A small village in Yunnan Province is     1     (wide) known as the Dai paper factory. There are nets for     2     (dry) paper all over the village and inside villagers’ houses. Dai paper     3     (make) for over 800 years there up to now.

One of the best papermakers is Yan, who was already interested in Dai paper at an early age.     4     the guidance of his grandparents at 16, Yan was quickly able to complete     5     production independently.

Unlike ordinary papermaking where trees need to be cut down, Dai paper is environmentally friendly. This is     6    its raw material is the recyclable bark of a kind of trees unique to the area. Dai paper’ production process is still used today. In a workshop, Yan demonstrated 11 different papermaking     7     (process) to us.

Although Dai paper carries the culture and     8     (believe) of the Dai people, the crafting of it is faced with great challenges.     9     (address) the problems, Yan improved Dai’s papermaking technology, thus saving production time and reducing labor costs. And then he     10     (start) teaching the villagers his new papermaking process for free.

The use of chopsticks has been     1     big part of Chinese food culture for centuries. When cooking food or picking it up, a pair of chopsticks always comes for use.

So how did chopsticks come into being? It’s said that Dayu, a legendary ruler of ancient China    2     helped his people fight floods, invented them. In those days, people    3     (eat) only with their hands. But Dayu was busy preparing for flood control work and often had his meals in the wild. Mostly, he hurried to deal    4     unexpected accidents and didn’t want to wait to eat. The meat    5     (cook) in the pot was too hot to pick up with his hands. So one day Dayu picked up some twigs(细枝)     6     (help) him hold the meat. Later, the twigs    7     (gradual) became the chopsticks we know today.

But of course, this is just a story. The    8     (early) chopsticks archaeologists(考古学家) have found so far are more than 3,000 years,     9     (date) back to the Shang Dynasty. The six bronze chopsticks were found in Yinxu, one of China’s oldest archaeological    10     (site) in Anyang, Henan Province.

6 . If art preserves the culture of the Crow people, then Crow women are the keepers of that culture, cultivating it to reflect the modern day.

Fashion designer Bethany Yellowtail grew up riding horses and running in the fields and swimming in the river and being around her people in the Crow Nation and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations in southeastern Montana. She knows first-hand the importance of art to maintaining native traditions. In 2015 she turned that knowledge into her own brand: B. Yellowtail. A year later, she created the B. Yellowtail Collective, made up of native artists, to foster economic opportunities for their communities. Many of those artists are women from different tribes but all of them preserve their culture and move it forward through their medium of choice.

Yellowtail and her team work for the native-owned business that’s rooted in community. Artists within the Collective typically receive 70% of profit from retail sales, and for a portion of the pandemic (流行病) the brand has upped that to 100%. The extra money has, of course, increased artists’ income in the past year, but the relationship is interdependent: without the work of those artists, B. Yellowtail wouldn’t exist and native culture would feel the loss.

Dewanda Little Coyote is Yellowtail’s mother. Family is deeply important to their tribe. So is art, which often runs in the family — and along the matriarchal (母系的) side. Little Coyote picked up her entrepreneurial spirit from her parents, who owned a gift shop. “My parents said, ‘If you have hands, create something. Do something, and make a living off of that,’” she said. After her parents passed away, the artist began learning beading (串珠) earrings herself. Dentalium, a tusk shell often used in native jewelry, caught her eye in particular. “I love it, because back in the day, our Cheyenne women wore a lot of dentalium,” she said. “So I wanted to give a contemporary look to that — to what our ancestors wore.”

Yellowtail herself learned sewing from her aunts and grandmothers before moving to Los Angeles in 2007 to study fashion design. Now, native women support native women — and matriarchal art evolves.

7 . For the British, the home is a private place in which he or she goes to hide away from the troubles of life. It is very seldom that one would be invited to a British person’s home. It is rude to knock on a person’s door if you are not invited. If you are invited, don’t ask to see more than the downstairs that your British host invites you into. Never ask how much the house or any of the items in it cost.

To the American, most of them want their home to be a place where they can entertain (款待) and share their lives with their friends. They may be delighted to give you a full tour of their houses. They may also be pleased when you show your interest and pleasure in their houses.

Both British and American people will engage in quite a bit of chat and a drink or two before the meal is served. After the first mouthful, you should say how delicious the food is and ask something about it. Remember, never eat with your mouth open and make very little noise while eating. It would be nice of you to help your host in any way. Maybe offer to pour some drinks or clear up after the meal.

8 . New Year’s celebrations take many forms, but most cultures have one thing in common—have a good time after a long, hard year. For much of the globe this involves drinking with friends until the sun comes up, singing together. But others have rather more curious habits, often filled with superstition (迷信).

In Denmark, people stand on chairs and jump off together as the clock strikes midnight, really leaping into the new year. The Danes also throw plates at their friends’ homes during the night-the more pieces you find outside your door in the morning the more popular you are said to be.

In Finland, say tour guides, people pour melted (熔化的) lead into cold water to predict the year ahead from the shape the metal forms. If the shape represents a ship it is said to predict travel, if it’s a ball, good luck.

The Dutch build massive bonfires with their Christmas trees and cat sugary donuts—one of many cultures to consume round New Year’s foods traditionally believed to represent good fortune.

Spaniards, in turn, cat a dozen grapes before the strike of midnight, each fruit representing a month that will either be sweet or sour.

In the Philippines, people wear polka dots (带圆点的服装) for good luck, while in some countries of South America people put on brightly coloured underwear to attract fortune—red for love and yellow for financial success.

Despite regional and cultural differences, for most the New Year’s festivities are a chance to let off steam before the annual cycle starts all over again. “This is a holiday that is about celebration and letting go,” explained George Washington University sociologist Amitai Etzioni.

Dumplings are one of the Chinese people’s favorite traditional    1    (dish). According to    2    ancient Chinese legend, dumplings were first made by the medical saint-Zhang Zhongjing. There are three steps    3    (involve) in making dumplings: first, make dumpling wrappers(饺皮)out of dumpling flour; second, prepare the dumpling stuffing(馅); finally, make dumplings and boil    4     (they). With thin and elastic dough skin, fresh and tender stuffing, delicious taste, and unique shapes, dumplings    5     (be) worth eating hundreds of times. There’s an old    6    (say)that claims, “Nothing could be more delicious     7    dumplings”. During the Spring Festival and other holidays, or when treating relatives and friends, Chinese people prefer    8    (follow) the custom of eating dumplings. To Chinese    9     (people) who show high reverence(尊敬)for family love, having dumplings at the moment when the old year is replaced by the new is a    10    (meaning) part of bidding farewell to the old and greeting the new year.