Chinese Spring Festival is the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar. With the Spring Festival     1     (approach), people are busy purchasing goods, cleaning the houses and cooking traditional food. Some families decorate their windows     2     paper-cuts, putting up New Year pictures and couplets. It is an occasion     3     the whole family gather to enjoy quality family time. During the Spring Festival holidays, all kinds of     4     (celebrate) are held, including temple fairs, performances, and lantern exhibitions,     5     last nearly half a month.

Liu Ruying,     1     grandfather is a huge fan of Peking Opera, has been interested in Peking Opera for much of her young life. Her grandfather is a great influence     2     her. At the age of 8, she     3    (begin) to practice the classic art. It wasn’t easy for a little girl     4    (experience) the difficult training, as performances combine martial arts, dancing and acrobatics(杂技).

“Sometimes I was tired,“ she said. ”I had to balance my studies and other     5    (course) I was interested in, such as dance. But the great charm(魅力) of Peking Opera made me always practice it.”

When Liu got the news that her region would have a cultural exchange with other countries, she had the idea of     6    (introduce) Peking Opera to the world in English. With     7     help of her mother, she took part in the activity after several months of practice.

“I     8    (extreme) love traditional Chinese culture,” she said. “Peking Opera has a long history of about 200 years and     9    (consider) a treasure of our nation. We should let     10    (we) make great efforts to carry forward our culture and protect the cultural diversity of the world.”

Shadow puppetry (皮影戏) is a Chinese folk art known for its special storytelling skills,     1     dates back to the Han Dynasty. When thinking about shadow puppetry, most Chinese people remember their experiences of watching shadow plays when they were little. Now, one can enjoy a whole shadow show just by     2     (put) on a VR headset. The designer hopes that with the help of modern technology like VR, more young people will become     3     (interest) and pass down this ancient performing art to prevent it from gradually disappearing.

There are two main     1     (set) of Games—the Winter and the Summer Olympics, and both are held every four years on a regular basis. The events for the two Games are different. All the athletes admitted as competitors     2     (house) in a special village. There is as much     3     (compete) among countries to host the Olympics as to win Olympic medals. They have replaced the olive wreath. However, the motto of the Olympics is still the same— “Swifter, Higher and Stronger.”

I’ll never forget two teenagers, Evy and Susan,    1    often came to our home after Todd died. I don’t think they ever realized what it meant to me. Todd had been good friends with both of these girls.     2    fact, Susan and Evy had been with him the night before he died.

Evy and Susan were best friends of Todd’s and they     3    (usual) came to our house together. They even     4    (ride) their bikes to our house when the weather was nice. I was always very happy     5    (see) them. We’d sit down at the table in the kitchen and talk. We talked about Todd and other     6    (thing) that were going on in their lives and     7    (I). My daughter, Shannon, would see us and we’d invite her to sit with us. Most times she refused,     8    she was welcomed.

One day Susan and Evy brought a tape with a song     9    (call) Friends by Michael W. Smith. I     10    (move) by this song. I could relate these two girls to this music. It was hard to explain, but I could say that they were a big part of my spiritual Journey.

9 . It is most likely that you have seen a train, it may have been passing through your town, or you might have even been     1     (luck) enough to ride on one. Trains are a cool way to travel.     2     (actual), the earliest trains were just a series of carts (老式马车) joined together,     3     ran along wooden tracks and were usually pulled by horses and even people.

Around 1775, steam was being experimented with as    4     source of power. And in the early 1800s, the steam engine was invented and used into the train. This made    5     (pull) goods easier and a lot faster. Thanks to the trains, people and products could    6     (carry) off to other locations. By around the 1860s, the idea of the train had spread to the United States. Here trains were being used to pull grain (粮食)    7     farms to factories. And soon wealthy people wanted to take the train all the way to the Pacific coast. Then two    8     (company), Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads,     9     (get) the right to take on this great task of laying the track. And it took over six years and many lives    10     (complete) the first transcontinental (横贯大陆的) railroad.