For you,the “Clear and Bright” day that falls in every April might be no more than just another holiday — the fact that it comes with three days off school matters to most students       1       more than the fact that it is part of the 24 solar terms.

But the UNESCO has recognized the importance of the 24 solar terms. This ancient system that Chinese people have used to keep track of the time of year       2     (add) to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Nov 30.

For starters, you may have heard your mom say: “The sanfu days are almost over. The heat won’t be here for long.” The sanfu days are a period of time that     3     (fall) in summer, somewhere     4     Minor Heat (in July) and Autumn Equinox (in September). The coldest days, or the sanjiu days, are similar. They cover the 27 days     5     (follow) Winter Solstice.

In some places, solar terms guide people’s lives through special foods,     6     (culture) events and healthy living tips. For example, people from northern China are in the habit of eating dumplings on the day of Winter Solstice. And on Start of Autumn, some people treat     7     to a big feast, especially of meat, something they call “putting on autumn weight”, or tieqiubiao.

But no matter     8     differently people celebrate the 24 solar terms, they have been here for a long time and could last forever.

According to Chinese writer and academic Yu Shicun, unlike many other examples of intangible cultural heritage – Peking Opera and Chinese Zhusuan, for example – the solar terms are neither regional (地域的) nor a type of art or skill. Instead, the system is a philosophy of time,     9     applies to everything. And this means they are     10     (likely) to die out.

Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet ，a BBC one-hour documentary，    1    (launch) on April 6 this year. It was the first time to put Du's life in a global context.

For the Chinese,Du,    2    style of poetry is called realism,is more than a poet;he has been the guardian of the moral of the nation.    3    (bear) in 712,Du lived through the violent fall of the Tang Dynasty when wars, floods and famines almost ruined the country. In his poems, he poured out his concern for his country and people as well as the importance of celebrating the few simple    4    (joy) of life.

To explore his life and discover what the poet means to China and the Chinese people, the film crew had an    5    (extreme) tough time tracking the footsteps of the eighth-century poet.

This documentary is not     6    easy watch. To help audiences make sense of the. poet's great achievements in literature,Du is compared    7    China's Shakespeare in this documentary.Also,the program invited McKellen, who played Gandalf in The Lard of the Rings movies,    8    (read) 15 of Du's poems that had been translated into English. These can help foreigners    9    ( well) understand what makes Du' s works so special.

In a way, the documentary is displaying the charm of traditional Chinese literature to the world,    10    (fuel) a desire to learn Chinese Tang poems.

I remember reading a statement by a psychiatrist who said that if you ever feel depressed, the best thing to do     1     to do   something   for   someone   else.   Why?   Because   it   gets   you   focused   outward,   not    2    . It’s   hard to be depressed    3     serving someone else. Ironically, a by-product of helping others is feeling wonderful yourself.

I remember sitting in an airport one day, waiting for my    4     (fly). I was excited because I had been   upgraded   to a     5     ticket. And in first class, the seats are     6     (big), the food is edible, and the flight attendants are actually nice. In fact, I had the best seat on the entire plane. Seat 1A. Before boarding, I noticed a young lady who had several carry-on bags and was holding a crying     7    . Having just finished    8     a book on doing random acts of     9     (kind), I heard my conscience ( 良心)     10     to me, “You scumbag. Let her have your ticket.” I fought these promptings for a while but eventually caved in.

The summer solstice (夏至) has been widely recognized as a festival throughout the world.

The word solstice originates (起源) from the Latin sol and sistere,    1    (mean) “sun-standing”.    2    the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky. It is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its    3    (high) point in the sky during a year.

Today, the day is celebrated around the world. In England thousands gather to welcome the sunrise on the summer solstice. Throughout Europe groups light a fire and stay up all night to welcome the dawn. In Paris, the day    4    (mark) with free concerts during the every year’s Fête de la Musique. When it comes    5    the U. S., the city of Santa Barbara in California holds the county’s biggest    6    (celebrate) that lasts a full three-day time. On the East Coast, New York City    7    (tradition) welcomes the summer solstice with a music concert at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.

In the southern part of China, eating lychees (荔枝) during the summer solstice    8    (be) a long tradition because eating lychees will cause less “heat” to the body. There is a saying in Shandong province    9    goes, “eating dumplings on the winter solstice day and eating    10    (noodle) on the summer solstice day.”

Global warming could make humans shorter.Scientists claim to have found evidence that it caused the world's first horses     1     (become) smaller nearly 50 million years ago.In fact，a team from the universities of Florida and Nebraska says,     2     has found a link between the earth heating up and the size of horses，during the last time the world heated up.The scientists used fossils to follow the evolution of horses from their earliest     3     (appear)56 million years ago.As temperatures went up，their size went     4    . The scientists say that the current warming could have the same effect     5     mammals and could even make humans     6    (small)．“Horses started out small，about the size of a small dog.What's     7    (surprise) is that after they first appeared，they then became even smaller and then dramatically increased in size，and that     8     (exact)corresponds to(符合)the global warming event，followed by cooling.”“It had been known that mammals     9     (be) small during the last warm time，    10     we hadn't realised that temperature specifically was driving the evolution of body size，”Dr Bloch said in the Science journal.

Classical(古典的)Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry     1    (write) in classical Chinese and is a symbol of traditional culture.Many     2    (poem) come from particular historical periods，such as the poetry of the Tang Dynasty and the verse of the Song Dynasty.    3    (it) history dates back to at least as early as the publication of the Classic of Poetry or Shijing.There are     4    (difference) combinations(组合) of forms and genres，most of     5     appeared at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The development of Classical Chinese poetry     6    (active) continued up to 1919，when the May Fourth Movement     7    (take) place，and it is still popular even today.Classical Chinese poetry created during this 2，500－year period has been developing continuously，producing a great deal of diversity—classified by both major historical periods     8     dynastic periods.

One of the key parts of Classical Chinese poetry is its close     9    (connect) with other forms of Chinese art，such as Chinese painting and Chinese calligraphy(书法)．Classical Chinese poetry has been proven to have a strong influence     10     poetry worldwide.

How much sleep does a person need? We are all different. Some people need only three hours of sleep a day     1    others need ten hours or more. The amount of sleep     2     (suggest) is 8 hours for people aged 18 to 21 and 7 hours for people over 21. As people get older, they need less sleep time,    3     decreases to 6.5 hours a night after age 65.

Most people have     4     experience where they sometimes cannot fall asleep at night. About one third of Americans have difficulty in falling     5     (sleep).The name of this illness     6     (call) insomnia. This is not the modern disease. Many famous people in history had insomnia.    7     (actual), some of these people had special ideas     8     (make) themselves sleep. Benjamin Franklin, the famous statesman and     9     (invent), had four beds. He moved from one to another to make himself sleep. Mark Twain, the famous American humorist, had a different way. He     10     (lie)on his side across the end of the bed.