Cui Zhenshuo and Yang Bo discovered that because of the far location of most paper workshops and lifestyles of the paper-making craftsmen, their products are unable to reach the market     1     (easy). Therefore, Cui and Yang came up     2     the idea of establishing their own studio that could serve as a bridge to connect far workshops with buyers to advance     3     (tradition) Chinese handmade paper.

Chu is a kind of tree.     4     (it) bark (树皮) is a common material that was used in papermaking in ancient times. Han Yu, a famous     5     (write) during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) called paper Mr. Chu in his work Biography of Mao Ying. Since then, it     6     (use) as a nickname (昵称) for paper by Chinese scholars. In 2019, Cui and Yang named their own studio “I am Mr. Chu.”, and they focused on     7     (run) it.

Du Weisheng, an expert in the restoration (修复) of ancient books at the National Library of China, told them that, in     8     1990s, many Chinese paper relics needed to be repaired with handmade paper that allowed people to find information on various paper styles.

The two began to create the series of handmade paper products from 2021. Each volume is made up of thirty types of handmade paper, each of     9     is sourced from its place of origin. At present, two volumes of the series have been produced, and they plan     10     (make) ten volumes.

3 . 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.

In recent years, many Chinese museums have opened online stores to sell cultural and creative products. Among them, the Palace Museum stands     1     Collectively more than 500 Palace Museum products are available for purchase online.

According to the Vice President of the Palace Museum, sales of the museum’s cultural and creative products     2     (total) 1 billion yuan last year. The museum has developed nearly 10,000 different cultural and creative products either     3     (independent), through IP authorization, or in     4     (cooperate) with other companies, with partners such as LKK,     5     creative design company, having designed over 800 categories of products across 17 themes for the Palace Museum.

Among the Palace Museum’s most popular cultural and creative products     6     (be) sticky tape inspired by beautiful     7     (pattern) from ancient bowls, plates or clothes. Many customers have used the tape to customize the casing of     8     (person) items, with the posting of finished goods     9     (become) a popular trend online.

“When developing cultural and creative products, we study people’s daily needs     10     that our products perform some sort of function. We hope users use our products to spread our culture,” the Vice President said.

6 . There are many interesting festivals in the world. Some look really strange, but they have special meanings in their culture. Here are several strange festivals in the world.

Holi Festival

Holi is a festival held in India for 16 days in the spring season. In this festival, people in colorful clothes go outside at night to throw colors on each other happily. The story behind this festival is that the god Krishna got jealous(妒忌的) of his wife’s white skin so he went to his mother crying about his dark skin. His mother advised him to color his wife’s face the color he wanted.

Magpie Festival

On the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, Chinese people celebrate an occasion that look like western Valentine’s Day. In this festival, girls who don’t marry pray to have good husbands They also embroider(刺绣) a piece of cloth show their skills because they think it is the most important skill a wife should have.

Day of Death

Day of Death is a festival held in Mexico on the second of November. This day is meant to remember dead family. Homes and streets are decorated in bright colors. People who are dressed in skeletons(骷髅) decorated with flowers and different colors go to visit the graves, dancing and singing here. The festival goes back to American Indians who were keeping their family’s skeletons to honor their memory.

Day of Silence

Day of Silence is the Indonesian new year, and this day is quite important in Indonesia. What features this festival is its unique activities. Everyone keeps silent. People don’t use cars. They don’t go to work and they stop doing anything joyful.

7 . As you get older, you'll meet a wider range of people from different cultures. Culture is an idea that isn't easy to understand. People often use the term to refer to things like food, holidays, clothing and music.    1    Religion, customs, beliefs and values are also part of your culture. So when meeting people from different backgrounds, you can sometimes find that there're huge differences in how you see the world.

    2    For example, when you meet people from a different culture, ask them about their lives. It is one of the best ways to understand the culture. But be polite about it and remember they don't owe you an answer, and might not want to give it—not everyone wants to explain everything about their culture.

Maybe you've recently met someone from a different culture you find interesting.    3    Get to know his/her families and see how their customs and traditions differ from yours. You might be surprised to find how culturally different two people living even in the same town can be!

Read books by and about people who are different from you. Reading memoirs (回忆录), biographies and other nonfiction books is an obvious way to learn about a country or someone's life.    4    Like with books, you can also watch movies to learn more about a culture. What's more, keeping yourself in a different culture through travel is also an amazing way to understand another culture.

    5    So accept and respect the differences between yourself and your friends from different cultures—remember that what is a difference to you is just their normal life!