Today we     1     (use) chemicals in almost every part of our lives, hoping to make life faster and more convenient.    2     we are most familiar with may be the chemical we use at home to kill flies and other disease-carrying pests. Farmers also use them in the soil     3     (help) their plants grow fast and become strong. However, the discovery of new ways to use chemicals have brought problems as well as benefits.

Just like spoken language, body language varies from culture to culture. The gesture for “OK” has different     1     (meaning) in different cultures. In Japan, someone who witnesses another person employing the gesture might think it means money. In France, a person encountering an identical gesture may interpret it as meaning zero. However, you should avoid     2    (make) this gesture in Brazil and Germany, as it     3     (consider) impolite.

An destination to the South Pole with the great Sir Ernest Shackleton—this is the adventure    1     I have been dreaming of. And I was ready for it. At the age of 19, I am fit and full of vigour. However, when I applied to join the expedition, Shackleton turned me down    2     he thought I was too young and wasn’t qualified. But I was so enthusiastic about the idea of going along with them that I    3    (secret) went aboard his ship, the Endurance, and hid in a small cupboard. Unfortunately, three days after we set off I was discovered. Shackleton did not want to turn back so he offered me a job.

During the Middle Ages, the purpose of Western art was     1       (teach) people about Christianity. Thus, artists were not interested in painting realistic scenes. Their works were often primitive and two-dimensional, and the main characters     2    (make) much larger than everyone else to show their importance. This began to change in the 13th century with Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337). While his paintings still had religious themes, they showed real people in a real environment. In particular, his     3     (painting) are set apart from other paintings by their realistic human faces and deep emotional impact.

Then what is causing the increase in the global average surface temperature? Climate scientists often mention a key climate process    1    (call) the “greenhouse effect”, which has two common meanings: the “natural” greenhouse effect and the “man- made” greenhouse effect. The “natural” greenhouse effect     2    (refer)to the fact that heat from the sun enters the atmosphere and warms Earth’s surface as short-wave radiation. The heat is released back into space at longer wave lengths. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as methane carbon dioxide, trap some of the heat,     3     (keep) Earth’s climate warm and habitable.

    4     this process, Earth could not sustain life. However, the “man-made” greenhouse effect has now become a big problem.

There are two different ways to think about an old shipwreck(沉船). Some people value its financial worth. They’ve spent a lot of time and money searching for the wreck. When they     1    (final) find it, they believe that the ship and its contents should be     2    (they). These people are usually referred to as treasure hunters. For other people, however, a ship     3    (lie) at the bottom of the sea is a valuable opportunity to study how citizens from past cultures lived and traveled. Those people are marine archaeologists,     4     study underwater historical sites.

Wind is one of our cleanest and most abundant power sources. Europe is leading the way in wind power. Nearly 75% of all turbines(风力发电机)     1    (locate) there. The country that produces the most energy from wind is Germany. However, Germany     2    (consume) a lot of energy, and wind only supplies about 5% of all its electrical needs. Denmark is the global leader in this field, which uses wind     3       (supply) almost 20% of its energy.

I grew up in a remote village. There was no such thing as a book in most families. It was at the school library that I     1    (discover) the joy of reading. There I spent hours reading whatever attracted my interest. I’m sure I did not understand everything in those books at the time.     2     I did understand was the pleasure that good stories offer and the power of books to introduce me to lives and experiences     3     my own. I was “hooked on books,” as the saying goes.