The Chinese people believe that there is a balance between the Yin and Yang. The Yin stands for darkness while the Yang     1     (stand) for life and brightness. The Double Ninth Festival , or Chongyang Festival, is celebrated     2     the ninth day of the ninth lunar (阴历) month. The number nine is regarded as Yang. However , because the number nine is doubled, there is too much yang. Too much yang    3     (be) a bad thing. To avoid bad luck, people get together and spend the day    4     (climb) a mountain, drinking chrysanthemum wine (菊花酒) and wearing the dogwood plant. It is also    5     (tradition) for people to eat Double Ninth cakes for a better life on the day. these    6     (cake) are made of flour (面粉) and sugar with nuts in    7     (they).

In 1989, the Chinese government    8     (change) the festival into “Senior Day”to show respect and care for the aged. Now, on this day, the aged can take part in     9     (activity) like mountain climbing. Whatever your age, you are sure to have    10     good time if you join in the celebration!

According to experts, the word “Hutong” originated from Mongolian language,     1     means “a place where people gather and live.”

Hutong first appeared in Beijing during the Yuan Dynasty. Most of today’s Hutong were formed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties that     2     (follow). Nobody knows       3     (exact) how many Hutongs there are in nowadays Beijing. But one thing is for sure, if we connected all the Hutongs together, their total       4     (long) would even be longer than the famous Great wall!

Today you can find various Hutongs       5     (show) different shapes and directions. The     6     (short) one is only 40 centimeters wide. That means a person has to walk sideways to get through. And some Hutongs have more than 20 turns.     7     the growth of the population, many old Hutongs have disappeared to make way for high-rise apartments.

As we walk through the Hutongs, you may find most of them look almost the same with gray-colored     8     (brick). Actually inside those walls are the courtyard houses, in which people live. In Chinese we call them “Siheyuan”. At first when they     9     (build), usually one Siheyuan was owned by only one family,     10     nowadays most Siheyuans are shared by 4 to 10 families.

Grain Rain is the     1     (six) of the Twenty-four Solar Terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, which this year starts from April 20. As the last solar term in spring, this period sees the temperature rise and rainfall increase,     2     (create) an ideal environment for plants and animals.

Grain Rain is still relevant     3     modern agriculture. It links grain with rain, reflecting an increasing amount of precipitation (降水), which is good for the     4     (grow) of crops. For farmers, it is a good time to sow.

It might not be so well-known that in Chinese tale an actual “grain rain”     5     ( record) in the story of Cang Jie,     6     invented the first Chinese characters. Prior to 2500 BC, in order to keep records more     7     (precise), Cang Jie originated a set of characters from observing the tracks of birds and mammals. After his groundbreaking invention, grains started to pour down from the sky.

The Grain Rain day has become a day     8     (honor) Cang Jie and the invention of the Chinese language, and April 20 has been designated as the annual UN Chinese Language Day since 2010. Chinese characters are a treasure of the     9     (spirit) homeland of Chinese people, the thousands of years of Chinese culture,     10     an important symbol of cultural identity.