If you’re walking through Boston     1     a rainy day, you might just see poems appear before your eyes. They are written on the sidewalk. The first poems were installed (安置) in 2013    2    (celebrate) the start of National Poetry Month, and since then many more poems     3    (add). Created using special materials, the poems are unseen during dry, sunny weather,     4     they appear like magic once raindrops start falling from the sky.

The poems were chosen by Boston’s famous poet Danielle Georges. “I wanted to choose poems that convey (传递) positive energy, like    5     (kind), joy and gratitude, ”Georges said. “All the poems     6     (fix) currently are written in English. But new ones will be added in the languages being spoken throughout Boston, including Portuguese, French and Spanish.”

“It’s a public art project     7     is meant for everyone. I think this is a     8     (wonder ) way to bring poetry to the people.     9    ( hopeful ), in the next two years everyone in Boston     10    ( come ) across a poem in their daily lives at least once or twice a month, ” Georges added.

David was one of     1     most helpful students that we ever had. In 2004, he went to university in London and became     2     (interest) in Chinese culture.

After his graduation     3     university, he went to China to study Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University. Two years later, he was able to speak Chinese     4     (fluent) and achieved high grades in all subjects.     5     (finish) his studies, he started travelling in China. Some of the cities in China he likes most     6     (be) Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin and Nanjing. In China, he developed an interest in teaching English to Chinese students. Most of the students whom he taught     7     (become) his friends ever since.

When he returned to Britain two months ago, he     8     (bring) back from China many interesting books, dictionaries, paintings and photos     9     (spread) Chinese culture. He donated most of them to our school library. Some of the books were gifts he got from his Chinese friends and students. The paintings that David donated to the school are being shown in the exhibition room. Teachers and students at our school wish to thank David for his     10     (kind).

Wandering sounds, irregular rhythms and a carrier of gentle emotions. This is the musical language of guqin, a seven-string instrument    1    (bear)in ancient China.

The earliest piece of guqin in China, unearthed in Hubei province,    2    (date)back to the Zhou Dynasty. The body of a guqin is made of wood and the strings of silk. Unlike its    3    (seeming) simple appearance, making a guqin is extremely demanding.    4    outstanding piece can take from two to five decades to craft. The tone of a guqin is quiet, distant, pleasant and    5    (charm).

The guqin has been embraced by musicians for centuries, the most popular one    6    (be) Yu Boya in the Spring and Autumn and Waring States periods. As he played his guqin in mountains, a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi passed by. No sooner had he heard the music    7     he understood it. This deep understanding formed a strong bond    8    them. This is the famous tale behind the masterpiece, Flowing Water, High Mountains,    9    has been passed down through generations. It is also considered as the most marvelous    10    (compose) in Chinese guqin music.

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape has long been regarded as a wonder of ancient engineering. The water system in Australia    1     (build) more than 6, 000 years ago—long before even the Egyptian pyramids took shape.

Ancient inhabitants of the region made the system of channels and dams as an    2    (extraordinary) complex trap for the eels(鳗鱼) that locals depended on for food. Budj Bim was recognized as    3    World Heritage site today, but few suspected the system ran so far and so deep.

In fact, it took a disaster for Budj Bim    4    (reveal) itself in all its former glory. Bushfires,    5    (spark) by record temperatures and lasting drought, have burned away the thick leaves covering the water system,    6    (allow) the full scale of Budj Bim to emerge from the flames.

The Egyptian pyramids were made with materials that were plentiful nearby, and    7    was Budj Bim. It was made with the area’s most ready resource: volcanic rock. Those building blocks came from the lava of a now-inactive volcano,    8     the ancient people used to redirect waters from Lake Condah—waters heavy with eels.

Now the Aboriginals still call parts of the area home, and their population    9    (decline) dramatically since Europeans arrived on the continent. But their    10    (achievement) stand the test of time—even if it took a tragedy to reveal them. It’s an important acknowledgement of the work their ancestors have done.

Many people don’t know that Nuo opera (傩戏) is considered as one of the most popular folk operas in    1    (south) China. Jiangxi Nuo, also called Gan Nuo (赣傩) is most popular in the counties of Nanfeng and Shangli in Jiangxi. A local temple,    2    was said to have been built in the Ming Dynasty, still functions well and attracts many visitors today.    3     (probable) 80 Nuo opera programmes from the past still exist today. The number of Nuo opera masks in Jiangxi is over 2, 000, and there are about 2, 000 professional    4    (perform) folk artists of Nuo opera.

Nuo dancing, one of the most ancient arts and    5    necessary ingredient in Nuo opera,    6     (stay) alive in Nanfeng, Jiangxi over the past 2,000 years. The    7    (move) of Nanfeng Nuo dancing are simple but powerful, keeping    8    (they) ancient characteristics. Nanfeng Nuo dancing was even seen    9    “The Active Fossil of Chinese Dancing Art”. In 1996, Nanfeng county    10    (call) “The Village of Chinese Folk Art—Nuo Art” by the government of China.

Living Heritage: Woodblock Printing

Delicate touches, carved onto wood, with ultimate precision. This is woodblock printing,    1    ancient printing technique that enhances human civilization.

As Buddhism was popular in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), there was a strong need    2    (produce) a large amount of Buddhist works, and copying by hand could not meet the     3    (rise) demand. Ancient Chinese craftsmen thus came up    4    a novel way to mass produce printed works. Hence came the prototype (雏形) of woodblock printing.

Traditional woodblock printing can be divided into four major steps: writing, engraving, printing, and binding. With each step then sub-divided into several procedures, it takes    5    (rough) 30 steps to produce a woodblock print.

Carving lies at the center of woodblock printing as this step can make    6    break the final print. Characters and images    7    ( carve) to produce    8    (raise) areas or lines that will eventually apply ink to paper. It calls for a pair of skilled hands. A five-meter-scroll of the Buddhist scripture Diamond Sutra, printed in 868, is the “earliest dated printed book” in the words of the British

Library where it is stored. It is not only one example of ancient works of art    9    tell the wisdom of our ancestors, but also is a witness to the pursuit of beauty by Chinese craftsmen throughout centuries.

The invention of writing gave life to great    10    (thought), but it is the invention of printing that made knowledge a shareable fruit for all humankind.

Beijing Opera or Peking Opera is a form of Chinese opera     1     (combine) music,vocal performances,dance and so on.It     2     (arise) in the late 18th century and became     3     (full) developed and recognized by the mid-19th century.The form was extremely popular in     4     Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the     5     (culture) treasures of China.Major performance troupes (剧团,戏班子) are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north,and Shanghai in the south.Also     6     (preserve) in Taiwan,the art form is still of great importance to people there.

    7     (perform) of Peking Opera use the skills of speech,song,dance,and combat in movements that are symbolic and suggestive.Above all else,the skill of performers     8     (evaluate) according to the beauty of their movements.The music of Beijing Opera can be divided    9     the Xipi and Erhuang styles.The repertoire (全部曲目) of Beijing Opera includes over 1,400 works,     10     characters are based on Chinese history,folklore,and,increasingly,contemporary life.