A city’s name can often indicate its status in a nation’s history. Nanjing, meaning “southern capital city” literally in Chinese, could claim such an influential     1     (identify) in history.

The city, now capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province, was once     2     (global) considered to have     3     urban history of 2,500 years, a new archaeological research rewrites that. It was founded more than 3,100 years ago when an ancient city named Changgan was recently excavated (发掘).

“    4     (date) from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, archaeologists found that the city’s walls were protected by trenches,     5    is a universally acknowledged indicator of a defensive system     6     (adopt) by ancient cities,” says Chen Dahai, head of the archaeological excavation team. “In the history of the ancient system, trenches     7     (appear) before the walls were constructed. They were built around the living area     8     (prevent) floods and defend against enemies,” he added.

The latest archaeological findings may reshape the city’s history, with     9     (it) appearance tracing back to more than 3,100 years ago. Wang Wei, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Archaeology Department, recognizes the discovery     10     a remarkable archaeological finding in tracing the Nanjing’s origins.

Delicate, bright, and soft to the touch, the silk has passed the way throughout China’s history. No one can be     1     (exact) certain of its origin. But the humble ancient Chinese people credited their own wisdom to Leizu, wife of the Yellow Emperor (the legendary ancestor of Chinese people), as     2     inventor of sericulture (养蚕).

Like all kinds of art on the vast land of China, the style and texture (质地) of silk are also various. Hangluo from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is known     3     its airy and thin texture, while Yunjin from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, an expensive cloth,     4     (represent) China’s silk technique at its peak.

Yunjin is best made by hand on large machines, in a complex procedure     5     contains more than a hundred steps. Even the most     6     (experience) workers can only make a few centimeters a day. Time, patience and skill all play an important role in its beauty.

In the Western Han Dynasty, with Zhang Qian     7     (open) up the routes to the western regions, silk was highly praised in countries of Central Asia, later extending     8     (it) reach to other parts.

In the hands of Chinese artists, the thinnest string can make pictures of great possibilities and the     9     (soft) material can pass through thousands of years. As one of the many     10     (wonder) of ancient China, silk is not only a type of cloth, but also a cultural symbol and a representation of elegance and grace.

In China, the use and cultivation (种植) of green tea goes back thousands of years. While there is no precise way to know     1    (exact) when green tea was first cultivated, the following is     2    we know from historical records.

Legend assigns the discovery of tea to mythological emperor Shennong, who is said     3    (discover) tea in the 28th century BC. Shennong was sitting under a tea tree boiling a pot of water to drink. Some     4    (leaf) fell from the tree into the boiling water, creating the first ever pot of tea. During the Han Dynasty, written records referred     5    the cultivation of green tea. However, this wasn`t green tea for drinking     6    for medical purposes. The Tang Dynasty     7    (consider) by most to be the golden age of Chinese arts and culture. It was during this time that green tea became a popular drink and an important part of     8    (tradition) Chinese culture.

    9    first written account of tea culture, Cha jing or The Classic of Tea, was published by Lu Yu. This short but comprehensive work,     10    (cover) ten chapters, discusses everything from the mythological of tea, history, cultivation, preparation to tea culture.

6 . If you’ve ever eaten a free doughnut (甜甜圈) on the first Friday in June, you’ve celebrated the Doughnut Lassies- whether you realized it or not, National Doughnut Day was established to honor the Salvation Army volunteers who fried sugary snacks for World War I soldiers on the front line.

When the US entered World War I in 1917, the Salvation Army, a charity organization, sent about 250 volunteers (who were mostly women) to France, where the American army was stationed. The plan was to bring treats and supplies as close to the front line as possible. But the closer the volunteers got to the action, the fewer resources they could access.

Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance were credited with bringing doughnuts to the Wester Front. They had a handful of ingredients, including flour, sugar, animal fats, baking powder and canned milk. Doughnuts were one of the few sweet foods they could make without an oven, and once they had a fire hot enough to heat the oil, they could fry them up fast. The women had the pan to cook them in, but for other parts, they had to get creative. For example, grape juice bottles became rolling pins (擀面杖) when necessary.

Sheldon and Purviance’s pan could fit seven doughnuts at a time, and on day one, they made just 150 doughnuts for the group of 800 men. The soldiers even fought over a doughnut. Then they made some changes to their operation, and eventually made 5,000 doughnuts a day. The snacks were so popular that the volunteers earned the nickname “ Doughnut Lassies”, while the soldiers they served were nicknamed “Doughboys”.

The Doughnut Lassies’ impact didn’t end with World War I. The American soldiers’ experiences overseas made doughnuts a commonly eaten food for them back home.

It’s said that the Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie. They were deciphered (破译) in the Song Dynasty     1     whether these are the correct answers is still debatable.

In his life Cangjie observed mountains and rivers, footprints of birds and beasts, as well as shapes of plants and objects. Inspired by these, Cangjie invented various symbols     2     (base) on the shapes and     3     (appear) of different things and named them zi (character). These most ancient Chinese pictographs (象形文字) have ended the time     4     people tied knots to record their lives.

According to the Han Dynasty’s Chinese dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Cangjie wrote two scrolls, which     5     (lose) during wars in the Sui Dynasty.

Scholars in contemporary times tend     6     (believe) it is probably a beautiful tale that Cangjie invented the Chinese characters alone. Many Chinese characters actually came into being before Cangjie. He is more like the one who     7     (collect) Chinese characters. Chinese ancestors accumulated and developed the Chinese characters, updating them through hundreds of years, during which time the Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone script     8     bronze script, seal script, clerical script, and     9     (final) to standard script. Nowadays Chinese people commonly use the standard script, whose     10     (tradition) version was gradually simplified and modernized.