Hanfu has experienced large     1     (grow) during the Spring Festival. The horse face skirt is     2     (particular) popular for its combination (结合) of traditional and modern beauty, especially among young Chinese.

During the Spring Festival, many performers and tourists in Luoyang, Henan province,     3     (wear) the horse face skirts. Impressive hanfu shows in Caoxian county, Shandong province, highlighted (凸显) the elegance of the long tradition of Chinese clothing. Consumers (消费者)     4     were interviewed expressed their wish     5     (promote) traditional Chinese culture.

The sales of horse face skirts are rising. Caoxian county is one of the major hanfu production     6     (base) in China, with sales of hanfu reaching over 7 billion yuan every year. The sales of new year’s clothes for the Year of the Dragon, mainly horse face skirts, were more than 300 million yuan in Caoxian county.

Data from e-commerce platforms (电商平台) show a great increase in the search for hanfu since January. Among the various hanfu styles, the horse face skirt has become     7     most popular one.

Zhang Mingqiang, the general manager of a factory, expressed both happiness and concern due     8     the growing daily orders (订单). So far more than 30,000 orders for horse face skirts     9     (put) off by the factory, which is taking measures to improve production     10     to meet the high demand. The new trend of Chinese-style fashion, led by horse face skirts, is gaining popularity among overseas consumers as well.

Have you ever felt stressed and anxious when your maths teacher asks you     1     question? Or when you are doing your maths homework? If so, you might have experienced     2     is called maths anxiety — the feeling of being extremely nervous when     3     (face) with doing basic mathematics. If you have experienced maths anxiety, you are not alone.

Mathematics     4     (be) a necessary skill that people use throughout their lives.     5     (fortunate), many people feel anxious when they have to do maths. That seed of fear may come from many sources. Cultural expectations may also be     6     (blame) — girls may be more likely to catch maths anxiety, perhaps because of stereotypes (刻板印象) that girls are naturally not very good at maths. Your genes, meanwhile, might lead you to anxiety more generally —    7     (make) you more likely to respond unwillingly to maths.

Whatever its origins, once the seed of the fear takes root, it may grow by     8     (it): the more anxious you feel, the worse you perform; the more you shy away from maths, the more you worry when you face it again. Adults with maths anxiety often have trouble     9     maths in their careers and everyday life. Adults with maths anxiety are     10     (little) likely to show interest, enter, and succeed in careers relating to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Chen Xingzhi had to wait till her retirement to follow up on her dream “job”. The 74-year-old Shanghai citizen has turned her childhood hobby of     1     (make) sachets (香囊) into a successful career today.

Chen’s great-grandfather was a     2     (tradition) Chinese doctor, and her grandmother would make sachets filled with Chinese herbal powders (中药粉) for children before the Dragon Boat Festival every year, which is a tradition dating from ancient China.

The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu, falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month when the weather gets hot and some harmful things, like bacteria and insects produce     3     (rapid). In the past, people would hang sachets     4     were filled with herbs not just for their nice smell but for their ability to keep insects away. Now the herbs     5     (say) to be good for people’s health.

As a child, Chen learned     6     (develop) the hobby from her grandmother. It was only after retiring from her regular job around the year 2000 that she decided to give her hobby     7     try. At first, Chen made some sachets     8     gave them away to relatives and friends, and as people expressed interest in them, her confidence grew.

Chen has created about 180 different     9     (kind) of sachets over the course of nearly 20 years. Her products have been shown at the 2010 World Expo as well as the China International Import Expo. Some have served     10     Shanghai gifts and have been given to important guests on special occasions.

Meatballs are a main part of cuisine from Italy to East Asia, and their flavorings and taste vary somewhat,     1    (reflect)local texture (材质) and traditions. China, in particular, is a meatball center of interest, and while you may have come across lion head meatballs before, bouncy meatball soup is as     2    (attract)as its name.

Chaoshan is famous     3     its unique meatballs. The name “bouncy meatball soup” doesn’t come from its ability     4    (make)you jump, but it comes from the finished spring y texture of the meatballs. In fact, in Xing Ye’s movie “God of Cookery”, these meatballs are even used as ping-pong balls.

Although this may slightly exaggerate (夸大) the springiness of the balls, it’s     5    (general) believed that if one were to take one of the meatballs from the soup and drop     6     on the table, the meatball would bounce (反弹). This special texture     7    (achieve)by pounding the meat by hand in a process that a machine cannot properly copy. It’s     8     makes this so up very special indeed.

The birth of these meatballs     9    (date)back to only a century ago. The Hakka people from the mountainous areas of Guangdong began to make meatballs as a helpful way to cook and store fresh meat. Later, the Hakka people began to sell their beef meatballs and soon the meatballs gained     10    (popular)with the Chaoshan communities. And it’s said that they developed the springiness and flavor into what the meatballs are today.

When a person wakes up in the morning, seven items are necessary and unavoidable in his or her life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea.

The saying     1     (update) recently, and it is now widely accepted     2     the seven items have been integrated into one thing-a parcel.

The     3     (adjust) saying illustrates the importance of parcels in Chinese people’s lives nowadays.

Although the delivery industry has boomed in the past decade, and many people rely     4     (heavy) on parcels to maintain their normal lives, it is easy     5     (forget) the most important part of the network-the millions of couriers who transport the items to their recipients.

In China, these essential people usually have busy schedules     6     handle heavy workloads. For example, in big cities such as Beijing, each courier usually collects and delivers 200 to 300 parcels a day, even during off - peak     7     (period).

They often wear colorful uniforms and ride electric bikes through the streets and communities. People call them “busy bees” in honor of       8     (they) hard work.

Sometimes, they rush to meet their schedules and aim to deliver     9     large number of parcels, raising the risk of traffic accidents. Sometimes they work overtime to complete deliveries. Occasionally, they are subject     10     unreasonable complaints.

Hotpot is one of China’s favorite dishes. The recommended place in the country to enjoy the food is Chongqing in Southwest China. Hotpot is not a one-person meal. The atmosphere in hotpot restaurants is     1     (live). People chat while putting meat or vegetables into the pot and waiting for it     2     (boil).

Though the origin of hotpot     3     (be) hard to determine, the current “hotpot capital” is Chongqing. Eating hotpot is part of the city’s culture. The city has more than 20,000 hotpot restaurants     4     own 50,000 franchises around the country, according to the Chongqing Hotpot Association.

It is said that Chongqing hotpot     5     (invent) in the ports along the river by sailors and porters who sought     6     simple and cheap way to cook. This may explain     7     the typical raw ingredients for Chongqing hotpot are animal organs such as duck intestines, tripe and pork arteries—as they were leftovers coming     8     the markets near the ports. For first-timers, the ingredients may be a bit difficult to stomach. But there is no     9     (short) of choices— lamb, beef, seafood, potato, bamboo shoots, lettuce—for today’s diners.

There is a health consideration for eating hotpot in the summer from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. Chongqing is very humid which increases the dampness in the body, so     10     (eat) hotpot can burn off the excessive moisture.

Have you ever had this kind of childhood memory: a family sits together casually during a holiday, drinking and tasting tea after lunch or dinner? This has been a     1     (day) activity for Chinese people throughout the history.

After being spread to different parts of the world, tea has received top-level global recognition     2     a shared cultural treasure of mankind. “The     3     (practice) of greeting guests with tea are shared among multiple ethnic groups. They provide     4     sense of identity and continuity for communities, groups and individuals     5     (concern),” states a document from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to UNESCO.

This explanation can be fully manifested by weilu zhucha, which     6     (mean) boiling tea at a stove, a social tea activity going viral among the young generation of Chinese people. By the end of November, 2022, videos recording or introducing this activity     7     (play) 1.14 billion times, and related posts had attracted 11.58 million views on social media platforms, reported CCTV.

Weilu zhucha might be a replacement in the cold seasons for the camping craze.     8     (sit) around with friends and families with a stove, some tea, fruit and refreshments on the table, people may chat, view the surrounding scenery,     9     be immersed in traditional Chinese culture by boiling tea together in person. “    10     appeals to me most is its warm atmosphere when boiling tea.” an Internet user commented on Sina Weibo.

The Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er, Yunnan Province, gained World Heritage Site status on the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on September 17, 2023.

As UNESCO World Heritage Committee noted, “This land-use system,     1     (create) by ancestors of Blang and Dai peoples, permits the complementary (互补的) use of     2     (nature) resources in the mountainous environment of Jingmai Mountain     3     acts as an exceptional example of a human interaction in a challenging environment.”

Li Qun, head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, said in Riyadh that China will strengthen efforts     4     (manage) the heritage site and guide local communities to join     5     the protection of the old tea forests. “We’ll also advance international exchange and     6     (cooperate), and take more responsibilities in the World Heritage circle,” he said.

Chen Yaohua, director of World Heritage Research Center of Peking University who     7     (lead)studies of the site in the past 12 years, said that the practice on Jingmai Mountain is quite unique in the environment     8     large-scaled terraced (梯田形的) tea plantations play     9     leading role in today’s world.

According to his research, about 10% of tea trees on the mountain are at least 100 years old, and the     10     (old) ones are over 300.

My favourite sport

I like table-tennis, chess and football. Football is    1    (I) favourite sport. I’m good at    2    (play)football. I think it is easy    3    me. I have my favourite football    4    (play). He is Shevchenko. He is    5     AC Milan Club. I want    6    (be) a famous football player     7     Shevchenko. I often play football    8    my father at weekends.    9     Sunday I like     10    (watch) football matches.

When Natan Colombo was 5 years old, his parents took him to a Chinese restaurant,     1     was rare in his home city of Milan, Italy, at that time. He never imagined that experience would mean a future bond     2     China.

Up to now, the 34-year-old man has lived in China for more than 10 years. After     3     (obtain) a doctorate in international law at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing in 2013, Colombo     4     (become) a lecturer at the Hainan Tropical Ocean University in Sanya,     5     resort (旅游胜地) city in South China’s Hainan province.

The first time he visited Sanya was in 2011 when he spent a short holiday with some friends there. It took him just a few days     6     (fall) in love with this city because of its amazing seaside scenery, interesting and     7     (color) culture, and tasty food.

In his eyes, Hainan is dynamic and develops very fast. Hainan is warm, not only because of its climate,     8     because of the friendly people here. Hainan is therefore     9     (true) attractive for both companies and tourists.

He believes there is a natural     10     (attract) between Italy and China in both culture and education, since Italy and China share a very long history.