Are you familiar with pop star Jay Chou’s Blue &White Porcelain? Its original lines, just     1     the composer Fang Wenshan described, were inspired by Ru porcelain (汝瓷).

Ranked best among famous kinds during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ru porcelain is known for its unique pale blue glaze (釉). Oceans     2     Ru porcelain flooded onto the market around the year of 1100, but the     3     (exist) of Ru ware now is actually rare. Thanks to the efforts of Ru porcelain inheritors, people can now appreciate it     4     (close) at hand than before.

Born in Ruzhou, Henan province, Li Chao has spent a decade     5     (better) crafting skills. Ru porcelain goes through 72 steps, the    6     (one) of which is knead (揉) mud. Any small errors could lead to disaster, said the 41-year-old inheritor. He then stressed that a Ru porcelain inheritor must be patient enough. Every item of artwork     7     (full) deserves our admiration.

Techniques of making Ru porcelain will     8     (lose) with senior inheritors gradually passing away. So,     9     Li spares no effort in doing is introducing it to wider masses.     10     (achieve) this goal, he creatively uses Ru porcelain in making daily ware popular among young people. Now he’s aiming to expand the market by introducing it to the whole world.

The English word “garden” gives an entirely wrong idea of the Chinese yuan, for “garden” suggests a lawn and an infinite       1       (vary) of flowers, altogether too prim (呆板的) and tidy to suit Chinese taste. The Chinese yuan suggests first of all a wild landscape, perhaps better arranged and more artistically       2     (plan) than nature, but still a bit of nature itself, with trees, creeks, and flowers. Dotted in this natural landscape are the human structures like pavilions and long winding corridors, so       3       (perfect) belonging to the scenery as to become a whole with it. The Chinese garden       4       (characterize) by studied disorderliness. There are no even-cut bushes or symmetric (对称的) rows lining avenues as if in battle formation.

No Chinese mansion allows an outsider       5       (look) through theiron gates at along drive, for that would be against the principle of concealment.       6       (face) the   gate, we see a small courtyard giving no idea of the expansiveness of space inside, and leading one step by step into newer views, in       7       continual series of surprises and astonishments. With wooden framework       8       (bear) most of the weight of the house, windows, doors and walls are not restricted to certain locations. The essential idea of interior (室内的) decoration is the beauty of simplicity. Home designs are not something fancy we buy from a first-class firm. What distinguishes a home       9       a public building is the personal touch that we give it. It is only when the spirit of leisure and loving care exists       10       living at home can become an art and a pleasure.

Adaptation from My Country and My People by LinYutang

Loulan,    1    ancient city on the Silk Road, brings back    2    (image) of mystery and romanticism even as it disappears into the mists of history.

Shiji,or Records of the Grand Historian, the foundational text of Chinese history    3    (date) back to the first century BC, records that before the 2nd century BC,Loulan was already famous in Xiyu.    4    , it collapsed in about the 5th century. In 1900,Swedish explorer Sven Hedin discovered the site of ancient Loulan.

    5    (locate) in Lop Nur, a former salt lake which    6    (dry) up to a large extent now, in Ruoqiang county, Bayingolin Mongol autonomous prefecture,Xinjiang, the Loulan site covers an area of about 120,000 square meters,    7    extremely harsh environment ensured that few people set foot on this area. In the 1990s, when mummies were discovered in this area, grave robbers noticed the wealth of cultural relics.    8    (tackle)the situation, a Loulan cultural relics protection station was built in 1998. At first it was    9    (season), and later became permanent in 2003.

Over the years, five stations have been built in Lop Nur, and altogether 20 people    10    (work) at them safeguarding heritage, according to Feng Jing, director of Loulan Museum in Ruoqiang.

The Earth set unofficial record high temperatures last week. Scientists said they were a clear sign of how pollutants     1     (release) by humans are warming the environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is     2     (serious) wrong, they added.

Most of the planet     3     (cover) by oceans, which have taken in     4     percent of the recent warming caused by planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

In April, worldwide ocean temperature rose to 21.1 degrees Celsius,     5     scientists believe was caused by a     6     (combine) of planet-warming gases and the early El Nino formation.

High levels of wildfire smoke are more common on the West Coast. But, recently, several rounds of wildfire smoke from wildfires in northern Canada brought     7     (danger) air quality levels to eastern North America.

The current El Nino formed a month or two     8     (early) than usual. It replaced La Nina that, with its cooling of Pacific waters, kept worldwide temperatures down. That means that it will have more time than usual to     9     (strength).

The World Meteorological Organization predicts there is     10     98 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest     11     record. One of these years would beat temperatures from 2016 when an exceptionally strong El Nino was present.

On recent weekends,visitors from surrounding cities, provinces and even     1     (far) away are rushing to try Zibo barbecue. A local citizen surnamed Wei said, “We locals can’t even eat at nearby barbecue restaurants on weekends due to the long queues.” Pancakes,scallions and table-top barbecues     2     (see) as essential items for customers, and the immersive barbecue mode has met the taste and social needs of young customers.

“Zibo barbecue going viral is not     3     (accident), ”Yin Qidi, head of the city’s commerce bureau, said at     4     news conference held to address the barbecue craze on March 10.

    5     terms of transportation, Zibo is known to have newly added 21 customized barbecue bus lines and cooperated with China Railway Jinan Group Co Ltd to add weekend railway lines fromZibo to Jinan of Shandong province.Arranging volunteers at Zibo railway stations, publishing maps marking recommended Zibo barbecue cateries,     6     providing accommodation discounts for out-of -town students are some of the convenient services Zibo provides.

Previously, the city’s culture and tourism bureau, along with 10 representatives from popular Zibo scenic spots,     7     (board) the special weekend train G9321 on April 8     8     (promote) tourism in Zibo and beneficial policies to passengers,     9     have made the low-profile industrial city     10     (expect) one of the most popular tourist attractions in China in the post-epidemic era.

Are you crazy     1     FIFA World Cup? If so, do you know     2     the World Cup came about? And when did the first World Cup take place? If you can’t answer. I’ll just say that you’re not     3     real fan and then tell you something about the World Cup’s past and the present.

The FIFA World Cup, often simply     4     (call) the World Cup, is an international football     5     (compete) contested (争夺) by the senior men’s national teams of the members of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). It is called the world’s three top events, together     6     the Olympic Games and Formula One.

Before the World Cup was held, the football tournament (联赛)     7     was arranged as part of the Summer Olympics was given the most prestige (声望).     8     in the 1920s, the game was facing a transition (转变) to professionalism (职业化) that wasn’t consistent (符合) with the Olympic spirit. Therefore, the government body, FIFA, made plans     9     (organize) a World Cup. The decision of arranging the first edition was     10     (official) declared on May 26, 1928.

The once-futuristic idea of sequencing every newborn child’s DNA to screen for genes that could shape their future health is being put to two major tests. The United Kingdom this week announced plans to sequence the genomes(基因组)of 100, 000 newborns for about 200 rare genetic diseases starting next year. In New York City, a similar project     1    (screen)100, 000 babies.

The goal is to catch treatable diseases that standard newborn screening cannot detect.     2     sequencing delivers an early warning of a problem, the baby could receive care that prevents permanent disability or even death.

But sequencing the full genomes of new-borns raises a host of ethical questions, including     3     will get access to the data, and whether     4     will needlessly worry parents by revealing genes that may never cause serious illness. “We’re really aware of the     5    (complex) of the questions, ” says Richard Scott, chief medical officer for Genomics England, the government-funded company     6    (run) the U. K. project. At the same time, he says, “There is a really pressing need“ to detect more childhood diseases.

In many countries,     7     drop of blood from every newborn’s heel is screened, using mostly biochemical     8    (test), for up to several dozen genetic diseases. They range from metabolic disorders     9     can be treated with a special diet to muscle diseases that have drug treatments. Whole-genome sequencing, which is much     10    (costly)-up to $1000, could detect many more disorders, such as thyroid conditions that can cause brain damage.

With about half of the vast country covered in wilderness, China is the world’s third most species-rich country. Therefore, China’s     1    (achieve) in biodiversity conservation and wilderness protection are important to the future of global biodiversity conservation.

The vital biodiversity,     2    (combine) with a large population, has led the government to reconsider its protected area system and transform some wilderness areas such as the rainforest in Hainan     3    formal national parks. The new national park system will make it more practical     4    (preserve) habitats and species. The aim is to preserve biodiversity and ensure a     5    (harmony) relation between humans and nature.

The national parks cross China’s vast ecosystems, from the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in the south     6    the Hainan gibbon—a critically endangered species lives, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Wuyi Mountain National Park to the Sanjiangyuan National Park on the Qinghai-Tibet Platau—    7    source of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Lancang River. The diversity of species and habitats under protection     8    (reflect) in these parks’ names.

The national parks are open to all. Visitors can make reservations online in advance     9    book on the spot. They should acquire a little local knowledge to get     10     (they) ready for the amazing trip and maximize their enjoyment.

Preserving more habitats for China’s giant pandas is providing a giant payoff.    1    (save) the giant panda from dying out isn’t just good for the panda, but it’s also good for economy, a new analysis by an international team of scientists shows.

The results,    2    (publish) in the magazine Current Biology, stress the economic bene-fits that go hand in hand with environmental protection. Giant pandas are one of the    3    (rare) species around the world. But pandas fell on hard times in recent decades, thanks largely    4    human encroachment (侵入). In 1980 alone,many habitats    5    (destroy) artificially, and in 1990, their habitats covered only 12,340 square kilometers,     6    is a major threat to the pandas in large part because bamboo, their main food source, is so low in nutrients that they must wander a lot of land in order to find and eat enough of it.

Because of this, Chinese officials began making significant efforts to save the panda from     7    (extinct), establishing more reserves and increasing the reserve area three times. Panda numbers    8    (gradual) began to recover, hitting 1,596 in 2000 and 1,864 in 2010.

“    9    is clear that society’s investment (投资)    10    (start) to pay off so far in terms of panda population recovery,” the study authors wrote.

With exotic Silk-Road themed music     1       (perform) by musicians from the China National Traditional Orchestra, a grand art exhibition titled Silk Road: Artists’ Rendezvous kicked off on the afternoon of Aug 15 at the National Art Museum of China.

Attracting about 40 foreign diplomats and     2     (representative) from several international organizations, the exhibit presents over 190 works by artists from 112 countries in the Belt and Road Initiative. The exhibit also includes an interactive, immersive unit     3     visitors may click a mouse or use their fingers on a touch screen     4     (change) digital versions of the artwork.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism     5     (invite) influential artists from Europe, Africa, America, Oceania and Asia for field trips, residency programs and workshops across China over the last decade. Drawing inspiration     6     their China experiences, these artists have created a wide variety of works, including oil paintings, traditional Chinese ink paintings, sculptures and mixed media.

“The Silk Road was important over the centuries. It carried not only silk but also knowledge and cultures,” said Shahbaz Khan, director of UNESCO Beijing, at the opening ceremony.

The Silk Road is     7     invaluable world heritage to be celebrated for reminding the world of the importance of cultural     8     (diverse) and cross-cultural communication, Khan said,     9     (add) “cultural and artistic creations, no matter their specific forms, are all conducive to innovation and sustainable development in a country”.

Khan suggested that the exhibit     10     (bring) to countries in the Belt and Road Initiative.