As the sun rises over his tea farm in Ning’ er county in Pu’ er, Yunnan province, Li Xingchang walks around,     1     (examine) the leaves of the plants.

Last November, China’s traditional tea-processing techniques and their associated social practices were listed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Pu’er tea     2     (include) on the list.

Li’s family began making Pu’ er tea during the Emperor Yongzheng period(1723–35). He is now the     3     (eight) generation with expert skills in the process.

When Li was a child, he would go to the plantation with his parents     4     (help) them pick leaves at harvest time.     5     a history of several hundred years, the ancient plantation was his playground. Most of his childhood     6     (memory) are associated with it, such as climbing tea trees and playing games with his friends.

In 1987, Li started learning     7     to make Pu’er tribute tea from his mother,     8     he said was very strict. From planting to the complicated processes of tea making, it took him 10 years to win his mother’s     9     (approve).

“If I didn’t do well, she would throw away the leaves or refuse to drink the tea I made. When one day, she smiled after taking a sip, I knew I     10     (make) it,” recalls Li.

Using needles to help life’s energy flow

For thousands of years, the Chinese have relieved pain and cured disease through acupuncture (针灸).     1     (evolve) from the discovery that using stone needles to prick specific points on the surface of the body could relieve pain and symptoms, acupuncture has become     2     integral part of traditional Chinese medicine, in line with the philosophy that promotes the harmonious coexistence of humans with nature.

According to Records of the Grand Historian,     3     (write) by Sima Qian about 2,100 years ago, Bian Que, a highly skilled     4     (physical) during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), was famous for having saved a prince from “death” by using needles to stimulate the Baihui acupoint on the head of the unconscious man.

According to TCM (中医), there are a dozen meridians (经脉) in the human body,     5     the qi, or life energy, circulates to nourish the organs. Cold, infections or diseases can result in blocking of the energy, and so stimulating the acupoints can unblock stagnant (不流动的) qi, restore normal circulation and improve health. Today, acupuncture is still     6     (wide) used in China.

In 2010, UNESCO inscribed acupuncture and moxibustion of TCM on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Yet, the practice is not just cultural and historical,     7     a medical technique widely used and researched today.

For years,     8     the clear therapeutic effects of acupuncture in treating many diseases, there were few convincing studies that explained how acupoint stimulation worked, or what meridians were anatomically speaking, so the technique always seemed somewhat    9     (mystery).

However, as scientific research of acupuncture     10     (grow) in recent years, producing good quality results, the technique is gaining traction around the world.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

7 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.

The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.

”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.

He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.

However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.

9 . The exhibit, Digital Dunhuang — Tales of Heaven and Earth, which was held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, brought to Hong Kong more than 100 exhibits including the visual murals and other related programs that could allow visitors to learn about the art and history of the Mogao Caves in a fun way.

“Dunhuang was an international city, a place where East met West, on the old Silk Road. So the Mogao Caves, which were completed in a period of over 1,000 years, record the ways of life and beliefs of the different peoples that crossed paths there,” explained Fion Lin of Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

Visitors can now get up close and personal with these faraway treasures without having to step into the caves, thanks to the digitization project of the Dunhuang Academy, a pioneer that has made great progress in the digitization and 3D scanning of the Dunhuang treasures.

“Studies have shown that in a cave, both temperature and CO₂ concentration level can rise with 15 tourists inside for ten minutes. As a result, the wall paintings are going to eventually fade. Digital technology has helped to strike a balance between sharing the treasures and protecting them,” said Lin.

However, digitization of the caves faces many challenges such as poor lighting and rough wall surfaces. On average, 40,000 pictures have to be taken to cover 300 m². Great amount of efforts have been made to piece the pictures together. What the exhibition presented is the result of years of hard work.

During the exhibition period, a mini display on Dunhuang music culture was also being held at the Museum for public participation.

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Chinese jump rope, also known as tiaopijin, is a children’s game. One reason for its     1     (popular) is the fact that although the moves can be quite     2     (challenge), the game itself is very simple. There’s no need for players    3     (buy) expensive equipment since what they need is only a rope.

The game     4     (begin) in 7th-century China. In the 1960s, children in the West adopted the game. The game is     5     (typical) played in a group of at least 3 players with a rope about 16 feet     6     length tied into a circle. Two players face each other     7     (stand) 9 feet apart, and position the rope around their ankles so that it is tightly stretched. The third player stands between the two sides of the rope and tries to perform a series of moves without making     8     error.

There are many jump patterns, most of     9     are accompanied by a song. This is sometimes called the “first level”. The jumper tries to complete the chosen pattern. If the moves     10     (complete) successfully, then the rope is moved farther up and the series is repeated.