People send birthday wishes using cards and postcards in many cultures. It’s not known when and where the tradition of     1     (send) birthday cards began, however, it is believed     2     it was in England in the early nineteenth century. In those days people sent birthday cards because they couldn’t wish somebody     3     happy birthday in person.

In 1840, the first postage stamp was issued in Britain and sending birthday cards became     4     (cheap) and therefore more popular. The     5     (develop) of colour printing processes in the 1930s also helped to increase sales of cards.

Today usually cards     6     (give) with a present, even when people can send     7     (they) wishes in person. In recent times, e-cards have also become popular: many people are starting to use these instead of traditional cards as they are free, environmentally     8     (friend) and arrive more quickly. So will e-cards take the place     9     paper cards in ten or twenty years? Probably not. For young children and old people or for very formal occasions, e-cards are not proper and some people     10     (simple) don’t use the Internet.

Many people have dogs in their homes. Dogs are very affectionate animals. They are also very sensitive to the feelings of the people with     1     they live, and it seems quite     2     (nature) to have them in our houses. Maybe some people are     3     (puzzle) by the great similarity between dogs and wolves. Some scientists hold the     4     (believe) that many different types of dogs come from one species of animal—the grey wolf. These wild animals came into villages 12000 years ago, looking for food and     5     (get) rid of hunger. People discovered that wolves could help in the daily struggle for survival     6     preventing their homes from being disturbed(打扰) by other animals and hunting wildlife to kill and eat.     7    , people kept them in their homes to make them accept the human care and reduce the wolf nature. Today in some very old parts of Northern Canada, the skin of some very old dogs     8     (be) still used to make warm clothes. Dogs are useful, and many people are     9     (satisfy) with dogs and love them—that is     10     they are often called “man’s best friend”.

Chopsticks, or kuaizi in Chinese, are a pair of small equal-length sticks, usually made of wood, used for eating. We Chinese eat     1     chopsticks. It is believed the first chopsticks     2     (develop) over 5,000 years ago in China. The     3     (early) evidence of a pair of chopsticks made out of bronze was excavated (出土) from the Ruins of Yin near Anyang, Henan province, dating back to roughly 1,200 BC. Chopsticks,     4     are roughly the same in size throughout China, can be made of a wide range of     5     (material), including bamboo, wood, plastic, silver and gold.

Chopsticks play     6     important role in Chinese food culture. Chinese chopsticks are usually 9 to 10 inches long. They are round on the eating end which represents heaven, and the other end is square which stands for earth. This is because     7     (maintain) an enough food supply is the greatest concern between heaven and earth.

There is an old Chinese custom making chopsticks part of a girl’s dowry (嫁妆), since the pronunciation of kuaizi is similar     8     the words for “quick” and “son”.

Chopsticks are     9     (frequent) used in daily life. They have become more than a kind of tableware and have established a set of etiquette (礼仪) and customs of     10    (they) own.

What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of wheat straw? Most people would     1    (probable) just see it as a pile of waste in a farmer’s field. However, Wu Cui, an intangible cultural inheritor, can turn the straw left over from harvested wheat     2     beautiful functional artworks.

The earliest straw-weaving (草编的) products were discovered at Hemudu Cultural Ruins, a Neolithic cultural site     3    (locate) in Zhejiang province. Straw weaving is     4     method of manufacturing daily items or artworks. It     5    (list) as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Wu explains the process of straw weaving: selection of materials is the first step of a complicated process that can take weeks, or even     6    (month), to complete. You need to sketch (素描) the piece on paper,     7     requires drawing skills. Next comes weaving, shaping and preserving of the work. Actually the     8    (hard) part is to make it lifelike.

In her view, straw weaving should respond to     9    (people) needs and preferences, while still drawing inspiration from traditional culture. Wu wants to dig deeper into local traditional culture and create cultural creative products by     10    (develop) the straw-weaving technique.