2 . With the development of modern society, we have almost no time for relaxation and enjoyment. So celebrating festivals is a good excuse to escape the boredom. There are many kinds of festivals. Some are funny and interesting; some are traditional or religious; others are national.     1    

Festivals are a significant tool to bring unity to all kinds of people.     2     They act as a special occasion when families can develop stronger relationship and strangers can become friends.

    3     Nowadays, everyone is buried in work on regular working days without time to take away all the mental tension and get cheered up. On festivals, we can spend quality time enjoying sweets and foods and make ourselves feel more relaxed.

Some festivals are observed to remember some important days, or a great time. We are given an opportunity to value those moments.     4     It is a time when people all over the world celebrate the very beginning of a year. This day reminds us that one year has passed and the new one is coming with new things.

For an individual, a festival is not just a day off, but is a lot more than that.     5     We should try to understand the deep meaning behind celebrating them and the message that every festival gives us.

3 . Columbus Day is on the second Monday of October, in the United States.     1    .That means most federal offices are closed.

The holiday honors the first visit to America by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Columbus thought he could reach the Far East by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe. He was right, but he was also wrong. He thought the world was much smaller than it is.     2    .

Columbus and his crew arrived in October 1492 on an island they called San Salvador, in today's Bahamas. They explored that island and nearby islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola.     3    . That is why he called the people who lived on the islands “Indians”。

    4    , even though local plants where he explored were unknown in Europe or Asia, and native people did not understand any languages spoken in the East.

Columbus made several other trips to what was called the New World. He saw the coast of South America and the island of Jamaica.

During his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for a passage to the Indies. He never found it.     5    . Yet, he always believed he had found the Indies.

6 . With roads, hotels and popular scenic spots packed with millions of people, the five-day Labor Day holiday is evidence of China's success in COVID 19 control and economic recovery.

Citizens across China expected this year's holiday to be an occasion for leisure not seen since the pandemic.     1    

Official data showed 230 million domestic tourist trips were made during the holiday, up 119.7 percent from last year. In Jinan, the provincial capital of east China's Shandong, over 60,000 passengers took fights from the Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport on April 30, a record high for that date since it opened to air traffic in 1992 and surpassing (超过) the highest daily volume in 2019. Hotel booking rates shot up in tourist destinations.     2     Sanya in the southern Hainan Province saw the prices increase by as much as 400 percent.

None of the above would be possible without China's success in pandemic control.     3     For example, a well-functioning contact tracing system widely used for travel, accommodation and catering services, has held up well for a long period of time, building up people's confidence.

    4    Mass vaccination campaigns in major cities, often tourist destinations, provide further security for travelers to make fearless plans and feel free to travel around the country.

Famous cities like Changsha and Chengdu are jammed with tourists, with short videos and pictures flying up on social media. The lively tourism market is part of economic recovery.

Other data showed that higher-end hotels and higher-quality services have been more welcome this year.     5    

7 . What springs to mind when you think of kung fu, also known as wushu? Maybe the image of Shaolin monks striking fierce poses with a serious look in his eyes, or popular children’s movies like Kung Fu Panda.    1    

Recently, Laurence J. Brahm, a documentary filmmaker from the United States, explored this question in Searching of Kung Fu. In the movie, Brahm travelled to cities in China and the US in search of the origin and value of kung fu.

Around a decade ago, Brahm was unable to use one of his legs for about two years and had to walk with crutches and a cane.    2    Now kung fu has become a daily routine for him.

“Martial arts can help us connect our body, connect our neural system, connect our blood flow.    3    ” Brahm said.

    4    Nonviolence is one of these values, which is shown both in the name and the practice. Wu, consists of two characters—ge, meaning “dragger-ax” (匕首) and zhi, meaning “to stop”.    5    Kung fu artists always salute with baoquan. This lets each person know that there are no hidden weapons and shows trust.

8 . My husband and I just spent a week in Paris.    1    So the first thing we did was rent a fantastically expensive sixth-floor apartment the size of a cupboard. It was so tiny that we had to leave our suitcases in the hallway.

The place wasn’t entirely authentic, though. Unlike a normal Parisian apartment, the plumbing (水管) worked.     2    Our building even had a tiny lift with a female voice that said, “Ouverture des portes,” in perfect French. That is the only French phrase I mastered, and it’s a shame I don’t have much use for it.

Parisians are different from you and me. They never look lazy or untidy. As someone noted in this paper a couple of weeks ago, they eat great food and never gain weight.     3     French strawberries do not taste like cardboard. Instead, they explode in your mouth like little flavor bombs.

    4     On our first morning in Paris, I went around the corner to the food market to pick up some groceries. I bought a handful of perfectly ripe small strawberries and a little sweet melon. My husband and I agreed they were the best fruit we had ever eaten. But they cost $18!

In France, quality of life is much more important than efficiency.

You can tell this by cafés life. French cafés are always crowded.    5    When do these people work? The French take their 35-hour workweek seriously — so seriously that some labor unions recently struck a deal with a group of companies limiting the number of hours that independent contractors can be on call.

9 . It can be very easy to stick with what you know, instead of trying to meet people who are different from you.     1    Here's what you can do:

Become self-aware.     2    This includes biases(偏见）about your own cultural background. It can be confronting, but by doing this you'll be able to think about how these traits might impact on your approach to and understanding of differences. You could try: Think about what assumptions you make about your friends, peers, and people you work with.

Talk to someone from a different cultural background. Try and get to know someone from a different cultural background better.     3    You'll automatically find out more about their life and experiences. Just being curious and open-minded can be helpful.

Be more accepting. Sometimes, for one reason or another, it's not all that easy to understand some cultural differences.     4     In other words, you don't have to understand, or even agree with, someone in order to accept them.

    5     One of the biggest difficulties to overcome in understanding cultural differences is making judgments based on one opinion. You should do some research to actually learn about people, instead of making broad-brush assessments. Stereotyping(模式化）people from different cultural backgrounds can impact their quality of life and opportunities.