A freight (货运) train loaded with 50 containers of machinery and equipment left southwest China' s Chongqing Municipality Sunday for the capital of Ukraine, marking the launch of Chongqing's new freight train route.

The freight train 【小题1】 (schedule) to pass through the border port of Erenhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and will reach 【小题2】 (it) destination in mid-September.

Previously, exports from Chongqing to Ukraine had to go through Belarus or Poland rather than heading 【小题3】 (direct) for Ukraine. The new route is the city's first direct international freight train route to Kyiv. It is expected to further facilitate trade 【小题4】 Europe and the western regions of China.

Chongqing is 【小题5】 primary hub (中枢) for China Europe freight trains. The Yuxinou (Chongqing-Xinjiang- Europe) railway, 【小题6】 was the first China-Europe freight train route, saw 1,359 trips in the first half of 2021, up over 50 percent year on year. Since the railway was put into 【小题7】 (operate) in 2011, Yuxinou has launched more than 30 routes, with over 40 cities across 26 countries 【小题8】 (connect), and the routes have recorded over 8,000 freight train trips.

Axel Mattern, CEO of Hafen Hamburg Marketing, said China was Germany's largest trade partner for the 【小题9】 (six) continuous year in 2021 and became the largest trade partner for the European Union for the first time in 2020, 【小题10】 (replace) the United States.

Flying cars may soon become a 【小题1】 (real). A company providing the rideshare service has asked 【小题2】 expert from NASA, the American space agency, 【小题3】(help) the company develop cars that can fly.

The company plans to use flying vehicles in the future to avoid 【小题4】(encounter) traffic in and around cities. The company wants to use small, totally electric aircraft, 【小题5】 could take off and land like a helicopter on top of parking garages. It said its flying vehicles would be much   【小题6】(quiet), cost less to operate and produce less pollution than helicopters. One person in San Francisco 【小题7】(write) on Twitter, “I used to think that flying cars were a ridiculous idea. 【小题8】 I changed my mind this morning when I sat in a heavy traffic.” Another person added from Mumbai, India, “I’m reading about it 【小题9】(hire) an NASA engineer to build flying cars, while stuck in traffic. There is hope.”

The expert predicts there will be several early models of cars that can’t fly 【小题10】(they) but with human pilots within one to three years.

The Grand Canal of China was first dug in 486 BC, and well developed through the late 6th to early 10th century. From the late 13th until 19th century, with the highest section built and the overall length 【小题1】(shorten), the Canal was turned into a main passage between northern 【小题2】 southern China as well as the economic lifeline of the country. Consisting of the Sui and Tang Grand Canal, the Jing-Hang Grand Canal and the Zhedong Canal, the Canal 【小题3】(stretch) over 2, 700 kilometers, crossing eight provincial-level administrative regions and 【小题4】(link) five major water systems. The Grand Canal also connects with the Eurasian Silk Road to the west and extends the water trade route to the east.

The Grand Canal was 【小题5】 notable achievement of the ancient Chinese people. Its connection of the political and economic centers played a 【小题6】(centre) role in the political unity, economic 【小题7】(grow) and cultural prosperity of China, and contributed to the livelihood, exchanges and integration of the population along its route.

The Grand Canal 【小题8】(announce) by the State Council as one of the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in March, 2013 and registered 【小题9】 the UNSECO World Heritage List in June, 2014. This large-scale, living cultural heritage spreads like a huge dragon across the vast territory of China, 【小题10】(it) ripples shining golden scales (鳞片) in the new age.