My first visit to China

I was really excited when I     1     (offer) the opportunity to go to Guangzhou in China for my work and I spent a lot of time visiting schools and observing lessons. The schools I visited were all     2     (good) equipped with computers, video screens and interactive whiteboards in most of the rooms. The buildings were     3     good condition and there were spaces for the children to play badminton or basketball.

I noticed some interesting differences in the school routine. When it was time for a class to begin or end, music was played on the intercom. I thought this was a really nice idea. There were also short breaks for eye exercises with music     4     (play) on the intercom. This was something I had never seen     5     heard of before so I was very interested in it. In some of the schools I visited, the habit of     6     (take) a nap at lunchtime is something I really like. The schools made us     7     (feel) very welcome and the children took great interest in us. They were very keen to practise their English and ask us questions. The pupils seemed to be very     8    (enthusiasm) about their English classes.

I really enjoyed my 10 days in China. It was a great experience and opened my eyes to a very different culture. In some ways it was better to be there on work than as a tourist. You learn something about people’s everyday     9     (life). If you go on work I think you learn more about the real culture of a place because you can see normal people doing normal things in normal places.     10    , next time I go to China I would like to spend some time as a tourist rather than working all the time.

A new study says that going to bed late may be bad    1     our health．It may even shorten our life．The study was carried out in the United Kingdom．Researchers spent six and a half years    2    (look) at the lifestyles(生活方式) of 430，000 people between the ages of thirty­eight     3     seventy­three．At the end of the study，the researchers compared the deaths of people who went to bed early to those who went to bed late and     4    (find) that night owls(people who go to bed late) were 10 per cent more likely(有可能) to die during the period of the study．The researchers said that night owls were at     5    (high) risk of an early death than early birds(people who go to bed and get up early)．They were more likely to suffer from stomach and breathing troubles，and other     6    (problem)．It may be because night owls have a biological(生物的) clock     7     doesn’t match their environment．And     8    (difference) sleeping patterns(方式) during the week and at weekends could increase the chances of health problems for night owls．

Researcher Malcolm von Schantz said, “This is a public health problem that can no longer     9    (ignore)．” He suggested that night owls should be allowed     10    (start) and finish work later in the day so they could sleep longer in the morning．

The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It     1     (build) originally to protect the city     2     the Tang dynasty and has now been completely restored (修复). It is possible       3     (walk) or bike the entire 14 kilometers.

We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.

After     4     (spend) some time looking at all the defensive equipment at the wall, we decided it was time for some action and what     5     (good) than to ride on a piece of history!

We     6     (hire) our bikes from the rental place at the South Gate. My bike was old and shaky     7     did the job. It took us about 3 hours to go all     8     way around the Xi’an City Wall. Supposedly you can do it in two hours, but we stopped at the different gates and     9     (watchtower) to take pictures or just to watch the local people going about their     10     (day) routines.

Wild Chinese sturgeon ( 鲟) are thought to have lived at the same time as dinosaurs and among the first class of protected animals in China. Last week, a wild Chinese sturgeon, which is believed to be the     1     (large) ever found in the past two decades, arrived in Beijing for better treatment. The species is one of the     2     (critical) endangered fish species in China and can be found only in the Yangtze and Pearl rivers.

The Chinese sturgeon “Houfu” ,     3     literally means “good fortune for ever after”, arrived at the Beijing Aquarium on Monday after 22 hours of transport     4     Hubei Province.

When the fish     5     (find) by a fisherman in the Yangtze River Basin, it had been suffering from multiple     6     (injury). It was sent to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute for treatment immediately. As she was so weak, local care takers had difficulty     7     (feed) it. The Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute decided to move it to Beijing to receive further treatment.

Nicknamed “Aquatic giant pandas” and     8     (list) as a wild creature under state protection, the species has been struggling due to water projects, busy waterway traffic     9     pollution in recent years. The number of Chinese sturgeon living in the wild     10     (fall) sharply to about 50 now from about 1,000 in 1982, according to researchers' estimates.