In much of Asia, especially the so-called “rice-bowl” cultures of China, Japan, Korea, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Vietnam, food is usually eaten with chopsticks.

    Chopsticks are usually two long, thin pieces of wood or bamboo. They can also be made of plastic, animal bone or metal. Sometimes chopsticks are quite artistic. Truly elegant chopsticks might {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (make) of gold and silver with Chinese characters. Skilled workers also combine various hardwoods and metal {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (create) special design.

    The Chinese have used chopsticks for five thousand years. People probably cooked their food in large pots, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (use) twigs(树枝) to remove it. Over time, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the population grew, people began cutting food into small pieces so it would cook more quickly. Food in small pieces could be eaten easily with twigs which {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (gradual) turned into chopsticks.

    Some people think that the great Chinese scholar Confucius, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} lived from roughly 551 to 479 B.C., influenced the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (develop) of chopsticks. Confucius believed knives would remind people of killings and {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) too violent for use at the table.

    Chopsticks are not used everywhere in Asia. In India, for example, most people traditionally eat {#blank#}10{#/blank#} their hands.

    In Hangzhou, borrowing books from the library is now as simple as shopping online: click, pay {#blank#}1{#/blank#} wait for delivery.

    The city's public library recently launched a program on WeChat,{#blank#}2{#/blank#} popular Chinese messaging software, enabling its readers to check out books online and get them {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (deliver) to their homes at low prices.

    To enjoy the “Hangzhou enjoyable reading” service, one first needs to follow the library's official WeChat account, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} provides a list of books. After picking books, borrowers are required  {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (present)the information such as their library membership cards, cell phone numbers and so on. The selected items will be delivered by express within three days after payments. Each reader can borrow up to 5 books once and 20 books at most {#blank#}6{#/blank#} total. The books can be borrowed for up to 40 days. Reading now can borrow the library's most popular books in this way. The online books will be renewed and enriched {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (gradual) according to readers' borrowing habits and {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (prefer). At the end of December, the library's old and classic books {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (put) online too, making the total number of books available and bringing borrowers a lot of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (convenient)

    I'm Yuan Longping. Look at my sunburnt face and arms and my slim strong body and you will think I'm {#blank#}1{#/blank#} like a farmer than a scientist. In fact I {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(struggle) for the past five decades to help {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(farmer). In 1974, I began to grow a so-called super hybrid rice. This special strain of rice makes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} possible to produce one-third more of the crop in the same fields.

    I was born into a poor farmer's family in 1931. When I was young, I saw many people go hungry often. So I have devoted myself to {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(find) ways to increasing rice harvest without expanding the area of fields since I graduated from Southwest Agriculture College in 1953. Now more than 60% of the rice{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(produce) in China each year is from this hybrid strain. I am circulating this knowledge in India, Vietnam and other less developed countries to increase their harvest. Perhaps you think I am rich. {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(actual) I live a simple life. I care little for money. In my opinion, a person with too much money will have more troubles. I don't want to be famous {#blank#}8{#/blank#} I prefer to have more time to do my research. In my free time I love listening to music, playing mah-jong and reading. I once had a dream, in {#blank#}9{#/blank#} I saw rice plants as tall as sorghum and each ear of rice was as big as an ear of corn and each grain of rice was as huge as a peanut. Now I have another dream-to export my rice so that it can {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(grow) all over the world.

    Dragon Head Raising Day,{#blank#}1{#/blank#} falls each year on the second day of the second lunar month, is one of the Chinese traditional festivals. As the proverb goes: “The dragon is awaked,{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (raise) his head”. On this day, dragons, a prominent totem (图腾) in Chinese culture raise {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (they) heads with the sound of thunder. Around this time, the earth {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (burst) with life. Grass and trees are beginning to shoot up. In ancient China, people {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (pray) the dragon god beside a river or a lake for the precious spring rains to breed their crops.

    {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (tradition), food eaten on this day was renamed after parts of the dragon. For instance, wontons were called “dragon's eyes.” The special {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (food) usually eaten on this day include dragon's scales, popcorn and pig's head.

    In Shanxi, people get their hair {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (cut) in a symbolic move to remove the old and embrace the new. In {#blank#}9{#/blank#} countryside in Hebei Province, people would fetch water from a well at dawn. It was believed {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on this day the well was full of dragon eggs which would bring the collector good harvest.

    China has once again proved its {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (able)to change the world with the “new four great inventions”: high-speed railways, electronic payments, shared bicycles and online shopping.

    They're related to China's high-tech innovation(创新),{#blank#}2{#/blank#} has improved the quality of people's lives, according to a survey{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(make)by the Belt and Road Research Institute of Beijing Foreign Studies University.

    “My wallet is no longer in use. I can buy and eat whatever I want simply with a fingertip on my phone,” said{#blank#}4{#/blank#} university student, adding that “even pancake sellers are using mobile payment.”

    The bikes {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(them)are not new, but the operating model of bike-sharing {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(base)on satellite navigation system, mobile payment, big data and other high technologies.

    China has entered a new innovative era, thanks to the large amounts of capital China has invested in {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(encourage)innovation, said Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO Representative in China.

    {#blank#}8{#/blank#}is increasingly clear that China is innovating and no longer copying western ideas. This is {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(especial)true in mobile, where China is leading in many ways such as…social messaging app WeChat, she said. This is partly because China skipped over the PC era and went directly to mobile. China has the {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(large)mobile use in the world.

    John Carter was rescued from the sea near his holiday home yesterday. The accident happened while he{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(walk) along a steep cliff at the edge of the sea. He was blown off by a strong wind and{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(fall) into the sea, 30 meters below. Luckily, a woman saw him in the sea soon afterwards and she called the police rescue service. Mr. Carter was taken to hospital with a{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(break) arm. "I'm very lucky to be alive," he said. "I can't thank the woman enough."