1 . The history of the school bus can date back to 1886 when the Wayne Works company made horse-drawn carriages (四轮马车) known as “ school wagons” or “kid hacks” in Indiana.     1    

In the early 1900s, the car industry was beginning to develop fast.    2     The company managed to make its carriages powered by engines. But the design remained mostly the same as that of the previous ones, with students sitting along the walls of the bus while facing inside.

In 1927, a man built the first bus that primarily used steel. Before long, Wayne Works introduced the first all-steel school bus body with safety glass windows.     3     This led to a turning point in the history of the school bus in 1939, when a conference was organised at Manhattan College to develop school bus standards.

Many new national standards were created, determining everything from seating designs to the famous yellow color that school buses still sport today. The reason why the color was chosen was simple.     4    The color is especially easy to see in the early morning and evening light when school buses usually operate.

    5     For example, a variety of changes have been made to enable the school bus to not only be safer but also have better fuel (燃料) economy, be easier to drive, etc. The most creative approach among all of these is probably a kind of stop signal arm that warns traffic of a stop in progress, which states began to require in the early 1950s.

In China, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, or “loong,” as is known in Chinese. This creature appears on many cultural artifacts     1     (pass) down through Chinese history.

Unlike Western dragons,     2     are often depicted as aggressive, fire-breathing, flying lizards, Chinese loongs     3     (traditional) symbolize strong and favourable powers. In Chinese mythology ( 神 话 ), the loong is credited with ensuring a good harvest. The unique appearance of the Chinese loong distinguishes it    4     its Western counterparts.

For thousands of years, the Chinese have respected the loong,     5     (believe) that they can bring harmony and prosperity. According to Chinese mythology, the Yan Emperor’s mother had seen a loong just before she was pregnant and soon the Yan Emperor       6       (bear). So the Chinese regard the Yan Emperor as their forefather, and they sometimes refer to     7       (they) as “descendants of the loong (龙的传人).”

At a historical site in Liaoning Province, a stone sculpture of a loong was discovered in 1994.       8       (measure) 19.70 meters in length, the sculpture       9       (date) back to more than 7,600 years ago. The idiom “龙年大吉” means “good luck in the year of the loong.” We wish all of us       10       happy and lucky Chinese New Year!

Paper-making is a reflection of ancient Chinese wisdom,     1     (regard) as one of the Four Great Inventions of China. Among various types of paper in China, Xuan paper, traditionally handmade in Xuancheng, Anhui province, is famous for its close association    2    Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings.

The     3    (early) mention of Xuan paper is in On Famous Paintings Through History, a book by a scholar from the Tang Dynasty. It listed many characteristics of Xuan paper, like its stability, its durability and its    4    (resist) to insects. Yet     5    positioned it as an ideal medium for calligraphy and painting is its capacity to display various ink shades. Such are the features of the Xuan paper    6    it has gained favor among artists and calligraphers across generations.

With the growing popularity of Xuan paper in recent years, the industry has expanded     7    (dramatic) in Anhui. Last year, large quantities of Xuan paper, to be precise, about 500 metric tons,     8    (produce) in Xuancheng,     9     engaged more than 30, 000 local people in the industry. Currently, the local government is building a Xuan paper cultural park and a Xuan paper town    10     (develop) cultural tourism.

6 . In 1968 a grave dating from about 1100 was uncovered near Hattula, in Finland, Little remained of the occupant’s skeleton, but the inhumation included two swords and a knife. Such grave goods would normally suggest said occupant was a man. The skeleton was, ______ also decorated with brooches (胸针) and woollen clothing of types more usually worn at the time by women. This ______ guess that the burial was actually of a powerful woman, possibly a local ruler in her own right rather than just the wife of a male king.

This would be noteworthy enough. But a re-examination of the remains, just published in the European Journal of Archaeology by Ulla Moilanen of the University of Turku and Elina Salmela of the University of Helsinki, suggests the truth may be yet more ______. Ms. Moilanen and Dr Salmela suspect that the individual ______ may have had outward characteristics of both a man and a woman.

In 1968 working out the ______ of a skeleton in an ancient grave was tricky. After years of deterioration, the bones of men and women look pretty much ______. But that was before the use of DNA became possible. So Ms. Moilanen and Dr Salmela thought it worth trying again.

Most people have two sex chromosomes (染色体): XX in women and XY in men. Find DNA from a Y-chromosome in a skeleton and the chances are the body was ______. And, looking at a fragment of femur brought to her by Ms. Moilanen, who is the archaeologist in the ______, Dr. Salmela, who is the geneticist, did indeed find such DNA. But not much of it. That led her to wonder about contamination (污染), but also to consider whether the individual in the grave had had a(n) ______ X-chromosome that was swamping the signal from the Y.

Having an abnormal number of sex chromosomes is rare, but not vanishingly so. The particular ______ XXY leads to what is known as Klinefelter’s syndrome. To determine the occupant’s karyotype (染色体组型) from the tiny amount of DNA available, Dr. Salmela drew ______ with living people. The grave delivered 8,329 pieces, so she used a computer to draw samples of similar size from the genomes of living people with various karyotypes, including XXY, and also from mixtures of both sexes, to ______ contamination. She then compared these with the DNA from the grave and ______ it was 99.75% probable the individual concerned had indeed had Klinefelter’s syndrome.

While Dr Salmela was working all this out, Ms. Moilanen and her team had another look at the grave. They confirmed that it was a ______ burial. For instance, they found evidence of fine furs, probably from foxes. Clearly, this was a well-respected human being, but what led to that ______ in a world then dominated by male values is a matter of puzzle. Perhaps the person came from a family powerful enough for such things not to matter.

8 . Thatbyinnyu (达宾纽佛塔) is the tallest pagoda in Bagan, with seven storeys and a history of over 800 years. Over the course of hundreds of years, it has been _________ by time. Despite the constant prayers, the pagoda must still face the _________ of time. In 2016, a(n) _________ occurred in central Myanmar (缅甸) and hundreds of pagodas and Buddha statues were damaged. Thatbyinnyu was among the most seriously affected.

A team of _________ professionals from China are busily working with their Myanmar counterparts shortly after the earthquake. They must complete the reinforcement of the pagodas before the _________ season arrives. In Bagan, craftsmen hold on to the techniques passed down from generation to generation when _________ pagodas. Original local materials are used and all work is done by _________. All materials must be transported manually to the third storey of the pagoda. In order to avoid friction (摩擦) of the supporting steel pipes against the ground or the walls of the pagoda, the construction team must lay wooden boards on the third and fourth storeys. Moving a piece of board is a test of _________ and care.

The rainy season is approaching. Two days ago, the roof of the pagoda began to _________ after heavy rain. The construction team must identify the most suitable material quickly to __________ the external cracks on the roof of the pagoda to prevent new leakage. The restoration team carried out experiments using lime, sand, and Bagan’s __________ red brick powder in different proportions. In the end, they found the combination with the best overall __________ in terms of water absorption and strength. After more than a month of non-stop work, the team of Chinese and Myanmar professionals finally completes the emergency reinforcement of the Thatbyinnyu __________ the arrival of the rainy season.

Once the rainy season is over, China’s __________ to Myanmar to fully repair the Thatbyinnyu Pagoda will __________ start. This project may last for nine years.

In 432 B.C., as the cities of Athens and Sparta    1    (battle) in a war, a deadly illness swept through Athens,    2    (strike) fear and panic into her citizens. The disease reached Athens via the port city of Piraeus and spread throughout Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, killing almost a third of its population, even the great leader then, 66-year-old Pericles    3    (include). It seemed the only thing for the citizens to do was    4    they had to wait to die.

    5    (protect) the people of Athens, when the pandemic just broke out, Pericles ordered the Athenians to move within the city’s newly built ‘long walls’, but it was when the real nightmare began. This gave the disease the perfect conditions    6    the pandemic could more quickly infect more of the Athenian population.

In the history Of Greece, the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who fell victim to the disease and survived, wrote that “people in good health were attacked    7    (severe) all of a sudden by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitted an unnatural and fetid breath”. Despite    8    (write) evidence of the disease, its cause is still unknown. Possibilities might be    9    we call typhoid fever and Ebola nowadays.

Months later, the disease finally became less intense and for a brief period the Athenians were relieved, but it would strike twice more, forcing Athens to yield to Sparta in 404 BCE and ending Athens’ rule in ancient Greece. The history of mankind    10     (consist) of plenty of battles of fighting against epidemics, which can change history itself in turn.