2 . Doubling as educational centers and conservation centers, museums play an important role in the protection of ________. Although these institutions ________ in size and specialty, the task of most museums is around the display and care of their collections.

Today, many museums are among the most visited ________ in the world. In order to figure out how this important cultural phenomenon came to be, it is ________ important to understand its origins and trace how its role has developed over time.

The word museum ________ from “mouseion”, the Greek term for “a holy place for the Muses”. In classical Greek mythology, the nine Muses are the goddesses of the arts and sciences, making them perfect protectors for these ________ institutions.

Earliest museums were private collections and were only accessible to a narrow circle of people. They displayed ________ and curious natural objects and works of art. Some of them even ________ “wonder rooms” or “cabinets of curiosities”.

In 1683, an Englishman named Elias Ashmole donated the contents of his wonder room to Oxford University, forming the ________ of the Ashmolean Museum. Believing that “the knowledge of Nature is very necessary to human life and health,” Ashmole wanted to ________ the public through his unprecedented (前所未有的) donation. Following his footsteps, many like-minded collectors across Europe shifted their focus from ________ use to public access in the late 17^th and 18^th centuries. During this time, world-class museums began to make their art collections accessible to the public. The opening of these institutions ________ a string of similar movements in the 19^th century.

Today, the importance of public institutions is stronger than ever before. ________ taking care of collections and making them accessible to the public, many museums are using new technologies to improve their public programs, ________ their collections, and share their research. With these modern methods, museums are able to ________ audiences in new ways and extend their tasks beyond their walls.

The history of painting in China is long or full of masterpieces from different ages when have their own unique styles.

Truly artistic paintings other than calligraphy (书法) came into exist during the Qin Dynasty and matured in the Wei and Jin periods. It were in the Tang Dynasty that it developed more quicklier than any other previous period. An art continued to advance during the Song and Yuan Dynasties with an increased focus such subjects as mountains and animals. Traditional painting techniques lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when modern painting techniques started off to challenge the traditional one. Although modern paintings had been heavily influenced by the West, they still value traditional painting techniques.

Music is in the corners of everyday life. It is said to be beneficial       1    us both physically and mentally.

There are many ways to make music. For example, if you blow into bamboos or shells,       2    ( permit) air to come in, they can produce pleasant music. A recent     3     (discover) suggests that music was played much earlier     4     we think. In 1995, deep in     5     cave in Slovenia     6     was occupied 45,000 years ago by Neanderthals, a leg bone of a bear with four finger holes was found .The finding suggested that flutes(笛子)had come into existence at that time. Later, many other traditional musical instruments like drums     7     (dig) out from under ground. Ancient people even     8    (seek) a way to make music out of a bow(弓) intended for hunting, so we have to admit that they did have a great gift for music. But if     9    (exact) dated, the Neanderthal flute is by far the     10    (early) known example of music.

Now music can be found in every known culture, and even the most distant groups have a certain form of music.

7 . It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War Ⅰ. German, British, and French soldiers already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized (打得火热) with “the enemy” along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches (战壕) with signs, “Merry Christmas.”

“You no shoot, we no shoot.” Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man’s land filled with dead bodies. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, and even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced (拥抱) men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the Generals (将军) forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

It shocked the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this peacemaking to be wrong. Fifteen million would be killed.

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played “Christmas in the Trenches” several times and was surprised by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. “Some callers even telephone the host deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, ‘What the hell did I just hear?’”

You can probably guess why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, “This really happened once.” It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, ou of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial (微不足道的) and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

9 . In 1888 an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near the village of Istabl Antar uncovered a mass grave. The bodies weren't human. They were feline-ancient cats that had been mummified（木乃伊化的）and buried in holes in astonishing numbers. "Not one or two here and there", reported English Illustrated Magazine, "but dozens, hundreds, hundreds of thousands, a layer of them, a layer thicker than most coal joints, ten to twenty cats deep." Some of the linen-wrapped cats still looked presentable, and a few even had golden faces. Village children peddled the best ones to tourists for change; the rest were disposed of as fertilizer. One ship transported about 180,000, weighing some 38, 000 pounds, to Liverpool to be spread on the fields of England.

Those were the days of generously funded explorations-that dragged through acres of desert in their quest for royal tombs, and for splendid gold and painted masks to decorate the estates and museums of Europe and America. The many thousands of mummified animals that turned up at religious sites throughout Egypt were just things to be cleared away to get at the good stuff. Few people studied them, and their importance was generally unrecognized.

In the century since then, archaeology has become less of a treasure hunt and more of a science. Archaeologists now realize that much of their sites' wealth lies in the majority of details about ordinary folks-what they did, what they thought, how they prayed. And animal mummies are a big part of that.

"They're really displays of daily life," says Egyptologist Salima Ikram. After peering beneath bandages with x-rays and cataloguing her findings, she created a gallery for the collection-a bridge between people today and those of long ago. "You look at these mummified animals, and suddenly you say, "Oh, King So-and-So had a pet". I have a pet. And instead of being at a distance of 5,000-plus years, the ancient Egyptians become clearer and closer to us."

In the summer of 1405, Zheng He set sail from Taicang on his first voyage. His ships     1     (load) with china, silk, tea and other treasures as gifts for foreign rulers. Zheng He's seven voyages had a far­reaching impact     2     China and its neighbours. Zheng He's efforts helped develop and strengthen     3     (harmony) relations with these countries and regions. Zheng He's accomplishments are now     4     (wide) acknowledged, and he is remembered as one of China's most influential explorers.

Columbus was born in a port city of Italy in 1451. As a teenager, he loved sailing, and he showed great interest in geography,     5     inspired him to begin his career as a seaman. Columbus insisted on     6     (search) for a direct sea route to the East Indies by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. On 3 August 1492, he     7     (depart) from Spain with three ships carrying about 90 crewmen. Regardless of all the challenges, Columbus managed     8     (keep) everyone out of danger with his knowledge and     9     (brave) across the ocean. Finally, on 12 October, the crew spotted land in     10     distance. His voyages opened a new chapter of the Age of Exploration, a period which witnessed many important geographical findings.