We call the     1     (China)New Year the Spring Festival. There    2     (be) a name for each Chinese year. We can call it     3     year of the sheep, the year of the tiger or the year of the pig.     4     New year’s Day, people are busy     5     (shop) and cleaning their     6     (house). On New Year’s Eve, there is a big family dinner. After dinner, all the family stay up     7    ( welcome )the New year. On the     8    (one) day of the New year, people put on their new clothes and go to visit each other, people     9     (usual) have a very     10     (well)time during the festival.

3 . Heritage is our legacy (遗产) from the past what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable (无可取代的) sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Great Wall of China make up our world’s heritage.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

How does a place become a World Heritage Site? It takes a lot of people to decide.

1.If a country wants one of its places to be on the World Heritage List, it has to ask UNESCO. The place must be important and special. UNESCO put the Great Wall on the list in 1987 because, it said, it was a great part of Chinese culture and beautifully made to go with the land. When a country asks, it must also make a plan for taking care of the place.

2.The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO talks about different places and decides whether to put them on the list. The committee meets every June. Many experts help the committee to decide.

3.After a new place goes on the list, UNESCO gives money to help keep it looking good. If a place is in serious danger, it may be put on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. UNESCO gives special care and help to those places.

4.Countries have to give UNESCO regular reports about places on the list. If UNESCO thinks a country isn’t taking good enough care of a place, the site will be taken off the lit.

Xuan paper, known as one of the Four Treasures of Study, first came into existence in Xuan Prefecture in the Tang dynasty. The traditional skill of making the paper     1     hand has been passed down through     2     (generate). The process takes as many as 18 steps, all of     3     require a level of delicacy.

Take papermaking master Zhou Donghong, for example. He uses a fine screen to filter (过滤) a mixture of water and fibers. He lifts it up, and it’s a sheet of paper. It takes him and his partner only 15 seconds     4     (form) and shape it, but they’ve devoted themselves to perfecting the skills for decades.

“There are a lot of tricks of filtering the fibers, and timing is the     5     (difficult) part of all. We have only one chance to filter the right amount of fibers, and only the proper weight     6     (guarantee) the paper is neither too thin nor too thick, and the margin for error is     7     (extreme) small,” said Zhou. With just the right degree of thickness, top quality Xuan paper holds ink and water tightly.

The skill of papermaking,     8     (recognize) as a national treasure, has also proven to be an international one. We felt     9     great sense of pride as it was listed as a world intangible culture heritage (非物质文化遗产) by UNESCO in 2009. Since then, in Jingxian County, Xuan papermaking     10     (teach) in schools.

A Bite of China

No trip would be complete without experiencing the local food culture.    1    (actual), China has various kinds of delicious food, including a wide variety of local snacks.

For most of the foreigners I have contacted, and myself    2     (include), Peking duck and Mongolian hotpot are the favourite Chinese dishes. China is a place    3     the food is not only delicious,but the    4    (cheap).

    5     my last night in Beijing before    6     (return) to the United States,I went to a Peking duck restaurant that had been suggested to me to try. What a beautiful place,with splendid woodblock prints on the walls, fresh flowers in the vases, and    7    (attract)silverware (银餐具) and beautiful chopsticks. I was handed     8     menu and found most of the prices were especially low for the high quality of the food.

Anyway,I ordered a whole duck,thinking I’d just take the rest back to my hotel    9    (eat) later if I couldn’t finish it. Unbelievably, none of the whole duck    10    (leave) on the plate in the end.

Yours,

Li Hua

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.