Woman: Our design class is really interesting. Don't you think so?

Man: Yeah, I like Professor Vargas, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} sometimes he goes too fast, and I feel like I'm missing something. There's a lot we have {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (remember).

Woman: True. There are a lot of details about all the different styles.

Man: Yeah, there are Art Nouveau, and Art Deco, and Art Moderne... I have a hard time {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (keep) it all straight.

Woman: I know what you mean.

Man: For example, it seems to me {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Art Deco and Art Moderne are the same things.

Woman: Well, it's somewhat confusing. They were both popular in {#blank#}5{#/blank#}1930s although Art Deco came a little before Moderne. I think Professor Vargas {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (say) Art Deco started at an exhibition in Paris in 1925. Let me check out my notes. Right, Art Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1923 until the 1940s, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (affect) the decorative arts such as architecture and {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (industry) design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts and film.

Man: So, they were about the same time. It's one thing that gets confusing. {#blank#}9{#/blank#} thing is, they seem so similar that it's hard to see why they're {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (consider) different styles.

    National Youth Day is celebrated in China every year on 4^th May. It {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (establish) by the Government Administration Council of People's Republic of China in December of 1949 {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (honor) the May Fourth Movement of 1919.

    After World War I ended, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} peace conference was held by the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Japan in Paris. China sent some of its delegates (代表) to participate in the conference. China demanded that Japan cancel the unfair “21 items” and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Germany should give Shandong Back to China, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} was occupied by Japan during WWI. The very rational request was refused and the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (legal) privilege of Germany of Shandong Province was transferred to Japan. The outcome caused a significant amount of anger among the residents of China. Approximately 30,000 students from different {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (university) around Beijing gathered at Tian'anmen Square on May 4^th to hold a protest {#blank#}8{#/blank#} the decision. Finally on June 28^th Chinese delegates refused to sign the Paris Treaty, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (make) the movement a success. This marked the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (begin) of National Youth Day.

People eat rice all over the world

    Rice {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (believe) to have been first grown in China or possibly somewhere else in eastern Asia around 10,000 years ago. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} earliest evidence of rice farming comes from a 7,000-year-old site near the lower Yangtze River village of Hemudu in Zhejiang province in China.

    Rice is a kind of food which requires much labor. In developed countries, the planting and harvesting is done {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(most) with machines. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, in much of the world, these things are still largely done by hand. It takes one farmer 1,000 to 2,000 working hours {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(raise)a rice crop on 2.5 acres of land. The fact that rice needs so much labor means{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(keep)a lot of the population on the land.

    Rice is also a crop {#blank#}7{#/blank#} need of lots of water. The wet rice grown in most of Asia needs hot weather after a period of rain and conditions provided by the rainy seasons affect many of the places {#blank#}8{#/blank#} rice is grown.

    Rice straws(稻杆）{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(leave)in the fields add nutrients(营养物)to the soil after rice is harvested(收割). For the next crop, rice farmers can often enjoy a good harvest by adding little {#blank#}10{#/blank#} no fertilizer.(肥料)

    Yuan Longping was born in 1930 and graduated from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} hunger was a big problem for many people in the countryside. Since then, finding ways to grow more rice {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (be) his life goal. And he searched for a way {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (increase) rice harvests without expanding the area of the fields. Now, he {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (consider) as a great man who devotes his life to {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (find) a way to increase the rice output.

    As one of the most famous scientists, he grows what is called super hybrid rice which has {#blank#}6{#/blank#} high output. Using his hybrid rice, farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before. {#blank#}7{#/blank#}, he doesn't care about being famous. He feels it gives him {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (little) freedom to do his research. He would rather keep time for his {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (hobby). He enjoys listening to violin music, swimming and reading. Money means very little to him. Indeed, he believes that a person {#blank#}10{#/blank#} too much money has more rather than fewer troubles.