Qiao Yu is a songwriter who penned timeless classics that     1     (sing) from generation to generation in China for decades. He wrote more than 1,100 lyrics all his life, many of     2     are being remembered even today.

Qiao is said to have started his     3     (enthusiastic) with words from the early age of 4. He could also recite ancient poems from the Tang and Song dynasties. But it wasn’t     4     his late teens that he penned his first own poem.

Qiao rose to fame in 1955 after writing “Let’s Pull on Our Oars (桨)” known to most Chinese children. “Our boat is     5     (gentle) drifting on the lake/ A cool breeze is rustling for our sake/ Our homework has been well done/ Let’s heartily have a lot of fun,” says the song.

But Qiao’s greatest hit came in 1956,     6     “My Motherland” becoming a patriotic tune in the movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain. “A great river     7     (flow), its waves are wide/ Wind blows the scent of flowers to both shores/ My family lives on the shore/ I am used to hearing the punters’(艄公) call/And seeing the white sails on the boats,” says the start of the song.

Genius as these lines now are,     8     movie director at first asked Qiao to clearly spell out the “great river” as the Yangtze itself. “However,” Qiao said, “the ‘great river’     9     (refer) to in the lines is always there in front of your home, and the stories and memories along the river make up     10     it is to make you feel close to your hometown.”