Atule’er, a 200-year-old village in Sichuan province, made beadlines around the world when photographs emerged in 2016 of schoolchildren 【小题1】 (go) down the cliff (悬崖) on unstable hand-made ladders 【小题2】 “sky ladders”, as locals called them.

The two-hour climb 【小题3】 (be) the villagers’ only way to access the outside world. In recent years, local authorities have replaced their hand-made ladders with a steel one, 【小题4】 (extreme) reducing their travel time.

This week, however, 84 households of Atule’er left the ladders behind 【小题5】 good, resettling in apartment blocks closer to 【小题6】 town centre of Zhaojue county, 46 miles away. New apartments they live in, ranging from 25 square meters to 100 square meters, 【小题7】 (equip) with modern kitchens, toilets, running water, electricity and gas.

Not all villagers have been relocated, however — about 30 households are planning to stay. Atule’er has become a tourist attraction. 【小题8】 (far) development will facilitate that industry, with a cable car (缆车) being constructed 【小题9】 (intend) for transporting tourists up and down the cliff.

In 2019, the Chinese government had made a 【小题10】 (commit) to lift all of its 1.4 billion people out of poverty by 2020. The clifftop villagers’ resettlement is part of that broader drive, and they are not alone.

One day, with nothing 【小题1】 (do), a shepherd boy planned to make fun of the farmers 【小题2】 (work) at the foot of the hill. Up a big rock he climbed,【小题3】 (shout) loudly, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ The farmers nearby came 【小题4】 (rush) uphill to help. They asked where the wolves were, only 【小题5】 (tell) it was a joke. So 【小题6】 (annoy) were they that they roughed the boy a bit.