2 . What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? The question occurred to me with the photos in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world that staged public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day. Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?

As a cultural sign, the pillow is deceptively soft. Since at least the 16th Century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an afternoon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.

Subsequent writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-Century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.

It’s a trick perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.

With the words of Tang. Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries: an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down — one that must be lightened.

Visits to Red tourism attractions are expected to rise this year as the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates the 100th anniversary of     1     (it) founding. Their increasing popularity will not only     2     (strength) people’s knowledge of CPC history, but also bring significant economic     3     (benefit).

    4     (recognize) as one of the most important revolutionary bases in China, Yan’an is home to 445 memorial sites. The city’s Red tourism market     5     (receive) 1.6 million visitors and recorded nearly 1.5 billion yuan during the past national day holiday.

“I’m quite lucky that I was born after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, but I never forget what my father told me about their hard life in the war,” Zhao Yanping, a 67-year-old visitor from Zhejiang province, said. “He told me to be grateful to the CPC, without it we could not live such     6     good life nowadays.”

Yang Guangyuan, director of Yan’an’s publicity department, mentioned the     7     (big) attraction of Yan’an is the spirit,     8     has been passed down by generations of CPC members. “In the past 100 years, the CPC     9     (grow) from weak to strong, leading China’s revolution to get out of difficulty.” he said. The city now has its traditions well protected while looking forward to     10     (build) an energetic future.

5 . In early November of 1503, during Christopher Columbus's fourth and final trip to America, his ship was seriously damaged in a storm. Columbus and his men had to live on a small island for several months while they tried to repair their ship and return to Spain.

At first, the local people on the island were very kind to the European visitors, giving them all the food and clothes they needed to survive. However, as months passed, the local people became more and more unhappy with their guests, who were tricking and stealing from them. Finally the locals decided to stop helping. Without food or any way to leave the island, Columbus's group was soon in serious trouble.

Luckily for Columbus, he had a book about the stars and planets on his ship. It described the movements of all the objects in the night sky. The book, written by a well-known German scientist, said there would be a total lunar eclipse(月全食) on the evening of   February 29,1504 and how long it would last.

Columbus worked out the difference in time between Germany and North America. He then had a meeting with the local leaders just before the eclipse would take place. In this meeting, Columbus told them his god was angry because the local people were no longer giving food. So his god would take away the moon to punish them. The moment Columbus finished talking, just as he had planned, the moon began disappearing.

The local leaders grew panicked and quickly agreed to provide Columbus with food and anything else he wanted. But first, Columbus's god had to return the moon. Columbus told them he would have to discuss the idea with his god on his ship. Knowing the moon would stay completely hidden for about 48minutes, Columbus returned just before the moon began to reappear. From that day on, until they finally left, Columbus and his men no longer had any trouble getting the food they needed.

Crosstalk, Xiangsheng in Chinese, is a     1    (tradition) Chinese comedic performing art and one of China's most popular cultural forms. It's     2    (general) believed that crosstalk developed sometime in the Qing Dynasty. After the People's Republic of China     3    (found) in 1949, this art became increasingly popular. Today, it is     4    important part in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and other countless shows in China.

There are four     5    (skill) in crosstalk: speaking, imitating, teasing and singing. Most of the time, it is performed by two actors-one serves as the leading actor while the other plays a supporting role. However, sometimes it is performed as a monologue (独白)，    6    is completed by one person mainly telling jokes, and at other times it is performed by more than two actors,     7     (call) group performance. Crosstalk is humorous and its language is lively and rich     8    puns (双关语).

Jump into a taxi in Beijing, and chances are that your driver will be listening to a radio broadcast of a crosstalk show. These days, more and more foreigners are becoming interested in     9     (study) the art of crosstalk. Crosstalk is a huge part of Chinese culture and it appears as if it's getting even     10    (big).