The Mid-Autumn Day is a very important traditional festival in China.It takes its name from the fact that it     1    (celebrate) in the middle of the autumn season. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The day is known as the Moon Festival, as at the time of the year the moon is at its roundest and     2    (bright). It is an evening celebration in     3     families gather together and eat moon cakes. Besides,     4    (make) the house more beautiful, people will hang red lanterns in front of it. On that day, people look back on the past and look forward to the future together. Children will play with their own     5    (toy) and enjoy themselves.

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations date back     6    more than 2,000 years. The word “Mid-Autumn” first     7    (appear) in the famous ancient book Zhou Li. However, it was not     8    the early Tang Dynasty that people celebrated the day as a traditional festival. It became an     9    (official) established festival during the Song Dynasty, and has become as popular as the Spring Festival since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Celebrations have continued ever since and more customs for     10    (mark) this occasion have been formed.

New Year’s Eve is the last day of the year. It is always     1     exciting time because people look forward to     2     (welcome) a new year. It is also a good time to think back and say goodbye     3     the old year. New Year’s Eve is a     4     (nation) holiday for many people around the world. In lots of countries, people go back to their hometown for the New Year, so the roads, trains and buses     5     (pack) with people. In England, there is always a New Year’s Eve party     6     usually takes place in someone’s home and the host invites friends, families and neighbours. Everyone then waits until midnight     7     (hear) Big Ben chime(鸣响) twelve times.

I have lots of good     8     (memory) of New Year’s Eve. I once spent one freezing New Year’s Eve in Trafalgar Square in the centre of London. It snowed and was     9     (real) cold. I also spent many wonderful New Year’s Eves in Japan. There,     10     is traditional to visit a shrine(圣坛) and pray for good things. I think wherever you are, New Year’s Eve is always fun.

World Read Aloud Day is celebrated each year     1     the first Wednesday of March. It was started by the LitWorld.org website in 2010 and till now it     2    (reach) 65 countries. Its aim is to encourage people worldwide     3     cannot read to enjoy the benefits of a book. The website asks everyone to celebrate the day by taking a book, finding an audience, and     4     (read) out aloud. It is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people.

The website asks     5     (visit) to join in the movement to reduce the number of illiterate (不识字的) people in the world. It is     6    (absolute) necessary to help those who cannot read. The website says, "It's time to start by reading aloud to whoever might like it. Share a book with a child who might need     7    , share a story with someone who would treasure it, listen patiently to someone else's story as they share it with you." The United Nations says, "Literacy     8     （involve) a variety of learning in enabling individuals     9    (achieve) their goals, to develop their knowledge, and to participate fully in society." In that way, World Read Aloud Day does help make     10     difference.

Over 40 countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day. It is a time     1     children show their love and respect to their mothers and thank their mothers for giving birth to them and providing them with the     2     (good) care.

In New Zealand, Mother’s Day     3     (celebrate) on the second Sunday in May. And as     4     idea of celebrating Mother’s Day in New Zealand comes from the USA, the way of celebrating Mother’s Day in New Zealand is much the same as     5     in the USA.

On Mother’s Day, people in New Zealand thank their mothers for their     6     (devote) to their kids. The festival of Mother’s Day has become a big day in New Zealand. People celebrate the day by going out for a picnic or eating together. Markets are     7     (crowd) with people coming to buy presents for their mothers. Many people would buy flowers and cards for their mothers.

People also thank their mothers by serving them with breakfast and     8     (make) special cakes for them. Some people also would like to make their mothers have a day’s rest from the     9     (end) housework, and treat     10     (they) to a big dinner.

Undoubtedly, Britain is a nation of hat wearers. From taking off hats     1     launching mortar boards(学位帽) in the air,   hats   have   long   been   associated   with   ceremonies and practices. Even the history of the country can     2    (tell) through hats.

    3    (date) back to medieval England, the flat cap became a symbol of working class culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Edwardian era was     4     golden age of hats, when the decorations became even more delicate, ranging from flowers, birds to fruits. The pork pie hat, starting in the mid-19th century, was the     5    (choose) for many well­dressed Victorian citizens. Decades later it     6    (gradual) became a key feature of London street style. By the 1960s, though, hats faded out of people's sight because of the rise of private cars. It was the Royal Wedding     7    (hold) in 2011 that contributed to the return of hat wearing. For example, Hat Works Museum — the only museum in Stockport featured in hats and hat making — is     8    (popular) than ever, with a distinct increase among its visitors.

What marks Britain out on the world stage is the large number of hats     9     can be called its own. The variety of hats in Britain     10    (reflect) its multicultural background and rich cultural heritage.

The southern area of Jiangxi province    1    (produce) tea for hundreds of years. Villagers there often like to sing songs while    2    (pick) tea leaves. The beautiful tunes echo over the tea gardens in the hills. After over 400 years of development, this practice has transformed into a performance art.

The tea-leave picking opera, or Caicha Xi in Chinese, is    3    culture monument of Jiangxi province, having a history of more than 400 years. The opera can be seen on special occasions such as Chinese New Year,    4    the locals are looking to pray for prosperity and a good harvest. Tea-picking opera in southern Jiangxi province is a combination of folk songs and dancing.    5    (it)   repertoire(表演剧目) is not about royal families or government officials,    6    about the daily lives of local people.

After the founding of New China,    7    (music) created a number of songs based on tea -picking tunes and took the opera to a bigger stage. In 1960s, the popular “ See the Red Army off”     8    (compose) by drawing inspirations from one of the    9     (tradition) tunes of the southern Jiangxi tea-picking opera. 86 years ago, with the same tune, mothers saw off their sons, and wives saw off their husbands for Long March.

In 2006, it was listed    10    an intangible cultural heritage in China. To better keep the tradition and pass it on from generation to generation , the local government has provided free education to teenagers in love with tea-picking opera.

If you get stuck in a heavy rain, what would you do? You may be worried and want to find shelter immediately. But Song Dynasty poet Su Shi behaves     1    (different) in Tune: Calming the Waves.

Tune: Calming the Waves is one of Su’s ci (词),     2     type of poetry that was popular during the Song Dynasty. The ci begins by telling the reader that     3    (catch) in the sudden rain, Su has nothing but sandals and a cane. This shows that his journey is     4    (challenge). Su     5    (he) was no stranger to facing challenges. At that time, Su was charged     6     going against the emperor through his literary     7    (work) and therefore was banished (贬谪) to Hangzhou. But even so, he always stayed positive. Just     8     he described in the ci, instead of being upset, Su chose to “slowly walk and chant at     9    (easy)”. After the rain, he looked at “the dreary beaten track” again, and found everything was the same as it     10    (be) before. A small rain shower is just a brief part of the day, just as his political setbacks are but a small part of his life.

Different counties and cultures celebrate the New Year in different ways. Many countries still follow the lunar calendar,     1    (mean) that their new year often starts in late January or in February. New Year     2     (celebrate) for some countries (like China, Vietnam, and Korea) last not one day, but up to two weeks!

In the US, many people attend or throw New Year parties. They drink champagne, dance and cheer at the stroke of midnight. Fireworks, which in ancient times     3    (scare) away evil spirits, are very popular throughout the US like many other countries. Americans often make one or more New Year’s decisions, such as promising to quit     4    (smoke), lose weight, or stop drinking, most of     5    last little longer than a month.

In Scotland, homeowners open the front door at midnight to let in the New Year, and open the back door to let     6     the old year. In Japan, people ring a bell 108 times     7     (get) rid of the 108 bad desires people have. In Spain, people eat 12 grapes—one per chime— as the clock chimes midnight. In Korea, people ring a bell 33 times with the     8     (intend) of memorizing 33 ancient soldiers.

In Colombia, families make     9    rag doll called “Mr. Old Year.” They fill it with     10     the family doesn’t want anymore and then set it on fire to rid themselves of all the bad things of the previous year.

Duilian is traditional Chinese couplets(对联), also known as yinglian or duizi. According to the usage,it can be    1    (general) classified into Spring Festival couplets, wedding couplets, trade couplets, social couplets and entertaining or    2    (humor) couplets. The traditional couplets vary greatly in     3    (long). The shortest one contains one or two characters, and the longest one contains several hundred characters, usually    4    (find) on ancient Chinese buildings. A couple must have the following features:     5    number of characters of one line is equal to that of the other line and both lines have the same sense groups. A couplet writer may show his feelings    6    means of describing the scenery or express his wishes in his works.     7    he wants to convey, the writer is expected to be good at Chinese and summarization    8    (produce) a couplet with a few characters that is excellent in both content and language. With the cultural exchange among different countries all over the world, Chinese couplets     9    (begin) to spread to Vietnam, Japan, and Singapore in the 20th century. As a result, the custom of putting up Spring Festival couplets    10    (observe) in these countries at present as well.

With less people     1     (choose) to make sugar paintings, the traditional Chinese folk craft might have become a distant memory in some ways. However, a 38-year-old craftsman, Li Jiangzhong, devotes himself to     2     (keep) the art of sugar painting alive.

Li worked as a miner for more than ten years. After     3     mine closed down, Li     turned     4     housing decoration, until he     5     (force) to give that up due to a finger injury. Earlier this year, he discovered sugar painting, something he really had an interest in.

Since there was no sugar painting craftsman in his village, he studied by     6     (he) through large quantities of videos and information on the Internet. Li loved painting when he was young, and he found it easy to learn the skill in sugar painting. He soon mastered the skill and could make     7     (vary) sugar paintings. A sugar painting is made with     8     (melt) brown or white sugar. Craftsman normally paint animals and flowers on a stone board     9     the syrup (糖浆). When the sugar cools down,     10     appears is a piece of sugar art.