Visiting the city when you are six months pregnant and have a two-year-old girl can be really {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (challenge). One spring afternoon, we went to one of the grocery stores nearby to buy some food for dinner. There was no sign of rain, and the store was just around the comer, so we went there{#blank#}2{#/blank#} an umbrella. However, we were about to leave the store {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the rain came in full force. It seemed that the streets would be flooded {#blank#}4{#/blank#} water within minutes.

    I noticed a young Chinese couple staring at {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (we) when we came to a crossroads and were waiting for the light to change. I figured they were probably wondering {#blank#}6{#/blank#} a pregnant foreigner was dragging her little kid out through the rain. But as we crossed the street,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} woman offered me her umbrella. I told her I couldn't take it when it was clearly starting to storm. She insisted,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (hand) it to me and hurried off with her husband.

Though caught in the rain {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (expect), we still treasured the memory and will always recall the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (friend) and kindness of the Chinese couple.

    Long before Barack Obama became president of the United States, he wrote a book{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(call) Dream from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which has since become{#blank#}2{#/blank#}bestseller. It is an{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(appeal) book that includes what he went through during{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(he) childhood. Obama has little contact with his father{#blank#}5{#/blank#}roots were in Kenya because he left home when Obama was very young. His mother got married{#blank#}6{#/blank#}a student from Indonesia shortly after the family moved to Jakarta. A few years later, Obama came back with his grandparents to Hawaii, where he{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(attend) a private high school.{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (study) at Columbia in New York City, he then entered Harvard Law School. This autobiography also touches{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(heavy) on Obama's exposure to racism. Readers will find his reflections of childhood {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(experience) which involved racial discrimination to be especially moving.

    Gabi Rizea only discovered his talent for woodcarving three years ago, and has since put{#blank#}1{#/blank#} to good use, saving dozens of old tree stumps (树桩) from {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (remove) by turning them into impressive works of art.

    Rizea became a woodcarver{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (complete) by accident. Three years ago, after buying himself a new chainsaw (链锯), he{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (start) “playing” with it on a block of wood. He tried carving a human face into the wood, and to his surprise, it turned out pretty good. Today, he is so good at woodcarving that his home city allows him to work his magic on old tree stumps and so far about 40 works of art{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(create) in the local parks.

    “In 99% of the cases, the wood just doesn't match my ideas,” he said in an interview. “I first have to remove all the rotten parts, and sometimes{#blank#}6{#/blank#} is left isn't enough for my designs.”

    Following his recent rise to fame, Rizea has been asked by many{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (city), including the capital of Romania to transform their old tree trunks {#blank#}8{#/blank#} works of art. He promised to honor their requests, but he will never repeat any of the artworks{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (find) in his home city.

    In spite of his obvious talent, the Romanian {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (art) recently got into art school in order to fully master woodcarving.

Rise After Falling

    A father was worried about his son, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided to call on a Buddhist monk(僧侣){#blank#}2{#/blank#} (train) his boy.

    The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father, "I insist that your son should be left alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, you can't come to see him during this period."

    Three months later, the boy's father {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (return). The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(experience) boxer. Each time the fighter struck the boy , he {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (fall) down, but at once the boy stood up; and each time a heavy blow knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked, "{#blank#}7{#/blank#}do you think of your child?"

    "What a shame!" the boy's father said, "I never thought he would be so {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (easy) knocked down. I needn't have him stay here any {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (long)!

"I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he falls down, he stands up again instead of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (cry)? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have.

    Hotel guests in China might no {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(long) have to worry about waiting in line to check in. At the Alibaba's futuristic hotels, guests can scan their IDs, take a photo and input personal details using a machine to check {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(they) in. The smart equipment will then provide a room key card after the information {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(check). The process will take less than a minute, according to company. Targeting only Chinese customers for now, the new service will be {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(gradual) expanded globally. The rapid growth of mobile usage and mobile payment adoption can show {#blank#}5{#/blank#} convenient people's life, is becoming in China.

    Alibaba isn't the only company {#blank#}6{#/blank#} introduces high-tech hotels. Smart LYZ, a Shenzhen-based company which focused {#blank#}7{#/blank#} developing AI technology and smart hotels, opened the first ever fully automated (自动化) hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan, back in January. {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(travel) can book a room through Smart LYZ's WeChat website, check in through a facial recognition machine, unlock the door with a {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(give) passcode or through its mobile app and finally, check out by pressing a button on the app. The AI Smart Room will undoubtedly be extremely attractive for guests, {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(create) the way for a new level of modernization and consumers' satisfaction.

    Maryland's Cecil County is home to many interesting parks. However, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}is more mysterious and disturbing than the Perryville Community Park {#blank#}2{#/blank#}around 100 trees are marked by strange messages left by the mentally disordered patients in a hospital decades ago.

    Before becoming a public park, the land {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (own) by the nearby hospital, and some of its former patients carved their disturbed thoughts into the trees. Over time, the words together {#blank#}4{#/blank#}the drawings carved into the tree bark have grown larger, {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(draw) the attention of curious passers-by. {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(interesting), even though the mark trees of Perryville Community Park have become quite popular among {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(tour), and even gotten their own Wikipedia entry, few residents of the Maryland town know about them and their history.

    Of all the phrases carved into the trees, the {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(strange) ones are "Christ said to police there was no Second World War," and "October 18, 1960 The City of Baltimore has not believed yet — Saint Callender — police. "

    The years carved into the trees date back to 1911, but the most {#blank#}9{#/blank#}.(mention) year is 1958, along with the name "Nelson Jonchou", which many believe belonged to one of the soldiers who {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(be) once admitted to the hospital.