Weifang nut carving dates back to the Qing Dynasty, during     1     a craftsman (手艺人) named Wang Dayan spread the skill to the local people. Due to the strict carving skills and its rich artistic content, Weifang nut carving     2     (list) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) in 2008.

A successor named Tan Wanhai, has studied nu t carving for the past 25 years. He was deeply impressed by a master piece     3     (inspire) by an article about a boat nu t carving. “In just a 5-cm peach pit (核), you can see a boat     4     (carry) five different people, who are all vividly (生动地) shown,” said Tan.

Yet,     5     48-year-old craftsman also admitted that the journey of bringing this kind of masterpiece to life is not a smooth sailing. “Each peach pit has     6     (it) own unique texture (纹理) like human fingerprints,” Tan said, adding that craftsmen have to study   each peach pit     7     (design) their artwork carefully. Craftsmen also need to have a wide knowledge of arts when it comes     8     carving nuts.

In recent years, Weifang nut carving artworks have been     9     (wide) welcomed by people in China. This     10     (popular), in turn, has also attracted many people to learn the skill of nut carving.

Putian wood carving, one of the four well-known     1     (category) of the art of Chinese wood carving, originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties.     2     (serve) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) item in China, it is a traditional folk carving technique of southeast China’s Fujian Province.

Zheng Chunhui, Lin Jianjun and Chen Yushu are three     3     (exception) representatives of wood carving masters. Zheng is a provincial-level inheritor (继承人) of the wood carving art,     4     not only excels in traditional wood carving technique,     5     expresses his love for his family and nation through his works. To promote the art, Zheng opened a unique wood carving gallery, which is the     6     (one) in Putian run by an individual and free to the public. The delicately made wood carving works by Lin     7     (shine) at a BRICS summit (峰会) several years ago, and meanwhile, the Chinese-style antique furniture pieces that are made by Chen     8     (show) at many international exhibitions over the past few years.

Putian city is home     9     over 2,600 wood carving companies, and the wood carving works     10     (create) there were sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world last year.

A 13-year project has finally come to a close. British artist Kirstie Macleod came up with The Red Dress idea     1     (explore) identity, culture and tradition through embroidery (刺绣).

After passing through the hands of 343 artists across 46     2     (country) , the final piece was assembled (拼装) into a lovingly made and beautifully designed floor-length dress. It is made from 84 pieces of silk, all of     3     were hand-embroidered by artists around the globe. They were from South Africa, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, Japan and beyond.

The artists were encouraged to create     4     work that expressed their own identities while adding their own cultural and traditional experience. Among the artists     5     (be) refugees (难民) who escaped from the war, craftsmen who are carrying on age-old traditions     6     people who learn the art for the first time.

“Initially the project     7     (intend) to produce a dialogue of identity through embroidery and combine diverse cultures,” Kirstie Macleod says. “However, over the 13 years, the dress has also become a platform for self-expression and an opportunity for voices     8     (hear).” The finished dress was worn by several of the artists who helped create the piece,     9     (bring) an added sense of completion to the project. Now, the completed and     10     (full) assembled red dress is going on tour to be displayed at galleries and museums across the globe.

Yang Jiang was a well-known Chinese playwright, translator, and author. She belonged to     1     unique and beautiful existence in Chinese literature. She was the first Chinese academic     2    (translate) Miguel de Cervantes’ Spanish novel Don Quixote to Chinese and at that time, her translation     3     (honor) as the recreation of the original work       4     the basis of loyalty.

Yang was born into a rich family in 1911,     5    (original)named Yang Jikang. After eventually     6     (graduate) from Soochow University, she enrolled at the graduate school of Tsinghua University. She met her husband there, Qian Zhongshu, another acclaimed writer in China.

Other than translations, Yang     7     (author) many plays, novels, and essays during her writing career. Her short novel Mr. Wang,     8    (write) in 1984, was selected as an article in the textbook. In 1986, she got the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, a famous Spanish civil order, for her     9     (achieve) in Don Quixote. Her bestseller was We Three in 2003,     10     sales exceeded 180,000 copies in two months. Yang passed away in 2016, at the age of 105.

The Ontario Convention Center was filled with     1     (excite)on Saturday as hundreds of players competed in the 2023 US Open Table Tennis Championships. The tournament attracted players from around the world, among     2     were Wu Bohan and Zhang Yuwen. Representing Peking University,     3     Chinese pair will participate in a series of events to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy.

When Dell Sweeris, now a 78-year-old, watched the intense action at the championship, fond memories     4     (come) flooding back. With a smile playing on his lips (嘴角), he reflected on how a simple game of ping-pong had once bridged political chasms (鸿沟)    5     brought nations closer together.

“I was so fortunate     6     (be) on the US national team in 1972 when the Chinese team came here,” Sweeris recalled. “They sent legends (传奇人物) here and I luckily traveled with them.”

While     7     (meet) some legendary players of the Ping-Pong Diplomacy era, Sweeris became friends with Liu Wei, a former world champion and now a professor at Peking University.

    8     the coach of the Peking University table tennis team, Liu said his team was on a mission to spread the spirit of Ping-Pong Diplomacy. “It is about the continuity of friendship,”she said. “It will     9    (pass) on to the next generation through the medium of table tennis. One of the driving forces behind this continuity is the     10     (share) love for this sport by the people of both China and the United States.”

A tea bag is a small, porous packet that contains     1     (dry) plant material, which, when soaked in hot water, helps to make tea. Tea bags are     2     (general) made of filter paper.

Tea bags range from a square or rectangular shape to a tetrahedral (四面体的) and even circular shape. There’s typically     3     small string attached to each tea bag with a paper label at the top.

Tea bags     4     (use) since the 8th century — in the era of the Tang dynasty. In those days, paper was folded and sewn into square bags so that tea flavors could be preserved for a long time,     5     (lay) the foundation for modern tea bags.

The modern version of tea bags first appeared in the Western World as early as 1903. Commercially, however, tea bags made their appearance around 1908,     6     coffee importer Thomas Sullivan shipped his silk tea bags all over the world. Those tea bags were supposed     7     (tear) before use, and their loose contents were then poured into hot water to brew tea.

However, people found that it was more convenient to brew tea     8     the tea leaves still enclosed in the bags. Since dipping tea bags into water didn’t seem to cause any change in the taste, people gradually did away with the practice of     9     (remove) the tea bag, and started dipping it directly into hot water instead.

It’s generally advised to not squeeze a tea bag soaked in hot water. When you squeeze a tea bag, more tannins (鞣质) are released into the liquid. The result of this is that the drink becomes too bitter, or     10     some call it, “too strong”.