Have you ever been to Hong Kong? Hong Kong is a beautiful place to travel. It lies in the southeastern part of China. She r    1     to our motherland in 1997. If you go to Hong Kong by air, you will arrive at Kai Tak Airport, because there was not enough land. This airport was build out into the sea. It is in the part of Hong Kong called Kowloon. Kowloon is one of the two big cities in Hong Kong. The other city is Hong Kong itself. It is on an i    2    . You can get there by ship or through a tunnel under the sea. Much of Hong Kong is farmland and mountains.

The population of Hong Kong is over six million. People from all over the w    3     travel to Hong Kong every year. You can watch horse racing or motor racing. Some places are quiet and beautiful. When you are hot and tired, there are small cool gardens to rest in. There are also a lot of buildings to live in. Hong Kong is also a good place for Chinese f    4    . You can enjoy many kinds of cooking. For example, fish, meat and vegetables. Beijing duck is famous. There is certainly a lot to see and to do in Hong Kong.

When you are in Hong Kong, you must be very careful in the streets because the traffic drives on the left. It is d    5     from that in other areas of China. If it’s your first time to Hong Kong, you must look to the right side and then the left before you cross the street. When you go by bus in Hong Kong, you have to be careful, too. You must always remember the traffic moves on the l    6    . So you must be careful. Have a look first, or you will go the wrong way.

St Patrick’s Day（圣帕特里克节）is one of the most important festivals in Ireland. It is on March 17. It is not only an important holiday in Ireland but also a day when everyone wants to be Irish. It b    7     a public holiday in 1903. The first St Patrick’s Day celebration took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. The first American celebration of St Patrick’s Day was in Boston in 1737. St Patrick’s Day is a t    8     to wear green and hold parties.

People will usually think of the color of green when they talk about St Patrick’s Day in m    9     times. Green is the color of spring and Ireland. People wear green and carry little green leaves. They b    10     that these can bring themselves good luck. Some people even color their hair green for the celebration. And they look really funny.

It’s a t    11     for families to go to church in the morning and celebrate the festival in the afternoon. Today, people celebrate St Patrick’s Day in America, Canada, Australia and some other countries.

Many Chinese people will wonder     1     presents to get for their mums on Mother’s Day, but not many know Mother’s Day is actually a festival from overseas.

Mother’s Day originated (起源) in American during the early 20th century. The festival     2     (spread) to China as early as the 1980s and was widely accepted.

Why did a foreign festival become popular in China? In fact, Chinese traditional culture has always encouraged filial (孝顺的) devotion to parents. There are many stories     3     show filial respect in ancient China. For example, the story of “Taste Liquid Medicine for Mother” tells us the filial virtue of Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty. His mother had been sick for three years. He often stayed up by her bedside and cared     4     her day and night. He tasted the liquid medicine first     5     she drank it. Also, mother love is a repeated subject in Chinese ancient poem, like “Song of the Parting Son” by Meng Jiao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. Now this poem is still a must in the school textbooks. Children in China     6     (bring) up with the education of filial devotion.

On special days, people often use roses or don’t forget-me-nots     7     (express) love. Carnations (康乃馨) are considered     8     the perfect flowers for mothers around the world, but few know that China has its own for mothers—the tiger lily.

Love for mothers can have different ways of expression. What matters most is love, not the festival     9     (it). What mothers truly want is perhaps just     10     simple expression of love from their children.