Students at a primary school in Hangzhou had their first class     1     March 1st on movable type. This is     2      ancient Chinese printing system.

The West Lake Primary School     3     (introduce) (原创) the course since the new term. An expert in Chinese characters culture has been invited to the campus,     4    major responsibility is to teach students how     5     (use) the ancient printing technology. Students attend lectures on the history of movable type along with     6     (interest) classes on typesetting and printing. They then print their own document, using the knowledge they've learned. One student printed her     7    (new) written essay “Whether the traditional red envelopes kids receive belong to them or their parents?”

    8    (know) as one of the four great inventions of ancient China, movable type printing     9    (invent) by Bi Sheng in the 1040s during the Song Dynasty, and it is the world's first system of movable type printing.

The school said the course is aimed at improving the students' awareness of Chinese characters and their     10    (appreciate) of Chinese culture.

The Tradition of Making New Year’s Resolutions

There are so many ways to celebrate New Year and especially New Year’s Eve. Traditions of the season include the making of New Year’s resolutions. That tradition     1     (date) back to the early Babylonians. While popular modern resolutions may include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking, the early Babylonian’s     2     (popular) resolution was to return borrowed farm     3     (equip).

The tradition of using a baby     4     (signify) the New Year began in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket,     5     (represent) the annual rebirth of that god as     6     spirit of fertility (多产). Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

    7     the early Christians criticized the practice as pagan (异教徒), the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to rc-evaluate its position. The Church finally allowed     8     (it) members to celebrate the New Year with a baby,     9     was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.

The practice that an image of a baby with a New Year’s banner (横幅) is used as a symbolic representation of the New Year     10     (bring) to early America by the Germans. They had used it since the fourteenth century.