The history of siheyuan (courtyard house) in Beijing can be traced back to more than 800 years ago     1     Beijing established its status as the capital city. As a kind of traditional Chinese relic, siheyuan represents the     2     (capital) architectural style.

Siheyuan is a closed rectangular space with a courtyard in the center. It     3     (surround) by four houses: the main room, the opposite room, an eastern-wing house and a western-wing house. The housing arrangement is     4     (total) based on the rules of hierarchical system, which aims to keep the order of the family members’ status. The principal house facing the south is inhabited by the head of the family, and his or her     5     (old) son lives in the eastern-wing house, which is believed to be superior     6     the western- wing house. Usually, the opposite house is given to servants and other members. Undoubtedly, siheyuan is a mirror of Chinese culture,     7     (reflect) the sense of belonging in the mind of Chinese people. All the gates are printed red,     8     symbol of luck in China.

Indeed,     9     (know) more about Chinese culture and traditions, visiting siheyuan     10     (be) a smart choice for you. Staying in a siheyuan, learning how to make dumplings and enjoying a local Chinese life, you will get an unforgettable experience here.

While many people have made videos to cheer on those working on the front lines of the fight since the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai, Chien Meishuang     1     (spend) her time in lockdown at home, painting simple heartwarming works.

The paintings are part of her Journal of the Pandemic Lockdown,     2     project she started two years ago. “We are all facing a difficult time     3     we are trapped at home,” Chien tells China Daily. “I     4     (simple) wanted to let others know that there is a silver lining amid the dark clouds.”

The Taiwan native, who lives in Shanghai, is being on the receiving end of her neighbors’ kindness.     5     (document) her experience, the artist created a painting, titled Good Neighbors in China, marking the first new     6     (add) to her project this year. Other     7     (scene) shown in her latest works include delivery men having a quick lunch and her neighbors     8     (welcome) a 70-year-old man who returned from hospital after recovering from COVID-19.

“It is because of the pandemic     9     I have made friends from all walks of life in the area where I live. These individuals have provided infinite inspiration and stories     10     my works,” she adds. “As long as an artwork can touch people’s hearts, I believe it is good art. It doesn't matter how simple it is.”

My father and I had a big argument. We avoided     1    (see) each other recently. But last Tuesday I decided to tell my father I loved him. The next morning I got up early. I was so excited     2    I could hardly sleep. At 9 a. m. I called my dad.     3    he answered the phone, I said, “Dad, can I come over after work tonight? I have something     4    (tell) you.” My dad answered angrily, “Now what?”

I told him it wouldn’t take long, so he     5    (final) agreed. At 5:30 p. m. , I was ringing the doorbell at my parents’ house. Dad     6    (answer) the door. I took one step and said, “Dad, I just come over to tell you that I love you. ” After my father heard the words, he hugged me and said, “l love you too, son,     7    I’ve never been able to say it.” It was such     8    great moment that I didn’t want to move. After a while I left. Two days after that visit, my dad, who had heart     9    (problem), passed away.

So my advice for all of you     10    (be): Don’t wait to do the things that need to be done now.

I believe there are many things that we can do to make life in our town a lot better for teenagers.

First of all, I think more bike lanes should     1    (build). A lot of teenagers in my town bike everywhere,     2    it’s very dangerous because there is a lot of traffic. If there are more bike lanes in the future, it will be much    3    (safe) for us.

    4    (two), I believe that we need more places for teenagers to go to.     5    my opinion, teenagers won’t cause problems in the street if there are more places for us to go to. So we need more     6    (club) and other places where we can meet.

Thirdly, teenagers here need more sports facilities. There     7    (be) places to play ball games so far like tennis and basketball, but what about other sports,     8    skating and rollerblading?

Finally, I’m sure we’ll make the town better     9    we don’t drop litter(垃圾). If we all do something         10    (help) now, our town will be much better for everyone in the future.

On 15 May, the China National Space Administration (CNSA)       1    (say) that its Zhurong rover（探测器）had landed on Mars.

Zhurong is named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology (神话). The rover       2     was sent to Mars on board the Tianwen-1 spacecraft took off in July 2020. Tianwen-1 has been moving around Mars since February this year,       3    (take) pictures of the surface to find the safest place for the rover       4    (land).

Zhurong landed in a part of Mars       5    (know) as Utopia Planitia. It is thought there might once have been sea there. Over the course of 90 Martian days, Zhurong will study the planet's surface. A day on Mars lasts about 24 hours and 39 minutes. The rover, which       6    (power) by solar panels (太阳能电池板), has cameras, a laser (激光)     7     a radar (雷达)．The radar will look for signs of water and ice up to 100 meters under the surface and the laser can be used to study         8     (rock) to see what they’re made of.

China has received worldwide praise for the       9    (success) landing. Thomas Zurbuchen, head of science at the US space agency NASA, said, “I look forward       10     the important influence this task will have on people’s understanding of Mars.

One week or so ago, I had hot pot with one of my     1     (colleague) after a night class. We were enjoying the delicious food and chatting happily     2     a woman approached our table.     3     (feel) bothered and interrupted by a seemingly beggar I didn’t intend to offer her a response at first, because she was so young that I believed she should work to make     4     living instead of begging.

To my surprise, she showed me a box of native incense (焚香), and was very enthusiastic     5     persuading me to buy     6    . I felt she was truly     7     (respectable) than before. She charged 50 yuan and we bargained with each other. Finally we reached an agreement     8     I could buy the incense at the price of 45 yuan.

At the instant of paying the bill on We-chat, I     9     (hesitate) and eventually typed 5 and 0 in the blank. The lady gave the incense to me politely and left. Several seconds later, she came back and thanked me     10     (constant) with a smile lightening her face. “It’s your self-dependence that matters.” I responded to her sincerely.

Tibet was a region I was desperate to see,     1     its remoteness and my inability to go delayed my journey. Last summer, my brother and I finally decided to take the trip.

We set off at the Guangzhou train station and three days later, we arrived in Lhasa. The trip certainly took a while; however, we     2     (reward) with the most beautiful views and made friends along the way, all at a     3     (low) cost than flying.

We started our tour of Lhasa watching pilgrims(朝圣者)doing their morning prayers,     4    (comprehensive) exploring the palace. We had an incredible lunch at one of the best restaurants in Lhasa,     5     offered a beautiful view overlooking the Jokhang Temple.

Then we started our journey to the Qomolangma base camp    6     road from Lhasa. Along the way we stopped     7     (admire) the Yamdrok Lake. Its beauty was beyond     8    (describe).

About a week later, we arrived. We stayed in a guesthouse just next to the base camp and after dropping off our luggage,     9     (head) straight outside to see the Mt. Qomolangma. The tip of the mountain emerged through the clouds,     10     (astonish) us with its unbelievable height. The clouds parted and we watched the sunset over the peak.

It’s one of the longest train journeys in the world —2,910 miles across China. And when photographer Mathieu Paley was looking for ways     1     (get) his wife and two sons from Hong Kong to northwest China, it looked like the perfect choice. “I thought it would be     2     (wonder),” he says. “We will get to see China!” Even better, the train’s 52-hour journey from Guangdong, near Hong Kong, to Xinjiang was much simpler and far less expensive     3     flying.”

Paley and his family saw China change with every mile. The train’s last stop is a city     4     (call) Urumqi. The comfort of the train and the beauty of the landscapes (风景) attracted the Paleys. Paley remembers, “We were all looking at each other the last day,     5     (wish) it would last another 24 hours!”

After a few     6     (day) in Urumqi, the Paleys set out for Pakistan. They     7    (take) a bus southwest to the city of Hotan, and then to the city of Kanshigar, where most of the people were Uygur, a Chinese minority (少数民族)     8     live mostly in the west.

“It was     9    short trip, just six hours,” Paley says. “The journey let     10    (I) see the vastness (辽阔) and beauty of China. ”

How Much Is an Olympic Gold Medal Worth?

If the International Olympic Committee still gave solid gold medals to first place finishers, medals would be pretty     1     (value). But after the 1912 Games, they made the switch to silver medals coated in gold.

The gold medals for the Tokyo Olympics,     2     (create) by the Japanese designer Junichi Kawanishi, consist of about 6 grams of gold atop about 550 grams of pure silver.     3     gold and silver rates, like stock prices, fluctuate(波动) pretty     4     (frequent), the value of the medal isn’t exactly static(不变的). But in general, it’s hovering(徘徊) somewhere above $800. A silver medal, which     5     (make) up of 550 grams of pure silver, comes in at $462; and bronze medals, mostly copper and a little zinc, are worth just a few bucks.

But Olympic gold medals have value beyond the sum of their parts, and plenty of     6     (athlete) have hocked(典当) them for much more than $800 or so. Mark Wells,     7     member of the “Miracle on Ice” US hockey team of 1980,     8     (sell) his to a private collector,     9     auctioned (拍卖) it off for nearly $311,000 in 2010. Wells’s teammate, Mark Pavelich, made $262,900 off his own medal four years later.

Others end up in the auction circuit long after the original     10     (own) are gone. In 2013, for example, one of Jesse Owens’s gold medals from the 1936 Berlin Olympics sold for about $1.47 million.

Eating shows originated in South Korea and soon became    1    worldwide trend. However, Chinese short-video platforms are    2    (whole) controlling online eating shows after criticism from CCTV on Wednesday for misleading consumption and encouraging food waste. In response     3     the criticism, the video platforms cleaned up all the offending videos. Any food-wasting behavior     4     (feature) over-eating and drinking shall be banned.

As a result, nowadays, when searching keywords such as “eating show” or “big stomach king” on the websites in China, what users see is a reminder that    5    (read) “value food and eat    6     (reason) amounts.”

Previously, food waste in China was a common occurrence. According to a joint report     7    (release) by the WWF and Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018, restaurants and canteens in China wasted about 18 million tons of food per year,     8    could be enough to feed up to 50 million people.

Therefore, it's time to enhance public     9     (aware) of the food waste problem and a sense of crisis about food still should     10    (maintain) to make us resourceful with food.

After all, good food consumption habits are signs of social progress and civilization.