Beijing Opera is one of the traditional Chinese drama art forms and the largest Chinese opera form. This opera form     1    as the quintessence(精粹)of our country. Having a history of about 200 hundred years, Beijing Opera is developed from many other drama forms, mostly from the local drama “Huiban”. It was especially popular in south China during the 18^th century.

Theatrical art forms in many other countries do not have singing, dancing and spoken parts together in one single drama. An opera singer, for example, neither dances nor     2     on stage; there are no singing or dancing parts in a modern play; in a dance drama, the dancer doesn’t speak or sing. Traditional Chinese drama, including Beijing Opera, is a kind of entertainment. It includes spoken parts, singing and dancing.

Beijing Opera     3     to many other places. Mei Lanfang, one of the most famous performers of all, was the first to introduce Beijing Opera to foreigners and made highly successful tours to foreign countries.

“You     4     and sometimes be a little bored, but you will be interested gradually. You will be strongly attracted(被吸引)to Beijing Opera, even if you know nothing about the drama background.” This is how one traveler     5     his first experience in watching Beijing Opera.

Beijing Opera is China’s national opera and it is full of Chinese cultural traditions. Welcome to China and enjoy Beijing Opera.

2 . Josh Snow was a     1     doctor in London—so     2     , indeed, that he     3     Queen Victoria as her personal     4    . But he became     5     when he thought about helping ordinary people     6     to cholera. This was the deadly disease of its day. Neither its cause nor its     7     was understood. So many thousands of terrified people died every time there was an     8    . John Snow wanted to face the     9     and solve this problem. He knew that cholera would never be     10     until its cause was found.