1 . Wang Dewen, known as “Grandpa Amu” online, is a 63-year-old man. He has skills beyond the _______ of ordinary people and creates woodwork with nothing _______ a single piece of wood. He has brilliant traditional carpentry (木工) skills, _______ first-time viewers online with his woodwork.

The Chinese carpenter has been _______ Lu Ban in modern times. His most _______ video — making a wooden arch bridge, has spread quickly on overseas social platforms, _______ more than 42 million views! Grandpa Amu _______ ancient Chinese mortise and tenon (榫卯) structures in his work, a technique _______ used in traditional Chinese architecture and furniture. The entire _______ of building the arch bridge involves no nails or glue. A man ________ under the video, “A block of wood is ________ into a great work of art. You’re not a carpenter; you’re an ________.”

He has become a real ________ on overseas social platforms — so far attracting millions of fans overseas.____________, Grandpa Amu insists that he is not an Internet celebrity but just an ________ farmer. He has used his extraordinary skills mostly to ________ his young grandson, making all kinds of toys. He is also trying to________ unique Chinese techniques to the world. “We ________ the idea of making the videos because we are ________ to bring our priceless culture to others and make these ancient Chinese technique come to people’s ________,” said Grandpa Amu’s daughter-in-law.

2 . Many western cultures measure their days with the solar calendar. Therefore, they _______ the coming of the New Year on January 1. Cultures in Asia and the Middle East use other calendars and celebrate the New Year at other times. Events and rituals _______ from country to country. But in each place, New Year celebrations are a big _______ .

Most world cultures have been celebrating the New Year for centuries. The earliest New Year celebrations took place during spring or _______ time. With _______weather ahead, or plenty of food to eat in winter, people _______ felt like having a party! As the days became longer and as nature renewed itself, people also felt like they could have a new start. The New Year could bring better fortune, more opportunities and new challenges. Such_______ themes remain the same today.

Some cultures have _______ New Year traditions. Italians throw old things out of their windows at midnight, symbolizing the _______ of the old. Mexicans fire guns into the air to ward off ________. Danes jump off chairs exactly as the clock ________midnight, so they can “jump” into the New Year. Greek children leave their shoes by the fireplace on New Year’s Day. They hope “Santa Claus” will come and fill the shoes with ________. In Vancouver, Canada, some people celebrate the New Year by jumping into the ocean. The weather is freezing cold! As you might expect, most people come to watch the swimmers ________ swim themselves.

London hosts an annual New Year’s Day parade that ________ nearly a million spectators. The largest parade in Europe, it features bands, floats and enormous balloons. These balloons are so huge that they ________ over nearby buildings!

3 . The Double Seventh Festival, also known as the Qixi Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival. Here is a beautiful story _______ it.

Long，long ago, there was a young man named Niulang(Cowherd), One day, he_______a   beautiful girl- Zhinu( Weaver girl)， the Goddess s seventh daughter. She had just run away from the_______ heaven(天国) to look for fun on Earth. Zhini soon_______Niulang, and they got married without telling the Goddess. Niulang worked in the field and Zhinu wove(织布) at home. They_______a happy life and gave birth to a boy and a girl. Unluckily, the Goddess soon found out the fact and_______ Zhinii to return to heaven. After Zhini left， Niulang was _______upset. With the help of his magic cow,Niulang flew to heaven with his children to look for his wife. The Goddess discovered this and was very_______Taking out her hairpin(发簪), the Goddess created a wide river in the sky to separate(分开) the two_______. From then on, Niulang and Zhini had to live________ on the two sides of the river. However,their true love________ all the magpies(喜鹊) in the world, ________once a year tens of thousands of   magpies would fly up to heaven to make a bridge- the bridge of magpies for the couple to meet each other. At last, the Goddess allowed ________ to meet each   other on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. That's________the Double Seventh Festival started. Today,   it is a great________for Chinese young people to express their love.

4 . We should pay attention to different customs in different cultures. For example, in America, if you are invited to a wedding, baby shower, bar mitzvah (成年礼) or other ______, you’re expected to bring a gift. Usually, it should be modest in _______, about $25.

For a ______, the bride will often have “registered” a list of gifts at a local department store, indicating the items she ________. When you buy a registered item, tell the store that you’re doing this, so the couple doesn’t receive the ________ gift twice. For a baby shower, bring a gift ________ for a newborn baby. For a bar mitzvah, bring a gift appropriate for a 13-year-old boy. Because they are such important occasions, gifts for bar mitzvahs tend to be more ________, for example, a lovely pen with the boy’s full name on it is very meaningful and will be ________ by him.

If you wish to give a gift to American friends, choose something that is ________ to your country. It needn’t be valuable or ________, just typical of your home land. Such ________ include a book about your country, an inexpensive souvenir, or something else that reflects the ________ of your country. Young children who like collecting will probably be very ________ with a set of your country’s coins or stamps. Items that are ________ in your country but difficult to find abroad are also good.

If staying with an American family, a good way of ________ your thanks is to take them to a form of ________, such as a basketball game or a concert.

When giving gifts to a business acquaintance, don’t ________ anything too personal, ________ for a woman. A scarf or a hat is okay, but other types of ________ are not. Something fit for the office is also _________.

5 . Soon the fire was burning bright, and everyone’s spirits lifted. The kids _________ when Dad handed them each a piece of candy, and Mrs. Clark looked on with a(n) _________ that probably hadn’t crossed her face since her husband died last year.

“God bless you,” she said. Dad _________ that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was _________ when they all fit, and I wondered _________ he had known what sizes to get. Dad _________ each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They became attached to(依恋)him and didn’t want us to _________.

At the door, Dad invited Mrs. Clark and the children _________ for Christmas dinner the next day. With a look of deep _________, Mrs. Clark nodded.

On the way back home, Dad explained that he and Mom had ____________ money here and there all year long to buy me a dress for Christmas. But yesterday, when he had seen little Jake with his feet ____________ in gunnysacks(黄麻袋),Dad knew what he had to do. “I ____________ that money on some shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand,” he said.

I understood very ____________. My father had given me a gift much ____________ than a dress. He gave me the look on Mrs. Clark’s face, the smiles of her three children, and the best Christmas ____________ of my life.

6 . My father, a soldier, was ordered to move again. It came as a _____________   because we had     just moved into the present duty station a few weeks before.

It was the fourth time we’d got to move to a ___________   place in just two years, which was truly our “home” in Hawaii that we’d only _________________   through my father’s music with ukulele     (尤克里里)._________ was the thing that connected my father with Hawaii, a reminder of his home and_______.

Everything was   _________________   this time. We   were just arriving,   but he was already   ___________ to   leave again   without   us. Our father,   the person who could make   us _________   the “new”   family, was gone.   Suddenly, we   were surrounded   by cousins who ___________   knowing each   other, joining in   a cultural   __________________   of which we   only knew the surface. We   were   __________   in the family.

One day, I ________________   my father’s ukulele that I had watched him play was   ________________   in the corner. When I tried to play it, though unskillfully, I felt closer to him and our Hawaiian roots. Then   I picked up an old   song   book, and ____________   myself   to play. I would play   and sing, __________   my   father had been here. Finally   my   father______________with   a newly-bought ukulele, and we had a mini concert. He was________ that I had learned so much.

What I really ______________   was that   music   has the ________________   to do truly extraordinary things________ us with our culture and each other, our past and our present.

7 . Fujian puppetry(木偶戏) has a thousand-year history. It is one of the _______ of Chinese performing art to the world’s culture and has_________a set of characteristic techniques of performance and puppet making, as well as a repertoire (全部剧目) of plays and music.

No _______ has yet been reached on the_________and development of Chinese puppetry. _______ the Shang dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.), pottery figurines (陶俑) used as burial objects (随葬品) have been discovered at the Yin Ruins. Wooden figurines _______during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods (770-221 B.C.). In a Western Han tomb at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan province, an army of wooden figurines of singers, dancers and musicians have been discovered. These were a great _______ on those from previous dynasties _______craftsmanship, variety and modeling, which represent the _______Chinese puppets. Over time, figurines as burial objects ________ into puppets for entertainment during holiday__________. ________, just like many other traditional forms of art, Fujian puppetry has fallen out of favour with the younger generations. The number of young people learning puppetry has ________ due to socioeconomic changes ________their lifestyles and the long period of training ________to master the sophisticated (复杂的) performing techniques.

In response, ________ communities, groups and bearers (传授者) worked out the 2008-2020 Strategy for the Training of Coming Generations of Fujian Puppetry Practitioners. The key ________ are to safeguard the spread of Fujian Puppetry and provide professional ________to raise a new generation of puppetry practitioners.

In 2012, the strategy was selected by the UNESCO to be part of the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. With the wide ________ of practitioners, local people and education institutions, Fujian Puppetry can__________ a brighter future.

8 . Alia Baker is a librarian in Iraq. Her library used to be a_______place for all who loved books and liked to share knowledge. They discussed various matters all over the world. When the war was near, Alia was_______ that the fires of war would destroy the books,   which are more _______to her than mountains of gold. The books are in every language- new books, ancient books, even a book on the history of Iraq that is seven hundred years old.

She had asked the government for _______to move the books to a_______ place, but they refused. So Alia took matters into her own hands. _______, she brought books home every night, filling her car late after work. Her friends came to help her when the war broke out. Anis who owned a restaurant _______to hide some books. All through the night, Alia, Anis, his brothers and neighbours took the books from the library, _______ them over the seven foot wall and _______them in the restaurant. The books stayed hidden as the war ________. Then nine days later, a fire burned the ________ to the ground.

One day, the bombing stopped and the________ left. But the war was not over yet. Alia knew that if the books were to be safe, they must be ________ again while the city was ________. So she hired a truck to, bring all the books to the houses of friends in the suburbs (郊区). Now Alia waited for the war to end and ________peace and a new library.

9 . The other day I shared knowledge on several aspects of Hindi (印地) culture with you. Today I’m hoping to paint a better picture of _______ it means to give in Hindi and how their generosity differs from_______of Western culture.

I was_______when we learned the expression “thank you” doesn’t really exist in Hindi. In the mountains, it is _______used, and people often seemed _______when we tried to thank them. They _______ either turn their heads, or shake their hands at us.

When we asked our Indian friends why this is so, they _______ that giving and generosity are vital parts of their culture. Giving is more of a_______of “changing hands” than an act of generosity. In their eyes, the foods they would give us were _______ really “theirs”. They see them as something passed along to them and now they are ________ passing them along to us.

The villagers were eager to ________ their best cucumbers to a passing stranger. ________, people in the U.S. tend to________old, used, or unwanted things ________their treasured ones.

________, during a coffee break, a friend told me about how he donated his ________clothes and shoes — just for the ________of giving up the possessions he likes most. Giving is ________Westerners can certainly do. We can practice ________giving away the things we value most — not only actual physical possessions, but also perhaps even more ________, our time and attention.

Americans prefer to try every way to have fun. For example, they drive their own cars, some even tow a small boat after vehicle. They start from Los Angeles, California under sun, _______ through four or five hundred miles to go to La Fulin, Colorado to spend weekends while Chinese people are still _______ with work, and have dinner at home together with families at weekends or _______ time watching TV.

The difference is mainly due to cultural customs and traditions _______ the two countries. It is said that Chinese people are living for others, while Americans are for _______. When Chinese people come to the United States, they fight for _______ first, and then desperately make money after they are recognized by others. It seems that, the purpose to earn money is not to enjoy life, _______ for their following generations sons and daughters and even grandchildren. Chinese people prefer to save money _______ emergency, such as illness. Although Chinese people with _______ in the United States don’t need to worry about their own social welfare and health insurance, they work still very hard, as they hope that they can ________ more money.

Chinese people’s interest is in the amount on the passbook(存折), so they spend ________ money usually.

Most of Chinese are very thrifty(节约的), and they are ________ to spend money, but there are exceptions. They are willing to spend money on their ________. Many Chinese people think that, they endure(容忍) many ________, so they wish that their children could live much better. Therefore, in the United States elementary schools, you can see that those who ________ the best clothes , with more pocket money are Chinese students. In contrast, American children dress very simply, with just a little pocket money.

________ Chinese, Americans believe in living for themselves. They do everything for their own. ________, they earn money to enjoy a ________ life, and pursue a higher quality of life. As for their own parents or children, they think that parents have their own pension and social welfare, and children should live a(n) ________ life when they are 18’ years old. So they could boldly spend money on themselves. ________, Americans save little money. In the street, it is easy for Chinese to take out 300-400 dollars, but it is hard to say for Americans.