4 . In China, people in different areas have their own ways to celebrate the Spring Festival. Especially between Northern China and Southern China, there are many differences.    1    

One is about the food on the night before the Spring Festival. In Northern China, people usually eat dumplings during this time. For luck, people may put sugar in dumplings.    2    People in the south usually eat Niangao or Tangyuan on New Year’s Eve. Both foods are also considered to bring a better life. There are many causes. For example, Northern China grows lots of wheat (小麦) while Southern China grows lots of rice.    3    People in Northern China usually love food made by wheat.

    4    In Northern China, people often put up paper cuttings on windows to wish for happiness of the coming year. In many parts of the south, people no longer put up paper cuttings for the Spring Festival. Instead, they decorate their house with a kumquat (金橘) tree bearing fruit.

It’s true that Northern China and Southern China have differences in celebrating the Spring Festival.    5    After all, many Chinese are moving from one place to another. When reaching a new place, they also bring their customs there. So now many people in Northern China also eat Tangyuan.

5 . How can you recognize a British, a German, and a Frenchman, apart from their accents and names?

There are ways people dress, but they are very complex and would take a lot of time to explain. Some items of clothing are just more popular in some countries than in others. For example, Germans often wear sandals (凉鞋) with their socks on, which is something a Frenchman would normally never do. In Berlin, where I live, people don’t really dress as smart as they would in Paris or London. The Germans have a reputation for not caring so much about their outward appearance — as long as the clothes are comfortable, they’re happy! They also seem to love sportswear more than people anywhere else.

The French cannot queue, while the British just seem to love it. French people are always late, British people are always on time and the Germans are always early.

French people use their hands a lot more when they speak, and take a lot more time to say something. French people care a lot how things are done or said. The British do care how things are done and said, but only in a context of politeness. The Germans just care how things are done. The French and the British seem to care more how things look, for example, food products and packaging.

When it comes to food, for example in a restaurant, a Frenchman would never think of ordering beer with a meal, which is something tally normal for a German or a British.

I find the Germans the cleanest and most disciplined in public space. The French are the worst and the British somehow in between.

7 . Spring Festival means a lot for Chinese people. However, given the sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks in different places, many cities ________ residents in any city with confirmed COVID-19 cases not to travel during the holiday in order to prevent any more outbreaks. ________, I stayed in Beijing during the Spring Festival of 2022. It was my first Spring Festival in China. I ________ it with my Chinese friends.

Several of Ralph’s coworkers came to our apartment to have ________ with me. They brought the meat and dough (面团) to make the ________ dumplings. While I was not ________ in making them, I certainly did enjoy eating them. As soon as all the food was ready, we ________ to enjoy the delicious foods.

Linda brought me Spring Festival couplets ________ good wishes and asked me to paste them on the door. Scott ________ me with many firecrackers. Some students gave me paper cuts to ________ my windows.

Eric invited me to ________ his family to spend New Year’s Eve together. Among the many ________ at dinner, they served a ________ fish. However, I was told we would only be eating half the fish that night because the ________ of it would be eaten the next day. This was done to ________ the good fortune over into the following year since leftovers are thought to be a ________ of prosperity. After dinner, we watched the Spring Festival Gala together. A martial art performance ________ me deeply. The show entitled “Walking Clouds, Flowing Water” starred three tai chi ________ practicing their moves on top of landmark buildings in three cities: Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, which was amazing. I went to my ________ at midnight.

It was a very happy time and we have many good ________ of this festival holiday.

“Happy Camp”, the king of all Chinese variety shows, started airing in 1997. Since then, it     1     (gain) hundreds of millions of followers. The age range of its viewers is     2     (extreme) broad, from people born in the 1970s all the way to the 2010s.

“Happy Camp” has some of the best show hosts in the country,     3     are the backbone of the entire show. Not only do they create     4     fun and exciting atmosphere for guests and audience, but they also throw in plenty of     5     (humorous).

Every episode (集) of “Happy Camp” has a different theme. Everything in the episode is centered around that theme,     6     (range) from the games the hosts and the guests play to the food     7     (serve) to them as a reward or punishment! And the trendy, fun and relatable themes appeal especially to the younger generation. Actually, young people make     8     the majority of viewers.

“Happy Camp” embraces interculturalism. When there are foreign guests on the show, they talk about their culture as well as teach them about Chinese culture. This, in return,     9     (allow) the audience to learn more about cultures around the world!

After     10     (broadcast) for more than 20 years, “Happy Camp” has survived it all. They have learned to adapt and fit the needs of the audience.

9 . Vida Woodhull Stabler is the director of the Omaha culture center at Omaha Nation Public Schools in Macy, Nebraska. She has been working for years to pass on the cultural knowledge of tribal (部落的) elders for future generations. But she faces a predicament: Only about a dozen Omaha tribe members speak the language fluently today.

For Kyleigh Merrick, 15, learning the Omaha language as a teen today is important but also a challenge. She goes to language class every day, but outside of class, there are few opportunities to speak it. Her great-grandmother uses it at home, but among her peers, only a handful will sometimes greet each other in the Omaha language. At school, only a few students are taking Omaha language classes and seem deeply interested in tribal language and culture.

Another big force that has worked against passing the native tribal language on over generations is boarding schools . The local government began sending native students to boarding schools from the 1800s to the 1960s. Students there were not allowed to express tribal culture and were taught only English.

“Our language does not have access to the same types of materials that Spanish and German do ― you can walk into any library and find Spanish books to read,” Stabler said. “Our community has had to develop tangible (有形的) materials on our own. The first challenge is ensuring people want to learn. The second is making sure they have materials to learn from.”

At Omaha Nation Public Schools, Stabler put tribal culture into students’ everyday school experiences, like hanging up a calendar with months in English and Omaha. In biology class, for instance, kids might make traditional tribal foods.

For Stabler, the work of making sure tribal culture lives on into the next generations never stops. “If students are rooted to our land ― they’ll be rooted as human beings,” Stabler said.