Long Chenchen, the mascot for China’s upcoming Dragon Spring Festival Gala,     1     (release) recently, with a lot of design details showing the aesthetics of Chinese cultural elements.

    2     (celebrate) the year 2024, “Long Chenchen” has been designed as a cute yet lively dragon, colored orange and red and with a pair of doll eyes. The     3     (seem) cute-looking dragon takes inspiration from Chinese archaeological discoveries. The design of its nose was inspired by a dragon-shaped jade item that was discovered in the Erlitou Ruins,     4     major site in Luoyang, Central China’s Henan province that witnessed the rise and fall of the Xia and Shang dynasties. The fire shape pattern on its shoulder was inspired by a bronze piece with cloud patterns dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period,     5     multiple materials appeared and social changes were underway.

    6     receiving many likes, the mascot has also sparked criticism. Some netizen doubt the dragon character might have been synthesized (合成) by artificial intelligence.     7     (admit) that it has some “imperfections”, CMG, a design studio said it was created by designers “one stroke after another” and that “all the details about the dragon, including its patterns, colors and face, have been revised by designers through a lot of versions.”

Along with such verbal     8     (explain), a short video showing the design team working on the mascot has been posted on Sina Weibo by CMG. The media group’s response to the character’s design has become a     9     (trend) topic on Sina Weibo and has been viewed by more than 200 million netizen. “    10     it was created by AI or human beings, I think the mascot has successfully delivered the spirit of the dragon.” one netizen posted on Sina Weibo.

Tomb Sweeping Day--the day     1     people remember their dead relatives and visit their graves, has just gone. But this year, an     2     (interest) story happened on that day.

A boy, who might     3     had breakfast, was taking a walk on the road in the morning. When he walked past a convenience store he thought of     4     (enter) to buy something. Then he realized that he didn’t have money on him. So, his parents     5     (phone) to bring some money to him.

While waiting, the boy saw several old     6     (man) burning joss paper by the road. “What are you doing here?” the boy asked one. “I am sending money to my family.” he answered. Then he asked the boy, “What are you doing?” “I’m waiting for my family to send money to me. I wish they     7     (will) come soon.”     8     hearing this, the old man’s face turned pale and he ran away     9     (hurried). The boy shouted to him, “Hey, don’t run! I just want my family to send money to me today!” Suddenly, all the people burning joss paper nearby     10     (panic), and also ran away.

The Chinese New Year is now widely known as the Spring Festival because it starts     1     the beginning of Spring.     2     (it) origin (起源) is too old to be known. Several explanations are hanging around. But all agree that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese means “year”, was     3     (original) the name of a monster beast     4     started to eat people the night before the beginning of a new year.

One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very     5     (frighten). One day,     6     old man came to help them, offering to subdue Nian. He told people     7     (put) up red paper decorations on their windows and     8     (door) at each year’s end to scare away Nian in case it came back again, because red was the color the beast feared the most.

Today, the custom of putting up red paper and setting off fire-crackers     9     (be) still around. However, people have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the     10     (excite) of the celebration.

“The Chinese language     1     (become) popular among Lebanese students in the past five years,” says Antoine Hokayem, a professor and local director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), Connecticut in the US.

“In the past, Lebanese students used to register for the Chinese language as an     2     (elect) course. Today, we receive students from the USJ and other universities who learn the language to either work in China     3     continue their education in. the East Asian countries,” Hokayem said on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the institute.

Engineering and telecommunication students are among the people who are most interested in the language as they aim     4     (continue) their higher education in China. Other students attend the institute’s courses with the intention of providing     5     (assist) for their parents who are engaged     6     trade activities with Chinese partners.

“We have small children who learn the language and speak     7     (fluent) with their Chinese teachers. More than half of our students now come from outside our university.”

    8     (found) in 2006 through a partnership between China’s Shenyang Normal University and the USJ, the Confucius Institute at USJ was selected as one of the     9     (good) Confucius Institutes in the world for its cultural and social activities. In recent years, the institute has held lectures     10     cover topics including China’s economy and cultural values as well as Peking Opera and The Beltand Road Initiative.

China’s traditional Laba Festival is celebrated on the eighth day of the 12th month of the lunar Chinese calendar,     1     falls on January 18 this year. It     2     (regard) as the prelude (序幕) to Chinese New Year.

There are different     3     (origin) of the Laba congee, but one of the most popular is about Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty.

Before Zhu became emperor, he was suffering in a prison on a winter day. When he was starving, he found some red beans, rice, dates and other grains near a rat hole     4     (unexpected), so he boiled these together to make porridge. That day was the     5     (eight) day of the 12th lunar month. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor, he decided     6     (name) the porridge he ate Laba congee     7     memory of that special day in prison.

Since then,     8     (enjoy) a bowl of Laba congee with families and friends has been a time-honored tradition in China,       9     it also sweetens a winter day. Made of a     10     (various) of ingredients, including various beans, rice, lotus seeds, peanuts, etc., it is believed to be good for people’s health.