Apple Farming Earns City Wide Recognition

Yuncheng kicked off     1     agriculture show on Oct 15. The highlight was a famous fruit     2     (grow) in the city, the apple.

In Yuncheng, the planting area of apples reaches 166,000 hectares, with an average annual output of about 6 million tons. However, what makes the local people     3     (pride) is not the output but the quality of the produce.

The city     4     (know) for selenium- rich apples. Selenium (硒) is a trace element that’s beneficial     5     human health. Selenium-rich apples can sell at prices about 15 percent     6     (high) than ordinary varieties.

The latest information technology is also used for     7     (improve) the output and quality of apples. An intelligent operational system,     8     is linked with various sensors on the farm, monitors the conditions of soil and air.

    9     (help) farmers expand their sales, the city has registered the “Yuncheng Apple” brand name. Meanwhile, the collective marketing strategy has improved the recognition of the produce among consumers both nationwide and across the world.

Yuncheng’s apples have been sold to 75     10     (country) and regions. The total export volume is about 300,000 tons a year, accounting for about 80 percent of Shanxi’s total exports of apples.

Xu Yuanchong was a famous Chinese translator, best known for translating Chinese ancient poems into English and French. Xu was born in 1921 in Nanchang, Jiangxi. His mother, who was well educated and good at painting, had great impact on Xu in his     1     (pursue) of beauty and literature. When studying at Provincial Nanchang No. 2 High School, he excelled at English. In 1938, he     2     (admit) to the Department of Foreign Languages, Naitonal Southwest Associated University, a school     3     graduates have played a central role in modern China. At university, Xu gave outstanding performances in English, Russian, French, while even hosting Shakespeare classes, clearly showing a gift for translation.

After his graduation, Xu devoted     4     (him) to education and translation. He was the first Chinese translator     5     (translate) Chinese poetry into English and French verse. He also translated many     6     (masterpiece) into Chinese including The Red and the Black and Jean-Christophe.

In his last days, the hundred-year-old scholar was still working on the translation of Shakespeare’s complete works. Seven hours of work in front of a computer every day is     7     unbearable task for young adults.    8     (surprising), this 100-year-old scholar is never bored with his work, passionately typing his translation word by word, day after day.    9     the morning of June 17, Xu passed away in Beijing at the age of 100. The respectable translator enjoyed a life worth     10     (remember).

Leafcutter ants     1     (consider) an advanced species of ant. While most ant species are made up     2     three types of ants —the queen, workers and males. Leafcutter ants have     3     many as five, since worker ants are     4     (far) divided into different groups according to their sizes. There     5     (be)medium-sized leaf-collecting and leaf-cutting ants, tiny gardening ants and massive soldier ants. Different ants show different features that make     6     (they) do specific jobs. Soldier ants, for example,     7     role is to protect the nest(蚁穴), are about 300 times the size of their gardening sisters. Their jaws are strong enough     8     (cut) leather. A single nest may be home to millions of ants and contain a thousand     9    (room). Not all ants are environmentally     10    (friend) farmers like leafcutter ants.