1 . History’s first empire rose out of a hot, dry landscape, without rainfall for crops, without trees or stones for building. In spite of all this, its people built the world’s first cities, with monumental architecture and large populations — and they built them _______ out of mud.

Sumer _______ the southern part of modern Iraq in the region called Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means “between two rivers” — the Tigris and the Euphrates. Around 5000 BCE, early Sumerians used channels and dams to _______ river water and farm large areas of previously _______ land. Agricultural communities like this were slowly _______ in Mesopotamia.

But Sumerians were the first to take the _______ step. Using _______ made from river mud, they began to build multi-storied homes and temples. Those clay bricks gave rise to the world’s first _______, like Uruk, Ur, and Eridu, probably around 4500 BCE.

The Sumerians created the first _______ system, designed to teach the ability of writing. In the schools, people studied from dawn to dusk, from __________ well into adulthood. They __________ accounting, mathematics, and copied works of literature.

But by the third millennium (千年) BCE, Sumer was no longer the __________ empire around, or even in Mesopotamia. Waves of nomadic (游牧) tribes poured into the __________ from the north and east. In 2300 BCE, the Sumerian Empire was conquered and __________.

Afterward, Sumer disappeared back into the desert dirt, not to be __________ until the 19th century.

3 . Although we lack accurate statistics about child mortality in the pre-industrial period, we do have evidence that in the 1660s, the mortality rate for children who died within 14 days of birth was as much as 30 percent. Nearly all families _______ some premature death. Moreover, to protect themselves from the emotional consequences of children’s death, parents avoided making any emotional _______ to an infant.

The 18th century witnessed the _______ from an agrarian (土地的) economy to an industrial one, one of the vital social changes taking place in the Western world. An increasing number of people moved from their villages and small towns to big cities where life was quite different. Social supports which had _______ existed in smaller communities were replaced by problems such as poverty, crime, substandard housing and disease. Due to the need for additional income to support the family, young children from the poorest families were _______ into early employment and thus their childhood became painfully short. Children as young as 7 might be required to work full-time, _______ to unpleasant and unhealthy circumstances, from factories to prostitution.

The lives of children _______ a drastic change during the 1800s in the United States. Previously, children from both rural and urban families were expected to participate in everyday labour due to the bulk of manual hard working. _______ , thanks to the technological advances of the mid-1800s, _______ the rise of the middle class and redefinition of roles of family members, work and home became less synonymous over time. People began to purchase toys and books for their children. When the country depended more upon ________ , children in rural and urban areas, were less likely to be required to work at home. Beginning from the Industrial Revolution and rising slowly over the course of the 19th century, this ________ increased dramatically after the Civil War. John Locke was one of the most ________ writers of his period. He created the first clear and ________ statement of the “environmental position” that family education ________ a child’s life, and via this, he became the father of modern learning theory. During the colonial period, his teachings about childcare gained a lot of ________ in America.

4 . Today we see writing all around us. We would be _________ without writing.

The earliest people have no _________ of writing. However, writing _________ over thousands of years in different cultures around the world.

_________ writing existed, drawings were used as a form of _________. Rock drawings have been found in many places. One rock drawing in a mountainous area of New Mexico _________ a mountain goat standing up and a man riding a horse upside down. Experts believe that the drawing was a _________ to riders that the road was dangerous.

Modern forms of writing began when people _________ to use symbols, such as letters, words, to stand for _________. At first, they used __________ that stood for words. __________, a picture might show a hunter, the tools the hunter used, and a pair of deer the hunter killed. __________ developments took place in Mesopotamia, where people learned to use the same symbols to stand for different words. The writing used by ancient Egyptians also used __________ known as hieroglyphs (象形文字).

Even greater advances were __________ in China about 3500 years ago. The Chinese used tens of thousands of signs. With their systems, they could __________ new words. This, __________, was a different system. To make writing __________, things had to be simplified in some way. The __________ was the development of alphabets. The Phoenicians (腓尼基人) are __________ considered to have developed one of the first useful alphabets. The Phoenicians alphabet used about 20 or 30 signs. They were well on their way to at least one type of modern writing __________, as we know, the modern English alphabet uses 26 letters.

6 . It took brave European explorers less than 300 years, between 1420 and 1713, to establish that all the seas of the world formed an enormous and continuous ocean. This discovery encouraged them to _____ into areas which hadn’t been charted until then. With the discovery of new lands, new trade routes were _____. In many parts of the world, colonies and settlements were established and many odd-looking products were brought back to _____, arousing great interest and _____ wealth.

It was probably the irresistible desire for wealth that _____ persuaded Europeans of the fifteenth century to _____ their legendary dangers and explore further out into the open seas. They were also _____ by the love for their countries. Many explorers wanted to serve their kings and countries as well as gain personal _____ from their exploring.

The most effective way of gaining wealth was through _____. Silk, gold, silver and ______ stones, and more importantly spices, such as gingers and peppers, were the most profitable trade goods in Europe. Spices were of the greatest ______ because they enabled the Europeans to make their winter diet of salted meat more delicious. These items were ______ mostly from the East by a difficult overland route. The Italian ______, who bought goods from the Arabs of Alexandria, controlled the trade along this route. Other countries of the Mediterranean ______ the wealth which this trade generated and they were ______ to discover new routes which would allow them to share in it.

7 . Zheng He (郑和) from China Might Have Discovered America Before Columbus

In 1405, a Chinese eunuch, Zheng He, launched the first of seven voyages west from China across the Indian Ocean. During the next 30 years (till 1433), he was in command of the world’s largest fleet_________ by the Ming emperor, and sailed to the east coast of Africa into the Persian Gulf. This is_________ history.

But a map titled “General Chart of the Integrated World” shows that he travelled much further west and even reached_________, 74 years ahead of Chistopher Columbus. On the top right corner of this article is an 18th-century copy of a 1418 map, which claims to show the world that Zheng He_________. This map came to light in the year 2001 when a Shanghai lawyer, Liu Gang, claimed to have bought it from a local dealer for around $500. He believes that Zheng_________ the waters around both poles, the Americas, the Mediterranean and Australia, too.

This map shows two hemispheres of the world, a way to show the image of the round Earth on_______ paper. Continents are recognizable. Both North and South America are clear, and so are the rivers running from far inland. The Himalayas, among whose foothills Zheng He was born, are marked as the highest mountain range in the world. And according to experts, some aspects in the map are_________ Chinese: the blue, fan-like waves and annotations (注释) with textual descriptions of places are parts of China’s map-making tradition.

Though Columbus and Zheng He both sailed across the oceans, their_________ were quite different. Columbus’s mission was commercial, while Zheng He’s was_________— he was sent to bring back envoys (使节) from other countries to pay respect to the new Yongle emperor who had__________ power from his nephew and needed to find a way to assert his legitimacy (正统性). With the end of Zheng He’s life, China’s explorations on the high seas__________ as there was a new emperor with less needs to finance pricey expeditions.

For the next few hundred years, China largely__________ on itself and the Chinese have remained in their land for hundreds of years, which meant a lasting isolation from the ocean civilization. Europeans, __________, continued their expeditions and recorded their history. ________, mainstream western historians don’t want to believe Zheng’s map to be true and they are__________ that only their explorers’ maps had such details. “ It took many European sailors decades to travel across the globe to make such maps, how come Zheng He alone made it within 30 years?” said one of the historians.

8 . In 1961, President John F. Kennedy Jr. set a goal: he wanted to land a man on the moon to show America’s_________ in the Space Race.

_________ a decade later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Aldrin later joined him on the moon’s surface and they_________a US flag, took photographs, and_________ the first samples from our satellite.

The Apollo crew of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins travelled 240,000 miles in 76 hours to reach the moon. During the mission, the food items the astronauts ate on the surface of the moon in the lunar module_________ the following: beef stew, bacon squares, date fruit cake, and grape punch.

Over 400,000 people supported the_________, including people from the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Armstrong’s famous first words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”_________ on television channels and through newspapers around the world.

After World War Ⅱ_________ on September 2, 1945, a new conflict began between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union had_________ ideologies(意识形态): the United States was capitalist,__________ the Soviet Union was socialist.

The Space Race started when a Soviet missile launched Sputnik(Russian for “traveller”), the world’s first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. Sputnik became the first man-made__________ to orbit Earth. The US decided to act quickly in order to prove __________. From 1961 to 1964, NASA’s budget __________ by 500 percent. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, America was declared the__________ of the Space Race. The US had spent about $25 billion on the program, over $100 billion in today’s dollars.

More than 50 years after Apollo, NASA vows to land the first woman on the moon with the Artemis program and with the help of an increase in NASA’s budget by $1.6 billion by former President Trump. The new mission,__________ the twin sister of Apollo and Greek Goddess of the moon, will be headed to the moon’s south pole where the craters(火山口)hold large deposits of water ice.

9 . For many people, the Renaissance means 14th to 16th century Italy, and the developments in art and architecture, music and literature which _______ there at that time. But there is one work which, perhaps more than any other, expresses the spirit of the Renaissance: the Mona Lisa._______ is believed to be the best example of a new life-like style of painting that _______ people when it was first used._______ by Leonardo da Vinci in the years 1503-1506, the Mona Lisa is a mysterious masterpiece. People want to know who Mona Lisa is, and why she is smiling. _______ people do not know much about the Renaissance, they have _______ this painting.

But the Renaissance is, of course, _______ just the Mona Lisa. Renaissance _______ a French word which means “rebirth” and it first appeared in English in the 19th century. The word was used to describe a period in European history _______ began with the arrival of the first Europeans in America, an age of exploration, and the beginning of the modern world. It was as if Europe was waking up after the long sleep of ________. From Italy, the ideas of the Renaissance rapidly spread northwards to France, Germany, England, and the rest of Europe.

Trade with other parts of the world meant that Europe was ________ richer, too. This meant that people had money to ________ on the arts; and it became easier for artists to find people who could afford to buy their works or employ them. Leonardo worked for important people ________ the Duke of Milan, and, towards the end of his life, the King of France.

Renaissance artists found new ideas for their work in classical Greece and Rome. But they looked forward, too, by opening new frontiers in the arts. Painters ________ how to use ________ and the effects of light; composers put different voices together and created polyphony (many voices); architects ________ designing buildings with more light which contrasted with the heaviness of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

________, Leonardo was ________ extraordinary genius, an example of what has been described ________ “Renaissance man”: someone interested in everything and with many different talents. But even if his only contribution to history ________ the Mona Lisa, it would have been genius enough for all time.

10 . Shikumen Residence

Typical Shikumen Residence, literally meaning “Stone Warehouse Gate”, is regarded as the most representative house style of Shanghai. This sort of residence combines the _________ styles of southern China and western countries.

These residences can date back to the 1870s, when the Taiping Rebellion against the_________ of the Qing Dynasty broke out. Due to the warfare, the businessmen, ministers and wealthy people moved to the concession (租界) for protection. As a result, many foreign_________businessmen had many residences built to earn money. Those residences were, therefore, inspired by western style.

Construction Features of Shikumen Residence

A Shikumen Residence is usually a two-floor building constructed with bricks and wood. As the residences are usually linked, a lane naturally comes into being. Two copper door-knockers_________ in the whole lane when they are struck. _________ the stone gate, you enter a patio (天井), from which the sunshine lights the whole yard. Right in front of the patio, there is a living room where the hosts meet or treat their _________. Passing through the living room, another patio appears where the cooking bench is set.

Under the influence of western architecture, the doors and outside walls were gradually_________ with the arc-shaped or rectangular carvings and paintings. So, from the outside, the block of residences looks like western-style townhouses. _________, the lintel(过梁)was usually constructed with Chinese traditional bricks and black tiles.

_________ of Shikumen Residence

It’s said that before the 1950s, these residences __________ 60% of all the Shanghai dwellings and sheltered 60% of the local population. They almost monopolized (垄断) the city’s estate market due to their comfortable, practical and convenient advantages. __________ these, they were popular because of their good locations and convenient transportation. As time passed by, they gradually __________ with the pace of the reconstruction of the old areas. Later, when some influential architects put forward that these residences should be __________ as a symbol of the typical Shanghai culture, great attention started to be paid to them.

Shikumen Culture

The appearance of these residences broke through the Chinese traditional lifestyle, under which a large __________ family lived in a big courtyard. The new smaller-sized courtyard came into being to lay a foundation for the later Lane Culture. This local culture had a great influence on Shanghai’s politics, economy, literature, arts and lifestyle. For example, the literature__________ of “Ting Zi Jian” was born at the same time. Later, the scholars continued to create many masterpieces.