China is known as the Kingdom of Bamboo because it is the country with the most bamboo in the world. More than 400 species of bamboo, one third of all known species in the world, grow in China. The areas    1    produce the most bamboo are south of Yangtze River.

Bamboo was    2    (close) connected with the daily lives of people in ancient China. Su Dongpo,    3    literary giant of the Song Dynasty, said that people could not live    4     bamboo, and people of the time used bamboo as firewood and to make tiles, paper, rafts, hats, rain capes, and    5    (shoe).

In the Han Dynasty, bamboo    6    (use) for paper making because it produced high- quality paper and was    7    (expensive);three tons of bamboo could yield one ton of paper pulp(纸浆). And bamboo is still an important raw material for paper making today. Some 1,600 years ago, people wrote with brushes on xuan paper    8    (make) from young bamboo, and xuan paper is still popular for Chinese calligraphy and paintings.

Tall and graceful with luxuriant foliage(枝叶),bamboo is an    9    (idea) plant for household courtyards and parks. It tolerates the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and it regenerates after    10    (cut).