Owing to huge Spring Festival movie ticket sales, the first month of the 2023 took a giant leap to become the highest-grossing January of all time in China, according to the China Film Administration.

Selling a total of 201 million tickets for 10 million screenings in over 10, 000 cinemas, the country saw     1     (it) overall box-office earnings exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) by Tuesday. This represented     2     270 percent increase from 2.7 billion yuan in the same period last year, according to the Beacon, a real-time film data tracker.

With the rapid     3     (expand) of the domestic film industry in recent decades, people have started a new custom of going to cinemas during Spring Festival,     4     (turn) the weeklong holiday into a profitable box-office season, insiders said.

This year, the festival started     5     (early) than usual, with all seven days falling in January. In the past, it either stretched from late January to early February     6     was entirely celebrated in February.

The appealing lineup of seven new movies —     7     (couple) with China’s optimization of COVID-19 control measures, the first such adjustment in three years — further made the January box-office earnings soar, some analysts said.

Full River Red — director Zhang Yimou’s twist-studded story loosely inspired from a loyal general who was framed and executed —       8     (top) the charts, followed by sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth II and animated film Boonie Bears: Guardian Code in second and third places. Zhang’s film generated so much enthusiasm among its audiences     9     many visited the memorial sites of Yue Fei, the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) general     10     story inspired the movie.

Like Peking Opera and other traditional national arts in China, Piyingxi or the shadow play show,     1    (know)as a Chinese     2    (culture)heritage, has spread to many countries. Vivid design and a rich variety of     3    (color), beautiful costumes, change of lighting, and unique singing, together make up the fascinating world of a shadow play.

As     4     old form of storytelling and entertainment, shadow play artists use plain figures in front of a bright cloth     5    (create)the illusion of moving images. The figures are usually moved     6     people behind a thin screen. Shadow play is not     7    (entire)a show of shadows, but rather a show of silhouettes(剪影).

That day I     8    (watch)a shadow play show at the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and was fascinated by the wonderful     9    (perform). Most young people have little understanding of     10     a shadow play is, despite its 2000-year-old history. It is a pity that nowadays young people don't know how to appreciate this traditional an. Shadow play is our precious folk art, and let's preserve it.

A realistic drama A Lifelong Journey has become a huge hit on TV and online recently.    1    (focus) on the ups and downs of Zhou’s family over five decades, it has caused nostalgia (怀旧) among many viewers. With the drama    2     (release) on China Central Television and streaming platform iQiyi on Jan 28, its viewership is    3    (steady) on the rise. Many viewers issued a    4    (describe) of the show that it was like a time machine to drift into the past, reflecting how they got here.

Adapted    5    Liang Xiaosheng’s award-winning novel of the same name, the show explores themes of family, friendship and romance in a bittersweet story. Set in    6    1960s, it’s not surprising that the family has to deal with lots of social    7    (change). like the restart of Gaokao, the country’s Reform and Opening-up, the boom of Xiahai and the nation’s anti-corruption campaign. Following the lives of Zhou’s family, the Grama gives viewers an insight into the ordinary Chinese who have turned a country in    8    (poor) into the second largest economy in the world.

The show’s director Li Lu,    9    became well known for his anti-corruption series in the Name of the People in 2017, said “China    10    ( witness) dramatic changes over the past five decades and it is time to create such a drama to remember the past.”