Over the past ten years I     1    (travel)abroad and home has become more of a feeling     2     a place. So     3     is important that I can celebrate the new year with the loved ones. New Year’s Eve has become the only time to reconnect with my friends which makes me feel at home. Every year we try     4    (unite)wherever we are and remember the time when we knew each other.     5    , a lot of people feel that New Year’s Eve can’t live up to     6    (expect). Ideas such as the New Year’s kiss and resolutions create much pressure for people to have     7     night to remember,     8    will change their lives and perhaps make the next year worth     9    (live). I think those people are missing the point.     10    Christmas is about family, why can’t New Year be about friends?

A teahouse is a special house which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. Its function varies widely    1     (depend) on the culture. In China, a teahouse is a place     2     people gather to enjoy tea, chat and socialize. It     3     (consider) as a symbol of Chinese tea culture and people’s leisure life.

Chinese teahouses enjoy a long-standing history. They developed from tea stands in the Western Jin Dynasty,    4     (take) shape in the Tang Dynasty, developed gradually in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and became booming in modern times.

In the Song Dynasty, teahouses existed all over cities and villages, at a rate comparable with     5     of restaurants. The owners preferred to decorate their teahouses     6     paintings of celebrities and rare and precious plants     7     (attract) customers. In the Ming and Qing dynasties,     8     number of teahouses went beyond that of restaurants, gaining more popularity and becoming more famous. Later, the acculturation of Western culture forces traditional Chinese teahouses to take on a new look. After reform and opening up, with the rapid development of the economy and     9     (evidence) improvement of people’s living     10     (standard), teahouses flowered in China.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival or the Moon cake Festival. It has a long history     1     (date) back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It     2     (traditional) falls on the 15th day of the     3    (eight) month of the lunar calendar. Since ancient times, customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival     4     (include) appreciating the moon, eating moon cakes     5     drinking wine. The full moon on Mid-Autumn night symbolizes family reunion     6     Chinese culture because the moon is round and the     7     (bright) of the year on this day. With the full moon hanging above in     8     sky, people     9     are far away from their     10    (hometown) might miss families while looking at the beautiful moonlight.

Local     1     (official) in Beijing promised to further protect the city’s cultural heritage (遗产), in particular the narrow streets known as hutongs.

Hutongs are     2     (common) found in the cities of North China, but they are in danger. Beijing is nowadays believed to have fewer than 1,000 hutongs, most of     3     are near the Forbidden City. Only _60_ years ago, the number of the hutong     4     (be) 3,250.

“Usually more than 100,000 people visit the Forbidden City during the National Day holidays. The visits put pressure on the     5     (protect) of cultural relics,” said Huang Yan, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning,     6     (add) that hutongs should be protected from human damage.

The government concentrated     7     how the protection plans were carried out. Wang Shaofeng, head of the Xicheng District Government, said the area has 182 cultural relics,     8     many of them were built as far back as the Yuan Dynasty. The district of Xicheng has 1.28 million residents in its 50.7 square kilometers of land. “The most efficient way is to decrease the local population to reduce the possibility of causing harm to the heritage,” Wang said. “Each community has been required     9     (report) the status of its cultural heritage.”

No one knows for sure how many hutongs     10     (leave) in the coming 100 years.

A teahouse is a special house which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. Its function varies widely     1     (depend) on the culture. In China, a teahouse is a place     2     people gather to enjoy tea, chat and socialize. It     3     (consider) as a symbol of Chinese tea culture and people’s leisure lives.

Chinese teahouses enjoy a long-standing history. They developed from tea stands in the Western Jin Dynasty,     4     (take) shape in the Tang Dynasty, developed     5     (gradual) in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and became booming in modern times.

In the Song Dynasty, teahouse existed all over cities and villages,     6    a rate comparable with that of restaurants. The owners preferred to decorated their teahouses with paintings of celebrities and rare and precious plants     7     (attract) customers. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the number of teahouses went beyond that of restaurants, gaining more     8     (popular) and becoming more famous. Later, the acculturation of Western culture forces traditional Chinese teahouses to take on     9     new look. After reform and opening-up, with the rapid development of the economy and     10     (evidence) improvement of people’s living standards, teahouses flowered in China.

6 . Lots of families like to gather around a table full of food and give thanks for the blessings they have at Thanksgiving,     1     my family often spread the blessings to others not only on Thanksgiving but for every holiday.

I always remember that people I didn’t know showed up at Thanksgiving, Christmas and even any holiday when I was young! I later on learned     2     is a tradition my family started years ago.

Every holiday my parents always invite someone who doesn’t have somewhere to go and someone who are     3     (little) fortunate than us to our home. Sometimes we have tons of people and sometimes not too many. Our tradition includes taking pictures and enjoying some wonderful food that was     4     (prepare) in advance!

At Thanksgiving yesterday we invited a neighbor who didn’t have anywhere to go     5     (come) to my family’s Thanksgiving. He     6     (happy) agreed. Before we ate we stood in a big circle     7     (hold) hands and said a small prayer. Then we each said something we were thankful     8    . When it came for my neighbor’s turn, he choked up and said, “    9     (amaze), I can share a warm meal with other people on this special day.” When he left and went home my neighbor told me, “What you did did make     10     great difference to me. I haven’t felt this welcomed and good in many years, thank you for this blessing.”

7 . 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     (faith) 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.

8 . Peking Opera is being introduced to primary and middle school students in an effort     1     (promote) the traditional art to the younger generation in our country. Textbooks about Peking Opera were firstly compiled and published by People’s Education Press in 2015. The textbooks for     2     (option) courses have been put on trial use in junior middle schools in the Fengtai district and     3     (use) in middle schools across the city in the future. The textbooks     4     primary schools also will be rolled out.

Since 2008, Beijing     5     (start) a program to provide opera training at dozens of primary schools. Peking Opera arose during     6     rule of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. It flourished for decades in China and     7     its fame spread, it drew audiences in other countries,     8     (include) the United States and Japan. Yet over the years, its     9     (popular) faded away. While a significant number of people listened to radio productions of Peking Opera before the 1980s, generations     10     (bear) after that pursued pop culture over the traditional arts.

China’s Spring Festival, a    1    (celebrate) of the lunar year, starts on the 23^rd day of the 12^th month of the Lunar calendar and finishes on the 15^th day of the first month. Lunar New Year’s Eve and the first day of the New Year are its high point. China’s    2    (grand) and most important holiday, the Spring Festival has been celebrated in diverse ways throughout the county.

Among the various stores about the origins of the Spring Festival, the one most commonly    3    

Winter is the relaxed season in China, historically    6    agricultural country. Having labored for a whole year, people take a rest at this time    7    (prepare)for the coming year. The coming New Year also signals the approach of spring,    8    grass and tree leaves start to produce new shoots. The sacrifices that people offer    9    gods and ancestors are prayers for favorable weather, peace, and large harvests, and give Spring Festival    10    (joy).

10 . Tea is enjoyed all over the world as    1    comforting treat. First, choose the type of tea you want to drink. There are various types of tea that offer different health     2     (benefit) and flavors. Next, boil a pot of water and pour it over your tea. Allow your tea to soak thoroughly. Add milk and sugar to increase the flavor of bold teas or add honey to lightly flavored teas if desired.

Green tea is known for     3     (it) high level of a cancer-fighting chemical. However, green tea is high in caffeine and can make you feel anxious and nervous if you drink too much. It is said that oolong tea may promote healthy skin and black tea can     4     (great) reduce the risk of breast cancer in younger women. White tea is helpful in preventing cavities and building the    5     (strong) of your teeth. There have been many claims about herbal teas which can do good    6    health, but there is limited research or     7     (support) data on these claims.

Most teas can     8     (buy) and transported in tins of loose tea or in small packages of tea bags. Some people believe that loose leaf teas have a     9     (fresh) flavor than tea bags     10     others prefer tea bags because they’re much easier to use and carry around.