In much of Asia, especially the so-called “rice bowl” cultures of China, Japan, Korea,     1     Vietnam, food is usually eaten with chopsticks.

Chopsticks are usually two long, thin pieces of wood or bamboo. They can also be made of plastic, animal bone or metal. Sometimes chopsticks are quite artistic. Truly elegant chopsticks might     2     (make) of gold and silver with Chinese characters. Skilled workers also combine various hardwoods and metal     3     (create) special designs.

The Chinese have used chopsticks for five thousand years. People probably cooked their food in large pots,     4     (use) twigs (树枝) to remove it. Over time,     5     the population grew, people began cutting food into small pieces so it would cook more quickly.

Food in small pieces could be eaten easily with twigs which     6    (gradual) turned into chopsticks.

Some people think that the great Chinese scholar Confucius,     7     lived from roughly 551 to 479 B.C., influenced the     8     (develop) of chopsticks. Confucius believed knives would remind people of killings and     9     (be) too violent for use at the table.

Chopsticks are not used everywhere in Asia. In India, for example, most people traditionally eat     10     their hands.

Different countries have wildly different forms of greeting.

In the USA, when you pass by someone you know, a nod is acceptable, and you usually shake hands with someone you first meet. But in Latin countries, a firm handshake    1    (consider) rude. In my home country, Mauritius, when people meet, they usually kiss each other     2     the cheeks. This is also common in France,     3     the act is called faire la bise. However, this is not     4    universal rule.

During my first week in the USA, I kissed every single girl I met. My friends had to tell me that that was inappropriate,    5    (leave) me in great embarrassment. What is common here, however, is for friends    6    (hug) each other – something I was not used to. Hugs always make me     7    (frighten) because I don’t really like that. This may seem strange since even kissing     8    (stranger) is normal in my country. Now that I think about it, I hate cheek-kissing as well.

Wouldn’t it be     9    (enjoy) to have a greeting code that is     10    (wide) acceptable? I’m not saying we should start doing that, but we can surely do something to avoid misunderstanding.

In modern society, many traditional Chinese festivals are becoming less and less popular. However, they are important part of Chinese culture, and it’s our     1    (responsible) to protect and maintain them. This article focuses on a festival that many people are not familiar with ----Hanshi Festival.

With a history of more than 2,600 years, Hanshi Festival is the only traditional one in China named     2     food, and it is also known as the Cold Food Festival as people are only allowed to eat cold food on this day. Hanshi normally     3    (fall) around April 3 in the solar calendar, one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival.

In most parts of China, fires might start easily in the dry early spring due to the flammable substances     4    (store) by people and the spring thunder. As a result, the ancients usually held grand ceremonies of sacrifice in     5     the fire stored from the previous year would be put out. Later, they would drill wood to get new fire for a new year. The gap between putting out old fire and     6    (burn) the wood to obtain new fire ranged from three, five, or seven days according to different     7    (history) records.

During the gap days, fires     8    (prohibit) in households. As a result, people would eat what they had prepared previously, namely the cold food, or hanshi in Chinese. That’s     9    the Hanshi Festival gradually came into being.

As the Hanshi Festival is one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival, they gradually got combined with one another. After the Song Dynasty, cold food did not remain a necessity on this day, and gradually, Qingming Festival took over the folk activities of Hanshi     10    (become) a major festival on this subject.

“Traveling to China seems like traveling to another world. Its many famous scenic attractions impressed me     1     (great),”an American said. The following is     2     he wrote on his website.

My friends and I had a family visit in Xi’an,     3     old city with a long history in China. The hosts were retired or stayed at home without a job, and they were friendly to     4     (visit) from different countries coming their homes.

We     5     (taste) the true home-cooked dishes in the home of the family that we visited. For in-homing dinner, the host would prepare a list of menus in advance (提前). Our tour guide asked     6     (we) for advice about the food, so the host would try to cook what we wanted     7     (eat) at his home. We just enjoyed the locally cooked dishes. It was quite a different and exciting experience.

Many foreigners enjoy     8     (learn) how to make Chinese dumplings. We were also     9     (offer) a general cooking class in the local family. The host taught us to make dumplings step by step with lots of patience. And we didn’t need to pay any money     10     this. Travel China Guide offers this kind of service free of charge.

The family visit in Xi’an was a good chance for us to get to know Chinese people’s daily life.

China’s first artificial intelligence (AI ) textbook for high school students    1    (bring) out last week, following a plan by central government    2    (include) AI courses in primary and secondary schools. The nine-chapter textbook,    3    (name) “Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence”, was written by outstanding    4    (scholar) from well-known schools nationwide, under the joint efforts by the research center for MOOC at East China Normal University and AI startup SenseTime. It includes the history of AI and how the technology can be applied in areas such as facial recognition, auto driving and public security.

“The textbook focuses not only on basics of AI but on    5    (practice) use of AI in daily life”, said Chen Yukun, a professor at East China Normal University,    6    is also a contributor to the book.

Up till now, about 40 high schools across the country    7    (undertake) the task of being the first group of the AI high education pilot program    8    introducing the textbook in the curriculum. “The AI sector is facing a talent shortage    9    (global). The publication of the book is    10    breakthrough as it takes AI technology out of thevory towerand makes it part of high school learning”, said Lin Dahua,a profesor at the Chinese University of Hon Kong.