Many years ago, an elderly Canadian couple who found Chinese culture    1    (interest) took on a unique project with the purpose of helping Canadians have a better understanding of China based on how the Chinese viewed themselves and the issues they faced. 

Their efforts led    2    the birth of a 1985 book, Understanding China Through Cartoons. They    3    (official) gave it away to China on June 10, 2019. To help Canadians know more about China, they    4    (found) the Society for a Better Understanding of China in the early 1970s,    5     is now noted as the Canada-China Friendship Society. 

The elderly couple were    6    (determine) to gift it to China as their admiration for Chinese culture—a role dating back thousands of years. 

“China is the only nation whose civilization has never stopped and keeps    7    (exist) to this day. Its cultural     8    (grow) has lasted for thousands of years,” the husband said. 

In fact, communication has been     9    best way to increase each other’s understanding and trust. We need    10    (many) people like the elderly Canadian couple as well as more institutions like the Canada-China Friendship Society.

In modern society, many traditional Chinese festivals are becoming less and less popular. However, they are important part of Chinese culture, and it’s our     1    (responsible) to protect and maintain them. This article focuses on a festival that many people are not familiar with ----Hanshi Festival.

With a history of more than 2,600 years, Hanshi Festival is the only traditional one in China named     2     food, and it is also known as the Cold Food Festival as people are only allowed to eat cold food on this day. Hanshi normally     3    (fall) around April 3 in the solar calendar, one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival.

In most parts of China, fires might start easily in the dry early spring due to the flammable substances     4    (store) by people and the spring thunder. As a result, the ancients usually held grand ceremonies of sacrifice in     5     the fire stored from the previous year would be put out. Later, they would drill wood to get new fire for a new year. The gap between putting out old fire and     6    (burn) the wood to obtain new fire ranged from three, five, or seven days according to different     7    (history) records.

During the gap days, fires     8    (prohibit) in households. As a result, people would eat what they had prepared previously, namely the cold food, or hanshi in Chinese. That’s     9    the Hanshi Festival gradually came into being.

As the Hanshi Festival is one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival, they gradually got combined with one another. After the Song Dynasty, cold food did not remain a necessity on this day, and gradually, Qingming Festival took over the folk activities of Hanshi     10    (become) a major festival on this subject.