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.

It doesn’t impress like George Washington’s plantation on the Potomac, but Lincoln’s home in downtown Springfield, Illinois,     1     （prove）irresistible to visitors since it opened to the public. Beautifully restored（修复）to its 1860 appearance, the house was Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s home for 17 years. In 1844 they bought it     2     $1,200 and some land from Charles Dresser, who performed their     3     （marry）ceremony in 1842.

When the house was built, it was much     4     （small）than it is today. Mary’s niece wrote, “The little home     5     （paint）white.” It was sweet and fresh. Mary loved it. She was extremely pretty, and her house was a reflection of     6     （she）, everything in good taste and in perfect order.

Although Mary loved flowers,     7     she nor her husband was known as a gardener. A long- time neighbor said they never planted trees and only kept a garden for one year. Mary’s sister, Frances Todd Wallace, often came over     8     （plant）flowers in the front yard.

    9     Lincolns enlarged the house to a full two-story in 1856 to meet the needs of their growing family. Three of the four Lincoln sons were born here. After Lincoln was elected President of the US in 1861, they rented the house and     10     （sell）most of their furniture.

Chinese carmakers are taking the lead in developing the intelligent cockpit (驾驶座舱),    1     is becoming a key part of the modern driving experience.

Intelligent cockpits combine smart technologies with     2     (vary) driving functions, such as voice recognition for vehicle commands and the entertainment and navigation (导航) systems.

According to a report     3     (publish) by patent research firm PatSnap last week, globally there have been 193, 000 patent applications related     4     intelligent cockpits.

Of those, China owns 82, 300 applications, accounting for 42.56 percent of the total and     5     (rank) first worldwide. It means that the country has become the     6     (much) important market for intelligent cockpit technology, according to the report.

Japan ranks     7     (two) with 31, 900 patent applications and the United States follows with 19, 300. The patent applications of the top three nations account for around 70 percent of the total.

A representative from PatSnap has said the three countries represent the development trend of the automobile industry to a certain degree as they     8     (be) the three largest auto producers worldwide.

It can     9     (see) that under the global trend of autonomous, connected, electric and shared vehicles, the intelligent cockpit has become one of the vital development     10     (direction) of the future of mobility, the report said.