Xiao long bao (soup dumplings), those amazing constructions of delicate dumpling wrappers, encasing hot,     1     (taste) soup and sweet, fresh meat, are far and away my favorite Chinese street food. The dumplings arrive steaming and dangerously hot. To eat one, you have to decide whether     2     (bite) a small hole in it first, releasing the stream and risking a spill (溢出),     3     to put the whole dumpling in your mouth, letting the hot soup explode on your tongue. Shanghai may be the     4     (recognize) home of the soup dumplings but food historians will actually point you to the neighboring canal town of Nanxiang as Xiao long Bao’s birthplace. There you will find them prepared differently — more dumpling and less soup, and the wrappers are pressed     5     hand rather than rolled. Nanxiang aside, the best Xiao long bao have a fine skin, allowing them     6     (lift) out of the steamer basket without tearing or spilling any of     7     (they) contents. The meat should be fresh with     8     touch of sweetness and the soup hot, clear and delicious.

No matter where I buy them, one steamer is     9     (rare) enough, yet two seems greedy, so I am always left     10     (want) more next time.

Whenever I tell people that I teach English at the Berlin Zoo, I almost always get a questioning look. Behind it, the person is trying to figure out who exactly I teach…the animals?

Since June 2017, right before the     1     (arrive) of the two new pandas, Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, I have been helping the panda keepers at the zoo to feel more comfortable and     2     (confidence) speaking English. And who do they speak English     3    ?

Not the pandas, even though     4     language used for the medical training instructions is actually English. They talk to the flood of international tourists and to     5     (visit) Chinese zookeepers who often come to check on the pandas, which are on loan from China. They also need to be ready to give     6     (interview) in English with international journalists. This is     7     they need an English trainer.

So, what are they learning?     8     (basic), how to describe a panda’s life. It’s been an honor to watch the panda programme develop     9     to see the pandas settle into their new home. As a little girl, I     10     (wish) to be a zookeeper when I grew up. Now, I’m living out that dream indirectly by helping the panda keepers do their job in English.

For thousands of years, people have told fables (寓言)     1     (teach) a lesson or to pass on wisdom. Fables were part of the oral tradition of many early cultures, and the well-known Aesop’s fables date to the     2     (six) century, B. C. Yet, the form of the fable still has values today,     3     Rachel Carson says in “A Fable for Tomorrow.”

Carson uses a simple, direct style common to fable. In fact, her style and tone (口吻) are seemingly directed at children. “There was once a town in the heart of America,     4     all life seemed to enjoy peaceful existence with its surroundings,” her fable begins,     5     (borrow) some familiar words from many age-old fables. Behind the simple style, however, is a serious message     6     (intend) for everyone.

    7     (difference) from traditional fables, Carson’s story ends with an accusation instead of a moral. She warns of the environmental dangers facing society, and she teaches that people must take responsibility     8     saving their environment.

The themes of traditional fables often deal with simple truths about everyday life. However, Carson’s theme is a more weighty     9     (warn) about environmental destruction. Carson proves that a simple literal form that has been passed down through the ages can still     10     (employ) today to draw attention to important truths.

Beijing is a city bridging the ancient and the modern. From Buddhist temples to museums, narrow hutong     1     royal palaces, it is home to more than 3,000 years of glorious history even down to its layout, with the city keeping its carefully     2     (build) system of ring roads.

But for all its ancient buildings, Beijing is also a place     3     welcomes the fast-paced development of modern life, with 21st-century architectural     4     (wonder) standing side by side with historical buildings of the past.

It is a distinct visual contrast (反差) that shouldn’t work,     5     somehow these two very different worlds make a good combination.     6     (visit) several times over the last 10 years, I     7     (amaze) by the co-existence of old and new, and how a city was able to keep such a rich heritage (遗产) while constantly growing. As a photographer, I have spent the last two years     8       (record) everything I discovered.

The     9     (remark) development of this city, which is consciously designed to protect the past while stepping into the modern world,     10     (mean) there is always something new to discover here, and I could be photographing Beijing for the next 50 years.

Heatherwick Studio recently built a greenhouse at the edge of the National Trust’s Woolbeding Gardens. This beautiful structure, named Glasshouse, is at the centre of a new garden that shows how the Silk Road influences English gardens even in modern times.

The latest     1     (engineer) techniques are applied to create this protective     2     (function) structure that is also beautiful. The design features ten steel “sepals (萼片)” made of glass and aluminium (铝). These sepals open on warm days     3     (give) the inside plants sunshine and fresh air. In cold weather, the structure stays     4     (close) to protect the plants.

Further, the Silk Route Garden around the greenhouse     5     (walk) visitors through a journey influenced by the ancient Silk Road, by which silk as well as many plant species came to Britain for     6     first time. These plants included modern Western     7     (favourite) such as rosemary, lavender and fennel. The garden also contains a winding path that guides visitors through the twelve regions of the Silk Road. The path offers over 300 plant species for visitors to see, too.

The Glasshouse stands     8     a great achievement in contemporary design, to house the plants of the southwestern part of China at the end of a path retracing (追溯) the steps along the Silk Route     9     brought the plants from their native habitat in Asia to come to define much of the     10     (rich) of gardening in England.

During China’s dynastic period, emperors planned the city of Beijing     1     arranged the residential areas according to social classes. The term “hutong”,     2     (original)meaning “water well” in Mongolian, appeared first during the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, the center was the Forbidden City,     3     (surround)in concentric(同心的)circles by the Inner City and Outer City. Citizens of higher social classes     4     (permit)to live closer to the center of the circles. The large siheyuan of these high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen often     5     (feature)beautifully carved and painted roof beams and pillars(柱子). The hutongs they formed were orderly, lined by     6     (space)homes and walled gardens. Farther from the center lived the commoners and laborers. Their siheyuan were far smaller in scale and     7     (simple)in design and decoration, and the hutongs were narrower.

Hutongs represent an important cultural element of the city of Beijing. Thanks to Beijing’s long history     8     capital of China, almost every hutong has its stories, and some are even associated with historic     9     (event). In contrast to the court life and upper-class culture represented by the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, the hutongs reflect     10     culture of grassroots Beijingers.

Chinese cultural elements commemorating (纪念) Tang Xianzu,     1     is known as “the Shakespeare of Asia,” add an international character to Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare’s hometown.

Tang and Shakespeare were contemporaries and both died in 1616. Although they could never have met, there are common     2     (theme) in their works, said Paul Edmondson, head of research for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. “Some of the things that Tang was writing about     3     (be) also Shakespeare’s concerns. I happen to know that Tang’s play The Peony Pavilion (《牡丹亭》) is similar in some ways     4     Romeo and Juliet.”

A statue commemorating Shakespeare and Tang was put up at Shakespeare’s Birthplace Garden in 2017. Two years later, a six-meter-tall pavilion,     5     (inspire)by The Peony Pavilion,     6     (build)at the Firs Garden, just ten minutes’ walk from Shakespeare’s birthplace.

Those cultural elements have increased Stratford’s international     7     (visible), said Edmondson, adding that visitors walking through the Birthplace Garden were often amazed     8     (find)the connection between the two great writers.

    9     (recall)watching a Chinese opera version of Shakespeare’s play Richard III in Shanghai and meeting Chinese actors who came to Stratford a few years ago to perform parts of The Peony Pavilion, Edmondson said, “It was very exciting to hear the Chinese language     10     see how Tang’s play was being performed.”