Inside the 9th exhibition hall at Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM), paintings and sculptures both     1     Louvre Museum and the Palace Museum in Beijing reflect one theme     2     (precise): a historical China-West exchange.

Since the museum opened to the public in July, the museum has welcomed     3     large number of tourists and constant new exhibitions. For those     4     are in charge, it seems they have a rather permanent mission: making the HKPM a     5     (globe) center for cultural exchanges between the East and West.

Among the new 69 relics (遗址) are a set of three paintings from the Album of Beasts,     6     (create) by noble painters Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang during the Qing Dynasty. The 180-page Album of Beasts has been considered as a     7     (combine) of reality and imagination, as well as the Orient and Europe, as the two artists painted images of animals from Chinese classics     8     (use) light and shadow techniques typical of Western art. The introduction to the painting explains that this kind of animal     9     (see) as a flying horse when walking on land, but when it flies it becomes the North Star.

For the staff, the best way to introduce to visitors the historic integration between the East and the West     10     (be) to put what the paintings convey right where they can see them.

Acrobatics, whose Chinese name is zaji, is popular with people. Modern acrobatics mainly depends on performer’s soft body    1    (complete) a series of highly difficult movements. It can     2    (find) in many of performing arts and many sports. Acrobatics is often associated with the activities     3     make extensive use of gymnastic skills, such as circus and gymnastics, but many other athletic activities, such as wushu, ballet and diving may also employ     4    (element) of acrobatics. The items in Chinese acrobatics include lion dance, oral stunts, pagoda of bowls, juggling, wire walking, etc.

Chinese zaji can date back to Neolithic times. As one of the traditional art forms, acrobatics has been popular among the Chinese people for more than 2, 000 years. As early as the Warring States, there appeared early stages of acrobatics. By    5     time of Han Dynasty, the acrobatics art further developed both in content and form and there appeared superb performances     6     music accompaniment on the stage. In the Tang Dynasty, the most flourishing period in ancient China, the number of acrobats increased     7    (significant) and their performing skills gained much improvement.

There is much    8    (stable) involved in dangerous movements and quietness in actions. The modern acrobatics aims at creating graceful stage images,     9    (harmony) musical accompaniment, and good supporting effects, props and lighting. In the past 50 years, many Chinese acrobatic troupes (表演团)     10    (visit) more than one hundred countries and regions around the world, winning dozens of prizes in the international acrobatic festivals and championships.

March 14 is right around the comer, and math learners know     1     that means. It’s Pi Day, a holiday honoring one of math’s most famous constants (常量): pi.

The number pi, or π, is equal to the circumference (圆周长) of a circle     2     (divide) by the circle’s diameter (直径). That comes out to about 3.14159. This is true for circles of all sizes, from     3     (penny) to pizzas to planets. Pi’s value is often rounded to 3.14. That’s why Pi Day     4     (celebrate) on March 14. It’s also why one Earth-sized planet orbiting another star every 3.14 days is nicknamed “Pi Earth.”

But the exact value of pi is     5     (actual) impossible to write out. Last year, a     6     (power) computer calculated pi to record-breaking 62.8 trillion (万亿) figures. And in 2005, one 23-year-old used clever mental tricks to recite nearly 68,000 of those figures from memory. No one, though, will ever get to     7     end of pi.

Historians aren’t sure when people first     8     (discover) the concept of pi. But it’s been known in some form     9     almost 4,000 years. Ancient Greeks and Babylonians knew estimates of it. The Egyptians may have used pi     10     (build) the pyramids. And still today, pi is used in just about all math involving circles.

One of the largest research libraries in the world, the British Library has added 16 Chinese online novels to the collection.     1     (cover) themes of science fiction, history, reality and fantasy, these works are viewed     2     the classics of Chinese online literature from the past 20 years.

The library houses more than 170 million     3     (collection), the cultural relics of different civilizations from throughout history included. The library usually selects works     4     (base) on their popularity or by considering an item’s value. Readers can check the information about the 16 books on the library’s website     5     borrow printed copies.

As one of the current pillars of mass cultural consumption,     6     began with “fastfood” romances, fantasies and mysteries, the Chinese online literature industry     7     (mature) quickly during its fast development over the last two decades.

In 2019, 10 online novels, including Great Power, Heavy Industry,     8     (be) added to the collection of the shanghai Library.And between 2020 and 2022, 144 online novels like Battle Through the Heavens and Lord of Mysteries were entered into the collection of the National Library of China.

“It’s     9     (true) unexpected to me that online fiction can be added to the collection of     10     foreign library. It feels like the path of online novel writing is becoming ever wider,” Yi Qianchong adds.

A man in black jumps high and shows different poses before landing on the ground gracefully. He is Chinese dancer – choreographer Ma Jiaolong,     1     has been making and sharing short videos of himself dancing in London since 2020. He simply considers that as a way of capturing     2     (memory) of his life. Ma says he enjoys dancing outdoors, which brings him closer to nature. He also likes to interact     3     strangers, who are curious about his performances.

Ma’s videos are circulating     4     (wide) online, and he has received lots of messages from people from around the world. Many of those     5     (watch) Ma’s videos are impressed by his     6     (able) to dance his moves perfectly, even while in the air.

As Chinese classical dance involves movements based on martial arts, Ma has combined his dance moves with dazzling action. Ma has nearly 5 million followers on Douyin,     7     major short-video platform in China,     8    (know) as TikTok overseas. “Now, making and sharing short videos     9     (become) a part of my life, and, most importantly, a great way     10     (introduce) Chinese classical dance to more audiences, especially those overseas viewers,” says Ma.

Every person in this world has their own unique experiences and challenges—and just because they aren’t universal, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. That’s where the Human Library project comes in. It gives us a chance     1    (explore) the stories that we might never know about otherwise. It gives us     2     unique opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of others.

It is done without     3    (judge), and it leads to understanding. The Human Library started     4     the concept of living books. Each person became an open “book” and shared their own experiences in life. They would talk about     5     life was like in their shoes.

The project began with fifty different human books which were highlighted in an event that     6    (last) for four days,     7    (go) for eight hours each day, as the human books answered questions and held discussions. Now, the Human Library has become something that reaches so much     8    (far) and has had an impact on so many minds.

The Human Library gives people a chance to ask questions. It offers a rare option to learn from the perspective of those who     9    (affect) by a situation. It’s no longer about always having an outside perspective. It’s about having a chance to go to the source and     10    (simple) ask.

Would you be willing to become a human book and share your own story?

2022 witnesses the 350th anniversary of Rong Bao Zhai. The badge (徽章) for Rong Bao Zhai uses the Chinese     1     (character) of “three”, “five” and “zero”. The character “three” is shaped like a book,     2     represents the long historical tradition of Rong Bao Zhai. “Five” represents the interweaving of yin and yang, and the circle of “zero” means eternity and hope in the future.

Rong Bao Zhai     3     (locate) in Beijing. Its wood block printing skill was listed in the first batch of national-level intangible     4     (culture) heritage by State Council. The technique is a collection of painting, engraving and printing as     5     whole. It can be employed     6     (create) artworks and     7     (realistic) reproduce all kinds of Chinese calligraphy and paintings. Among the famous prints     8     (be) “Han Xizai Evening Banquet”. The production took 8 years, using over l,600 woodblocks and over 6,000 times of overprinting, marking the development of the peak of wood block printing.

Rong Bao Zhai pays special attention to collecting and protecting. It has collected thousands of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty works, and is honored     9     “tiny Palace Museum”. Over the years, the brand has also held various exhibitions and international art exchanges,     10     (become) a window of Chinese traditional culture to the world.

Solar terms, also called Jieqi in Chinese, are days marking one of the 24 time buckets or the solar year in traditional Chinese calendar and    1    (use) to indicate the alternation of seasons and climate changes in ancient China.

The Yellow River Basin in Northern China is believed to be the cradle of the solar terms system. China's 24 solar terms are     2     knowledge system and social practice formed through     3     (observe) of the sun's annual motion and cognition of the year's changes in season, climate and phenology(物候学). Ancient Chinese divided the sun's movement through the sky     4     24 segments(时间段), with each segment equaling one     5     (rough) two-week-long "solar term".     6     (base) on the sun's position in the zodiac, the 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China to guide the     7     (agriculture) affairs and farming activities. They serve as an instruction   manual of sorts for farmers,     8     (allow) them to know     9     conditions to expect or what agricultural activities to carry out during certain periods of the year.

Solar terms are often called China's "     10     (five) great invention " after paper making, printing, gunpowder and the compass.

The book pages are not anything modern-day readers are used to. When the pages are unfolded, they resemble the bellows of an accordion (手风琴的风箱) or waves     1     (approach) a beach. This is the result of dragon-scale binding (龙鳞装订) , a technique     2     goes back more than 1, 000 years to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) . Hundreds of sheets of thin paper were     3     (delicate) placed on a long strip of paper. They can then roll back into a hand scroll or open up to show a moving picture. The myriad (无数的) sheets of paper tilt up (翘起) and even the     4     (slight) movement of air can make them dance. It was thought that each page seemed like     5     scale, hence the description.

In ancient times, the dragon-scale binding technique was favored by well-off families and     6     (royal) , because it could shorten a book's length and make for efficient reading and indexing. Every sheet of paper needs to be in     7     (it) right place. Any misstep, as little as a millimeter, could produce an eyesore when the whole thing is displayed. However, the complex and time-consuming process     8     (require) by the distinctive bookbinding style has pushed it to the verge of extinction. Today, the only existing ancient book using dragon-scale binding     9     (preserve) in the Palace Museum in Beijing. And the only inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage has been trying to save the art     10     fading away.