In 2004, the junior high school student, now 13, launched the basketball-themed Hoops of Hope,     1     “charged” people in his neighborhood $1 for every basket he shot. Since then, thousands of youngsters have picked up on the idea and raised more than $325,000 for the cause. “It works     2     kids of my age want a chance to do something great and be part of something like this,” Gutwein told China Daily.

“I realized these kids weren’t any     3     (difference) from me, except that they were suffering     4     (terrible) and I wanted to do something to help     5     (they),” he said.

    6     the help of non-government organizations, Hoops of Hope has built a school for HIV/AIDS orphans and a medical lab in Zambia in South Africa.

Another participant, Li Yeqiao, a 15-year-old student at Beijing Bayi Middle School, told the conference how the group seeks to improve the way electronic waste     7     (deal) with, and encourages people     8     (save) water and care for animals. “We have developed 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) living habits. Our initiatives (首先行动)    9     (have) a positive impact on the local environment.” Li said.

British animal behavior expert Jane Goodall introduced the Roots & Shoots concept to China in 2000 to promote environmental and humanitarian education programs to     10     (child). There are now 300 of such groups in the country.

A trial of an autonomous minibus     1     (start) at Southeast University in Jiangsu Province recently. The trial began on Friday at the university’s campus in the Jiangbei New Area in Nanjing,     2     (mark) the first time when an autonomous vehicle has been used at a Chinese university.

The four- meter- long electric minibus has six seats and can carry up to 12 people. The system uses data from eight radars that     3     (locate) around the vehicle to automatically avoid obstacles as it runs along a 4.5 kilometers route between research buildings, canteens     4     the dormitories. The bus can travel for 14 hours on a full charge, at a top speed of 20 kilometers per hour. Staff are on duty to ensure the safe     5     (operate) of the vehicle and to respond in case of an emergency.

The project is part of China’s wider efforts     6     (develop) environmentally-friendly transportation systems. A number of Chinese companies, Alibaba and Baidu     7     (include), are working on the research and development of autonomous driving technology. And they must make adjustments for     8     (extreme) bad weather and changes in road conditions. There is no doubt     9     autonomous driving technology will make our life     10     convenient than before.

As a boy, Charles Darwin showed a great interest in living things. He loved to walk through the woods,     1     (look) at plants and birds. At the age of 8, Darwin     2     (send) to school, where he studied Latin, classical literature and ancient history. Young Darwin thought that these subjects were boring and useless. He preferred     3       (science ) studies. As a result, he did     4     (poor) in his school lessons.

In 1828, Darwin's father, who was very strict     5     his son, sent him to Cambridge and he became a student of Professor John Henslow. Upon graduation, Professor Henslow asked him     6     (go) with Captain Fitzroy on a survey trip around the world. During the voyage, Darwin collected rocks, bones and     7     (insect) . He noted what he observed.

The widely     8     (accept) theory in those days was that God created all the creatures on earth. In 1859, Darwin published his famous book, The Origin of Species, in     9     he explained his famous theory of evolution (进化) .

Today, Charles Darwin is recognized as one of     10     greatest scientists the world has ever seen for his great achievements.

Chinese movie theaters are never running short on youth films. So Young, Fleet of Time and Yesterday Once More     1     (be) just a few that have hit the big screen in recent years.

Here comes another one — Youth (芳华) by director Feng Xiaogang, which     2     (show) on Dec 15, 2017. But there is a big     3     (different). It’s devotedd to the youth of our parents’ generation.

Set in the 1970s, the story begins in a military arts troupe (部队文工团), in which the soldiers’ duties are     4     (sing), dance and promote culture. He Xiaoping is a newcomer and a     5     (talent) dancer. With a painful childhood, she wants to make a fresh start in the troupe,     6     her family’s background makes her the laughing stock (笑柄) among the other girls.     7     only person that’s nice to her is Liu Feng, a kind and     8     (self) man.

According to iFeng News, Youth is     9     (actual) an old and personal work that Feng devotes to his own experiences of working in a troupe.

“    10     I look back in time, everything else in my life seems to be black and white,” he said. “The days in the troupe are the only part of my memory that always remains colorful.”

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.

Jiuzhaigou Ravine (沟壑)

Three years ago I had     1    amazing trip to Jiuzhaigou. Located in Nanping County, Jiuzhaigou Ravine stretches 80 kilometers and has various     2    (appeal) scenic spots, among     3    , the Zhuzheng Scenic Spot is one of the central points of Jiuzhaigou's landscape. The lakes here vary     4     color according to their depths and scenery around them. Reed Lake is an ideal habitat of birds; Spark Lake appears to move     5     the jade-lake Rhinoceros Lake is a good place for rowing, swimming and rafting. There are also the Shuzheng Waterfalls which have a backdrop of trees.

The Sword-shaped Rock Scenic Area     6    (consist) of Goose Lake, Suspended Springs, Sword Rock, snow-covered mountains and primeval (原始的) forests. Sometimes you can see giant pandas. There is also the 17. 8-kilometer-long Zechawa Ravine, the longest and     7    (height) in Jiuzhaigou. At the end of it is the eight-kilometer-long Changhai Lake, the largest in the area. In Haizi there is Five-Color Pond, the brightest lake in Jiuzhaigou.

    8    (doubt), the magnificent view in Jiuzhaigou will make you reluctant (不情愿的) to leave, and don't forget that the autumn is the best season     9    (visit) it. Since it's well worth visiting,     10    (give) another chance, I'd like to go there once again.

Bees are major pollinators (传粉者) of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Without these helpful buzzing insects, our food supply would be     1    trouble. But bees can help humans in another way.     2    (research) say the act of beekeeping may help people with mental health problems such as stress, anxiety and depression. Many call     3     “beekeeping therapy.”One group of people is especially getting help from such therapy: military veterans (老兵).

Many soldiers returning from military service have trouble    4     (deal) with the experiences of war. They may also find it difficult to create a     5       (produce) life after the military service. Homelessness, depression and drug abuse can affect some military veterans. Vince Ylitalo is one such veteran. He served in the military for nearly 40 years, two tours in Iraq     6     (include). He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

To treat his PTSD, Ylitalo is part of a beekeeping program at the Manchester Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center in the state of New Hampshire. The VA     7     (set) up several such programs in the United States.

In a recent report, Ylitalo explained     8    beekeeping calms his mind.“I’m in this program     9     (help)me get out of the thought process of all those problems that I have.It helps me think about something     10    (complete) different . I’m just thinking about the bees.”

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.

In 2020, the Nobel Peace Prize     1     (award) to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to fight hunger, for its contributions to improving conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and for its efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

The WFP,     2     (found) in 1961, is the largest food-assistance branch of the United Nations. In emergencies, it is often the first on the scene, delivering food assistance to the victims of wars, civil conflicts, earthquakes, and crop     3     (fail) due to natural disasters. In 2019, the UN organization helped 97 million people in 88 countries    4    are victims of serious food insecurity and hunger, the    5     (high) number since 2012.

In 2015, ending hunger was adopted    6    one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Primarily, the WFP works to realize this goal. It works hard     7     (help) people who cannot produce or obtain enough food for    8     (they) and their families.

The WFP plays    9    important role in fighting hunger for world peace. The Nobel Committee wishes to emphasize that providing aid to increase food security not just     10     (effective) prevents hunger, but also helps to promote stability and peace.