Festivals are becoming more and more commercial, with businesses     1     (take) advantage of the celebrations. Online shopping websites and social media apps have made it much     2     (easy) for the public to spend more on gifts for their     3     (love) ones. Although some believe festivals should not be commercialized, others believe     4     increase in spending     5     (be) good for the economy and public happiness.

Festivals are an important part of society. They reflect people’s     6     (wish), beliefs, faiths and attitudes towards life. They are occasions that allow us     7     (relax) and enjoy life, and forget about our work for a little while. They help us understand     8     we came from, who we are, and what to appreciate. And if you study festivals     9     (careful), you may be surprised to find that different cultures actually have a lot     10     common after all.

The Chinatown in San Francisco is the     1     (big) in America, and also the oldest. The climate is mild all year round,     2     (mean) it is always a good time to visit. Now, the majority of residents in Chinatown     3     (be) still ethnic Chinese, many of whom do not speak English     4     (fluent). This allows visitors     5     (experience) a real taste of China. Visitors can spend hours just     6     (explore) the interesting sights, smells, and sounds of China. The stores in the Chinatown offer     7     unique range of souvenirs, goods, and clothing. All kinds of traditional Chinese herbal medicine can be found, too. And there are Chinese tea stores,     8     visitors can taste and buy varieties of Chinese tea. But perhaps what many tourists and San Franciscans treasure most about Chinatown is     9     (it) food. There is Chinese food to suit everyone’s taste, with traditional     10     (dish) from all over China.

These days we can often see students doing morning exercises to keep    1    (health). Most of you probably do the same kind of exercises. But my school exercises have gained popularity because of their local and special    2    (design).

Students at a middle school in Mianyang, Sichuan Province combine Sichuan Opera with their exercise. Shen Junhua,    3    is in charge of organizing the school’s exercises, said, “Sichuan Opera is    4    local opera, but now it is facing a problem. The reason is    5    few young want to learn it. So we invited local artists    6    (create) a simple and easy-to-learn Sichuan Opera exercise. The students    7     (practice) the new type of exercise since 2017 and it is now popular among students. Learning the exercise is not easy, so new students have to spend weeks practicing it until they can do it well. Some students have also joined the school’s Sichuan Opera club due    8    their own interest, though they had hardly heard of Sichuan Opera before. They found    9    very difficult but meaningful to learn Sichuan Opera.”

By combining opera with daily exercise, the activity allows students to take part in, the development of Sichuan Opera’s culture.    10    (hope), the seed of traditional culture can be spread in this way.

Shadow theater is a unique art form in China. Thanks to the basic principle of light and shadow projected (投影) onto a screen, performers use puppets (玩偶)     1     (make) from animal skins to tell stories in a form of opera. Two thousand years ago, the sadness of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty over the death of his favorite lover was     2     (full) relieved by the projection of her figure through a game of lights. This started     3     is now known in China as the earliest form of shadow play.

Among all the country’s branches, Beijing shadow theater stands     4     for its techniques and its specific tunes. It     5     (experience) a long period of formation and now features unique performance methods. Its vocal (声乐的) tone and actual puppets draw     6     (inspire) from Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera.

Previously the shadow theater     7     (perform) in the fields, with all performers hidden behind the scenes. Some controlled the puppets and sang while others managed the music. A performing group would consist of six or seven people and a box of puppets. When people put on     8     play at a market, a light box and a curtain would be enough     9     (start) the show. Requiring only a few things, the theater was characterized by its mobility,     10     (appear) at weddings, dinner parties and Chinese New Year celebrations often.

For Greek photographer George Doupas, Beijing is home now. During the past decade, he has been photographing the city, capturing its beauty    1     sharing these pictures online and in exhibitions.

“This    2    (true) represents Beijing — the old and the new, nicely mixing together,” Doupas said while showing his photograph of the Zhihua Temple, a delicate Ming Dynasty building. It     3    (locate) in front of a modern office building, Galaxy SOHO, which features weaving bridges and interlocking passageways.

With rich historical heritage, Beijing    4    (be) an important center of traditional Chinese culture since the Ming Dynasty. Doupas often gets    5    (lose) in the city’s splendid ancient architecture. Meanwhile, he is also amazed by the modern city combining high-end businesses and    6    (variety) industries. “It is fascinating to see a rapidly-developing city that invests so much effort in preserving its past, which is    7     I decided to pursue my career here,” he said.

Doupas is determined to continue with his career in China, hoping to serve as    8     bridge between China and the West. The displays that show his     9    (photo) about Beijing have attracted a large audience in Greece and the Czech Republic.

“I call Beijing my home now,” he said, “I’ll keep sharing pictures of China    10    the rest of the world.”

Classical Chinese garden design aims to create a natural landscape and thinks highly of the perfect harmony between man and nature.

A Chinese garden is like a scroll (卷轴) painting,     1     (show) a series of carefully composed scenes. New views are showed as one visitor       2     (walk) along the paths. In the gardens, you can see some winding paths     3    seemingly lead to nowhere. There, a path seems to end, but all of a sudden, a new world is rolled out before you: pavilions (亭子), rock formations, spring waters — all combined to provide a pleasant surprise! At the     4     (enter) to a Chinese garden, there is usually a huge stone or wall     5    (use) to produce unimaginable delight when you turn around the wall. A Chinese garden may have windows on all     6    (it) four walls. And it is interesting that     7    the windows, visitors may see different views at different angles.

A Chinese garden is where culture is both created     8    enjoyed. All plants mark the shift of the     9    (season). Water and rock     10    (similar) create the balance of nature’s yin and yang.

Have you ever tasted or perhaps heard of sugar painting? As fewer people choose to make sugar paintings, the traditional Chinese folk craft might have become a     1    (distance) memory in some ways. However, a 38-year-old craftsman, Li Jiangzhong, is devoted to     2    (keep) the art of sugar painting alive.

Li worked     3     a miner for more than ten years. After the mine closed down, Li turned to housing decoration until he     4    (force) to give that up due to a finger injury. Earlier this year, he discovered sugar painting, something he really had     5     interest in.

Since there was no sugar painting craftsman in his village, he studied by     6    (he) through large quantities of videos and information on the Internet. Li loved painting when he was young,     7     he found it easy to learn the skill in sugar painting. He soon mastered the skill and could have varieties of sugar paintings     8    (make) with melted brown or white sugar. A craftsman     9    (careful) paints animals and flowers on a stone board with the syrup (糖浆). What appears is a piece of sugar art when the sugar     10    (cool) down.