For people in the Netherlands, a     1    (Europe)country, April 27 is the date of the King’s Day and an excuse to dress all in orange. As the country’s national day, it is the     2    (big)party of the year and its people take their task of having fun very seriously.

There is even a special word in Dutch for the crazy events    3    happen during the festival: “oranjegekte”,which means “orange madness”. Orange is the color of their country’s royal family     4    thus the color is special to Dutch people.

So what do people do in     5    (celebrate) of the festival? On the day, people wear as much orange as possible. Everyone wears huge orange hats, orange dresses and fake orange hair. Even pets     6    (dress)up in orange clothes.

The king’s Day is a day of shopping too, especially in the Netherlands’ capital city, Amsterdam. “As a city     7    (build) on trade, Amsterdam loves to bargain,” CNN explained. “The free market gives everyone the chance to sell     8    (they) second-hand things on the streets and parks,    9    (create)one of the world’s largest flea markets.”

In the Netherlands, the king’s birthday has long been a national excuse for     10    day of orange fun.

As we all know, festivals     1     (celebrate) all around the world and they have     2     wide range of origins, such as the seasons of the year, religions, famous     3     (figure), and important events. Of all the     4     (tradition) festivals, the harvest festival can be found in almost every culture. People celebrate     5     (show) that they are grateful for the year’s supply of food. Customs play a significant role in festivals, but sometimes they can change over time. With the     6     (develop) of modern society and the spread of new ideas, some traditions may fade     7     and others may be established. Festivals are becoming more and more commercial, with businesses     8     (take) advantage of the celebrations. Festivals reflect people’s wishes, beliefs, faiths and attitudes towards life. And if you study festivals     9     (careful), you may be surprised to find that different cultures actually have a lot     10     common after all.

Mulian Opera in Anhui Province, China, got its name from a play named “Mulian Rescues His Mother”. As     1     oldest theatrical style, it can     2     (call) the ancestor of dramas. For hundreds of years, Mulian Opera    3     (enjoy) great popularity among people, due to its features.     4     (develop) by too many artists, Mulian Opera has a grand and complex (复杂的) theatrical form, inclusive performance techniques, rich musical    5     (subject), emotions with a natural setting and communication between the performers and audience.

People play Mulian Opera to force the evil spirits to leave     6     bad things happen to them. Of course, on big occasions, such as the launching of an ancestral temple (祠堂), people will perform it.     7     is said that in the past a play could be staged all night for nine continuous days. Mulian Opera was then even more popular. Mulian Opera is currently recognized    8     the living fossil (化石) of Chinese theater. It has provided valuable information for the study of Chinese theater,    9     (include) its origin, evolution and development. Without scripts or music scores, Mulian Opera has been passed down    10     (oral) by older performers and it still shines with wisdom and energy.

Chopsticks and forks, as the two kinds of tableware best representing the eastern and western dietary cultures, deserve deeper comparison and     1     (discuss).

Lots of     2     (research) have been done on the origin of China’s chopsticks     3     (compare) to the knife and fork in the West. Some people say China was     4     agricultural society and relied on vegetables for food. Chopsticks were very convenient     5     eating. However, the knife and fork were more practical for the Westerners,    6     loved on meat. Others believe that China did not have much industry, and therefore people used chopsticks. The West was an industrial society, so their eating tools were made of metal. Whatever the reasons, it is a result of     7     (they) own cultures.

The appearance of chopsticks can probably date back to the Shang dynasty, more than 4,000 years ago. Their lasting popularity may     8     (actual) be linked to Chinese cooking methods: before stir-frying, the food is cut into tiny pieces,    9     (make) them easy to manipulate(操作) with a chopstick. In the west, it was not until the 10^th century that the fork     10     (become) a necessary item at the dinner table.