What should you do if you have a headache? In modern times, people often take aspirin (阿司匹林). But is aspirin 【小题1】 (real) a modern medicine?

More than 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used dried leaves to treat pain. And in the fourth century B.C., a medicine made from tree bark (树皮) 【小题2】 (use) to treat fevers. In the nineteenth century, European scientists discovered that both medicines have the same chemical (化学物质). They used the chemical to make a modern medicine-aspirin. Today, it’s one of the world’s 【小题3】 (cheap) and most helpful medicines.

Some of the medicines we have today come 【小题4】 traditional Chinese medicine. In the third century B.C., some people 【小题5】 (begin)studying the human body. They tried many different ways to treat the patients and recorded 【小题6】 (they) results. For more than 2,000 years, doctors recorded 【小题7】 they found in books. These ancient books are still useful today. Tu Youyou, a Chinese medical researcher, found that in 【小题8】 past, people used a herb with yellow flowers to treat fevers. After studying it, she developed a medicine that saved millions of people from dying.

For 【小题9】 (century), Western medicine paid little attention to traditional Chinese medicine. But today, scientists are studying traditional treatments 【小题10】 (develop) new medicines.

The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected Europe, Africa and Asia. People 【小题1】 （到达）these different places along the roads. They began to travel the Silk Road 【小题2】 （多于）3,000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk 【小题3】 （贸易）became important in the world, the Silk Road had covered almost 6,500 kilometres.

Businessmen travelling along the Silk Road carried silk, of course. They also carried cloth, valuable 【小题4】 （石头）and gold.

It is said that Roman soldiers travelled through central Asia. They started to live somewhere near the 【小题5】 （古老）Chinese village of Liqian. Some of these Romans married 【小题6】 （当地）Chinese women and the story of blue-eyed villages of China was started.

During the busiest 【小题7】 （阶段）, people from different countries met each other and 【小题8】 （分享）goods, stories, languages and cultures. These 【小题9】 （包括）people and goods from the Mediterranean, Persian, Magyar, Armenian, India and Chinese areas.

In modern times, the old Silk Road routes（路线）are still used, but now they are crossed by trains, not camels or horses. There is even a Silk Route 【小题10】 （博物馆）in Jiuquan in China. In this way, China protects the history of many countries and nations.