I wonder if you like long-distance running. Long-distance running is becoming one of the most popular     1     (activity) in our lives.

Doctors believe that many of the health problems come     2     such bad habits: eating too much, drinking too much, smoking and     3     (stay) up late. Running is     4     (easy) than those exercises in gyms because you don’t need a membership or special equipment. It will help you get fit and prevent diseases. You can find that your immune system gets better and better. It will give you good upper     5     lower body strength. Meanwhile, it makes your heart stronger and allows more blood     6     (flow) around your body and increases more oxygen to your brain. Anybody     7     is feeling down can go for a run to cheer themselves up.

If you are new to running, here is a piece of     8     (advise) for you. It is important to warm up and cool down     9     (proper) before and after running. In this way, you will feel very     10     (relax) instead of hurting yourself.

How can I describe the wonder I felt the first time I saw my favorite painting, George Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte? I     1    (admire) the work for years in art books, but I had never thought I would see the actual painting,     2     was housed far from where I lived.

The first thing that struck me as I     3    (enter) the room where the painting was displayed was the size of the work. It was huge! It covered a large part of     4     even larger wall. The painting was painted with dots, a technique     5    (call) pointillism. To create such a huge painting     6    (use) this technique seemed an almost impossible task. Seurat had done it, though, and had made it look easy!

What’s more impressive, however, was the     7    (beautiful) of the painting. Viewed from a distance, the colors looked soft and gentle, describing the happy and     8    (peace) mood of a summer day in the park.

When I approached the painting, though, its colors exploded into many more colors, showing the artist’s skill in combining colors     9    (create) a mood. Even the parts of the painting that appeared white from a distance were lively and had many different colors when viewed up close. I sat and stared     10     the painting in wonder for a good part of the afternoon.

At the beginning of last year I planned to travel to my hometown of Chongqing from Beijing,     1     I live and work, as often as possible. That plan was one of my New Year’s resolutions (决心), because both my mother and 93-year-old grandmother have been ill    2     hospital.

I wanted to see the two    3     (woman) I love most in the world much more often. However, I only saw them twice, in June and October, because of the COVID-19. On Jan.21, two days before Wuhan, Hubei province, took a lockdown (封闭) for the COVID-19, I    4     (decide) to put off my trip. It was very hard    5     (make) the decision. I worried about my family. I    6     (bad) wanted to go home to see how they were.

Messages and video chats can lie. I worried about them,     7     I could not be with them. I thought I would like to spend the rest of     8     days with them if we can control the virus. But on    9     other hand, I was worried about bringing the virus back home. I also worried about my 8- month-old son    10     (take) an airplane because he refused to wear a face mask back then. Now, he is used to it, but I feel very sorry for a young generation that will have to get used to wearing face masks.

Over the past few months, game players in China     1     (become) attracted by a traveling frog. In the game, a cute little green frog     2     (raise) in a place where it eats, writes and sharpens its pencil. Players often check their phones to see     3     their pet frog has done. But the     4     (own) has no control over where his or her frog will go or when it leaves or returns. If the players are     5     (luck) enough, they might receive postcards showing where it has been, or they have no choice but     6     (wait). However, sometimes the frog may be     7     (complete) forgotten because players don’t have to spend a lot of energy     8     it. In     9     nutshell, after raising the frog, young people can understand the feeling of       10     (be) a parent.

There are two    1    (importance) kinds of music in the world — one    2    (write) down and    3    other is not. Many people earn    4    (them) living by writing music. They write songs for pop stars and music for films and TV plays. Folk music has been passed down from one generation to another, which at first was never written down. People learned the songs from their     5    (family), relatives, neighbors and friends in the same village. Early    6    (perform) of music were popular and respected, they used    7    (learn) hundreds of songs by heart. This was at a time    8    there was no radio, TV or cinema. Many of the country people could neither read nor write. In this way stories were passed on from one person to another. In some parts of the world nowadays, you often see musicians performing in the streets to passers-by. They put a cap on the ground    9    front of them, into which people    10    like the music can drop coins.

“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said     1     I faced disappointment. “     2     you can carry on, one day something good will happen.”  

After graduating from college, I decided to try for a job in a radio station     3     work my way up to a sports announcer. I went to Chicago, knocked on the door of every station,     4     got turned down every time. 

In one studio, a kind lady advised me to go to the countryside and find a small station,     5     big stations couldn’t risk hiring an inexperienced person. I returned to my hometown,     6     I was turned down even when I applied for a job in a sports department of a store. It wasn’t long     7     I decided to try my luck again in another city. In Davenport, Iowa, the program director of a company got me beside a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game.  

    8     I began to work in the company, I’ve always thought of my mother’s words: “Keep on trying     9     some day you succeed. Something wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous failure.”     10     job I later have done, I always think about what my mother once taught me, which acts as my guideline in life.

Amy and her best friend Jenny     1     (be) close for 8 years. But last weekend, Jenny     2     (break) Amy’s trust. They had planned     3     (meet) at the cinema that afternoon. But in the morning, Jenny sent a message saying she had     4     cold. However, today a classmate told Amy that she had seen Jenny     5     (chat) with another girl in a cafe on Saturday afternoon. Amy was so angry     6     she avoided Jenny during the day. She was at a loss what to do next.

Many classmates gave her their     7     (opinion). Cindy suggested that Amy find an opportunity to have a talk     8     Jenny and listen to what     9     (her) has to say. She was sure that they could solve the problem     10     (successful).

On March 3, 2022, Jiang Mengnan    1    (receive) the “Touching China” (感动中国) award for 2021.

In 1992, Jiang Mengnan was born in Hunan. When she was six     2    (month) old, she lost her hearing. From then on, she couldn’t hear anything at all and     3    (she) world became silent. Her parents began to teach her to read people’s lips (嘴唇) and speak. It was not easy, but her parents never gave up. After a lot     4    practice, Jiang Mengnan learned to speak.

When Jiang Mengnan    5    (be) old enough, she went to school. She tried to understand what the teachers said by     6    (read) their lips. She worked very hard and overcame a lot of difficulties. She     7     (final) became a top student. In 2011, she got a high score in gaokao and went to Jilin University. In 2018, she was accepted by Tsinghua University as a PhD (博士) student.

“I think I am    8    (luck). I want to thank my parents, teachers and friends,    9     have been helping me all the time. And     10    best way to pay them back is to do something good for society,” Jiang Mengnan said.

More and more people are     1     (use) online shopping apps during the epidemic (疫情) and it has become an important way to buy vegetables. However, online shopping     2     (have) both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of these online shopping apps are     3     (clear). First of all, it is convenient to     4     (buy) vegetables online because we can surf the Internet at any     5     (time) anywhere. Besides, there is no doubt     6     discounts on the platform are also attractive. However, its disadvantages can’t be ignored. Staring at the screen is harmful to     7     (we) eyes. Worse still, we don’t have many opportunities to go out, which can also     8     (cause) us to exercise less.

As for me, there are more advantages than disadvantages when shopping online. Just click on the screen and I can     9     (quick) get the fresh vegetables, which brings great convenience to my life. I have been using this online shopping app for over two     10     (year). It is of great help to me.

feather fan                       round silk fan                                folding fan

Last year, I went to Italy as an exchange student. Before     1     (leave), I asked my mother what gifts I should choose for the teachers and the students there. Mom said that the Chinese fan was a good choice, because it is an     2     (importance) part of Chinese culture.

I went shopping and bought three kinds of Chinese fans.     3     first kind was the feather fan for the teachers,     4     was made of bird feathers. The fans I     5     (buy) for the girls were silk fans. They are also called “round silk fans”. The silk fans show paintings of beautiful women, birds or flowers. They are very popular     6     women of all ages. As for the boys, I     7     (pick) the folding fans from Rongchang, a place in the west of Chongqing. The folding     8     (fan) are made of paper and bamboo and there are great paintings and calligraphy (书法) on them.

At the welcoming party in Italy, my new teachers and classmates were all     9     (excite) to get the wonderful fans. And they were even more excited after learning about the stories and culture behind     10     (they).