Qing Ming     1    (associate) with Jie Zitui, who lived in Shanxi province in 600 B.C. Legend goes that Jie saved his starving lord's life by serving a piece of his own leg. When the lord     2    (success) in becoming the ruler, he invited his     3    (faith) follower to join him. However, Jie turned down his invitation,     4    (prefer) to lead     5     simple life with his mother in the mountain.

Believing that he could force Jie out by burning the mountain, the lord ordered his men to set the forest     6     fire. To    7     astonishment, Jie chose to remain     8     he was and was burnt to death.     9    (remember) Jie, the lord ordered all fires in every home to be put out on the anniversary of Jie's death. Thus began the "cold food feast", a day when no food could be cooked since no fire could     10    (light).

Cholera was a deadly disease of its day. Neither its cause nor its cure     1     (understand). So thousands of     2     (terrify) people died when there was an outbreak. John Snow wanted to solve     3     problem. He knew that cholera would not be controlled     4     its cause was found.

He became interested in two theories     5     possibly explained how cholera killed people. The first suggested that cholera     6     (multiply) in the air. The second suggested that people absorbed this disease     7     their bodies with their meals.

John Snow suspected that the second theory was correct but he needed evidence. So when another outbreak hit London in 1854, he was ready    8     (begin) his enquiry. With all the evidence he gathered, John Snow was able to announce with     9     (certain) that polluted water carried the virus.     10     (final) “King Cholera” was defeated.

Woodblock printing first appeared in the early Tang period. During the Song dynasty, the technique of block printing was very advanced. Books were     1    (beautiful) printed. Even today the books     2    (print) at the time are valuable and treasured by libraries and book collectors.

However, block printing     3    (be) not very convenient. Every two pages of a book had to be carved on a woodblock, and a big book would require many blocks. Besides, there had to be large places for storing the books.     4     (overcome) these shortcomings, Bi Sheng invented the movable type during the years between 1041 and 1048. One word was carved on one piece of clay,     5     was hardened with fire. Then clay characters were set on     6     iron plate according to the text of a book. Then ink was applied to them and     7    (sheet) of paper spread over them, and the printing was done. Bi Sheng’s invention made printing faster and     8    (easy) than before. Later, movable type of metal and wood was made and widely used.

The technique of printing was gradually known to other Asian countries and Europe. The great influence printing had     9    the advance of civilization is too clear to need any     10    (explain).