China has entered the business of making airplanes. The first Chinese-made commercial aircraft took     1     from Shanghai on Sunday and landed at Beijing Airport. The narrow-bodied C919 plane had 128 passengers on board. The company that made the plane     2     (be) the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. This is shortened to “COMAC”. China’s President Xi Jinping praised the C919 aircraft as     3     success of Chinese innovation. Newspapers in China called the C919 “a symbol of national pride”. A passenger on the flight     4     (impress) with the plane. He said: “The flight was     5     (extreme) smooth, comfortable and memorable. I’ll remember this for some time to come.”

COMAC hopes to be a major     6     (play) in the commercial airplane market. It hopes to compete with industry giants such as Boeing and Airbus. COMAC started developing the C919 in 2008. Production began in late 2011. In September 2022, it was passed     7     (fly) commercially in China. COMAC’s first customer was China Eastern Airlines,     8     bought five of the aircraft. COMAC plans to build 150 planes each year for the next five years. A spokesperson said there were     9     (order) for more than 1,000 C919s from different Chinese airlines. He hopes airlines from other countries will soon start making orders,     10     (add) that the plane was an “important milestone” for China’s aircraft industry.

Xinjiang’s Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway (referred to as the Heruo Railway),     1     “last kilometer” of the world’s first desert railway loop (环形) line,     2    (put) into operation on June 16, 2022, with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

With a total     3    (long) of 825 kilometers, the Heruo Railway stretches     4    Hotan city in the west to Ruoqiang county in the east. Travel time between the two terminuses (终点站) can be cut to 11 hours and 26 minutes.

Now with the 2,712-kilometer-long closed railway loop around the Taklamakan Desert, millions of locals and visitors now are able     5    (travel) through the desert more easily. Additionally, the     6    (recent) opened track has also improved local transportation conditions, with six freight (货运) and passenger stations, eleven passenger stations     7    five stations for technical use. Xinjiang-grown crops may now be delivered through the railway line, instead of taking days by trucks.

The Heruo Railway has become one of the key international passageways,     8    connect China’s western hinterland (内陆) to South Asia, Central and West Asia as a regional trunk line in central and western China. The greatly     9    (improve) transportation has boosted southern Xinjiang’s economic and social development. It is important for ensuring harmony and     10    (promote) rural revitalization (振兴).