Acting was, is and always will be the first love of the National Peking Opera Company’s new vice-president, Tian Lei, Chen Nan reports.

Huguosi Street was one of Beijing’s     1     (busy) commercial roads in the olden days. It also     2     (house) the residence of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (1894-1961). Not far from Mei’s address, the first theater for Peking Opera     3    (perform) was created in 1954, five years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The neighborhood     4     (change) over the decades, but the theater still stands tall and is     5    (current) managed by the National Peking Opera Company. Tian Lei treasures the hours he spends there, training and rehearsing (排练). Wearing a costume and     6     (arm) with a prop spear (道具长矛), the 42-year -old walks confidently across the stage,     7     (practise) a variety of martial art movements, before ending the drill with a liangxiang (striking a pose on the stage).

Tian has been working with the opera company for 10 years. Its premises (处所) are     8     10 -minute drive from the theater and his colleagues train there. He, however, prefers the historic stage. “I come to the theater almost every day because I enjoy the peace and emptiness this building offers. Rehearsing here helps me feel closer     9    the Peking Opera masters     10     once graced the stage,” he says.

There is a day considered special by people     1     observe solar(太阳的) movement of the sun in many countries of the world. On its eve, in England, people go to Stonehenge     2    (welcome) the rise of the sun. In Latvia, people travel from the cities to the countryside to gather, eat and sing. Chinese people attach equal importance to this day,     3    (know) as the Summer Solstice(夏至), or xiazhi in Chinese.

It is the     4    (long) day of a year in terms of daylight. After the Summer Solstice, the subsolar point begins its moving south, and daytime     5    (gradual) shortens. Though people believe it is at the height of summer, xiazhi is not the hottest time of a year. After xiazhi, the temperature will continue to increase.

While in modern China, xiazhi is simply known as one of the solar     6    (term), in ancient times it was a major festival. In the Song Dynasty, the festival     7    (offer) officials a holiday of three days. A grand sacrificial ceremony was also held on the Summer Solstice during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

According to Guo Wenbin, a scholar of traditional culture, many customs from the ancient Summer Solstice festival     8    (be)now celebrated as part of events. “We often believe boat race was created     9     memory of Qu Yuan. But it is said that before the death of Qu, Chinese people had already had boat race as an event of Summer Solstice festival,” says Guo. Since the Summer Solstice is often a time when people harvest wheat,    10     is a tradition to eat noodles in many places.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the     1     (important) festivals in China. It is an evening celebration when families gather together     2     (merry) to light lanterns, eat moon cakes and appreciate the round moon.     3     that special night, the moon is the roundest and brightest thing in the sky. The full moon is a symbol for family reunion,     4     is the reason why that day is also known as the Festival of Reunion.

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations date back to more than 2, 000 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, people began to enjoy     5     admire the full moon as a custom. In the Southern Song Dynasty, however, people sent round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of     6     (they) best wishes for family reunion. After it turned dark, they looked up at the fall silver moon or went sightseeing by lakes     7     (celebrate) the festival. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration     8     (become) even more popular. Together with the celebration appeared some special     9     (custom) in different parts of the country, such as     10     (burn) incense (香), planting Mid-Autumn tees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances, etc.

Millions of Chinese students have received new versions of Chinese language textbooks.     1     (write) by the Ministry of Education, the textbooks attach more     2     (important) to traditional culture.

Text-books for three-year junior high schools have more content on traditional Chinese articles and poems — 132 in total. They make up 51.7% of all the texts. And primary school students’ books contain 129,     3     is 30% of all the texts.

The articles were chosen     4     classical essays, and poetry dating back to Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

Before the official release (发行), the textbooks     5     (test) in schools across several provinces, but it turns out that not everyone is a fan.

Some parents have questioned the added emphasis on classical Chinese. “They are too young     6     (understand) so many pieces with classical Chinese language. ” they said.

    7    , others welcomed the new books. “ Students at that age may not be able to understand well, but they are like     8     (seed) that will grow one day. Some wisdom delivered through the Chinse classic might help children face the challenges in their own lives     9     (brave).”

In fact, the textbooks arrive at a time     10     ancient Chinese culture is gaining popularity 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 have included     4    (admire) the moon, eating moon cakes     5     drinking wine. The full moon on Mid-Autumn night symbolizes family     6     (reunite) in 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.

We seem to be very familiar with teahouses. The function of a teahouse varies     1     （wide）depending 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.

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

In the Song Dynasty, teahouses existed all over cities and villages, at a rate comparable with that of restaurants. The owners     6     （prefer）to decorate their teahouses with paintings of celebrities（名人）and rare and precious plants     7     （attract）customers. In Ming and Qing, the number of teahouses went beyond that of restaurants, becoming     8     （popular）. Later, the acculturation（文化移入）of Western culture forced traditional Chinese teahouses to take on     9     new look. After reform and opening-up, teahouses flowered in China with the development of the economy and evident improvement of     10     （people）living standards.