A UNESCO World Heritage Site today, the ancient town of Pingyao in Shanxi province formed China’s economic backbone during the Qing Dynasty. The town was home     1     the country’s first piaohao (money exchange house) that financed the empire during a period when all bookkeeping was on paper, and the only way     2     (deal) with numbers involved the abacus (算盘) .

In the 19th century, merchants from Shanxi were making their     3     (present) felt in many other nations. They had to rely on security guards for transferring their wealth--gold and silver. The method was hardly safe and thus     4     (lead) to the emergence of piaohao.

The bank of Rishengchang, which     5     (literal) means “sunrise prosperity”, was established in 1823 and it became the prototype (原型) of China’s early financial system. At its peak, the Rishengchang bank had more than 30 branches across the country, with business     6     (reach) as far as Europe and the US.     7     more than a century later, in 1932, the exchange house halted (终止) its operations, the antiques displayed in the museum today continue to fascinate people.

In 2006, Rishengchang museum was named     8     “major national cultural relic” under protection by the State Council. Since then, it     9     (make) its way across the country and abroad. The museum now preserves original account books, letters, bills of exchange and seals,     10    existence reflects the spirit and wisdom of the Shanxi merchants.

2 . Like reading? Interested in Chinese classical novels? Have a look at the following four books which are we known to most Chinese as Four Masterpieces.

The Water Margin

The Water Margin, also known as All Men Are Brothers in Pearl Buck’s translation, Shui Hu Zhuan in Chinese, is along chapter novel with the Song Jiang Uprising in the late Northern Song Dynasty as the main background and type of heroic legend. It is an immortal (不朽的) novel and has inspired many storytellers. The author of the novel is generally regarded as Shi Nai’an (1296~1371).

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the first full-length historical romance novel in China. Its author is Luo Guan zhong (about 1330~1400), a famous novelist in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. Characters such as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhuge Liang have become household names among the Chinese.

Journey to the West

Journey to the West is the first romantic chapter novel about gods and devils in ancient China. There are 100 copies of Journey to the Westin the existing Ming Publications without the author’s signature. Wu Yuxuan, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, first proposed that the author of Journey to the West was Wu Cheng’en (1500~1582) of the Ming Dynasty.

The Dream of the Red Chamber

The Dream of the Red Chamber, also called The Story of the Stone, is said to be the greatest masterpiece of Chinese fiction. It is generally believed to be written by Cao Xueqin (about 1715~1763), a writer of the Qing Dynasty. With hundreds of persons and their stories, the story is very complex but also very interesting for its encyclopedic character(百科全书式的人物).

3 . Once Popular Sports in Ancient Capital Xi'an

The ancient capital Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province is holding the National Games. As the capital of 13 dynasties throughout Chinese history, the ancient city has never been far from sports. Starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the city has held many sports events.

Cuju: Origin of modern soccer

Cuju was an ancient Chinese competitive game involving kicking a ball through an opening into a net. As the ancestor of soccer, it first appeared in the renowned ancient Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce（“Strategies of the Warring States”）, which describedCuju as a form of entertainment among the general public. Later, cuju was commonly played in the army for military training purposes, during the Han Dynasty.

Jiaodi: Chinese-style wrestling

Sumo, known as Japan's “national sport”, actually started in ancient China. Sumo was called jiaodi or jiaoli in ancient times. Ancient jiaodi,a Chinese-style wrestling, was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other imitating wild oxen. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, jiaodi was highly favored by emperors. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaodi was part of military training and a kind of entrainment and athletic sports.

Jiju: Ancient polo

Jiju is a sport which uses a stick to hit balls while riding on a horse, pretty similar to modern polo. It was popular in the royal court and among common people in the Tang Dynasty. There were many fields for playing polo in the court and it was also a major military training program in the army. In the Tang Dynasty capital, there were formal polo courts, such as the stadium pavilion in Chang' an palace.

Archery

During ancient times, the origin of archery was closely related with hunting and defense. Ancient archery was not only an athletic event,a military training program, and an entertainment activity, but also part of education. As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the archery was listed as one of the six practical disciplines, also called the Six Arts, becoming an important and competitive form.

China’s Grand Canal(大运河)

For centuries, the power of Chinese emperors rose and fell with     1    (they) control of the Grand Canal. Today, this important waterway is shorter than it once was,     2     it is still the longest man-made river in the world and continues to play an important cultural and     3    (economy) role in modern China.

The original canal system began around the year 605,     4    Emperor-Yang realized that-in order to feed his army--he needed a way to move food quickly from China’s southern rice -growing region to the country’s north.     5    (complete) in 611, the canal grew more and more important throughout China over the next 500 years. In 1279, Kublai Khan began to repair and build new parts of the canal. This rebuilding work created a more direct north-south route to and from Beijing. Future     6    (rule) then continued to expand and improve the canal. In addition to     7    (move) rice around China, the Grand Canal was also an important cultural waterway. Ideas, regional foods, and cultural practices were transported from one part of China     8    another along the county’s watery highway.

Today, boats still carry tons of coal, food, and other goods to points between Hangzhou and Jining. In 2014, the historic Grand Canal was made a UNESCO World Heritage site.It     9    (hope) that Grand Canal, one of the world’s great engineering accomplishments, will continue to link north and south China for centuries     10    (come).

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。