The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). Start of Autumn (立秋), the 13th solar term of the year, begins this year on Aug 7th     1     ends on Aug 22nd. Start of Autumn reflects the end of summer and the     2     (begin) of autumn. In China, the 24 solar terms were created     3     (thousand) of years ago to guide agricultural production. And solar term culture is still useful today to guide people’s     4     (life).

Although Start of Autumn indicates (表明) the start of autumn, hot weather will not come to     5     end. The period of hot days after Start of Autumn     6     (call) “Autumn Tiger”. Start of Autumn is a big solar term for farmers. It is time     7     (gather) crops. There is a saying. “     8       it rains on the day of the Start of Autumn, a good harvest is expected.”

In Shandong province, people make dumplings during the Start of Autumn     9     are a traditional Chinese food. On the day of Start of Autumn, senior members will stand in the middle of the hall     10     pray with family for the harvest in autumn. Most of the families will eat dumplings together on Start of Autumn day.

5 . Christmas cards are a big tradition in the English-speaking world. In 2017, people in Britain sent and received about 900 million cards. That’s an average of about twelve cards for every person, from tiny babies to the oldest grandparents. The number of cards that are sent around Britain causes an annual headache for the postal service. Each year, the postal service has to take on seasonal staff to help with the extra mail, and postal sorting offices are stretched to their maximum capacity and sometimes beyond it.

In 1994, before the age of email and social media, the service handled about 1.6 billion cards! In spite of advertisements telling people to “Post Early for Christmas”, few people got round to sending their cards off before December 10th; and from that point on, the postal service slowed down. Until the age of faxes, emails and social media, the pre-Christmas period often caused a lot of problems for firms, as “urgent” letters and documents took several days to reach their destinations by post, which were slowed down by the mass of Christmas mail!

During the month of December in Britain, a house with no Christmas cards is like a pub with no beer. For the most part, however, people of all faiths and of no faith join in the tradition of celebrating Christmas as a festival, whether they do so for religious reasons or not. Every British home at Christmas is merrily decorated not just with hollies, but also with a display of Christmas cards received from friends, family members, neighbors, employers and a variety of other people. In some places, the number of Christmas cards people receive is seen as a measure of their status among their friends and neighbors.

As for the subjects of Christmas cards, the range, today, is enormous. At one time, two principal themes predominated (占多数): the Christmas story, with pictures of the biblical scenes; and “traditional Christmas”, with imaginary scenes of Christmas which included burning wood fires and happy-looking parents and kids sitting together. Today, while “traditional Christmas” is favored by most people, there is no limit to the variety of pictures on cards.

While more and more people send e-cards to their friends and family members, you can’t hang an e-card on the wall, and you can’t decorate a room with rows of e-cards. Sending and receiving Christmas cards is still best done by “snail mail” which includes a real card and a real envelope. It’s much more fun.

7 . Four of the best British foodie gatherings

Scottish Wild Food Festival

If you’ve wondered if anything in there would make a tasty soup, then the Scottish Wild Food Festival (adult £16, child 5-13 £2, family £30) should be in your calendar. The festival focuses on the local, in-season and kind to the planet. Hosted at Tir Na Nóg, six miles east of the West Highland Way, the weekend makes a great start (or end) to a hike.

Ludlow Castle Food Festival

The lovely setting of Ludlow Castle is a great place for a food festival (adult £10, child 5-13 £4, family £26). It is a real treat in many ways. There are over 100 stalls (摊位) selling samples of country fare such as Hereford beef pie to all comers. A cheese-rolling game down the castle mound (堤) was great fun. Plus there are bands and poetry readings with food themes, too.

Sheffield Food Festival

Sheffield Food Festival (free) is held each June in the city centre. Local vendors (摊主) have everything on offer from Caribbean fusion dishes to specialty focaccia. Heeley City Farm, a charitable city centre farm, is my favourite producer with its organic produce and focus on sustainability. There is, of course, plenty of craft beer, too.

Bolton Food & Drink Festival

Love food? Enjoy cuisines from every corner of the world? Well, Bolton Food & Drink Festival (free) is a food lover’s dream. It takes place in December. As soon as you enter the Market Square your sense of smell and taste will be in overdrive with Greek, Chinese and Indian cuisines, etc. You could learn a few cooking skills from celebrity chefs (名厨) as well.

8 . I came to Russia to study in the winter of 2021. My university is located in Moscow, the capital of Russia, which is a city with a long history.

The second I stepped out of the airport, I immediately felt how cold it was outside.     1    When I saw the main building of Moscow State University, I was deeply shocked by its beautiful architecture with its 270-year-long history. Sensing how utterly small I was in front of this majestic building, I felt the crystallization (结晶) of human wisdom resonate within me.

    2     The snow and ice won't melt until April of the following year. Just like the melting snow, I gradually overcame the difficulties of studying abroad and came to adjust to my new environment.

The first challenge was the language barrier After leaning Russian in China, I realized that my skills were nowhere near enough. I was not fluent in Russian, sometimes causing misunderstandings.     3     In Russia, everyone intentionally stands on the right side when taking the escalator, which takes time to get used to.

The artistic atmosphere in Russia is very strong, however.     4    Tickets for concerts and cultural events here are relatively cheap, making it easy to enrich my life on weekends.

In a nutshell, living abroad means overcoming all kinds of difficulties. The experience will always leave a colorful shade in our lives. Just as the old saying in Chinese goes, “it is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.”     5    

9 . The British love to think of themselves as polite, and everyone knows how fond they are of their “pleases” and “thank you”. Even the simplest business such as buying a train ticket requires _________ seven or eight of these. Another _________ of our good manners is the queue. New-comers to Britain could be _________ for thinking that queuing rather than football was the _________ national sport. Finally, of course, motorists generally stop at crossings. But does all this mean that the British should consider themselves more _________ than their European neighbours? I think not.

Take forms of address(称呼) for example. The average English person -- _________ he happens to work in a hotel or department store--would rather die than call a stranger “Sir” or “Madam”. _________ in some European countries this is the most basic of common address. Our universal “you” _________ everyone may appear more democratic, but it means that we are forced to seek out complicated ways to express _________. I am all for __________ to the use of “thee” and “thou” (Thee and thou are old-fashioned poetic words for “you”); “you” would be reserved for strangers and professional relationships.

And of course, the English find touching and other shows of friendship truly __________. Have you noticed how the British __________ ever touch? Personally, I find the Latin habit of shaking hands or a friendly kiss quite charming. __________ kissing the average English person, and they will either take two steps backwards in horror, or, if their __________ is blocked you will find your lips touching the back of their head. Now what could be __________ than that?