1 . Celebrate!

Piñatas

In Mexico, children often get piñatas on their birthday. Their parents put chocolates and other sweets inside the piñata and hang it on a tree. Then the children hit the piñata with a stick.     1    

Noodles

In China, people often celebrate birthdays by eating with family or friends, and the last dish of the meal is always noodles. The noodles are long and thin.     2     You can’t cut them. In Chinese culture, long noodles mean you will have a long life.

Business birthdays

A business birthday shows that a company is successful. Many businesses in the USA celebrate important birthdays, like 10, 50 or 150 years.     3    

Sometimes they make TV advertisements. It is a good chance to advertise the business.

Name days

As well as a birthday, many people in Southern Europe also celebrate their name day.     4    

People have big parties and open their houses to anybody who wants to come. People bring small gifts, often flowers or a box of sweets.

Islamic New Year

In Muslim countries across the world, people celebrate Eid. Eid means festival or celebration. During Eid, people visit family and friends, as well as people who are sick or in hospital.     5     Children receive toys, too. Children often wear special traditional clothes during the Eid celebrations.

2 . A student is learning to speak British English. He wonders: Can I communicate with Americans? Can they understand me? Learners of English often ask: What are the differences between British and American English? How important are these differences?

Certainly! There are some differences between British and American English. There are a few differences in grammar. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans say “in the hospital!” and “Do you have a pen?”. Pronunciation is sometimes different. Americans usually sound theirs in words like “bird” and “hurt”. Speakers of British English do not sound theirs in these words. There are differences between British and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “color” and “honor” are British, “color” and honor” are American.

These differences in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not important, however. For the most part, British and American English are the same language.

3 . Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving Day in the USA, falling on the Friday after the fourth Thursday in November.

    1    

Many people have a day off work or choose to take a day from their annual leave on Black Friday. Some people use this to make trips to see family members or friends who live in other areas or to go on vacation. Shopping for Christmas presents is popular on Black Friday. Many stores have special offers and lower their prices on some goods, such as toys.

Public life

    2    Many people take a day off on the day after Thanksgiving Day. Many organizations also close for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Public transportation systems may run on their normal schedule or may have changes. Some stores extend their opening hours on Black Friday.    3    

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day, is one of the busiest shopping days in the USA.    4    One theory is that the wheels of vehicles in heavy traffic on the day after Thanksgiving Day left many black marking on the road surface, leading to the term “Black Friday”.

The other theory is that the term “Black Friday” comes from an old way of recording business accounts.    5    Many businesses, particularly small businesses, started making profits before Christmas. Many hoped to start showing a profit, marked in black ink, on the day after Thanksgiving Day.

More recently, Black Friday has been exported to nations outside of North America such as the United Kingdom by major online retailers like Amazon or Apple. In 2011, IBM reported online Black Friday sales were up by 24.3%, according to a study that includes 500 retailers.

The Legend(传奇) of the White Snake is a famous tale among     1    (folk) in ancient China. It has since been presented in a number of major Chinese operas，films and television series. The earliest attempt to record the story     2         printed form appears in Feng Menglong's Stories to Caution the World.

The legend happened near the West Lake of Hangzhou. Visitors     3         admire this beautiful spot may still remember the story. More     4    (important)，a huge number of ancient traditional customs       5    (keep) in this legend have made it one of the oral heritages (遗产) containing the most abundant folk customs in China. And the story     6     (count) as one of China's Four Great Folktales now，the others       7    (be) Lady Meng Jiang，Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai，and The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid.

The Legend of the White Snake is handed down from generation to generation through     8    (variety) ways until now. It is so classical that there has been more than one     9    (adapt) and performance. This tale has become a symbol of Chinese folk literature and has earned     10     international recognition.

5 . Paper cutting is one of China's most popular folk arts. Archaeological (考古学上的) finds show that the tradition started in the 6th century; it is even supposed that the beginning of paper cutting is even a few centuries earlier.

Paper cuts have special importance at festivals and on holidays. To get rid of the old and bring good luck, people put up paper cuts on the windows on the Eve the Spring Festival.

Paper cuts are not produced by machine but by hand. They are done all over China, but are different in the method in different areas. There are two methods of   making paper cuts-by using scissors (剪刀) or knives. As the name suggests, scissors cuttings are made with scissors. Several pieces of paper (up to eight pieces) are placed together. The patterns are then cut with pointed scissors. Knife, cuttings are made by putting several pieces of paper on a table. Following a pattern, the artist cuts the patterns into the paper with a knife.

In the past, paper cuts were usually made only by women and girls. They used scissors and paper to cut all kinds of pictures such as apple trees, peach blossoms, mice, fighting roosters (公鸡) and rabbits eating carrots.

This used to be one of the skills that every girl was to master. Professional paper cutting artists are, on the other hand, almost always men who can make a living by working together in workshops.

7 . What are martial (武术的)arts and swordsmen like? To most Chinese, the answer to this question can be found in the works of the late novelist Jin Yong. Jin, whose real name was Zha Liangyong, died on Tuesday evening in Hong Kong, aged 94. The news soon spread all over Chinese mainland, where he inspired a generation, guiding them into the world of Wuxia, namely, swordsmen.

In his books, readers can learn about Chinese calligraphy(书法), painting,music,medicine and wine. He was the most successful writer in popularizing traditional Chinese culture. Chinese people had a deeply-rooted admiration for noble qualities and love for the country. So he won many people’s heart. Many people are fond of watching films and TV dramas adapted from his books, which influenced many peopled personality and value.

Jin’s influence knew no national boundary. No matter in New York, Singapore or Vancouver, where there are Chinese, there are his readers. His death marks the end of an era for martial art novels. We can hardly expect to see other writers with such influence and artistic achievement as him.

In terms of writing technique, Jin borrowed from Western plays. Some of his plots were just like ancient Greek tragedy. For instance, in his Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (《天龙八部》), the hero was like a tragic figure in Greek mythology. Writers in the West created new worlds like the one in the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. If there is an imagined world in China, that is the world with martial arts and swordsmen Jin wrote for us.

8 . The Harlem Renaissance

The word “renaissance” means “rebirth”. The Harlem Renaissance took place during the 1920s. It was a time when the African American artistic community grew and flourished, producing a ton of work in a short period of time. The work celebrated African American culture and spoke to their experiences as minorities---both the good parts and the bad parts.

After the Civil War, many African Americans left the South to escape unfair treatment and laws that discriminated against them. Between 1910 and 1920, massive numbers of black Southerners moved from the rural south into the urban North and West in the Great Migration. The African American population of Chicago more than doubled during that time! And in New York, African Americans flocked to uptown Manhattan, setting in a neighborhood called Harem. Forming a community within the big city let African Americans keep their cultural identity in a white-dominated society. It was a good thing, and a lot of important cultural issues were brought to light during the Harlem Renaissance. One of the most important figures of the time was the African American writer, W. E.B Du Bois. In his book, The Souls of Back Folk, in 1903, Du Bois wrote that African Americans suffered from something called “double consciousness”. They had their own self-image while they saw themselves through the eyes of white Americans. And performers like Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson brought African American culture to all New Yorkers. The Renaissance was so influential that “Harlem” grew into something of a brand name

African Americans were pushing boundaries across all aspects of society. Black businesses began to flourish, creating a growing middle class, like Madame C.J. Walker, who tuned her cosmetics line into a million dollar empire. All together, the artists, and thinkers of this period helped mobilize the larger black population. Young African-Americans took advantage of improved access to higher education. This opened up new career paths and opportunities to attain advanced degrees. Perhaps most importantly, people---black and white---began the push for racial integration, planting the seeds of what would eventually become the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

9 . 假如你是李华，你校英文广播站征集关于节日的稿件，请根据以下要点写一篇文章。

内容要点：

1. 纪念祖先和名人。

2. 庆祝丰收，感恩农事结束、食物收获。

3. 期盼冬天的结束和春天的到来。

4. 聚在一起，吃、喝、娱乐、享受生活。

注意：1.开头已给出，不计入总词数。

2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

3. 字数80词左右。

Festivals are meant to celebrate important times of year. Different countries have different festivals.

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10 . Family values are principles that help to define us as human beings. These values are learned, usually passed down     1     one generation to another. However, they can also change over time,     2     (depend) upon the circumstances in which families find themselves. They shape the way we behave, they help families stick together, and they give us our identity.

We always admire a person     3     treats the elderly with respect, or helps people in need, or is always honest with others. Such     4     (admire) behavior is usually a direct result of the values that person was taught by his family.

These values or principles—respect, fairness and     5     (honest) among many others—also help hold the family together in times of trouble. When problems arise, the family is able to withstand them because they share     6     same idea about

    7     is important. When family members feel pressure from the outside world, they know they can come into their family for a comforting connection.

Finally, family values make us who we are.     8     we talk about our personal character and what     9     (influence) our decisions, we do so based on the values

    10     (give) to us by our family.