Culture is the widening of the spirit and the mind.     1     (start) from Sept. 5, a multi-station exhibition featuring the cultural heritage of Europe is open to the public in Beijing. Laying out 38 cultural routes crossing the continent and beyond, it is a good display of history, economy, art, and way of life. Co-organized by the EU Delegation to China and EU     2     (nation) Institutes for Culture, the exhibition     3     (present) artwork, pictures, documents and audiovisual content.

After the opening ceremony, China Daily     4     (talk) with the European Union's ambassador to China to learn about the value of cultural diversity and how it strengthens people's ancestral roots.

As a Sinologist, Chapuis, the ambassador, has introduced many Chinese writers     5     France. He is also the first to translate a full poetry collection by Du Fu.

In his opening     6     (speak) for the exhibition, Chapuis discussed the connection between education and travel, a concept shared in both European and Chinese     7     (culture).

"Confucius (孔子) left his hometown,     8     country of Lu, and travelled from state to state to spread his ideas," he said. "There is no personal growth without travelling. And in a globalized world, it is even     9     (important)."

"All the Chinese travel today. They are on the path of discovering.     10     they are abroad, they discover they are not only from Xi'an, Beijing or Tianjin—they are from China."

For you,the “Clear and Bright” day that falls in every April might be no more than just another holiday — the fact that it comes with three days off school matters to most students       1       more than the fact that it is part of the 24 solar terms.

But the UNESCO has recognized the importance of the 24 solar terms. This ancient system that Chinese people have used to keep track of the time of year       2     (add) to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Nov 30.

For starters, you may have heard your mom say: “The sanfu days are almost over. The heat won’t be here for long.” The sanfu days are a period of time that     3     (fall) in summer, somewhere     4     Minor Heat (in July) and Autumn Equinox (in September). The coldest days, or the sanjiu days, are similar. They cover the 27 days     5     (follow) Winter Solstice.

In some places, solar terms guide people’s lives through special foods,     6     (culture) events and healthy living tips. For example, people from northern China are in the habit of eating dumplings on the day of Winter Solstice. And on Start of Autumn, some people treat     7     to a big feast, especially of meat, something they call “putting on autumn weight”, or tieqiubiao.

But no matter     8     differently people celebrate the 24 solar terms, they have been here for a long time and could last forever.

According to Chinese writer and academic Yu Shicun, unlike many other examples of intangible cultural heritage – Peking Opera and Chinese Zhusuan, for example – the solar terms are neither regional (地域的) nor a type of art or skill. Instead, the system is a philosophy of time,     9     applies to everything. And this means they are     10     (likely) to die out.

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. The Awakening of Insects(惊蛰)falls on Mar．6 and ends on Mar 20 this year．

The Awakening of Insects signals    1    rise in temperature and increased rain fall. As the third solar term in the lunar year,    2    (it)name suggests the fact that animals sleeping in winter are awakened by spring thunder and that the earth begins to come back    3    life．It is the key time for spring agricultural activities. It is also a good time for people    4    (enjoy)fun outdoors, especially for people living in the city. Driving to the suburbs,     5    (fish)in a lake or enjoying the singing bird will make for a perfect weekend in spring．The most popular fruit in this season    6    (be)pears．

The custom of eating pears is     7    (wide)practiced around the Awakening of Insects. As the weather gets warmer and the air becomes    8    (dry),people tend to feel their mouths and tongues are dry,    9    can cause colds or coughs. A pear is sweet, juicy and cold, moistening(湿润) the lungs to arrest a cough．    10    ,pears are recommended during the Awakening of Insects．

Kilns (窑) had to burn day and night in Jingdezhen, a city in Jiangxi province of southeastern China,     1     (meet) demand from around the globe.

Today, though demand is much     2     (low), people are making porcelain the same way they have for hundreds of years, with Jingdezhen’s old masters still     3     (pray) to the kiln gods.

Meanwhile, across town, creative new craftspeople are bringing new     4     (idea) into the art and new life to the once factories and villages. It’s fair to say that Jingdezhen people live and     5     (breath) porcelain, but they aren’t doing it alone.

“Jingdezhen is more than a historical town. The old and new are combined perfectly here.” Says Hu Chunxiao, a local artist     6     family has worked in the industry for generations. The traditional and modern exist in harmony, which makes     7     one of the most interesting towns in China for travel.

Despite being a center of porcelain for 1,700 years, Jingdezhen is never short     8     great natural scenes. The surrounding area is famous for abundant     9     (hide) landscape — mountains, streams, farms and forests. Artists who desire a peaceful life     10     (draw) here since the ancient times.

Lantern Festival marked the final day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It has been an important festival    1    the Western Han Dynasty.

In ancient China, often marriage    2    (decide)by parents or even the government. During some periods marriage policies went to extremes.

However, extreme policies to force people to get married were rare, and young people still had certain    3    (free)to get married with people they liked, rather than being    4    (complete)manipulated by their parents or government. Ancient Chinese had milder ways to encourage people to find a spouse, such as fairs and meetings during festivals.

Lantern Festival is one of the festivals that provided ancient Chinese single young men and women a chance    5    (meet)and get to know each other. On the night of that day,     6    (marry)men and women would meet at the flower fair and lantern-decorated street.

Romance often happened,     7    not all of these stories ended happily.

Ouyang Xiu described a woman's longing for the man she met during Lantern Festival in his poem Yuan Xi. It    8    (go)like this: "Last lantern festival, the flower fair    9    (decorate)with lights was daylight bright. We met after dusk when the moon rose behind willow trees. This year the moon and lanterns are still    10    same, yet you are not here anymore. I am sad, with tears shed on the sleeves of my spring coat.”

9 . Smile is a universal language, which     1     (use) throughout the world. However, the meaning of a smile in different cultures may be different. Depending on different cultures, smiling can express joy and     2     (amuse), but it can also indicate embarrassment. The following examples show this point of view. In an attempt to be open and     3     (friend), people in the United States smile a lot. Every one smiles at each other and this nonverbal communication shows being polite in the United States. But in China, smiling is not only     4     expression of happiness, but also a way to avoid     5    (be) embarrassed. Chinese people like smiling when they are embarrassed in order to avoid embarrassment. Smiling is a kind of good will but not sneer (嘲笑). For example: When a child falls off from a bike, the adults in China may smile,     6     is a kind of gentle encouragement and may not be a kind of impolite laugh.

The laugh is     7     (relate) to the smile. Also, different cultures have various     8     (meaning) about laugh. Americans can enjoy a very heartfelt belly (腹部) laugh that comes     9     the deepest emotions while most Chinese may think     10     silly to laugh that way.