It’s not often sunny in Paris, but people still love to walk along the banks of the Seine. They love the view of the city’s old    1    (building), especially Notre Dame Cathedral, with its fantastic spire(尖顶).

    2    , that view has been changed forever. On April 16, a fire     3     (destroy) the spire of the 850-year-old church, and two-thirds of the roof. Parisians were so shocked that they couldn’t help openly     4     (weep). Many citizens gathered around the giant church, praying for the hundreds of firefighters     5     fought the flames. For many in France, it’s not only a house of worship, a symbol of French culture, architecture and history.

It is no wonder that people felt sad. The cathedral,    6    (construct) in 1163, is home to many    7    (religion) paintings and sculptures. It is probably best known for its relation     8     the story of the Hunchback(驼背人) of Notre Dame. But its French Gothic Architecture remains the    9    (big) attraction for visitors from around the world.     10     (fortunate), its world-famous glass windows survived the fire. And French President has promised to rebuild the invaluable heritage.

Harvard is older than the United States. In the early 1630s, some settlers recommended that a university     1    (found) just to improve the quality of their descendants (子孙) so that they could better build the new home. Thus, it was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Like many other universities at that time, Harvard at the early stage often ran into     2     financial crisis. The school board often had to go to Europe to raise     3    (donate), but as you can predict, they often came back     4    their hands empty.

    5    (fortunate), in 1638, John Harvard, pastor of Charlestown, passed away. He left his library and half his estate (财产) to the institution,     6    were the biggest contribution ever since its establishment. Therefore, the university was named after his name. Today, you can find a statue of John Harvard     7    (stand) in front of the University Hall in Harvard Yard, and it is perhaps the University’s best     8    (know) landmark.

It is universally     9    (acknowledge) that John Harvard was respected and remembered by the people in the USA owing to    10     he did.

When the modern Olympic Games     1     (start) in 1896 in Athens, Greece, there was no such thing as the Winter Olympics.     2    (player) completed only in the Summer Games. However, there were the Nordic Games. There was a(n)     3    (compete) of winter sports that took place every few years starting in 1901. But the Nordic Games were only to athletes     4    Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The winter sports were popular, so in 1924 an International Winter Sports Week     5     (hold) in Chamonix, France. About 250 athletes from 16 countries   competed in nine sports   and there were 11 female athletes,     6     competed in figure skating.

Still, the Winter Olympics were under way, adding more sports to the games and     7     (especial) more sports for women. Women got the chance     8    (take) part in skiing, ice hockey(冰球）    9     other sports. Now the Games have such     10    (interest) events as snowboarding and skeleton(俯式冰橇）.

John Snow was a famous doctor in London —so    1    , indeed, that he attended Queen Victoria as her personal     2    . But he became inspired when he thought about helping ordinary people     3    to cholera.

First there was England. Wales was    4     to it in the thirteenth century.Now when people refer to England you find Wales    5    as well.Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to “Great Britain”. Happily this was accomplished without    6     when King James of Scotland became King of England and Wales as well.

At first my new surroundings were difficult to    7    . The air seemed thin, as though its combination of gases had little oxygen     8    . Hit by a    9     of fresh air, my head ached. Just as I tried to make the necessary    10    to this new situation, Wang Ping appeared.

Plovdiv is situated in south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has historically developed on seven hills, some of     1     are 250m (820.21 ft) high. Because of these hills, Plovdiv is     2    (typical) referred to in Bulgaria as “The city of the Seven Hills”. Plovdiv’s history     3    (date) back to 6000 BC. Though originally it was     4    Thracian city, Plovidiv has been ruled by many empires over centuries. Later it       5    (conquer) by the Romans. Only in 1885 did the city become part of Bulgaria. Nowadays it’s the second     6    (large) city in Bulgaria and it’s a significant economic, educational and cultural center.

Plovdiv remains a popular     7    (choose) for vacation travel. I have been obsessed with the city     8    years. Last summer I was lucky     9    (spend) a couple of days in this city and I just fell in love with its narrow paved streets and neat beautiful house! The Old Town is definitely worthy     10    (see). It is overwhelmed with restaurants, workshops and museums that were previously famous houses.

Dujiangyan is the oldest man-made water system in the world, and a wonder in the development of Chinese science.     1    (build) over 2, 200 years ago in what is now Sichuan Province in Southwest China, this amazing engineering     2    (achieve) is still used today.

In ancient times, the region in which Dujiangyan now stands     3    (suffer) from regular floods caused by overflow from the Minjiang River.     4    (help) the victims of the flooding, Li Bing, the region governor, together with his son, decided to find a solution. Li designed a series of channels built at different levels along Mount Yulei that would take away the floodwater while leaving the river flowing naturally.     5    (good) still, the extra water could be directed to the dry Chengdu Plain, making     6     suitable for farming.

Once the system was finished, no more floods occurred and the people were able to live     7    (peaceful). Today, Dujiangyan is admired by scientists from around the world because of one feature. Unlike modern dams     8     the water is blocked with a huge wall, Dujiangyan still lets water flow through the Minjiang River naturally,     9     (enable) ecosystem(生态系统) and fish populations to exist     10     harmony.