Falling     1     the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn festival is all about the full moon and family reunion it represents. When people sit together at night and enjoy the glorious moon, an ancient poem, “Prelude to Water Melody”(水调歌头), is often read for this occasion.

Critics say it’s     2     (probable) the best poem on the Mid-Autumn. After it    3     (write), all the other poems on the harvest moon (丰收之月) could be well-forgotten. So why is this poem so special?

The story     4     (date) back to the Mid-Autumn Festival of the year 1076. Su Shi, a great writer of the Song Dynasty (960—1279), could not sleep that night, missing his geographically separated dear brother Su Zhe.     5     (look) at the moon and thinking of his brother, as well as the ups and downs (沉浮)of his own life, Su Shi drank some wine and composed a poem, or more specifically a “ci”,     6     (call) “Prelude to Water Melody.”

However, he soon realizes that no one has an easy ride(一帆风顺), just like the moon may not always be bright. The imperfections, or the unsatisfactory things have been going on since the beginning of time. That’s why     8     poet says so.

So Su Shi gives his optimistic answer: change your attitude and stay positive. The poet hopes people can avoid indulging in(沉湎于) the sorrow of life and instead appreciate the fact that no matter where they are, as long as the ones they love and miss are     9     (health) and happy, they all can admire the same moon high in the sky and share this eternal(永恒的)    10     (beautiful).

Poetry    1     (communicate) in words. To do that    2     (successful), it must have something important to say, expressing it in a unique way. Whether you are writing poetry yourself or analysing (分析) poems     3     (write) by someone else, you should be thinking about these two broad categories: what is being said, and how it is being expressed.

What is being said may be something unforgettable or something funny, something deeply emotional or something that has just made the writer stop and think. Whatever it is, the theme of the poem will be something worth     4     (say). If you are writing a poem yourself and are not very    5     (experience), it’s best to choose a topic you feel deeply about. Writing a poem     6     begins with ‘I remember’ is a good way to focus your attention       7     something really memorable.

However, two poems could easily have     8     same theme and yet be completely different. What makes     9     (they) different? How they are expressed is the key. It is the way the poet writes that you need to analyse if you are writing about a poem, and if you are writing one yourself, you must choose the form and the words which suit what you want     10     (express).

School life in Hogwarts

There were a hundred and forty-two stairs at Hogwarts: wide, clean ones; narrow, dirty ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a disappearing step halfway up that you had to remember     1    (jump). Then there were doors     2     wouldn’t open unless you asked     3    (polite), or tickled (挠痒) them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren’t really doors at all, but walls just pretending.     4     was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the pictures kept     5    (go) to visit each other, and Harry     6    (be) sure the coats of armour (盔甲) could walk. And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. They had to study the night skies every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the     7    (move) of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle     8    (study) Herbology (草药学), with a short little woman called Professor Sprout,     9     they learned how to take care of all the strange plants,     10     found out what they were used for.

8 . How to Read a Poem

You’ve selected the poem you want to read — congratulations! Now it’s time for the business of reading it.

Examine the title and the shape

    1     — how does it make you feel? How does the title fit the shape of the poem? If the title is sad, let the shape of the poem inform the small difference of the emotion — if it’s short and sparse (稀疏的), maybe it’s coming from a place of desolation or desperation.     2    .

Read the poem as you normally read anything

Reading poetry doesn’t require a clever approach; you can read as you’d read anything else. On the first pass through, absorb whatever it is that arises upon first impression.     3    , maybe your stomach churns (恶心) at a particular phrase, or you hold your breath at a certain line. Explore the feelings that come up as you read.

    4    

Next, try reading the poem out loud or search for readings of the poem online. This is where the music of a poem emerges, and you can feel the shape of each word and line as you move through it.

Add context to paint a full picture

Finally, return to the poem context.     5    ; look at the publication date and consider the world around the poem when it was first released. Consider where the poem lives: Was it released as part of the author’s poetry book, or was it published in a literary magazine? From these details and materials you will get a deeper understanding of the poem.

10 . Narrative (叙事) poems — which simply mean “story poems”— are among the oldest forms of literature. Before there were printed books, people would tell stories through narrative poems, using rhythm, repetition and vivid language to make their tales easy to remember and share.     1     But modern narrative poems often have very free rhythms or no rhyme at all! However, almost all narrative poems tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end. Once you’re ready to write your own narrative poem, keep these tips in mind.

Choose a topic. Pick a story that you really want to tell.     2    Remember, the narrator of the poem doesn’t have to be you. It can be a character of your choice.

Skip the build­up. Narrative poems don’t waste words introducing characters or explaining the scene — most dive right in. Try starting your narrative poem in the middle of the action scene.     3    

Sweat the small stuff (小事). The best narrative poems use exact, descriptive words that bring out a story’s details and paint a rich picture.     4     You can use adjectives that help describe what the world looks, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels like, so readers will experience it just like you do.

    5     This is an especially good strategy if your narrative poem is long. Try repeating key words or phrases that are emotional or musical a few times. Remember Martin Luther King’s famous speech? He says “I have a dream” eight times during that speech, which is part of what makes it so powerful.