90 percent of the world’s fireworks are produced in China. The biggest importer is the US, which     1     (ship) in more than US $650 million worth in 2021.

The details of fireworks’ invention are lost to history, but     2     folk tale tries to fill in the gap. It goes that monk named Li Tian created fireworks around 1400 years ago by packing gunpowder into bamboo tubes     3     (scare) off evil spirits.

An explosive mixture of gun-powder and chemical compounds (化合物) is     4     makes fireworks flash in pretty colours and fun shapes. The images they make depend on the placement of these compounds inside the shell of the firework. Crowd     5    (favorite) include “comet”, featuring a long trail of sparks; “peony”, a flower-like burst; and “strobe”, which produces a blinking effect.

The single biggest firework shell ever shot was part of a 2020 winter-carnival display in Colorado, US.     6     (weigh) 1268 kilograms, it rose more than a kilometre into the sky     7     bursting, turning the night sky red.

For centuries we had to light firework     8     hand, but since the 1980s, there’s been another option: computer-controlled lighters, which made music at displays more     9     (precise) timed and safer. An even greener alternative recently     10     (adopt) is using drones to trace flashy patterns in the sky. The future of fireworks, like so much else, may be robotic.

Six decades ago, China and France established diplomatic ties.     1     their differences and multiple challenges, Chinese and French people have shown mutual respect and worked together towards achieving many common goals.

Over the past six decades, this dynamic relationship     2     (witness) numerous historic milestones and tangible accomplishments. China is now France’s largest trading partner in Asia, while France ranks as China’s third-largest trading partner     3     the third-largest source of investment in real terms within the European Union (EU).

Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin believes that it is the love for peace that brings them together. As a     4     (culture) ferryman between China and France, he hopes more young people from both nations will venture to the “other side” and know each other better.

Lefevre Michele,     5     18-year-old pre-college student at Fudan University, found that Chinese TV dramas, like Meteor Garden, have been well-received in France,     6     (particular) among many female French viewers. It was her love for these dramas that sparked her initial interest in Chinese culture, leading her to     7     (far) her studies in China.

Oceane Rivoire, now a student     8     (major) in Chinese language and literature at Tongji University in Shanghai, found the homonyms in Chinese extremely interesting, such as the word “bat”,     9     has the same pronunciation as the word “fortune”, and “red dates and peanuts” are usually used     10     (extend) good wishes for the newlyweds to have a baby soon.

Ancient charm of China: Huangyao Ancient Town

Located in Zhaoping County in Hezhou City, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Huangyao Ancient Town is 200 kilometers from Guilin—one of the most-visited tourist     1    (spot)in Guangxi. It is said that the town was named after two common surnames back then—Huang and Yao.     2    (cover) an area of 3.6 square kilometers, Huangyao boasts typical karst landscapes and abundant water resources.

Huangyao has a history of nearly 1,000 years with its origins dating back to the Song Dynasty （960-1279）. It     3    (reach) its prime in the Qing Dynasty(1644-1912) under the ruling of Emperor Qianlong (1733-1735). For this reason, there are many buildings from the Qing and Ming eras     4     remain unchanged in their architectural styles today. Now it is home to     5    (approximate) 300 folk houses,20 temples and ancestral halls, and 10 opera stages.

Traditional festivals and customs have been carried on for hundreds of years. During Chinese Lunar New Year, over 20 traditional performances     6    （hold）, including the dragon dance, lion dance and suona horn （Chinese trumpet) show.

Huangyao tofu is     7     must-try local dish when you visit, as it is exclusively made and sold in Huangyao. Also, fermented(发酵的) black soybean is often added     8     its local specialties(特色菜) to create a distinctive flavor.

It usually takes a day or two to tour around the old town due to     9    (it) small size. But you can always stay longer     10    (experience)more of its local hospitality and culture.

As a world-renowned festival, Luoyang Peony Culture Festival has been held for 41 sessions     1     1983. Through the combination of horticulture and science, the flowering time of each peony variety is     2    （precise）controlled, so that the general public can enjoy more blooming peony flowers at the same time.

Peony,     3    （feature）bright colours and graceful shapes, symbolizes peace and prosperity and thus has gained wide     4    （recognize）as “kings of flowers”. For thousands of years,     5     huge mass of poems and paintings have been produced to praise the flower. In the Tang Dynasty, peonies were planted so widely in the royal gardens as “the national flower”     6     they enjoyed great popularity across the country. In the 10th century, the ancient city of Luoyang became a centre of peony planting     7     has remained as such since then. Nowadays, hundreds of thousands of domestic tourists pour in Luoyang for the annual peony festival,     8     they can both appreciate the unique beauty of the flowers and explore the history of the city which is known as the capital of six dynasties.

This year’s opening ceremony with the theme of “A Journey of Peony Petals” fell on April 1 and the festival lasted until May 5. Various performances     9    (stage), including songs and dances, acrobatic shows, and traditional Chinese music performances, among others, empowered by special effects production,     10    (present)an audiovisual feast with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics.

When people think of China, silk is among the first things that pop into their mind. The best place in China     1     (discover) the wonder of silk is the city of Suzhou. 90 % of the genuine-silk trade in the world comes from China,     2     one third of the silk products exported from China is from Suzhou. It was in this place     3    some of the first silk embroideries (刺绣) were born. Suzhou Silk can be made     4       a great many products, the most common being clothing and scarves.

Silk is a natural protein fiber. The protein fiber of silk consists mainly of fibroin,     5     protein produced by certain insects to generate cocoons.

Chinese legend gives the title Goddess of Silk to Leizu, wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor in about 3000 BC. She     6       (credit) with the introduction of silkworm ever since. During the Western Han Dynasty, the Emperor assigned special envoys, like Zhang Qian,     7     (routine) to the Western Regions, which facilitated the     8     (form) of the Silk Road.

Silk is the symbol of     9     (distinguish) ancient Chinese culture and the old silk industry formed one of the most splendid chapters in the history of the Chinese culture, remarkably     10     (contribute) to the development of the world civilization.

When Juni Stefanus Santoso from Indonesia rode a camel in a desert in Dunhuang, Gansu Province — an important cultural center on the Silk Road     1     cultures from the East and the West met and mixed hundreds of years ago — he felt like he was “stepping into another world” that was foreign, and very different from his previous     2     (impress) of China.

On a four-day trip to Dunhuang in late April, Santoso, together with other foreign students, mostly from nations along the Silk Road,     3     (be ) on a cultural journey to explore the desert landscape, to visit the local museum, the Mogao Caves and craftsmen,     4     to communicate with students from the Dunhuang College of Northwest Normal University. All of these activities offered the 23-year-old Indonesian an impressive experience,     5     which he could learn the culture of ancient China.

“It was so     6     (amaze). It’s like another side of the country,” says Santoso. Before he came to China, he thought it was a country full of technology-related companies — an impression that was supported by the fast and convenient technology-     7     (drive) services that came to be a part of his daily life when he moved to Tianjin.

“I was impressed by China’s science and technologies before coming to China. You can do everything on your phone,” says Santoso,     8     (refer) to services like electronic payment and online shopping.

The cultural trip, however, showed Santoso a view of China     9     art and goods were transported along the Silk Road more than a thousand years ago. The young man said he     10     (teach) a little bit about the Silk Road in his middle school history class.

Little New Year (Chinese: Xiaonian), usually a week     1     the lunar New Year, falls on Feb 2 this year. It is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, the God     2     oversees the moral character of each household.

There are numerous customs     3     (associate) with honoring the Kitchen God and determining the date of Little New Year. The date of this holiday     4     (assign) sometimes according to location, with people in northern China celebrating it on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month,     5     people in southern China celebrating it on the twenty-fourth.

In one of     6     (distinctive) traditions of the Little New Year is the     7     (burn) of a paper image of the Kitchen God, sending the god’s spirit to Heaven     8     (report) on the family’s conduct over the past year. The Kitchen God then is welcomed back to     9     home through the pasting of a new paper image of him beside the stove. From this vantage point, the Kitchen God will oversee and protect the household for another year.

The     10     (offering) to the Kitchen God include pig’s head, fish, sweet bean paste, melons, fruit, boiled dumplings, barley sugar, and Guandong candy.

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.