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.

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.

Felicity Miller, a 32-year-old British woman,    1     has a Chinese husband, still remembers the     2    (excite) when she first learned to use the “red packet” function on WeChat in 2015. She sent and grabbed some red packets in her Chinese family's group. The rule in her family was that the person who grabbed the     3    (high) amount sent the next.

Attracted by the unique way of communicating, many foreigners     4     (join) in sending and grabbing(迅速抓取) red packets so far. Usually, the money in each packet is random. Thus the amount of money one can grab     5       (large) depends on his or her luck, from 0.01 yuan to less than 200 yuan. Many foreigners get more familiar     6       Chinese culture through “red packets”. Two years ago, when Felicity Miller was sent 5. 20 or 8. 88 yuan red packets, she had no idea about the    7     (hide) meanings. Now, she has not only known about them, but also has sent a few.

However, the popularity of virtual red packets doesn't stop people sending paper red packets    8    (contain) real cash during the Spring Festival. It     9    (call) lucky money. In Chinese tradition, people take giving children lucky money as     10       blessing.