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      Chengdu has dozens of new millionaires, Asia's biggest building, and fancy new hotels. But for tourists like me, pandas are its top{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(attract).

     So it was a great honour to be invited backstage at the not-for-profit Panda Base, where ticket money helps pay for research, I{#blank#}2{#/blank#}（allow）to get up close to these cute animals at the 600-acre centre. From tomorrow, I will be their UK ambassador. The title will be {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(official) given to me at a ceremony in London. But my connection with pandas goes back {#blank#}4{#/blank#}my days on a TV show in the mid-1980s, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} I was the first Western TV reporter{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(permit) to film a special unit caring for pandas rescued from starvation in the wild. My ambassadorial duties will include {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(introduce) British visitors to the 120-plus pandas at Chengdu and others at a research in the misty mountains of Bifengxia.

     On my recent visit, I help a lively three-month-old twin that had been rejected by

{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(it) mother. The nursery team switches him every few{#blank#}9{#/blank#}( day) with his sister so that while one is being bottle-fed,{#blank#}10{#/blank#} other is with mum—she never suspects.

    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 designs.

    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.

How can my son be a year old already?

    My son turned one last week. The day marked the end of {#blank#}1{#/blank#} has been both the longest and shortest year of my life. I haven't slept for a year and I don't really know how time works any more. From the instant he was born, it's felt {#blank#}2{#/blank#} my son has always been part of this family.

    How is he one already? First he was born, and was a sleepy ball of flesh then, and now in his place is a little boy who {#blank#}3{#/blank#} walk and has teeth and knows how to switch off the television at precisely the most important moment of anything I ever try to watch. It's not exactly {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (extraordinary) development in all of human history — child gradually gets older — but it's the first time I {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (see) it close up. It's honestly quite hard to grasp. Even photos of him {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (take) last week seem like a different boy. He's leaving milestone after milestone in his tiny parts of me along with them.

    He'll never again be the tiny baby who lay in my arm, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (suck) on my little finger in the middle of the night while his mum slept, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} will he be the baby amazed by the taste of solid food. Soon enough he'll stop being the baby who rests his head on my shoulder whenever he gets tired, or laughs uncontrollably whenever I say the word 'teeth' for reasons, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} I don't think I'll ever work out.

    But I've had a year of this and it's ok. He's never going to stop changing, and I don't want him to. This sadness, this constant sense of loss, of time slipping just {#blank#}10{#/blank#} your grasp, is an important part of this process. He won't realise this, of course. He's got years of unbroken progress ahead of him, where everything will always be new. Years of his life will pass in a moment and he won't be able to understand where they've gone.

    But it's ok. You can't freeze time. You just have to make the most of what you have.

    Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before {#blank#}1{#/blank#} visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel's hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur from the family cat {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (make) a brush.

    The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged(蓬乱). His father said that the cat {#blank#}3{#/blank#} be sick. Benjamin {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (force) to admit what he had been doing.

    The cat's lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin's cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin's drawings. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} he went home, he sent Benjamin a box for paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings(版画)by an artist. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had even seen. In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr. Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at {#blank#}7{#/blank#} Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin's parents {#blank#}8{#/blank#} he might take the boy to Philadelphia for a visit.

    In the city, Mr. Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape painting. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) a poor student. But he later said, “Those two books were my companions by day, and {#blank#}10{#/blank#} my pillow at night." While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that he would be an artist.