5 . In China, tea has become an important part of everyday life for thousands of years. As the tea-processing methods and tea culture have evolved over the years, tea sets have also changed to meet the practical and cultural needs.

During the Tang Dynasty(618~907AD), tea leaves were traded across the country and Asia. For the convenience of transportation and storage, tea leaves were pressed into bricks. To prepare tea, drinkers had to cut them into small pieces and boil them in heat-resistant teapots.

By the Song Dynasty(960-1279), drinkers started to turn the hard bricks into powders (粉末) that could be whipped (搅打) in a cup with boiled water. This whipped tea is most commonly associated with Japanese tea ceremonies today.

By the 1500s, tea bricks gave way to the form of rolled leaves. This innovation led to the invention and use of teapots as we know them today. These teapots originally came from the Yi Xing region of China and were soon copied throughout the world. Then Japanese teapot-makers moved the handle from the side to the top of the teapots.

Tea finally reached Europe in the 1600s, along with the necessary tea sets made in Japan and China. As English teapot-makers began to adapt the tea sets to their country men’s tastes, they eventually added a handle to the tea bowl because of the English habit of drinking hot black tea, which was consumed at higher temperatures. The size of teacups also grew to accommodate milk and sugar in their tea.

By the early 1900s, innovations in tea drinking became an American affair. The most revolutionary one was the tea bag, which was accidentally commercialized by Thomas Sullivan. He had been sending customers tea wrapped in silk bags. Rather than take the leaves out of the bags, as Sullivan intended, the customers put the bags into their teapots instead. Not only did the tea bags push the teapot back to the sidelines of tea service, they were also too large for teacups and led to the modern practice of drinking tea from mugs.

7 . You’ve heard the phrase “home for the holidays”, but I would like to introduce a new phrase: hygge for the holidays. A hygge holiday is all about peaceful, quiet and cozy(温暖舒适的) surroundings. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Holiday hygge is easy and comforting. Most people are already doing at least some of these simple hygge holidays without even knowing it.

Hygge is a Danish word originally coming from an old Norwegian word meaning well-being and protection from the outside harm. It’s known that winters in Denmark are severe and last long. The concept of hygge has been used by Danish people to keep themselves mentally positive in the dark winter season and fill their homes with comfort and love.

Hygge is a very important word to Danish people, often used to describe what their culture is all about and it is not necessarily a thing, something you can buy, but rather more of something you feel. Hygge really is a reflection of one aspect of Danish living, and, happily, in the last five years the concept of hygge has made its way to the US and many other countries. I mean what’s not to like about nurturing(培育)peace and quiet and coziness?

Here are some more descriptive words for hygge: comfort, familiarity, friendship, laughter, and even seasonal homemade food and drinks. While it is possible to achieve hygge any time of the year with hygge activities-an outdoor BBQ with friends and a movie under the stars with family are good examples of summertime hygge, it is most commonly associated with the colder months because of its ability to lift one’s spirits during dark winter months.

Hygge is the most suitable for the November and December holiday season because it’s all about peaceful and cozy surroundings that fill you with contentment. There is indeed something you can do to bring holiday hygge into your home this season.

    1     (decorate) with cobalt blue pigment on a white ceramic body, qinghuaci ware (瓷器) in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, is considered the best     2     quality.

With a tradition of making ceramics dating back more than 2,000 years, Jingdezhen is known as the country’s “porcelain capital”,     3     (attract) artists from home and abroad.

“Ceramics embrace change. I’m here to inherit the tradition in a     4     (create) way.” Cai Wenjuan, a 36-year-old craftswoman, says. In 2012, Cai established her own company and     5     (build) the ceramics-themed brand China Story. “The charm and story behind the blue-and-white porcelain can     6     (tell) through the way the young feel connected,” Cai says, adding that porcelain can be stylish.

As a provincial-level inheritor of the blue-and-white porcelain-painting, on a video-sharing platform Douyin, Cai has posted more than 60 clips     7     (popularize) the craft and the culture.

In 2014,     8     exhibition area of ancient kiln and folk cultures in Jingdezhen,     9     covers a total space of 83 hectares, was assigned a top-grade scenic spot. Today, antique porcelain ware from Jingdezhen is still highly valued by collectors all around the world.

Like Cai, young artists are considering a career in porcelain-related businesses in Jingdezhen, with the local government rolling out supportive     10     (measure) for a variety of startups in the field.

Unearthed from the depths of time, cultural relics (文物) are more than just a historical record or an artistic treasure. If only they could speak, what     1    (attract)tales would they share?

As we stand before these ancient relics, a sense of connection envelops us,     2    (go)beyond the boundaries of time and culture. It’s as if they whisper their secrets, revealing not only their age and material, but a profound message     3     resonates (引起共鸣) with our souls.

In the     4    (recent)published book, The Shape of Ideas: Chinese Philosophy in Cultural Relics, Zhang Xi, professor at the Department of Philosophy, Xiamen University,     5    (deliver)the core ideas of Chinese philosophy from 72 historical artifacts before the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)displayed in public museums.

Using the simplest modern language, he digs into 18 themes to reveal     6     the ancient sages faced the most crucial spiritual challenges of their times. Their quest sought to answer fundamental     7    (question)such as：What is a human being? What position do humans occupy in the universe? And how can a person attain happiness in their lifetime?

    8    (base)on the structure of ”Cosmology-Ontology-Theory of Mindfulness“ for ancient Chinese philosophy, Zhang explores the achievements of recent years, and portrays the Chinese world of thought for     9    (it)vivid transformation from pre-philosophical period     10     early modern period and from elitism (精英主义) to popularized orientation (导向).