1 . This event occurred on Columbus’ fourth and final voyage to the Americas, which began in Cadiz in 1502. Columbus landed near the north coast of Jamaica on June 20, 1503 with only two of his four ships. At first, the natives welcomed Columbus and his crew, providing them with food and other supplies, and welcoming them with open arms.

This arrangement didn’t last very long. Over the next several months Columbus’ crew repaid the generosity of the natives by frequently stealing and cheating them. As a result of this, by January of 1504, the native people decided to stop supplying the Europeans.

Without the significant source of food or means to leave, Columbus’ crew were in serious trouble. Luckily for his crew, Columbus had certain lunar knowledge. He predicted there would be a total lunar eclipse on the evening of February 29, 1504. He also knew what time it would occur.

Armed with this knowledge, which Columbus chose to gamble would be extremely accurate, he called a meeting with the chiefs of the nearby tribes shortly before the eclipse was to take place. In this meeting, he told them his god was angry with them for ceasing to give him supplies. As a result, his god would take away the moon as a sign of his anger and subsequently punish them for their actions.

Luckily for Columbus, the predicted lunar eclipse took place more or less on schedule. The Indians observed this and were so astonished and frightened that with sad scream that they came running from every direction to the ships, promising they would diligently supply all their necessities in the future.

Columbus agreed to take their case before his god and went into his cabin to “pray”. Columbus knew the moon would stay completely in the Earth’s shadow for around 48 minutes, so he waited for the proper time for the moon to begin to appear. Shortly before this took place, he came back out and told the natives that he had asked his god to forgive them and god had agreed. The moon began to reappear and Columbus no longer had trouble getting the provisions he needed.

2 . The “Middle Ages” refers to a duration of 1,000 years, stretching from the fall of Rome in the 5th century to the Italian renaissance in the 15th. Traditionally, the term refers specifically to Europe. And there are many stories, which are more fiction than reality, about the Europe of that time.

One misunderstanding is that people in the Middle Ages were all ignorant and uneducated. For example, a 19th century biography of Christopher Columbus incorrectly claimed that the Europeans at that time thought the Earth was flat. Sure, many scholars of that period described the Earth as the center of the universe – but there wasn’t much debate as to its shape. A popular 13th century text was literally called “On the Sphere of the World.” And the number of people who had an access to books gradually increased alongside the establishment of universities. Ancient knowledge was also not “lost”; Greek and Roman texts continued to be studied.

And it is the same with knights (骑士). In the 19th century, some Romantic European nationalist thinkers well-romanticized the Middle Ages. In their description of the societies, they emphasized the narrations of chivalry (骑士精神) and wonder. But knights played minimum roles in those days’ warfare. The fights, the duels, the adventures and the beautiful ladies are most probably but legends.

Meanwhile, the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet referred to the Middle Ages as “a thousand years without a bath”. But even small towns were equipped with well-used public bathhouses. People even bathed with soaps made of things like animal fat, ash, and scented herbs. And they used mouthwash, teeth-scrubbing cloths with pastes and powders, and spices and herbs for fresh-smelling breath.

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3 . The name “Canada” comes from “kanata”, the Iroquois-Huron word for “village”. The Iroquois used the word to ___________ the village of Stadacona, present-day Quebec City. With the story ___________, you’ll find the ___________ of the early locals and European conquers.

During his second ___________ to “New France” in 1535, Jacques Cartier, an energetic and ___________ French explorer, sailed up the Saint Lawrence River for the first time. The kind Iroquois ___________ him in the direction of “kanata”, the village at Stadacona, which Cartier interpreted ___________ as a reference to both the village of Stadacona and the ___________ wide area subject to the Iroquois chief. During Cartier’s ___________, the French established along the Saint Lawrence the colony of “Canada”, the first colony in the ____________ that the French called “New France”.

By 1547, ____________ maps were showing the name Canada and “Canada” began to ____________. As the country expanded to the west and the south in the 1700s, “Canada” was the ____________name of the territory spanning the American Midwest, ____________ as far south as what is now the state of Louisiana.

After the British conquered New France in 1763, the ____________ was renamed the Province of Quebec. Then, as British loyalists ____________ north during and after the American Revolutionary War, Quebec was divided in 1791 ____________ the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. In 1841, the two colonies were ____________ under one name, the Province of Canada. It came as no ____________ that the country’s name was   officially changed to “Canada” in 1982 when the Canada Act was passed, and it’s been ____________ by that name ever since.

Yellow Crane Tower,     1     is one of the most renowned towers in the southern area of the Yangtze River, has been located on the top of Snake Mountain for     2    (century) with its highest point lifted into the sky, overlooking a large number of boats on the Yangtze River. White clouds float     3    (gentle) around the tower.

Its cultural significance led to its     4    (make) the symbol of Wuhan city. This excellent architecture     5    (date) back to the Three Kingdoms Period. Due to the ideal location, it was built by Sun Quan, King of Wu,     6     a watchtower for his army.

During the Tang Dynasty (618— 907) , many popular poems     7    (write) in praise of the tower. These poems endeared(使受喜爱) the tower to the people. It stands 51.4 meters high. The tower’s     8    (appear) is the same regardless of the direction it is viewed from. The roof is covered by 100, 000 yellow glazed tiles(琉璃瓦). With yellow upturned eaves(屋檐), each floor seems to be designed     9     (look) like a yellow crane spreading its wings as if about to fly.

From the top of the tower, visitors are treated to a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the Yangtze River     10     the surrounding buildings of Wuhan.

The early 1400s     1    (be) a glorious era in Chinese history. During this time, the Yongle Emperor wanted to develop harmonious relations with the overseas neighbors. Zheng He, one of the most     2     (influence) explorers, took charge of the task. One of the states     3    (mention) in the historical records was Boni (present-day Brunei), a small kingdom in South-East Asia. There is     4    (prove) that China established very good relations with this state a long time ago:one of its kings was buried in Nanjing during the early Ming Dynasty, and there is a     5    (fascinate) legend about the king.

In 1405, on behalf of the emperor, Zheng He sailed the oceans     6     his first voyage. His fleet     7    (load) with gifts to the neighboring countries and regions. In 1407, he travelled to Boni,     8     strengthened the friendly relationship between     9     two countries. In the subsequent year, the King of Boni paid a friendly visit to China. He was accompanied by more than 150 people. The records show that the visitors were astonished by     10    rich and technologically advanced the Ming Dynasty was.

7 . In 2016, Luncz and her colleagues realized that Brazilian capuchins (卷尾猴) produced stone flakes (小薄片) from the rocks they used to pound (击打) food and dig without necessarily meaning to. It made the team wonder whether the artefacts (人工制品) really reflected any technical planning by those early humans.

Since then, Luncz and her colleagues have been studying tool use in long-tailed macaques (猕猴) on the islands of Phang Nga Bay in Thailand (泰国的攀牙湾). The team set up motion-activated cameras (动作感应摄像头) to study the behaviour of the wild macaques. During 100 hours of footage (镜头)，the team witnessed monkeys accidentally creating flakes as they struck nuts between two stones and then leaving the broken stones to find new, whole stones.

This is almost exactly what the capuchins did in the earlier study. The team then compared 1119 stone flakes from the macaques’ nut-cracking sites with artefacts found at hominin (古人类) sites in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. The monkeys’ thin, flat, wide stone flakes—ranging from 1.3 to 7.9 centimetres in length—were “almost the same” with flakes that were associated with ancient humans up to 3.3 million years ago, says Tomos Proffitt, another member of the research team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The findings could challenge the current understanding of early stone technology, says Proffitt. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that all of the old material is not intentional,” he says. “But what our study shows is that we can’t be 100 per cent certain that every single flake in the early Stone Age archaeological record was intentionally made. There may be a component within that record that’s unintentional.”