In November 1979, pupils in England were able to watch a new TV program     1     (call) Monkey. Most of them were hearing this story     2     the first time. However, this story is not new to Chinese children. The Monkey King or Sun Wukong is the main character in the     3     (tradition) Chinese book Journey to the West.

The Monkey King is not just any normal monkey.     4     fact, he sometimes does not even look like a monkey! This is because he can make 72     5     (change) to his shape and size, turning himself into different animals and objects. But     6     he can hide his tail, he cannot turn himself into a man. To fight bad people, the Monkey King uses     7     magic stick. Sometimes he can make the stick so small that he can keep it in his ear.     8     other times, he is able to make it big and long.

And as soon as the TV program came out more than 30 years ago,     9     (west) children became interested in reading this story because the clever Monkey King keeps     10     (fight) to help the weak and never gives up.

In February, 2021, international students at Beijing International Studies University celebrated Little New Year—usually a week before Spring Festival—at one of       1     (they) teachers’ home in Beijing.

For Marcela Vazaves, celebrating the Spring Festival is to spend it     2     the people she loves, whether with friends and teachers around her or with parents and relatives in Mexico online. However, this year, she and two of her classmates     3     (invite) to a teacher’s home. It was her     4     (one) time to make dumplings and learn about the culture behind Spring Festival.

Marcela wasn’t able to travel home     5     the COVID-19 epidemic (流行病) was serious. However, she felt     6     (luck) that she was safe and well in China. “The university     7     (take) really good care of us since the epidemic broke out more than a year ago,” she said.

“The university has paired all international     8     (student) with people in Beijing and bought presents for them, so they are hoped     9     (spend) the festival with local people and enjoy a real festival environment.” said the teacher. “Inviting students to my home is     10     good way to make friends with them. I teach international students Chinese language, I also want to build true friendship between us,” he said.

There are many important holidays in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of them. It’s     1     important traditional festival in China. People always celebrate it on the 15th day in the     2     (eight) month of Chinese calendar. At that time, the moon is the fullest and     3     (bright). The festival started in China about 3,000 years ago and     4     (be) a popular tradition already.     5     nobody knows the reason for the beginning of the festival, there are some stories about it.

Story 1: Harvest

Chinese used the moon     6     a calendar for harvest. The full moon meant the end of the summer harvest. At that time farmers would get together and eat delicious moon cakes.

Story 2: War

During Yuan Dynasty, some bad men took over China and treated the Chinese badly. To fight against them, the Chinese planned     7     (send) moon cakes to every person. They put paper messages into the center of the moon cakes. They named the time and places to beat the bad men.

Story 3: Moon lady

The story of the lady on the moon was described as a beautiful woman     8     (name) Chang’e. She lived in the cold palace on the moon by     9     (she). At the Mid-Autumn Festival, people can see her beauty     10     (clear).

Today people often celebrate it with family and friends. People will have a family dinner and eat moon cakes.

The traditional Chinese Longtaitou festival, or Dragon Head Raising Day, falls on the second day of the second lunar month every year. A well-known saying goes, “Er yue er, long tai tou”. The dragon is very i    1     in Chinese culture. It is said that it has power over the wind and rain.

Old people     2     (believe) that after the day of Longtaitou, there would be more and more rain, because the rain-bringing Dragon King woke up from his winter sleep. So the day of Longtaitou marked (标志) the e    3     of winter and the start of spring. Farmers believed that     4     the help of Dragon King, farming would be easier and they could e    5     for a good harvest (丰收) in autumn.

There are many     6     (way) to celebrate the festival. The most famous tradition is     7     (get) a haircut. Many believe that going to the barber’s on this day gets rid of (除去) bad luck. Among Chinese festival traditions, there is always a place for f    8    . For example, people in East China     9     (usual) eat tofu balls during the festival. They m    10     tofu and vegetable balls to wish a good wish for family and business. Other foods, like noodles, dumplings and spring rolls, are named after dragon body parts to mark the day. Noodles are dragon’s beard (longxu). Dumplings are dragon’s ears (long’er). And spring rolls are dragon’s scales (longlin).