Cold Dew, the 17th solar term of the year, begins this year on Oct 8 and ends on Oct 22. At this time, there are some interesting     1     (phenomenon) you need to know.

Not only     2     temperatures drop significantly, but also rainfall is reduced. When the cold air encounters autumn rain, it turns into misty rain or fog. When the humidity is high,     3     (fog) regions form in many areas of China.

People always say that fishing in shallow water in autumn makes sense. That’s     4     temperatures decrease quickly and sunshine doesn’t reach deep water thoroughly. Fish swim to shallow water areas     5     the water temperature is     6     (relative) high.

Pomegranates (石榴) are ripe during Cold Dew, releasing a sweet scent. With their exquisite beauty, flavor and color, pomegranates never fail to attract people and     7     (cherish) for centuries also for their health benefits and anti-aging benefits.

Chrysanthemum (菊花) is the iconic flower of Cold Dew.     8     (prevent) autumn dryness, many regions in China have the custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine, which is thought to boost heart health by strengthening blood vessels and     9     (stimulate) blood flow.

During Cold Dew, North China takes on a look of late autumn with white clouds, red leaves and early frost. People often climb hills with cornels (茱萸)    10     the day of the Double Ninth Festival, aiming to dispel evils.

The Analects of Confucius (《论语》) records the words and deeds of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius,     1     (write) somewhere between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. It     2     (highlight) the political and moral ideas of Confucius and Confucianism.

Ren is a core concept in the book adopted by Confucius with original meaning of loving others.     3     (represent) a high moral standard, it includes all virtues. Confucius stresses that self-discipline is     4     must for practicing the rules of propriety (礼) and achieving ren.

Society has developed greatly and huge changes     5     (occur) as well after the birth of the Analects of Confucius. Nevertheless, it contains lots of ideas beyond the passage of time, some of     6     are still relevant today. For example, Confucius analyzes the relationship between learning and thinking by saying that learning without thinking leads to confusion while thinking without learning ends in puzzlement. Besides, the Analects of Confucius also     7     (vivid) shows the images of Confucius’s students. Zi Lu is straightforward, Zi Gong is smart, and Yan Hui is mild and capable. Confucius insists on treating students     8     individuals to achieve full potential, which is     9     (consist)with some of the modern educational thoughts.

The Analects of Confucius is a fine example of world literature, and the publication of its     10     (version) in various languages will further enhance cultural exchanges between China and the world.

Many people around the world may know that paper is one of the Four Great Inventions of ancient Chinese civilization,    1    few would know that more than 1,500 years ago, ancient Chinese craftsmen invented a new type of paper,    2    was called Xuan paper and used mainly for writing and painting.

Xuan paper was first made in ancient Xuan Prefecture, now    3    (know) as Jingxian County in Anhui Province. The traditional process of making Xuan paper is    4     (extreme) demanding and involves over 100 steps. The whole process can take as long as two years    5    (complete), and the skills have been passed down for    6    (generation).

Xuan paper is highly water absorbent, making it a perfect medium for conveying artistic effect in both Chinese calligraphy and ink wash painting. In addition, Xuan paper    7    (design) to be able to last for more than 1,000 years and still keep the freshness of the ink and color on it.

Today in Jingxian County, there    8     (be) many Xuan paper factories and workshops, where the paper is still made by master craftsmen using traditional techniques. And because of    9    (it) long history and the essential role it has played     10    the culture of Chinese painting and calligraphy, Xuan paper was included on the first list of China’s national intangible cultural heritages(非物质文化遗产)in 2006.

4 . 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.

The “24 solar terms” are a vital part of the Chinese calendar, which has     1     (it) origin with the ancient Yellow River basin. The Chinese calendar     2     (include) “24 solar terms”provides detailed guidelines and timetable for agricultural     3     (activity).

A complete set of “24 solar terms” first     4     (appear) in an ancient book The Huainanzi in early Han Dynasty. These 24 solar terms were soon absorbed into The Taichu calendar, the first well documented calendar in     5     history of China.

The Chinese Agriculture Calendar is     6     (actual) a combination of the lunar and solar calendar systems. There     7     (be) 365. 2422 days in one “sidereal year” while 12 lunar months add up to 354 days. To make both the lunar calendar     8     the solar calendar agree, a leap lunar month needs to be added every 2 to 3 years. Since the early Han Dynasty, a lunar month without a major solar term     9     (adopt) as a leap month (闰月) .

With more far-reaching cultural exchanges, the “24 solar terms” have been known     10     people in other parts of the world and were added to the “UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage” list in 2016.

With roots     1     (date) back thousands of years, Chinese seals (印章) are more than just a unique image; they are symbolic of identity, status, and culture. A Chinese seal is a seal or stamp used to mark important documents, pieces of art, contracts, or any other item that     2    (require) a signature.

The seal was first created in 221 BC. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered his first imperial (皇帝的) seal to be carved using beautiful white jade (玉).     3     (call) the“Xi”, the imperial seal was only used by those in power. It wasn’t until the Ming and Qing dynasties     4     the seal’s usage moved from the imperial to the personal, due to the     5     (expand) of arts. Artists began using a stylized seal carving of their names to mark ownership of their works.     6     (individual) also began using a personalized stamp for important documents. These non-official stamps were called “Yin”.

    7    (typical), the seals are carved into stone, but they can also     8     (make) of wood, bamboo, or bone. Seals are carved in one of two ways: the material is carved away from the character, leaving a red ink outline when used on paper,     9     the character is carved into the material, leaving the character     10    white among a red background.

There is a Chinese story of an old man in his 90s working with his family to remove mountains to connect the outside world     1     others’ doubts. The story has inspired the Chinese to unite and overcome difficulty with     2     (determine) and hard work.

The story became a reality in Lin County, Henan Province in the 1960s. A 1,500-kilometer-long waterway along the cliffs (悬崖) of the Taihang Mountains     3     (build) by the local people within 10 years, bringing precious water from the Zhanghe River in the bordering Shanxi Province to the drought-hit area.

Initially, finding drinking water was     4     headache for residents: People had to fetch water from five kilometers away every day.     5     (ease) this area’s water shortages, the local government decided to construct a canal across the mountains,    6    construction was a remarkable engineering achievement.

People tied ropes around their waists and     7     (hang) off cliffs, drilling holes in rock, and then dug canals with simple tools. From February 1960 to July 1969, they leveled 1,250 mountain tops and dug 211 tunnels (隧道),    8     (remove) 22.25 million cubic meters of earth and rocks.

Their efforts gained multiple     9     (benefit). It was the canal that     10       (dramatic) changed the life of the local people, irrigating (灌溉) 36,000 hectares of land and solving water supply difficulties to some 567,000 people. Their deeds have been hailed (称颂) as the “spirit of the Red Flag Canal.”

In 2000, Xidi and the nearby Hongcun village     1    (declare) world heritage (遗产) sites by UNESCO for their outstanding     2     (preserve) of rural architecture dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Now, walking along the bluestone streets in Xidi or Hongcun, visitors can appreciate the distinctive Huizhou-style houses,     3     (feature) white walls, dark tiles (瓦片) and horse-head gables (山墙), and feel like they are immersed in a traditional Chinese ink painting.

Huizhou architecture, with its long tradition and great diversity, occupies     4     important place in Chinese architectural landscape. Since Huizhou is a     5     (mountain) area with few flat areas of land, its houses tend to be built to match the natural features.

Huizhou is famous for its stone, wood and brick carvings, which are     6     (wide) used in the decoration of local houses. In this way, native people integrate their aesthetic values and emotions     7     the buildings, making them more beautiful and educating their children through the meanings     8     (contain) in the patterns.

Features of Huizhou houses display the characteristics of local people. “If you look at the outside of a Huizhou house, it seems enclosed (封闭的) by walls,     9     the insides are open and broad. It is just like Huizhou people,     10     are often reserved toward strangers but friendly when you get to know them,” says Zhou Hu, director of Shexian’s cultural heritage administration.

Paper cutting is a traditional Chinese art with a history of over two thousand years. It is for celebrations, festivals and home decoration, often with red color,     1     is the lucky color in China.

Paper cutting has become one of art forms since the     2     (invent) of paper in the Han Dynasty. It was popular in the royal palaces and noble houses as     3     favorite pastime (消遣) among ladies. Later, during the 7th and 13th centuries, it was     4     (wide) spread in folk festivals and celebrations.

The main tools for paper cutting are scissors and knives. For the scissor, several pieces of paper     5     (lay) together. The theme is then cut. For the knife, several layers of paper are put on a soft foundation     6     (consist) of a mixture of tallow and ashes.

Arts come from life and serve life, so     7     (do) paper cutting. The bright red, green or light blue paper cuttings are often used     8     (add) merry atmosphere to the festivals or celebrations.     9     they are often found in wedding ceremonies or festivals in China. Today, people often like to decorate their windows, walls, mirrors, lanterns and doors with       10     (color) paper-cuts. In Chinese culture, it can reflect many aspects of life, such as prosperity, health, or harvest.