Something is happening to the British. They seem to be developing green fingers! The number of people growing their own fruit and vegetables     1     (increase) in the past year, according to Gardeners’ World.

Gardens and private land for vegetables and fruit across the UK have been put to use with people’s     2     (discover) of the joys of home-grown produce. But not everyone has space for a vegetable land or a flowerbed. And sometimes a window box just isn’t enough for     3     gardening challenge. This is why people plant flowers or vegetables in public spaces to make them     4     (green) and more pleasing to the eye.

Many people would approve     5     beautifying towns and cities, but this type of gardening is not     6     (strict) legal. Therefore, the special gardening often takes place late at night. But the image of the enthusiastic gardener is not someone     7     breaks the law. It is of someone spending all their time in     8     (greenhouse) and potting sheds (育秧棚), a person knowing every aspect of how to tend and grow the plants.

Yet, despite the increase in people growing their own, half of the UK population     9     (be) still puzzled about when most fruit and vegetables are in season, according to Gardeners’ World. It seems that Britain still has a long way     10     (go) before being called a nation of gardeners

The Inferno is the oldest and most celebrated of all amateur ski races. It     1     (hold) every January, near MÜrren in Switzerland. Anyone can take part, as long as they belong to     2     ski racing club.

The Inferno was the     3     (invent) of a British businessman called Henry Lunn, who came up with the idea of the package holiday in the early 1900s and     4     (begin) taking groups of people to the Alps for winter sports. Henry’s son, Arnold, grew very fond of MÜrren and he founded a ski club there in 1924. Four years later, seventeen of the club’s members took part in the first Inferno race,     5     the top of the 2,970-metre Schilthorn mountain to MÜrren below.

In those early days, they used     6    (climb) for six hours from the railway station in MÜrren before the start of the race. Today,     7     (racer) use a cable car (缆车) which takes about twenty minutes. In the first race, the winning time for the fourteen-kilometre race was one hour, twelve minutes. These days it tends to be almost     8     (exact) an hour. Although the skiers are very much faster now, some things haven’t changed. The course,     9     is steep (陡峭的) and has sharp bends (急转弯), remains one of the most     10     (demand) and frightening in the world.

Summer is over, but there’s no reason to be upset as that means autumn is upon us, arguably the     1     (good) season of the year.

Beijing’s autumn is extremely short, so parks around the city fill up fast with people coming to see the season’s sight—a show of changing     2     (color) as the trees turn from dark green to deep red. There are plenty of places in the city center     3     (catch) the golden Gingko leaves, but I’m heading just outside of the Fifth Ring Road to see the season on     4     larger scale.

Despite parks like Xiangshan getting so busy     5     you need tickets a week in advance, there are still areas well-known and     6     _ (frequent) visited by the Beijing crowds, and Baiwangshan, one of such places,     7     (locate) 3km from the Summer Palace to the city’s North West. It offers hiking tails and beautiful views of the city and     8     (surround) forests.

I love coming to Beijing’s parks at this time of year because I can always enjoy     9     (I), bathing in the last of the good weather and golden colors. You never know     10     you’re going to find around every corner.