The first Edinburgh International Festival     1    (hold) 71 years ago. Its first big success came in the following year     2    an adaptation of The Thrie Estaites was performed. From then on, the Festival has     3    (gradual) grown to become one of the most popular arts festivals in the world. As the founders of the Festival believed, the Festival programs have enriched the     4    (culture) life of Britain and even Europe.

The Festival focuses on the fields of music, art, dance and theatre.     5    (bring) together the best artists from around the world, the Festival has earned     6    good reputation (名声), which has done much to draw the visitors’ attention     7     the various shows that take place all over the city.

Each year during the summer     8    (month), Edinburgh becomes the world’s Festival City. It is the huge range of artistic events, performances and exhibitions that     9    (make) Edinburgh unforgettable. It makes you feel that there is always something else happening around the corner which you are missing and on any given night of the Festival, you can choose     10    (watch) "The Girl on the Sofa", a play by Joan Fosse, and the opera Parsifal, among many other options.

China is a big old country and it has a history of more than five thousand years. We are proud of    1     (it) culture and part of the culture even influences the world    2     (great), for example, the thought of Confucius. As Chinese economy develops very fast and plays     3     important role in the world, more and more     4     (foreign) learn Mandarin (普通话) in Confucius institutions. The Chinese traditional culture can be tested by the time. It unites the whole nation and no matter     5     kind of disaster comes, we will fight together for the country’s future. Today, many young people lose     6     (faithful) in traditional culture and they are crazy     7     the western culture. They follow the western fashion,       8     (think) we are the old style. But someday, they     9     (realize) they are wrong     10     (abandon) traditional culture.

Most people relate "You are what you eat." To healthy eating. It     1    （actual）refers to personality, character, and culture, Chinese cuisine is a case in point. When introduced to America, it     2    （change）to suit American tastes, which tells us Americans like trying new foods.

Later, I visited China and     3    （experience）authentic Chinese food. In Beijing, we ate in a restaurant where the chef treated us to dinner     4    （consist）of Sichuan peppercorns. It was wonderful but what was even more important was the friendship. In Shandong Province, we had     5    （boil）dumplings with vinegar. I found making dumplings is always an affair with the whole family. In South China and central China, I experienced local dishes from Guangdong's elegant dim sum to the     6    （exception）stewed noodles in Henan. Through food, Chinese people everywhere show friendship and kindness. At     7    minimum, the kinds of food     8    （consume）by local people tell us what they grow in their region, what kinds of lives they lead, and     9    they like and do not like.

All in all, culture and cuisine go hand     10    hand, and if you do not experience one, you can never really know the other.

People don’t always go to coffee shops just     1     a drink, but to spend time with friends or read a book. This “coffee shop culture” is     2    (high) popular in the UK.

There are around 15,000 coffee shops in the UK. Most coffee shops have a relaxed atmosphere (气氛). People go with friends or family     3     (talk) and relax after going shopping. Also, many people go alone. Coffee shops are great places to read in peace, or to sit and write.

In Colombia, however, the coffee shop culture does not really exist (存在), or, at least,     4     (be) still very new. Famous for     5     (it) coffee, I imagined that even the smallest Colombian village would have a coffee shop. I mean, they do exist but they are not as common     6     I had expected.

The ones that do exist are very     7     (difference) from those in the HK. They are places     8     you go, have a quick drink and then leave at once. Nobody spends the afternoon     9     (enjoy) a peaceful moment. The idea that a person would go to a coffee shop alone is, clearly, silly. Every time I go alone with a book, other     10     (customer) look at me strangely. This may be the culture only in Pasto, where I live; other Colombian cities perhaps have a more developed coffee shop culture.

It is obvious that the various festivals are times of     1     (happy), fun and excitement, not of sadness. They have many origins.  

Some are     2     (religion) and some are seasonal. Easter is an important festival for Christians all over the world. People are thankful because their food     3     (gather) for the winter and the agricultural work is over. Some festivals are held     4     (honor) or satisfy and please the dead. In Japan a festival is called Obon. They have lamps on and play music     5     they think this will help the dead back to Earth. The Dragon Boat Festival honors the famous ancient     6     (poem), Qu Yuan. Columbus Day is in memory     7     the arrival of Columbus in the New World. India honors Mohandas Gandhi who helped gain India’s independence from Britain. And     8     most energetic and important festivals are the ones that look forward to the end of winter and to the     9     (come) of spring, such as the Lunar New Year, on which people get together to eat, drink and have fun with each other.  

No matter what the reason is, festivals are always times for great feasts with lots to eat, special and often new clothing to wear and     10     (general) lots of fun.

It is clear that April Fool's Day is one of the most widely recognized     1     (holiday )in the Western world. Children play tricks on parents and many people     2    (fool). How did April Fool's Day begin, and how did it become     3    international phenomenon(现象)? Nobody    4     (real) knows.

There are quite a few historians who believe that the origin of April Fools Day started much     5    (early)than 1582. Some have connected April Fool's Day with festivals such as Hilaria,     6    was celebrated in ancient Rome. During the festival, people dressed up in disguise (伪装) at the end of March. It’s hard    7    (say)whether this ancient festival's similarity to modern April Fool's Day is    8    accident or not, as the first mention of April Fool's Day didn't appear until several hundred years later.

April Fool's Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition    9    (become)a two-day event long ago, starting with "hunting the gowk"(gowk is a word for cuckoo birds, a symbol for fools ). People play tricks on others, such as sending others to do fake things or    10    (stick)"kick me "signs on the back of others.

I was honored to be invited by Nadim to his sister's wedding in India. The wedding ceremony took place in a brightly     1     (decorate) hotel room. There were hundreds of guests, all     2     (dress) up in formal, colourful clothes. A few traditional customs made a deep     3     (impress) on me. One was the bridegroom's entrance on a beautiful white horse. Another was the part     4     Nadira’s father proudly led his daughter through rows of seats to her husband.

The Rio Carnival was very impressive, too.     5     (experience) the spirit of the Rio Carnival for myself I went to a street party. I could see a group of around 20 Brazilian dancers and a band in fancy costumes     6     (stand) in the street. Some of them carried flags,     7     blew in the wind. Then there was an     8     (explode) of bright colours and lively music, and the group jumped into action. The band started playing an energetic samba beat, the dancers twisted and turned, and the crowd began to cheer, clap and sing. I was so caught up in the party fever     9     I hardly noticed five hours fly by!     10     an amazing first day in Rio!

Chopsticks, or kuaizi in Chinese, are a pair of small equal-length sticks, usually made of wood, used for eating. We Chinese eat     1     chopsticks. It is believed the first chopsticks     2     (develop) over 5,000 years ago in China. The     3     (early) evidence of a pair of chopsticks made out of bronze was excavated (出土) from the Ruins of Yin near Anyang, Henan province, dating back to roughly 1,200 BC. Chopsticks,     4     are roughly the same in size throughout China, can be made of a wide range of     5     (material), including bamboo, wood, plastic, silver and gold.

Chopsticks play     6     important role in Chinese food culture. Chinese chopsticks are usually 9 to 10 inches long. They are round on the eating end which represents heaven, and the other end is square which stands for earth. This is because     7     (maintain) an enough food supply is the greatest concern between heaven and earth.

There is an old Chinese custom making chopsticks part of a girl’s dowry (嫁妆), since the pronunciation of kuaizi is similar     8     the words for “quick” and “son”.

Chopsticks are     9     (frequent) used in daily life. They have become more than a kind of tableware and have established a set of etiquette (礼仪) and customs of     10    (they) own.

Festivals have a wide range of origins (起源). However, no matter how     1     (difference) they seem, the spirit of     2    (share) joy, gratitude and love is common. Of all the     3     (tradition) festivals, the harvest festival is one of     4     most popular festivals, which is celebrated after all the crops have been gathered in. At the same time, though customs play a significant role in festivals, they can change over time. For example, some Chinese cities no longer allow people     5    (light) firecrackers(鞭炮), as they can increase air pollution. These days, festivals are becoming more and more commercial (商业的), with businesses take advantage     6     celebrations. Online shopping websites and social media have made     7     much easier to spend more on gifts. People have divided opinions on it. All in all, festivals reflect people's beliefs and attitudes     8     life. They are occasions     9     let us spend time with family. If you study festivals     10    (careful), you will find different cultures have a lot in common.

Paper cutting is a folk culture with so long a history. When Chinese Lunar New Year is coming, it is a custom for northern people     1     (post) the paper cutting on windows. Gradually, it develops into an art form one of the most popular     2     (tradition) decoration arts. It is recorded that there were decorations     3     (make) by gold and Silver foil(箔纸)，leather and silk products     4     the Shang Dynasty(朝代). We can say that paper cutting came from these art forms.

In some villages, paper cutting is     5     (usual) made by the females. Nowadays, probably because of the available material and the decoration effect, paper cutting is deeply loved by     6     public. People still keep the tradition to post paper cutting on windows and doors during     7     (festival). And it has already developed into a unique art form. You can also see paper cutting in brand advertisements, fashion designs and stamp designs.

In the early days, people made images of both humans and     8     (others) subjects to bury together with bodies in the tombs or to burn on the funerals. In 105 AD, Cai Lun improved the paper making technique and a large amount of paper was produced,     9     laid a foundation for the spread of paper cutting. Beautiful patters     10     (create) and gradually the patterns were widely used in other fields later.