Before my visit to a friend in Australia, I had done some research on the country     1    （locate）to the south of the equator. After reading about some     2    （icon）sites, I couldn't wait to see all of them. In fact, I was more interested in meeting people in Australia and experiencing their culture, food and way of life.

When I arrived in Sydney, my friend shared many different meals with me,     3     my first impressions of Australia were all about food. A lot of typical Australian food is     4    （original）British. The influence of Asian cultures, on the other hand, led to the     5    （introduce）of bean curd and Asian herbs. When we arrived in Katherine, a town in Australia's Northern Territory, we learned about the life and customs of the Aborigines,     6     are native to Australia. While the Aboriginal population might be small, its influence is still visible.

    7    （survive）in this vast land on the ocean, the Aborigines had to be in close contact     8     nature, which also shows in their music.

After being there for several days, my biggest impression is the complicated mix of peoples and cultures. Although the main cultural influence since 1788     9    （be）Western culture, minority cultures have also played a part in shaping the unique Australian culture. After experiencing Australia, I have to say that I agree with     10     tourism slogan: “There's nothing like Australia.”

Giving the Lion Dance More Bite

Expertise and various cultural elements combine to add to the wonder and attract new enthusiasts. The lively and strong beat of gongs and drums from Yang Feilong’s training facility can     1     (hear) more than a kilometre away.

As the door is pushed open, the sound     2     (flood) the air and is suddenly overpowering, while a group of young people     3     (dress) in multicoloured lion-shaped costumes jump into view.

They quickly move on the     4     (careful) arranged iron piles, fixed to the ground, of varying heights, while completing complex flips (空翻) and twists (旋转)     5     (show) an extraordinary performance that shows the charm of local folk culture.

Through their movement, the dancing lion takes on a life of its own,     6     (display) a variety of poses, from sitting and crouching (蹲) to drinking water and licking its tail.

“The key lies     7     cooperation among the performers,” says Yang,     8     observes the lion dance practices and gives his     9     (instruction).

“You also have to know how to show force and put your heart into the performance, so the lion can be presented in a way that it looks real,” adds Yang. He was recently named as     10     model young inheritor (继承者) of lion dance in Xitao town, Wuzhi county, Jiaozuo city, Central China’s Henan province.

Chinese Traditional Culture Museum held a fashion show,     1     (inspire) by the solar terms and ethnic (少数民族的) cultures in Beijing on May 21. The day was Grain Buds (小满), the eighth solar term on the     2     (tradition) Chinese calendar.

The clothes     3     (design) by Yang Jie after he went on a trip to a village in Guizhou province. It was during the trip that he     4     (get) the inspiration. He combined the patterns, sewing features and dye techniques of the Miao and Dong ethnic     5     (group) living there. The designer said the colors presented the changing shades of light and varying atmospheres     6     were connected with the several solar terms from early summer to early autumn.

Su Dan, director of the museum, said that it was worthwhile     7     (watch) the exhibition. In his opinion, costumes play     8     important part in our culture. The clothes that people wear carry rich information about the relations     9     people and nature, and how people define their social roles. The show was a     10     (celebrate) of history, culture and wisdom coming from people’s long-term interaction with the world.

9 . On the night of 14th June 1904, New York’s Chinatown was in a deep gloom (低迷). For the past 20 years, the restaurants were filled with those crazy about a taste of real Chinese cooking “chop suey”. But suddenly, all that seemed at risk. A few days earlier, a chef named Lem Sen had arrived, saying he had invented it a decade before while working at a restaurant in San Francisco. His recipe had been stolen by an American diner to make money. Through his lawyer, he demanded restaurants pay him for using his recipe.

Chop suey was first mentioned by Chinese-American journalist Wang Chin Foo in a list of common dishes he thought most attractive to Western tastes. As he explained, “each Chinese cook has his own recipe. The main parts are pork, bacon, chicken, mushroom, bamboo shoots, onion, and pepper, while accidental ones are duck, beef, salted black beans etc. Yet it is often considered by Westerners that this is a ‘national dish of China’ more than any other dish they’ve known.”

Although a hyperbolic way to introduce this dish, it clearly showed that chop suey was indeed of Chinese origin. Where exactly its roots lay has been debated; but it was probably first cooked in Taishan, Guangdong, where most early immigrants to America had grown up. In 1866, the journalist Allan Forman noticed it as a delicious dish despite its “mysterious nature”, and nine years later, the first recipe appeared in magazines, with some un-Chinese ingredients thrown in.

It was not long before a myth making began. In 1896, Li Hongzhang visited New York, and newspapers mistakenly reported that while refusing Western dishes at a banquet (宴会), he had enthusiastically accepted a plate of chop suey. This caused a great hit, and many who never heard of it before simply assumed that it was introduced to the US by Li Hongzhang, which accidentally promoted the dish’s popularity.

International Volunteer Day

The world is not made of bricks and mortar. It is made     1     of people interacting with each other and being     2     (support) of each other. Each year volunteer workers commit thousands of hours to     3     (organise) a huge range of activities. Sometimes they are in formal organisations; more often they are     4     (simple) helping out those in the neighbourhood     5     fortunate than themselves. What they have in common is that they are doing their volunteer work because they want to, instead of     6     (pay) to do so.

International Volunteer Day celebrates one of the     7     honourable jobs in the world — being a volunteer. Many not-for-profit and nongovernment organisations rely on the     8     (devote) of volunteers and International Volunteer Day gives these organisations an opportunity to acknowledge all their     9     (effort).

The United Nations General Assembly established International Volunteer Day in 1985. International Volunteer Day is the perfect time for an organisation     10     (express) thanks to its volunteers.