When studying in the UK, I was no longer puzzled about when England got Wales, Scotland and Ireland     1    to it or when the southern part of Ireland broke away. The four countries     2     the UK use the same currency and military defence, but they have different legal systems. I saw much     3    that showed the Great Britain was invaded by the Romans, the Vikings as well as the Normans, who left their so-called achievements and influenced the names of locations and vocabulary. There were many     4    places, so I had to keep my eyes open. Later I traveled to Ireland where I found myself fascinated by the landscape. It was a feast for my eyes as if I were approaching a gallery in which I was     5    with beautiful pictures. Every day I was     6    with the rolling mountains dotted with sheep and cattle, the roar of the ocean and the scents of flowers. I often had a sip of wine or beer in small pubs which     7    a small amount of money for their service. Once I talked about their customs with a crowd of Irish people who were interested in our Confucius philosophy, and they were     8    and shared with me a snack cooked with butter and honey. The journey was so striking that I’m     9    to go there again.

We were in Rome when World War Ⅱ ended. The first we knew of it was when we heard bells ringing and people running into the streets. Everyone was     1     with joy and excitement. “What’s going on?” I asked. “It seems like the war is over,”     2     one of the soldiers. Everyone started     3     at once. Some people began     4     with joy and relief. Others were     5     each other that it was a day that they would go down in history. Later that day we     6     the allied tanks as they rolled into the square. It was a day of great joy and one I will never forget!

There have been so many conflicts in modern history that have led to loss of life. I recently watched a documentary online that showed the horror of war. It was about World War Ⅰ,where millions of young men spent years in     1     trenches fighting each other. There was a British     2     who was leading a group of     3    . They were based near the of the war in Eastern France. They were trying to protect     4     in a village. One night, many German     5     were dropped around the area. The villagers     6     and ran into the night. They were all killed by     7     fire. The     8     caused the general so much suffering. He was interviewed as an elderly man and was     9     as he spoke about it. Although it was a tough documentary to watch, I feel it gave me an     10     for the value of peace. The world would be a better place without any war or conflict.

Chinese traders were recorded as making voyages to the north coast of Australia from the 1750s, but were probably visiting Australia long before. Chinese men arrived in Australia in small numbers after the 1788 British settlement as free settlers and criminals. A small population grew rapidly after 1848 under a system of indentured (契约的) labor, after China had     1     its ports to foreign trade in 1842. They worked in rural New South Wales as cooks, farm laborers and etc.

Indentured Chinese     2     worked in all colonies variously as station hands, plantation workers, miners, on public works, cabinet makers, personal servants and in laundries. Most came from the south-eastern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.

Due to labor     3     in West Australia, the Colonial Government organized Chinese contract labor between 1847 and 1898, most working as laborers, cooks and gardeners. Many Chinese people came from rural backgrounds and brought with them     4     and water management skills. By 1885, there were 54 Chinese market gardens in Sydney. By 1901, 67% of New South Wales market gardeners were Chinese.

Gold rushes in Victoria in the 1850s and New South Wales in the 1860s significantly     5     the population of Chinese immigrants in Australia; about 45,000 prospectors arrived in Victoria alone in 1854-58. Numbers continued to increase as gold and other     6     were discovered in Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania.

When mining became less     7    , many Chinese people worked successfully to provide goods and services such as furniture making, market gardening, fishing and, particularly, store-keeping including the import and export of goods from overseas. Chinese goods, especially tea, silk, vegetables, herbs and other spices were highly sought-after items of trade by non-Chinese people. Tea rooms, importing and selling many varieties of tea, were very popular. Chinese silk was turned into     8     evening wear and cloaks by Chinese tailors and seamstresses.

Today there is a culturally diverse Chinese     9     in Australia with links to south-eastern China as well as Vietnam and Hong Kong. The Chinese communities in Australia are brought together every year by     10     of Lunar New Year.