On the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, a year is divided into 24 solar terms. The solar terms     1     (create) thousands of years ago to guide agricultural production.

White Dew (Bailu) is the 15th solar term and indicates the real beginning of cool autumn. The temperature declines     2    (increasing) with the white dew on the grass and trees seen in the morning. In many places of China, the air is clear, with the sky in great     3    (high) and the clouds in peace. The gentle wind can often be felt blowing.

Back in the old days, gathering the white dew from plants was a Chinese tradition. Bencao Gangmu, a Chinese herbology document,     4    (write) by Li Shizhen over 400 years ago says the white dew can be used as tea which     5    (taste) sweet with its pleasant smell and has cooling effects on the body and keeps people healthy.

In Southern China, people tend     6    (eat) longans on the day. They believe the fruit can bring good luck, make people stay calm     7     cure some typical conditions.

Yu the Great was an admired ruler in ancient China,     8     was famous for controlling floods, his governance of the Xia Dynasty, and his moral character. When     9     comes to White Dew every year,     10    (fisherman) in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces will hold a week-long ceremony to honor Yu the Great.

The kite is believed to have originated in China. Since its invention, there    1    （be）many adaptations to the kite by    2    （vary）cultures around the world. A Chinese kite in ancient times would have used simple materials such as wood and cloth. They were often made    3    （resemble）the shapes of birds. Today, beautiful and large designs can be seen flying above parks in China. They often resemble real animals and members of the Chinese Zodiac（生肖）. Some kites have LED lights    4    （attach）to allow for night flights and fun light shows.

Kites    5    （invent）in the early Warring States Period（475-221BC）by Mozi and Lu Ban, two philosophers     6     came after the teachings of Confucius. The kites were specific to China for many years before the knowledge of    7    to make and use them gradually advanced. The period saw many attacks from foreign    8    （power）, as well as civil unrest. Kites played a role    9    providing military intelligence for the Chinese forces. The first Chinese kites were used for measuring distances, which was useful information for moving large armies. They were also used to calculate and record wind readings and provided    10    unique form of communication similar to ship flags at sea.

Sugar sculpture blowing is    1    Chinese folk art where artists blow and sculpt hot sugar to create 3D    2    (figure). The finished sculptures not only look good，but also have a good taste,    3    (make) them popular among children.

The main raw material for sugar sculpture blowing is malt sugar (麦芽糖).The malt sugar used in sculpture blowing has to be heated to high temperatures. It can only    4    (use) after several steps,    5    include the sorting and cooking of the malt sugar followed by the firing and melting of it.

Sugar sculpture blowing is    6    (careful) made. It can be divided    7    two methods—one uses molds (模子)；the other does not，and involves sugar figures taking shape through a combination of blowing air into the processed malt sugar and the artist’s flexible hand skills.

The complex process may explain    8    there are fewer people making sugar sculpture. To protect and promote this traditional craftsmanship, the government of Hebei Province founded a sugar figure art    9    (organize) in 2011. Now it    10    (consist)of over 90 artists recognized as the inheritors (继承人)of the technique.

The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. This festival is a holiday of great    1     (significant) and the one with the     2    (long) history. It is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons.     3    is exciting to watch competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat, racing to reach the finishing end first.

The boat races during the The Dragon Boat Festival    4    (be) traditional customs to attempt    5    (rescue) the famous poet Qu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277BC. Chinese citizens threw bamboo    6    (leaf) filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore, the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet,    7    turned into the customs of eating rice dumplings.

The celebration is also a time for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year. Children born in this month     8    (say) to be difficult to raise, and people tend to concentrate their effort during this time, to protect their families    9     illness and bad luck. If one manages to stand an egg on its end at exactly 12:00 noon, the     10    (follow) year will be a lucky one.

Thursdays in Iceland were traditionally a day to connect     1    family and friends. This may sound strange,     2    until 1987, there was no TV broadcast in Iceland on a Thursday. It’s believed that this came from a desire not to have a nation     3     (fill) with TVaddicts.

If you were to visit Iceland in 1966, you would have noticed that nothing    4    (show) on the country’s only state-run television station on Thursdays. The idea behind the     5    (decide) was to reserve Thursdays as a day for socializing.The ban expanded to the month of July     6     it was decided that there would be nothing on television during the whole month.

As July was considered a vacation month, it was also expected for locals to spend their days outdoors.     7     (luck), the Thursday ban ended in 1983 while the July ban lasted until 1987.Finns respect the personal space of each other a lot. You might have seen this funny picture already about Finns     8    (wait) at the bus stop. If you are standing too close to someone while talking you will notice that the other person is trying to get a bit     9    (far) from you. You should notice and respect it and leave as much personal space for the other person so that he or she can feel     10    (comfort).

Chinese everywhere know of the goddess Mazu. Temples     1    ( construct) in honor of her for centuries, and her story is legendary. Mazu is the goddess of the sea and she protects fishermen and communities near the ocean. The legend of Mazu     2    (date) back to over 1,000 years ago in the Xianliang Port of Meizhou Bay in Putian, Fujian Province. Lin Moniang, Mazu's real name, was an attractive young girl and was respected and well-liked by everyone in her village. Lin Moniang was also revered for her ability to forecast     3    weather. This gift was     4    (especial) advantageous to the fishermen     5     fished the seas in the area. The young girl was capable of     6     (warn) them of the coming weather conditions and telling them if it was safe to go out to sea or if it would be best     7    (stay) in port.

The legend of Mazu proclaims that     8     her death she went up to heaven and became an immortal. From heaven she watches over the seas and the people who travel on and across     9    (it) . Because of this, over 100 million people worship her. In fact, there are more than 1,500 temples dedicated to her the world over. About 900 of them are located in Taiwan.     10     there is a Chinese community, there is a temple dedicated to Mazu.

The fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral de Paris has raised questions about the condition of thousands of other cathedrals and historic     1     (structure) across Europe. It also raises questions about whether European government are doing enough     2     (keep) up and care for such buildings.

Tibor Navracsics, the European Union’s top cultural official, told The Associated Press that “we are so used to our outstanding cultural heritage in Europe that we tend to forget that it     3     (need) constant care and attention.” Some people say the fire was a wake-up call, not just for Europe,    4     for the whole world.

Large fires have long robbed humanity     5     knowledge, art and treasures. In 2015, the German engineering company Siemens     6     (find) that Scotland had about ten damaging fires a year, while England lost at least a dozen listed buildings a year. In Germany, seventy historic buildings have been     7     (heavy) damaged since 2000.

Experts say that     8     is needed is continuous attention and maintenance. Some say world-famous monuments like Notre-Dame are the     9     (drive) force behind tourism and should get more respect. Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic, who heads the heritage group Europa Nostra, noted the     10     (important) of such respect. “Cultural heritage is a gold mine. You cannot exploit it and then just leave the mine and go to another one.” She said.

Tea culture is defined (定义) by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact (互动) with tea,     1     by the aesthetics (美学) of tea drinking. It includes tea production, tea brewing (冲, 沏), tea arts and ceremony, society, history, etc.

Tea ceremony, with     2     (it) roots in the Chinese tea culture, differs among eastern countries, However, it may also differ in preparation, such as in Tibet,     3     tea is commonly brewed with salt and butter.

Different regions also like different     4     (variety) of tea — black, or oolong, and use different flavourings (调味品) such as milk, sugar or herbs,     5     (satisfy) people’s tastes. The temperature and strength of the tea likewise vary     6     (wide).

Due to the importance of tea in Chinese society and culture, tea houses     7     (find) in most Chinese neighbourhoods and business districts nowadays.

Tea culture in China is different     8     that of Europe, Britain or Japan in such things as preparation methods, tasting methods and the occasions for which it is consumed. Even now, on both casual and formal Chinese occasions, tea is consumed regularly. In addition to     9     (be) a drink, Chinese tea is used in     10     (tradition) Chinese medicine and in Chinese cuisine.

Have you ever wondered     1     you would do to solve math problems if you didn’t have a calculator or computer or even pencil and paper? People in China have used an ancient counting tool     2     (perform) mathematical operations. The Chinese calculator’s name is “suanpan”, but it is known     3    “abacus” in English. Invented by Liu Hong, abacus is one of the symbols of Chinese people’s wisdom     4     (date) back to the 12th century. Abacus has had a far-reaching influence on science and technology, language, literature, art, architecture and many     5     fields of China and even some areas of the world. Meanwhile, abacus has affected people’s character, such as honesty and diligence. For centuries, this simple counting device     6     (pass) down through different dynasties with its original design and purpose     7     (actual) unchanged. The calculations can be made on it immediately, with the device storing the results in “visual storage” much like a computer display.     8     working with an amount of numbers, an abacus is practically faster, since it has a     9     (good) “keyboard” than the Western calculators. Anyway, the small abacus has made an outstanding     10     (contribute) in the fields of human intellectual development, just as the computer does in today’s society.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been around     1     thousands of years. It is said that there are three emperors     2     played a significant role in the history of TCM.

First, Fu Xi discovered the flow between heaven and earth which he reflected in the principles of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang theory     3     (be) the concept of two opposite but complementary (互补的) forces that shape all life. He also invented acupuncture (针灸). Second, Shen Nong     4     (regard) as the founder of Chinese herbal medicine even today. In order to determine the nature of different herbs, he tasted various kinds of plants, testing     5     (they) individual effects. Third, Huang Di is associated with Huang Di Nei Jing, which is the     6     (early) and most important written record of TCM. It lays a foundation for the theories of Chinese medicine.

TCM has made a great     7     (contribute) to the health of Chinese people, and it has become an independent medical system in world medical field. Since     8     founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government has attached great importance to TCM, making policies     9     (promote) its development. TCM is now becoming     10     (wide) accepted in the world.