The Palace Museum’s clock collection, more than 1,500 in number, is arguably one of the most breathtaking clock preservations worldwide.     1     (make) between the 18th century and the 20th century, some were crafted in Britain, France and Switzerland, some were from the Clock Worship of the Qing Palace, the others were     2     mixture of both the East and the West.

The     3     (major) of British clocks feature bronze cases inlaid with splendidly colorful jewels. They are diverse     4     form, recreating all kinds of architecture and natural sights, and often include automatic     5     (decorate) such as fountains, moving figures, boats and birds. These clocks represent the highest level of craftsmanship in Britain.

Most of the French clocks here are the products of the early 20th century. Whether in terms of theme     6     decorative style, the French clocks in the collection have a style of     7     (they) own, and deserve their place in history.

The Swiss timepieces     8     (most) comprise small, unconventionally shaped desk clocks and delicate pocket watches. They were specially made     9     (suit) the tastes of Chinese customers.

Clocks may turn back in time, but humans may never dream of doing so. Today, the Palace Museum     10     (aim) to carry on this touching tale of “time” as guardians of this traditional craftsmanship.

As the temperature continues to drop, the golden autumn seems to be coming to an end, indicating the     1    (arrive) of the Cold Dew period. Cold Dew, known as “Hanlu” in Chinese,    2     (fall) on October 8 and ends on October 23 this year.

During Cold Dew, temperatures drop     3    (significant) and the sun cannot reach the deep waters thoroughly. Therefore, fish swim in shallow waters,     4    the water temperature is relatively high, making Cold Dew the best season to cast a net or throw a line.

Chrysanthemums (菊花) are the symbolic flower of Cold Dew.     5    (prevent) autumn dryness, many regions in China have the custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine. In ancient times, drinking wine made with chrysanthemums    6    (think) to allow people long-lasting youth.

Other traditions to mark the season include hiking and climbing. With maple (枫树) leaves     7     (turn) red, the splendour of color welcomes nature lovers. On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, which often is around Cold Dew, people often climb hills with cornels (茱萸),    8     kind of plant. This custom, dating    9    the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), aims to drive bad things away.

Cold Dew allows us to say goodbye to golden autumn with delicate design, and also gives us a chance to know     10     (much) about the culture behind the solar terms.

A black slate (石板), an alloy steel needle and decades of practice are     1     Li Yahua needs to create the perfect Huihe stone shadow carving work of art. With her left hand     2     (gentle) leaning against the mirror-like stone to support the heavy chisel (凿子) she’s holding in her right hand, the artist creates a black-and-white landscape by intensively chiseling dots in various sizes and density on the stone.

    3     (difference) from traditional Chinese art types that emphasize the beauty of lines, stone shadow carving highlights the size and     4     (deep) of dots.

“We use an alloy steel needle to chisel white dots to create images on a polished and smooth black slate,” Li explained, adding the pressure     5     (use) to chisel them was the key to getting the carving right.

“On an A4-paper-size black slate, we need to chisel about 100 million dots     6     (create) an image,” she continued, adding it would take 7 to 20 days to complete the work depending on its level of complexity.

Born into a family of stone carvers, stone and alloy steel needles     7     (be) Li’s best friends since childhood and the sound of chisel     8     (knock) on the slate is the soundtrack to her life.     9     56-year-old has devoted nearly 40 years to the craft. For her, shadow carving is about preserving history, culture and art,     10     recording the stories of the times.

Whenever Song Jing visits a museum, she never fails to check out the section on ancient books. In addition to appreciating the wisdom hidden in those historical volumes, she focuses on     1     they were joined and presented. Song     2     (work) in the restoration division for ancient books at the National Library of China in Beijing for eight years.

The seasons come and go outside her workshop, but time is relative for Song and her fellow restorers. Their work is calculated not through “years”     3     “lifetimes”. The flow of time may be hardly felt except through the yellowing pages and the graying of hair.

The primary objective or ancient book restoration is     4     (extend) the life period of the document. The     5     (high) the similarity between the original and the restoration materials, the more consistent their rate of aging will be, and thus the better the ancient books can     6     (preserve).

As a child, Song was fascinated by     7     (documentary) about the world’s cultural relics and became deeply interested in antique restoration. She spent hours researching cultural relics,     8     (frequent) local museums and reading related books.

It usually takes at least two to three years from learning and following a master     9     one can independently lead a restoration project. “Ancient Chinese civilization has left behind a vast number of books, many of     10     require restoration,” Song says. “Hopefully, I can inspire more young people to find their lifelong passion in the field of cultural heritage preservation.”

The minority of Red Yao is one of the ethnic minorities in China, living in north of Guilin. Guangxi Region, especially on Longji Rice Terraces(梯田). One of the     1    (big)Yao festivals is the Clothes Drying Festival, which falls     2     the sixth day of the sixth lunar month. In practice, women lay out all their traditional costumes under the sun. This serves the double purposes of disinfection and allowing the ladies to show off     3     they have. If it rains, they will spread their costumes indoors,     4    (leave)the door open.

That day, local Yao people took their clothes outside their house to dry and seek fortune. Later,     5    (dress)in their treasured costumes, they showcased how to make traditional clothes, performed group weddings and gave other unique performances as a way     6    (attract)tourists.

Yao people in the area     7    (observe)the festival for centuries. Tradition has it that the celebration ceremony is held between the famous terraced rice     8    (field)in this area.

The celebration continues into night     9     reaches its height when the people light up their doorways under the starry sky. In addition, fireworks are set off.

The celebration varies     10    (slight)from place to place. In Guiping County nearby, Yao people stand in squares waving their hands to the sun and express their admiration at dusk.

6 . In China under imperial rule, National Day was a celebration of the Emperor’s birthday or his rise to the throne. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared the formation of the People’s Republic of China.     1     The holiday is held annually in Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China.

The first seven days of October are referred to as the Golden Week. This is a time of travel and leisure that is celebrated differently in various parts of China. People in cities often travel to rural areas to relax and enjoy the quiet surroundings. People from urban areas also travel to other cities throughout China to take part in celebrations.     2     Each year, a large National Day celebration is held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Beijing’s National Day festivals are filled with military performances, food vendors, live music, and various other activities. In Beijing and other cities, musical and dance concerts are held to celebrate National Day. Crafts, painting, and a range of other activities can be enjoyed by people of various ages.

    3     This fireworks show is approved by the Chinese government and some of the highest quality rockets and explosives are used to fill the sky with sparkling colors of gold and red.

In addition to patriotic celebrations, National Day in China is also a time for people to enjoy being with their families. Family members of all ages will often use this as an opportunity to travel to a central location to reconnect after months of working.     4    

Although National Day is entered around patriotism and China’s history, National Day is also a time of shopping.     5     So people should put a bit of money to the side and use this as an opportunity to purchase some of the things that have been on their wish lists for a while.

Known as the birthplace of kites, Weifang in Shandong province has     1    long history of making them which can date back to 2,000 years ago. They were     2     (original) used by the military for measuring     3     (distant) and communication purposes. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), kites started to be popular with ordinary people as entertainment. Made from bamboo and featuring traditional Chinese paintings, Weifang kite-making was included in the national cultural heritage list in 2006. International Kite Festival     4     (hold) in Weifang every year since 1984.

Yang Hongwei, a kite-making expert, believes the cultural context behind their kites is unique. Once she made a kite     5    (show) a phoenix head lined with pictures of 50 famous women in Chinese history on each side. To draw these pictures, she     6    (spend) lots of effort and time checking     7     (history) records and discussing the details with professionals. “It’s time-consuming,” Yang added, “but     8     I explain the stories on the kites to foreign customers, I feel a sense of great achievement.”     9    her spare time, she also travels to different countries including Germany, Australia, the US and New Zealand to tell people about Chinese stories     10     (see) on kites and the traditional ways of making kites.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known     1    Qingming Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday that falls on April 4th or 5th each year. It is a time     2     families gather together to pay respects to their ancestors, by cleaning their tombs, offering food, burning incense, and performing other rituals.

The holiday has a long history,    3     (date) back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Tomb-Sweeping Day is now     4     public holiday in China, and many people take time off from work     5     (visit) their ancestral graves.

During the holiday, families will     6     (typical) bring offerings such as fruit, flowers, and other food items to the gravesite. They will also burn incense and paper money, and may perform a variety of     7     (ceremony).

In recent years, Tomb-Sweeping Day     8    (become) a more commercialized holiday, with many companies offering products and services     9     (relate) to tomb-sweeping, such as online tomb-sweeping platforms, and other products.

Despite these changes, Tomb-Sweeping Day remains an important     10     (culture) holiday in China, and a time for families to come together to remember and honor their ancestors.

Stone lion is carved out of stone,     1     is the common ornament (装饰物) in Chinese traditional architecture, such as temples, bridges, gardens and so on. Lion indicates     2     (safe) and luck in China.

It is said that the lion     3     (introduce) into China in Han Dynasty from the Western Region. In Chinese culture, lion is     4     mythical (神话的) figure rather than real animal. After its introduction, lion gradually became the mascot outside the gate, for Chinese people think that lion can drive away the evil spirits. Another saying of why people take stone lion     5     the gate keeper is related to the pronunciation of stone lion (Shishi) in Chinese. Stone sounds like ‘Shi’ in Chinese with the meaning of solid, and the second ‘Shi’     6     (refer) to lion sounds similar to ‘Si’ which means ‘to think about’.

Stone lions have the obvious local     7     (feature). The lions from the South are     8     (vivid) with many sculptures than the lions from the northern China. The stone lion is carved     9     (base) on a kind of architectural ornament frequently used as the base for decent building.

    10     (general), the location of the stone lion is settled with female in the right side and male the left according to Chinese traditional Yin and Yang philosophy.

The “Chuanbei Big Puppet (木偶) Show” in Nanchong, Sichuan Province,     1     (list) as an item of national intangible cultural heritage since 2006. And     2     makes this traditional performance so special is the use of life-sized puppets.

The art dates back over 300 years, and 82-year-old Li Siyuan is a     3     (recognize) master of his trade.

You can’t     4     (simple) rely on your hands to perform the big puppet show. Footwork is needed as well. The puppets, through the control of puppeteers, can dress up, light     5     candle, and even perform magical face-changing shows. Each puppet is at least 1.8 meters tall, and weighs over 20 kilograms.     6     takes skill and effort to really control them well.

“The traditional puppet, along with the ability     7     (control) it, is fast becoming a rarity in China. So,     8     (pass) this dying cultural heritage from one generation     9     the next is becoming a real challenge,” noted Li.

The good news is that the big puppet show in Nanchong is slowly gaining     10     (accept) and popularity among younger generations. Masters like Li Siyuan hope this age-old art and tradition can thrive in the modern era.