Chinese calligraphy is called the art of lines. Practicing calligraphy helps a person to achieve relaxation and inner peace. In the past, children     1     (train) at an early age to practice writing. Great attention is paid     2     calligraphy today with exhibitions and competitions among both the young and the old.     3     (learn) calligraphy, one will need a brush, ink, paper, and ink stone, which     4     (be) commonly recognized as the Four Treasures of Study. As Chinese culture spreads throughout the world nowadays, calligraphy is enjoying     5     (great) popularity than ever before. Many foreigners are practising it now.     6     calligraphy uses Chinese characters (汉字) as a way of expression, one does not have to know Chinese to admire its beauty.

The Laba Festival, also simply called “Laba”, falls on the eighth day of the     1     (twelve) month of the Chinese lunar year, which month is pronounced as “la” in Chinese.

Since it is in the last lunar month, the festival     2     (imply) saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and often regarded as     3     warm-up celebration for the upcoming Spring Festival.

This festival may date back to the ancient Chinese custom of     4     (sacrifice) offerings to the ancestors. As for its origin, one story has it     5     the Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang herded (放牧) the landowner’s cattle when he was a child. He was locked in a small room     6     one of the cattle broke its leg and the landowner didn’t give him any food for three days. Zhu was starved to death and searched every corner of the room. He found a mouse hole and     7     (dig) out some beans, grain and some other food, so he put them together     8     (make) some porridge (粥) and found it delicious.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang made himself an emperor. When he thought of the delicious porridge he ate in the     9     (child), he ordered his servants to cook sweet porridge and shared with the top officials. Afterwards, the officials learned to cook the porridge themselves and introduced it to the civil society.     10     (gradual) eating porridge became a traditional custom.