The Spring Festival is one of the most important festivals in China. During the festival, Chinese people have many activities. They paste up (粘贴) Spring Festival couplets (春联), greeting the New Year and saying ___________ to the old year. On the first day of the Spring Festival, people ___________ , wearing new clothes. Nowadays, children get ___________ pockets from their parents and their relatives by WeChat. It is a good time for people to visit relatives and friends. More importantly, the Spring Festival is celebrated not only in China but also in ___________ parts of the world.

The Spring Festival was ___________ in the UK from 1980. Every new year, people also get together and have lots of activities. They sing songs, dance ___________ music, share photos with friends or watch ___________ in the cinema. Additionally, the Spring Festival has become a key time for Chinese living in the US. They ___________ in a large evening party to welcome the traditional new year. The Chinese New Year will be welcomed with three weeks of celebrations across Australia. Thousands of people come to Sydney’s Chinatown. They enjoy fireworks (烟火)and lion dances. The family dinner on New Year’s Eve is an important tradition for Chinese _________ they were born in Singapore or moved there from China. They usually hold it at ____________ because having it in a restaurant takes away the meaning of the tradition.

A Christmas Carol (圣诞欢歌) is a famous novel written by Charles Dickens. It tells us the true meaning of Christmas: the importance of sharing and giving love and joy to people around us.

The story is about an old man name Scrooge who never laughs or smiles. He is mean and only thinks about making more money for himself and doesn’t treat others nicely. He just cares about whether he can make more money. And he hates Christmas. One Christmas Eve, Scrooge sees Marley was punished after he died. That night, three ghosts visit Scrooge. They take him to see his childhood, how others are spending Christmas this year and the future.

Scrooge is so scared that he wakes up in his bed and finds out it is already the next morning on Christmas Day! He decides to change his life and promises to be a better person. He now treats everyone with kindness and warmth, spreading love and joy everywhere he goes. And that is the true spirit of Christmas!

Paper cutting is a kind of Chinese traditional art. It’s very popular in the countryside. The bright colors of red, green or light blue paper cutting create a happy atmosphere(氛围). So it is often found in weddings or festivals in China.

A thousand years ago, paper cutting was used for decoration (装饰品). Women in the Tang Dynasty used paper cutting as the headdress (头饰). In the Song Dynasty, it was the decoration of the gifts. People put it on windows or doors or used it as decorations on walls, mirrors or lanterns.

Paper cutting is all made by hand. Learners need only a knife and some paper. For craftsmen (工匠), they need knives and different gravers (雕刻刀) to make special patterns (图案). Simple patterns are cut with a knife. For complicated (复杂的) patterns, people first pasted (粘贴) the pattern (图案) on the paper and then used different kinds of knives to make it. No mistake should be made during the process, otherwise the work would fail. Paper cutting covers nearly all subjects, from flowers, birds, animals, people in classic novels, to different kinds of facial make-up (脸谱) in Beijing opera.

In the past, women living in the countryside gathered in their free time to make paper cutting. As society develops, fewer and fewer people learn this skill. At present, there are factories and associations for paper cutting in China. Sometimes exhibitions and exchanges are held. Paper cutting has changed from decoration to a kind of art. At the same time, paper cutting also appears in cartoons, in magazines or in TV series.