It’s common to see a barista (咖啡师) create coffee art, but it’s a whole     1     (difference) ballgame doing the same thing with tea. Han Zheming has managed to perfect     2     skill, creating tea art in cups, or dian cha     3     Chinese, which used to be a ritual (仪式) during the Song Dynasty (960—1279).

Over the past six years, he has used tea and spoons     4     (create) beautiful patterns based on ancient paintings.

“It’s like adding bells and whistles to tea and giving people a stronger sense of occasion, so     5     (drink) tea is more fun,” Han says. He     6     (want) to bring the old ritual back to modern life and have more people appreciate     7       (it) charm.

Han says. “It is similar to the foam on top of a cup of coffee, except that it consists of tea rather than milk.”

Chinese tea culture started to enjoy popularity during the Tang Dynasty (618—907) and flourished throughout the Song Dynasty,     8     tea had become a necessity for almost everyone, just like rice, oil and salt.

“I want more people to understand the items that     9     (use) by people in the past to drink tea, and the special     10     (reason) behind the ways they prepared tea,” he says.

Traditional Chinese festivals are important part of Chinese culture, and it’s our     1     (responsible) to protect and maintain them. This article focuses on a festival that many people are not familiar with — Hanshi Festival.

With a history of more than 2,600 years, Hanshi Festival is the only traditional one in China named     2     food, and it is also known as the Cold Food Festival as people are only allowed to eat cold food on this day. Hanshi normally     3     (fall) around April 3 in the solar calendar, one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival.

In most parts of China, fires might start easily in the dry early spring due to the flammable     4     (substance) stored by people and the spring thunder. As a result, the ancients usually held grand ceremonies of sacrifice when the fire stored from the previous year would be put out. Later, they would drill wood to get new fire for a new year. The gap between putting out old fire and burning the wood     5     (obtain) new fire ranged from three, five, or seven days.

During the gap days, fires     6     (prohibit) in households. As a result, people would eat what they had prepared     7     (previous), namely the cold food, or hanshi in Chinese. That’s     8     the Hanshi Festival gradually came into being.

As the Hanshi Festival is one to two days ahead of the Qingming Festival,     9     gradually got combined with one another. After the Song Dynasty, cold food did not remain a necessity on this day, and gradually, Qingming Festival     10     (take) over the folk activities of Hanshi to become a major festival on this subject.

Anyone who has an interest in Dunhuang will have heard of Fan Jinshi. The Chinese archaeologist     1     has spent more than half a century researching and preserving the caves at the heart of the ancient Silk Road in Gansu Province     2     (know) as the “Daughter of Dunhuang” in her field, though “protector” is probably a more fitting     3     (describe).

Fan has been studying the historical site since the early 1960s, first as     4     archaeology undergraduate from Peking University, then as a conservationist when she     5     (become) the deputy director of the Dunhuang Research Academy in 1984, which serves to prevent the ancient site     6     being destroyed.

“It. is over a thousand years old. It is an old person, an     7     (extreme) weak old person. It has     8     (variety) illnesses. If you are a little careless, it could be gone. Gone forever Fan says.

Today, thanks to the work of great     9     (archaeologist) such as Fan, Dunhua is proud of the world’s largest and best-preserved collection of Buddhist relics     10     (date) from the fifth to the 13th centuries. The main Mogao site is made up of 735 caves spread across a 1,700-metre-wide cliff face, containing 45,000 square meters of murals (壁画) and more than 2,000 colourful sculptures.

Weiqi is the Chinese name for the classic board game    1    (common) known in English as Go. The game,     2     was called yi in ancient China, has a history of over 3, 000 years. Weiqi is a board game between two players     3    (use) black and white game pieces.

According to ancient books, weiqi     4    (invent) by the Chinese emperor Yao. In the Spring and Autumn Period, people would use terms in weiqi like “ju qi bu ding”(meaning “holding a game piece but not sure what move to make”)     5    (describe) vacillation (犹豫不决) in polities. It’s quite clear how popular the game was at that time. Later, there were lots of talented weiqi     6    (player) in all dynasties and many emperors in ancient China were weiqi lovers, such as Cao Cao and Zhu Yuanzhang.

The rules of weiqi are very simple     7     the choices to move the game pieces vary.

This is where the charm of the game lies. The time for one round of weiqi can be     8    (difference). In most cases, it takes one or two hours to finish one round of weiqi.

Weiqi is a game that combines science, art and     9    (compete). It’s no wonder that the game has been popular for thousands of years and is gradually becoming     10     international cultural game.

An ancient culture     1     (date) back more than 5,000 years proved China’s early exchanges with other societies, experts say.

Experts believe the Majiayao culture had a close connection with     2     (vary) of other cultures. They put it forward at a recent meeting     3    (hold) in Gansu Province. With more than 5,000 years of history, it plays     4     important role in the development of the Chinese civilization. This culture spread to Central Asia through     5     is now China’s Xinjiang, bringing rice from China to the West.

Swedish expert Johan first investigated cultural sites in 1924. In the 1940s, Xia Nai named the sites after the Majiayao, with painted pottery as     6    (it) most special feature. Some experts point out that the Majiayao culture     7     (obvious) shares similarities     8     the cultures of some parts of the Black Sea. People from these cultures used pottery     9    (make) human head sculptures. In addition, some Central Asian features also appeared on the painted pottery of the Majiayao.

Measures     10    (take) to protect the Majiayao culture by building museums, organizing meetings and doing more research so far.

Every Christmas, White’s children would get an envelope, inside     1    there was a handwritten letter from Father Christmas. These letters from Father Christmas were indeed written by White, one of the most famous     2    (name) in English literature. In this way, White     3    (keep) Father Christmas alive for his four children.

The letters told wonderful stories about Father Christmas’ life and adventures at the North Pole with     4    regular character, Polar Bear. In a letter, Father Christmas complained about his     5    (help) who played games with the toys instead of     6    (wrap) them up.     7    (interesting), White didn’t warn his children that they might not receive presents     8    they were not good. The letters did, however, change as his children got     9    (old). From these letters, we can share the true spirit of     10    (give) at Christmas time. White’s love and care for his children made him very like Father Christmas.