at just two thirds of that of     5     ordinary bridge.

The bridge consisted     6     44 individual 3D-printed concrete units, each of them approxi-mately 3 by 3 by 5 feet. The sides, influenced by the Zhaozhou Bridge,     7    (make) with 68 single concrete plates moved into place by robot arms.

The leader of the team noted that “the demand for labor in construction projects will be in short supply increasingly” in the future. If China cannot find people to build bridges, “intelligent construction will become an     8    (importance) channel to solve this problem”.

There     9    (be) other 3D-printed architectural projects over the last few years, as the technology has become    10    (popular) than before. A team at MIT built a sample house in 14 hours. If there are ever houses on Mars NASA suspects the houses also will be built by robots using 3D printing.

Chinese high-speed railways are a very     1    (comfort) way to travel. They are clean, quiet and efficient. China has led other developing countries and even some developed ones     2       this field since the first high-speed train     3    (come) into use in 2008.

The stations are     4    (main) built outside the town center, but local transport has been lengthened     5    (connect) the high-speed network. The facilities on the train are new and the staff are well trained. Even the second class     6    (chair) provide plenty of space. The passages are so wide     7     you can move without disturbing anyone. You can use your mobile phone, access to Internet or work on your laptop. There is also a restaurant car, though the kinds of food     8    (be) limited. The toilets are large, clean and user-friendly too. The train almost doesn’t rock. Even when the train brakes, you can hardly feel it shake.

What’s more, with a faster check-in, the high-speed trains are also     9    (little) affected by weather than planes. Seldom are     10     delayed or cancelled for weather condition. Therefore, they have become the first choice for many passengers.

Chinese astronauts successfully carried out the country’s first spacewalk outside their space station—an    1    (importance) milestone in its rapidly expanding space program.

The spacewalk is only the second by Chinese astronauts since the Shenzhou 7 manned mission (任务)of 2008,     2    was conducted outside a spacecraft.

China launched three astronauts into space    3    June. On Sunday morning, two of    4    (they)left the core module (核心舱)of the space station called Tiangong. During    5    spacewalk, they tested new-generation spacesuits, fit equipment, and tested the station’s robotic arm.

According to the plan, there will be another spacewalk during the astronauts’ orbital flight, which, lasting three    6     (month), will be China’s longest crewed mission.

As part of its plans to have a fully crewed space station by December 2022, China    7    (launch) the first core module, known as Tianhe or Harmony of the Heavens, on April 29. The module is the    8    (large) spacecraft developed by China to date, with a total length of 16.6 meters and a living space of 50 cubic meters.

While China is not considering foreign participation in the space station’s    9    (develop)now, non-Chinese astronauts will certainly    10    (welcome) in the years to come.

I am now on my year abroad in Germany as part of my university course. At the beginning of my time here, I had the chance to meet so many new people and make lots of new     1     (friend). It is almost like     2     (start) a new life and can make you feel nervous and lonely at first. But I knew that when I moved to Germany I had to be open and friendly. This is     3     (certain) what I have done since moving here and I have made some great friends along the way.

Next week a friend of     4     (I) is moving to Spain for the next part of her year abroad. She will be living near a beach and have a lot of fun. But I am also     5     (concern) about her as she will have to start a new life in another new country. She said that she     6     (want) to go back in time very much.

In order     7     (say) goodbye to her, a group of friends and I had a surprise party. We made her a scrapbook (剪贴簿) with photos and memories of her time here so     8     she could take it along! We hope that she has     9     wonderful time in Spain and that she will get along well     10     her new classmates and settle into her new home.