The lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, which     1     (own) a history of more than 1,000 years, is once again fascinating visitors with its brilliant shining lanterns.

Covering     2     area of nearly 37 hectares, the 30th International Dinosaur Lantern Show received around 450,000 visitors during the Spring Festival holiday from February 10 to 17.

To mark the Year of the Dragon, many of the lanterns     3     show feature the Chinese sign of the zodiac (生肖), but there are also a wide variety of other lantern designs to meet different needs. Visitors     4     prefer traditional lanterns can find lanterns with flowers and birds, legendary figures, and landscapes, while lanterns with modern themes such as cartoon characters, cultural trends and online games are gaining     5     (popular) among young people.

The lantern show is also expressing the concept of environmental protection. For example, a dragon lantern     6     (measure) over 200 meters long was made by tying together some 200,000     7     (abandon) water bottles.

This year’s show received more than 3,000 children’s artworks from around the world. Some of the art pieces were turned into lanterns by     8     (profession) craftsmen. Visitors can also enjoy acrobatics (杂技), folk arts, and Chinese music performances during     9     (they) lantern-viewing tours.

Famous for lantern-making, Zigong saw its lanterns lighting 80 cities across China during the Spring Festival holiday and Zigong lanterns     10     (light) up in more than 20 countries overseas last year.

Wearing Hanfu and sitting in front of a Chinese zither (筝), Peng Jingxuan, a young Chinese student, moves her fingers gently along the strings on a street in Paris, France.

Peng has shared more than 200     1     (origin) videos online, with the most popular one featuring the theme song of the movie A Chinese Ghost Story viewed over 16.61 million times. “I love how she’s representing her culture in a     2     (set) where people are not familiar with it. You can tell she’s proud of her background and her music,” one of her fans commented.

Chinese zither (筝), or guzheng, is an ancient musical instrument with 21-26 strings and a length of 1.63 meters. Peng     3     (fall) in love with it when young and has been practicing it for years. Hardly finding Chinese instruments     4     (play) on the streets in Paris, she took along her guzheng     5     began her street performances to sharpen her skills. The more she performed, the more she felt a greater sense of responsibility     6     (spread) Chinese music and culture.

Considering her audience’s     7     (unfamiliar) with Chinese songs, Peng made adaptations, for     8     she received positive responses. She also performed Western pop songs that local people could relate     9    , entertaining them with beautiful melodies in a     10     (refresh) style.

The earliest written record of noodles is found in a book dating back to the Eastern Han period (25-220). Noodles     1     (make) from wheat became a famous food for the people. The oldest     2     (evident) of noodles was from 4,000 years ago in China. A team of archaelogists reported finding an earthenware bowl     3     contained 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site. These noodles     4     (say) to resemble lamian, a type of Chinese noodle.

There are over 1,200 types of noodles     5     (common) consumed in China today. Wheat noodles in Japan were adapted from a Chinese recipe as early as the 9^th century. Innovations continued, such as noodles made with buckwheat were developed in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392-1910). Ramen noodles, based     6     southern Chinese noodle dishes from Guangzhou but named after the northern Chinese lamian,     7     (become) common in Japan in the 1900s.

The first concrete information on pasta products in Italy dates back to the Etruscan civilization, the Testaroli. The first noodles appear much later, in the 13^th or 14^th centuries, and there is     8     popular legend about Marco Polo     9     (bring) the first pasta back from China. Modern historians do not give much credibility to the story and rather believe the first noodles were imported earlier from the Arabs. Pasta has taken on a variety of shapes, resulting from     10     (region) specializations.