Whenever celebrations or major events take place, people in Wenxi County, North China’s Shanxi Province take out huamo     1     (entertain)guests for promising outcomes in the future.

These flour (面粉) and flower-shaped buns, or huamo, can date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties,     2     (know) for its elegant design and innovative conception. It is     3     (close) related to local customs and widely used in festivals, weddings, birthdays and many other occasions. In addition, huamo     4     (make) its way to the high-end market     5     a business gift in the past decade, since it can be made into artwork that can last for seven or eight years.

Making huamo is     6     ancient cultural tradition in China. The way to make it is handed down from generation to generation. When making huamo, women concentrate on their artistic creation as they like, letting their rich     7     (imagine) run freely in the artistic world,     8     leave behind fantastic works of huamo, each with its own special characteristics.

Wenxi flower-shaped buns present various forms, and reflect Wenxi working women’s deep folk art knowledge in their     9     (day) life over the long course of history. With the development of the times, the art of huamo,     10     has always been the pride of local rural households, is increasingly popular across the whole country.

Chinese seal (印章) carving originated during the Shang Dynasty. In the beginning, the characters carved on seals were the same as     1     (that) used in writing, such as Xiaozhuan of the Qin Dynasty. However, with Chinese writing     2     (become) increasingly standardized and simplified, it became a tradition to use Xiaozhuan for seals.

In ancient times, seals were regarded as     3     guarantee of authenticity (真实性). Today, they are more of a sign of authority of a legal person     4     an artwork.

After the Qin Dynasty, materials for seals were     5     (strict)classified. Jade (玉) was only used for emperors, gold and silver for high-ranking     6     (office) and copper (铜) for the low ranks. Various types of stones were used from the Song Dynasty,       7     led to a boom for seal carving.

    8     (early), seal carving was accomplished only by workers. During the Song Dynasty, scholars and artists began to get involved in it. They combined seal carving with calligraphy and painting,       9     (make) this traditional art more popular in China.

To protect this artistic treasure, Chinese seal carving     10     (include) on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.