Alice Thompson is a girl from Sydney, Australia. She had her first long     1     (distant) train ride at the age of 18. Together with a friend, she got     2     the famous Ghan train in Sydney and got off in Alice Springs. During the two days and nights, they ate meals     3     (cook) by experts and saw fields, desert and     4     (abandon) farms. In the daytime, Alice talked to other passengers and read some books. At night, she watched the stars in the sky     5     shone like diamonds.

Why is the train     6     (call) the Ghan? It is short for Afghanistan. A long time ago, Australians wanted to travel to the middle of their country, so they brought some     7     (train) camels from Afghanistan    8     (carry) food and other supplies, and returned with wool and other     9     (produce). They did that until     10     1920s, when the government built a new railway line and took the place of camels.

3 . Once popular sports in ancient capital Xi’an

As the capital of 13 dynasties throughout Chinese history, Xi’an has never been far from sports.

Cuju: Origin of modern soccer

Cuju first appeared in the anetent Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce, which described cuju as a form of entertainment. Later, cuju was played in the army for military training purposes. The earliest record of women cuju players can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. Cuju was listed into China’s intangible cultural heritages in 2006.

Jiaodi: Chinese-style wrestlíng

Sumo,   known as Japan’s “national sport”, actually originated in ancient China. Sumo was called jiaodi in ancient times. Jiaodi was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaodi was part of military training and a kind of entertainment and athletic sports.

Jiju: Ancient polo

Jiju is a sport which uses a stick to hit balls while riding on a horse, pretty similar to modern polo. It was popular in the Tang Dynasty. And it was also a major military training program in the army. There is a famous painting unearthed in a prince tomb in Shanxi province in 1971, which shows more than 20 men riding on horses playing polo.

Archery

The origin of archery was closely related with hunting and defense. Ancient archery was not only an athletic event and a military training program, but also part of education. In Zhou Dynasty, the archery was listed as one of the Six Arts. During the Tang Dynasty, archery was an important part of the Wuju Imperial Examinations, and five kinds of archery skills would be tested, including on-horse shot and flat shot.