1 . 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.

2 . 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.

3 . 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.

4 . 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.

5 . The retirement of Shirley Tilghman as the 19th President of Princeton University at the end of June 2013 provided an opportunity for the Friends of the Princeton University Library to_________the presidency of the University by making a gift to the Library in her honour. The Special Collections curators presented a wide range of_________to identify a suitable purchase. The choice: one of the extremely rare books that can be documented as having_________Jonathan Dickinson(1688-1747), the first President of the College of New Jersey.

At its modest beginning in 1746 in Dickinson’s parsonage in Elizabeth, the college_________the president, one tutor, and eight or ten students. Dickinson’s books were the college library. Tactica Sacra(Sacred Strategies), by John Arrowsmith, Puritan divine of Trinity College, Cambridge, is a manual for the spiritual warrior, part of the armament of clergyman Dickinson. A large quarto of 400 pages in its_________17th-century full calf binding, the book carries an inscription on its title page in Dickinson’s hand: “Jonathan Dickinson’s Book...” The group of Friends who supported the_________are named on a bookplate added to the volume.

The University’s efforts to acquire books with a Princeton association_________in earnest during the second half the 19th century. The extant books belonging to Jonathan Edwards were added,_________some from other early presidents, including Samuel Finley. John Witherspoon’s books had been acquired in the first part of the 19th century_________the efforts of his son-in-law Samuel Stanhope Smith. These__________were purchased not so much because they had belonged to Witherspoon but because, after the Nassau Hall fire of 1802, the college needed books.__________of the associational value of the Witherspoon books came to a(n)__________during the librarianship of Julian Boyd. In the early1940s Boyd__________rare book librarian Julie Hudson to reassemble the Witherspoon library, which had been dispersed throughout the collections. The earliest__________of the college library are on view in the Eighteenth-Century Room, just inside the__________to the Main Exhibition Gallery in Firestone Library.

6 . Vasco da Gama, born around 1469 in Sines, Portugal, is best remembered as the first European to sail from Europe to India. The sea ________ he found helped Portugal build a rich empire overseas.

As a young man, studying navigation and astronomy, he served as an officer in the Portuguese ________. In 1497, he ________ the king of Portugal he could find a sea route to India by sailing around Africa, which would allow Portugal to ________ the rich Indian spice trade.

Earlier Portuguese expeditions had ________ the southern tip of Africa. But these trips were long, difficult, and ________. Was it possible to travel from Europe to India in a single ________?

In July, Gama ________ from Lisbon with four ships. By January 1498, the expedition ________ Mozambique on Africa’s southeaster coast. But Arab traders in Mozambique ________ disliked Portuguese. They ________ Gama away.

Farther north, on the coast of Kenya, Gama hired an Arab to ________ his ships across the Indian Ocean. In May 1498, they arrived at Calicut in India, where pearls, jewels, and wonderful spices were ________ for sale. But the king and local merchants refused to ________ with Portuguese.

In ________, Gama made a second voyage to Calicut with warships and soldiers. After many ________ battles, Gama ________ merchant ships and killed many locals ________ the king of Calicut surrendered. Gama sailed home ________ with a rich cargo of spice. In 1524, Portugal built a valuable trading empire in India. ________, the Portuguese king named Gama the governor of Portugal’s possessions there.

7 . 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.

8 . A young lady was sitting in her garden under a tree drinking tea. _______, something white fell and _______ in her drink. It was a cocoon(茧) . As the cocoon rumbled (发出隆隆声) in the hot _______, she realized that it was made from a long, strong and soft _______ . She started thinking about how to _______ the new material. Does this story sound a bit _______ ? It does remind me of Isaac Newton, having the _______of the law of gravity while sitting under an apple tree after he was _______ on the head with a piece of falling fruit.

The story of the young woman and her tea is a popular Chinese legend (传说) about _______ . When silk was first invented, silk clothing was ________ by the rich people, and it was a status symbol. But over time its use spread and a wider range of social classes ________ wearing silk clothes.

As the production of silk increased, it began to be put into industrial ________ and became a part of musical instruments, fishing lines, even wrap paper and trade business.

Silk was ________ traded and spread all the way from China to India and through Central Asia to the Middle East. It was the longest trade route across land, and it allowed early ________ between Europe and China. Italy became one of the major producers of silk and it’s   ________ some of the world’s finest silk cloth is made even today.