In Britain, people often invite friends for a meal, a party or just coffee. People who know each other very well close{#blank#}1{#/blank#}, family or neighbors visit each other's houses without an invitation (邀请), but usually an invitation is needed．{#blank#}2{#/blank#}people invite someone to their homes, they often say: “Would you like{#blank#}3{#/blank#}for dinner on Saturday?” Answers are: “Thanks. We'd love to. What time?” or “I'm sorry. We'd love to but we have tickets{#blank#}4{#/blank#}the concert.” However,{#blank#}5{#/blank#}is not polite to say “No, we wouldn't!”

    Sometimes, the British use expressions (表达) that sound like invitations but which are not invitations. For example: “You must come over for{#blank#}6{#/blank#}drink sometime.” or “Let's go out for a meal one of these days.” These are usually just polite{#blank#}7{#/blank#}of ending a talk. They are not real invitations{#blank#}8{#/blank#}they don't mention an exact time or day. They just show that the person is{#blank#}9{#/blank#}to be friendly and the answers are: “Yes, that would be nice.” or “OK, yes, thanks.”

    So next time you hear what sounds like an invitation, listen{#blank#}10{#/blank#}. Is it a real invitation or is the person just being friendly?

    The Great Wall of China has a history of over two thousand years. It runs from the east to the west in North China. It is about 6,300 kilometers {#blank#}1{#/blank#} . It is often {#blank#}2{#/blank#} "The Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Wall". It is one of the "Seven Wonders" of the ancient world.

    The Great Wall is {#blank#}3{#/blank#} enough for ten men to walk side by side. Horses can also run along it, too. The Great Wall {#blank#}4{#/blank#} stones and bricks (砖). There are huge stones on {#blank#}5{#/blank#} side and on the highest part. But now some sections of it are worn out.

    There are tall watchtowers along the Great Wall. Once upon a time, the soldiers kept {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the enemies (敌人) in the watchtowers day and night. They made {#blank#}7{#/blank#} on the towers to {#blank#}8{#/blank#} each other when the enemies came.

    Nowadays we don't use the Great Wall to keep away the enemies any more. It is a famous place of {#blank#}9{#/blank#}to all the people in the world. Every year{#blank#}10{#/blank#}people come to visit it from all over the world.

As you walk down the street, an object falls from a tall building and {#blank#}1{#/blank#}you. Who should be responsible for this? Or maybe you try to help someone in danger, but you accidentally hurt the person. Will you get in trouble for this? China's Civil Code(《民法典》) will give you the  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

On May 28, the National People's Congress (全国人民代表大会) agreed China's first-ever Civil Code. With 1,260 articles, it is a collection of laws that is about personal issues, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}property (物权), marriage, family, personality rights, and inheritances (继承). It's like an encyclopedia (百科全书) for social life.

China does have laws that cover these issues. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} , all kinds of these laws are not unified. The Civil Code gathers them into one unified document and makes improvements. With the Civil Code, China hopes to set up a country under the rule of law with {#blank#}5{#/blank#} protection for civil rights.

One special thing about the code is the part about individual (个人的) rights. It's a major innovation (创新) to form the individual rights into one part alone. This part includes laws{#blank#}6{#/blank#} relate to one's body, health, name, image (肖像), and fame.

Some of the laws in this part deal with how new technology is{#blank#}7{#/blank#}.For example, people who use AI face swap (调换) tools to make videos may go against {#blank#}8{#/blank#} image rights. The laws also provide data protection rights relating to possible data leaks by tech companies.

As we know, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were several attempts to draft (起草) a civil code in 1954, 1962, 1979 and 2001. But the conditions {#blank#}9{#/blank#} not good enough. In 2015, China started to work on the present code and{#blank#}10{#/blank#} it after 5 years. This year, the code took effect on Jan. 1.