2 . Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that started, “Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us.” That “quite” saddened me. I thought he was saying “we’re kind of pleased you decided to join us although I wish we had hired someone else.” Then I discovered that in American English “quite” sometimes means “very”, while in British English it means “fairly”.

So the first lesson about working in other countries is to learn the language and by that I don’t just mean the words people speak. It is body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures.

Some of the differences may be only on the surface——dress, food and hours of work——while others may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them, like the climate, while getting on with business.

Some of the differences may be an improvement. People are more polite; the service is better; you ask for something to be done and it happens without having to ask again. However, other differences can be troubling, like punctuality. If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock your quests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to an hour afterwards in Italy and some time in the evening in Greece. I prefer not to use the word “late” because there is nothing wrong with the times people arrive. It is simply the accepted thing to do in their own country.

I am Li Hua, a senior student from Hongxing High School.

Yours,

Li Hua

Summer Palace, which     1     (literal) means “the garden of perfect brightness”, was an estate of gardens, temples, palaces and towers in the northwest of Beijing. However, it was broken into by Anglo-French in 1860,     2     numerous national treasures, including the 12 animal head statues, were taken away.

In September 2007, Stanley Ho in Macao purchased the horse-head statue at a price of HK $69. 1 million ($8.9 million). It     3     (donate) back to the country in November 2019.

On Dec 1, 2020, the horse-head bronze statue returned to its original home,     4     (make) it the first animal-head statue to have come back to Yuanmingyuan. There is good news     5     the statue will be regularly displayed in the Zhengjue Temple area in Yuanmingyuan.

“The horse’s head holds the     6       (memorize) of history and our nation’s shared emotion,” Pansy Ho Chiuking, Stanley Ho’s daughter, said at the handover ceremony. The return of the statue sets an example     7     the international community to bring more lost relics back to their     8     (origin).

So far seven of the 12 statues including the horse     9     (come) back to China, and now the rest six are housed in the National Museum of China and Poly Art Museum. The search is     10     for the remaining five: a dog, a rooster, a dragon, a sheep and a snake.

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.

I’m truly delighted to learn that you have won the first prize in your school’s Chinese traditional culture quiz last week! I’m writing to congratulate you for your success from the bottoms of my heart.

I know that you have always been interesting in Chinese traditional culture since you came to China. Learning Chinese is not easy for you, and you keep on studying hardly. In fact that impresses me most is your attitude to learning. It is your hard work has helped you to become such successful. I’m sure you’ll have even great achievements in your future studies.

8 . Many people may think the Forbidden city, or the Palace Museum as it’s also called, is     1     great, old-fashioned museum.     2    , in recent years, the museum has been working hard     3     (promote) Chinese cultural heritage among the young people.

The museum’s online store now offers special cultural and creative     4     (product). For example, in 2014, it     5     (begin) to sell earphones that look like the necklaces worn by ancient officials, which even brought in     6     (rough) 1 billion yuan a year.

Last year, a documentary     7    (name) Masters in the Forbidden City became popular online. It is about the people     8     job is to repair the relics in the museum. Many of these workers are very young and some are even     9     their 20s.

Some other museums across the country, such as the National Museum of China,     10     (inspire) by the Palace Museum’s efforts and are working on similar projects of their own.

9 . There are some Christmas traditions between the United Kingdom and the United States.

In the United States, kids usually write letters to Santa and put them in the mailbox. However, in England we throw them directly into the fire. We don't plan to make kids cry because burning the letters can send them to the North Pole where Santa can read your Christmas wishes in the smoke. It may seem strange but it does save on postage.

Traditionally, American kids hang stockings around the fireplace for Santa to fill with presents. But in the UK. we hang stockings around the bed; being surrounded by presents is a fantastic way to wake up on Christmas morning.

Americans prefer to have pumpkin and pecan pies for the Christmas dessert; while we British are fond of Christmas pudding. which is a cake flavored with dried fruits and spices.

We British chose to take down the Christmas trees and the decorations within 12 days of Christmas, because we hold the belief that keeping then beyond that time can bring bad luck. This is probably a tradition that Americans should consider adopting. I have seen people keep their old, brown, dry and withered Christmas trees until almost July 4.

Video-sharing websites are not only about movies and TV programs. For many viewers, danmu, which literally means “bullet screen (弹幕)”, is    1    emotional shot to the heart.

On Dec 4, “AWSL” was named “2019 Bilibili’s Bullet Chat of the Year”. By Dec 4, it had appeared about 3.3 million times in 2019. According to Bilibili, AWSL is short for “A, wo si le” in Mandarin, which means “Ah, I’m    2    (die)” in English. The term refers to a mixture of emotions related to happiness and     3    (excite), and the strong emotional experience of “    4    (hit) hard” when someone expresses a deep fondness for certain things and ideas.

    5    , the popularity of “AWSL” across Bilibili bullet chats is not accidental, according to Gao Hanning, a post-doctorate at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Literature. “People have a highly interactive and enjoyable viewing experience,     6    allows users to make connections with others online who may share similar desires and interests,” he added, “and    7    the term reflects is contemporary youth culture, a great medium for online interaction.”

Bullet screens have become an    8    （increase) important way for young people to express    9    (them) in China, particularly among people born between 1996 and 2010. Since 2018, the number of bullet screens people send    10    (grow) from 1 billion to 1.4 billion.