A big fire broke out in a clothing factory in our city last Wednesday. At 9:18 that morning, when the employees were working {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (busy) in the 4-storeyed building, heavy smoke was seen {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(come) out of the windows on the second floor. The fire lasted nearly an hour, and the majority of the 345 employees managed {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(escape) from the fire. Unfortunately, 7were killed, and 23 injured, lightly or seriously.

    Some workers {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(complain) that aids came too late,{#blank#}5{#/blank#} the firemen did come just 10 minutes after the fire was reported. To rescue everyone from the burning and smoking building in such a short time was too difficult. The only two exits of the big building were not enough for so many people to withdraw in {#blank#}6{#/blank#} hurry.

    The reason of the fire, according to an investigator, was {#blank#}7{#/blank#}someone broke the non-smoking rule in the factory, because some cigarette {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(end) were found. Next two weeks, 15 inspection teams will be working in all the factories {#blank#}9{#/blank#} turn, aiming to clear away the possibility of more fires.{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (hope), no disasters like this will happen again.

    Cambridge University is one of the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(old) universities in the world, and one of the largest in the United Kingdom. It is famous {#blank#}2{#/blank#} outstanding academic achievements and the high quality of research undertaken in a wide range of science and art subjects. The university pioneers work in the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (understand) of diseases, the creation of new materials, advances in telecommunications and the research into the origins of the universe. It trains doctors, veto, architects, engineers and teachers. At all levels about half of the students at Cambridge study arts and humanities, many of {#blank#}4{#/blank#} have gone on to become outstanding figures in the arts, print and broadcast {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(medium). The university's achievements in sconces can be measured by the sixty or more Nobel Prizes {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(award) to its members over the years.

    As Cambridge approached {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(it) eight hundredth anniversary in 2009, it was looking to the future. The modern university is an international center of teaching and research in {#blank#}8{#/blank#} vast range of subjects. It continues to change in response to the challenges it faces. The 1990s {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(see) a major expansion of the university accommodation for teaching and research. There are many major new buildings either underway {#blank#}10{#/blank#} already completed, including the Law Faculty Building and the Judge Institute of Management Studies.

    Exactly when the first people arrived in what we now know as California，no one really knows. However，{#blank#}1{#/blank#}is likely that Native Americans were living in California at least fifteen thousand years ago.

    Scientists believe that these first settlers {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (cross) the Bering Strait in the Arctic to America {#blank#}3{#/blank#}means of a land bridge which existed in prehistoric times. In the 16th century，after the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (arrive) of Europeans，the native people suffered greatly.

    Thousands were killed or forced into slavery. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} addition，many died from the diseases brought by Europeans. However，some survived these terrible times，and today there are more Native Americans {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(live) in California than in any other state.

    In the 18th century，California was ruled by Spain. Spanish soldiers first arrived in South America in the early 16th century，{#blank#}7{#/blank#} they fought against the native people and {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(take) their land.

    Two centuries later，the Spanish had settled in most parts of South America and along the northwest coast of what we now call the United States of {#blank#}9{#/blank#} first Spanish to go to California，the majority were religious men，{#blank#}10{#/blank#} ministry was to teach the Catholic religion to the natives.

    Letters as a way of communication have long given way to phone calls and WeChat messages. But a TV show, LettersAlive, is helping bring this old way to keep in touch back {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the present.

    LettersAlive took {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (it) idea from a UK program, LettersLive, released in 2013. Both {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (show) feature famous actors and actresses, but there {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (be) no eye-catching visual effects or any regular showbiz(娱乐圈) activities. Instead, it's just a live event {#blank#}5{#/blank#} remarkable letters selected from a wide time span and a diverse range of subjects are read. There is, for example, a passionate letter from Huang Yongyu to playwright Cao Yu 30 years ago to criticize his lack of {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (create).

    Every letter is like a small piece of history. By hearing them being read, it's as if we are being sent back in time {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (experience) a moment that we would otherwise never have had the chance to.

    Compared to{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (publish) texts, letters also {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (natural) come with a personal touch. As well as celebrating the pain, joy, wisdom and humor, LettersAlive{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (commit) to promoting Chinese literature since first run.

    "How should a Nobel laureate dress?" asked Kazuo Ishiguro, who, 40 minutes earlier, had found out he {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(award) the Nobel Prize for Literature.

    To say the news was unexpected is an understatement. He literally couldn't believe it. Until that was, his phone began to ring constantly, an orderly queue of TV crews started to form outside his front door ("how do they all know where I live?"), and his publishers dispatched a top team to his house as back-up.

    This was not fake news. This was delightful, surprising news. Maybe there were others who {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (win) instead, he wondered. "But that is the nature of prizes. They are a lottery." {#blank#}3{#/blank#} chaos reigned around him, he was calm, assured and thoughtful, talking (after nipping upstairs to fetch a smart jacket for our interview) about his belief in the power of stories and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} those that he wrote would often explore wasted lives and opportunities.

    "I've always had a faith that it should be possible, if you tell stories in a certain way, to transcend barriers of race, class and ethnicity."

    For me, he is one of the great living writers working in any language. All writers can tell stories. Ishiguro tells stories on {#blank#}5{#/blank#} level.

    He places the reader in some sort of alternative reality - which might be the future, it might be the present, it might be the past. They feel like places that are whole and real, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} you don't know them.

They're weird and not necessarily happy places. But they're places that you can inhabit and relate to, and you become deeply involved with the characters. That's the writer's job—he just does it better than most.