While many Chinese cities are experiencing freezing cold, spring lingers at the Dounan Flower Market in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

A sea of blossoms, including lotuses, roses and sunflowers, is ready to go on     1     journey across the nation, decorating shopping malls, conference halls     2     the cozy corners of people’s homes

About 30 years ago, the Market was just a street with roadside stalls selling flowers, but today it has become Asia’s     3     (large) fresh-cut flower trading market. Its flowery beauty reaches more than 40 countries and regions, with the export value hitting 520 million yuan in 2021,     4     (rank) first nationwide. Yunnan’s fresh-cut flower growing area     5     (total) 21,700 hectares that year.

This is a market for all people, where everyone can buy their favorite flowers     6     the lowest price. It springs to life around 5 am every day. The wholesale trading session normally ends by 9 a.m. Packaging and delivery companies have     7     (branch) in Dounan and they can ensure quick delivery of the flowers. Live streaming on Douyin     8     (try) actively nowadays. The channels gain     9     (popular) but it is also quite exhausting.

Nevertheless, staying busy is     10     many flower sellers love.

In the rich and diverse Chinese traditional culture, hairpins (发簪), or “fazan” in Mandarin, stand out as elegant    1     (symbol) of heritage and beauty. Once playing    2    essential role in the daily clothing of ancient Chinese, they are now making a remarkable comeback among modern youth,    3    reflects a renewed passion for traditional culture.

Hairpins in ancient China were not    4     (mere) tools for holding hair in place; they were actually artworks, representing the wearers’ social status and personal taste.    5     (make)from a variety of materials and often decorated with    6     (detail) designs of flowers, birds, or dragons, these hair accessories   (配饰) carried profound cultural meanings and aesthetic (美学的) values.

In the past several years, amidst the fast-paced life of technology and globalization, a growing number of young Chinese    7     (rediscover) the fascination of the hairpin and offered it new meaning. This time it is not just about fashion; it’s an opportunity for them    8     (preserve) their cultural identity.

Modern designers are also breathing new life into the traditional hairpin, mixing ancient designs with contemporary aesthetics to appeal    9    the younger generation. These hairpins are not only worn with traditional hanfu dresses but have also found their way into everyday modern wardrobes,    10     (serve) as a unique bridge between the past and the present.

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.

Deep work: concentration is an increasingly valuable skill

The secret to success is the opposite of multitasking. However, many tend to think that     1    (productive) involves doing several things at once. We clarify deep work as the ability to focus on a mentally demanding task. It’s    2     opposite of shallow work, which is made up of simple tasks usually performed while distracted (分心).

Deep work is a valuables kill. Many are distracted when they work. Thus    3    you learn to work without distraction, that will give you an advantage. Deep work enables you to acquire skills quickly and develop excellence in your field,    4    (reward) you with a sense of achievement.

But deep work itself is a skill, which means the more time you spend, the easier it will get. Schedule deep work into your day     5    it will be easy to fill your time with shallow work. Doing deep work as your first task of the day will get your major work     6    (do) before distractions build up. Scheduling deep work sessions for the same time everyday can turn them     7     a habit.

Beginners can only focus on deep work for     8    (approximate) an hour, and even experts have trouble going more than four hours. So sat    9    (reason) goals. By focusing on planned sessions of deep work, you     10    (surprise) at how much you can achieve in the near future.

Yang Jiang was a well-known Chinese playwright, translator, and author. She belonged to     1     unique and beautiful existence in Chinese literature. She was the first Chinese academic     2    (translate) Miguel de Cervantes’ Spanish novel Don Quixote to Chinese and at that time, her translation     3     (honor) as the recreation of the original work       4     the basis of loyalty.

Yang was born into a rich family in 1911,     5    (original)named Yang Jikang. After eventually     6     (graduate) from Soochow University, she enrolled at the graduate school of Tsinghua University. She met her husband there, Qian Zhongshu, another acclaimed writer in China.

Other than translations, Yang     7     (author) many plays, novels, and essays during her writing career. Her short novel Mr. Wang,     8    (write) in 1984, was selected as an article in the textbook. In 1986, she got the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, a famous Spanish civil order, for her     9     (achieve) in Don Quixote. Her bestseller was We Three in 2003,     10     sales exceeded 180,000 copies in two months. Yang passed away in 2016, at the age of 105.

Mamianqun, or horse-faced skirt, is a traditional Chinese fashion that has exploded in popularity in recent years.     1    (date) from the Song dynasty, it gained popularity among women during the later Ming and Qing dynasties,     2     men also wore Mamianqun in informal settings. It features a broad waistband that can be tied at the waist, forming     3     “A” or “H” shape. What     4     (true) sets the Mamianqun apart are its pleats (褶皱), which are not only decorative, but also allow for freedom of movement.     5    (motivate) by traditional Chinese cultural elements, designers create abundant patterns on the skirts. Its unique design makes     6     ideal for mix-and-match daily dressing, perfectly proving that it’s not just a relic of the past, but a functional and stylish     7    (add) to modern wardrobes. This rebirth     8    (fuel) by a growing sense of cultural pride, which encourages people to embrace their heritage by combining traditional clothing     9     their daily dressing. Caoxian, a county in Shandong province, is generally considered     10     (be) the heart of Mamianqun production and holds a deep cultural heritage of han fu. In recent years, the Mamianqun business in Caoxian has been thriving, attracting a wave of young people to start their own businesses.

A stuffed toy named “Happy Loong” from Gansu Provincial Museum has recently distinguished     1     (it) from conventional souvenirs and captured the hearts of tourists.

Modeled     2     a Ming Dynasty gold decoration in the shape of a loong, or Chinese dragon, over 1, 000 of these chubby (圆胖的)     3     smiling loong toys were sold in the first week after it hit the market earlier this year.

Besides “Happy Loong”, the museum sells stuffed toys     4     (inspire) by the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras and the bronze galloping (飞驰的) horse from the Eastern Han Dynasty,     5     combine rich history with the appetite of Generation-Z.

This innovative approach to museum souvenirs reflects     6     broader trend of making cultural products appealing to young Chinese museum-goers. The Palace Museum’s online store, for instance,     7     (offer) playful and humorous souvenirs featuring emperors in Chinese history, receiving positive reviews from young visitors.

The success of these innovative souvenirs lies in the ability     8     (meet) the demands of young people seeking relaxation and individuality. However, designing truly     9     (create) cultural product requires a good knowledge of cultural relics.

Looking ahead, the museum souvenir market in China is expected to continue growing, presenting abundant     10     (opportunity) for designers.

The annual Yuyuan Garden lantern show in Shanghai, which is     1    (original) from the Han Dynasty, has been listed as one of China’s forms of intangible cultural heritage. It is one of the country’s oldest lantern fairs,     2     locals go to enjoy the festive atmosphere and wish each other well. Now, the beloved Yuyuan Garden lantern show     3    (take) place outside of China for the very first time,     4     60 large-sized structures and more than 2,000 lanterns lighting the oldest amusement park in Paris.

From dragon-shaped lanterns to patterns     5    (inspire) by the legendary world of “The Classic of Mountains and Seas”, a Chinese literary classic, the Yuyuan Garden lantern show in Paris has built a world of lights and imagination for visitors, showcasing the charm of traditional Chinese culture. Highlighting various cultural and     6    (spirit) symbols, the lantern displays include mythical creatures such as Kunpeng and Yinglong,     7    (represent) ambition and strength.

Beyond the lanterns, visitors can also admire traditional Chinese costumes and     8    (accessory), and enjoy Chinese cuisine. With a mixture of dancing, acrobatics (杂技)     9     martial arts performances, the lantern show promises to be     10     immersive experience in the world of Chinese folklore and lanterns.

More than just a lantern show, it also serves as an opening activity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France in 1964.

Henry James said the two most beautiful words in the English language were “summer afternoon”. And the only thing     1     can make a summer afternoon more perfect is a perfect summer dress. The perfect summer dress is the one that makes you feel the way you do on that beautiful afternoon:     2     sunnier，more carefree and more relaxed version of yourself. The perfect summer dress is pretty, but easy     3     (wear). It is romantic or a little poetic, rather than     4     (drama) or aggressive. Not too formal—it has to work     5     sneakers or bare feet. It shouldn’t be too     6     (particular) fashionable, because it is a love letter to the platonic (柏拉图式的) ideal of summer, rather than to summer 2023 or any other fashion season     7     (spend) in the past.

But that doesn’t mean we agree on     8     the perfect dress looks like. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all summer dress. What brings you     9     (please) is your perfect dress, which means that your perfect summer dress tells the world quite a lot about who you are and what you     10     (go) through in the past years.

On Thursday morning, Jason Sean joined a long line of people eagerly     1     (wait) to buy a commemorative (纪念的) Year of the Dragon stamp issued by the US Postal Service.

He was among the hundreds     2     waited at the Chinatown Community Center in Seattle, Washington, for the first day of the issue ceremony for the stamp. Sean said purchasing stamps to celebrate the Lunar New Year is     3     tradition in his family.

For more than three decades, the Postal Service     4     (issue) stamps highlighting the Lunar New Year, and it has been one of the     5     (successful) stamp releases in the long history of the Postal Service. The Postal Service has one of the most diverse workplaces in the United States, and its customer base is as diverse as the country     6     (it). This stamp is a great example that reflects the nation’s rich, multicultural heritage     7     traditions.

The stamp     8     (design) by Antonio Alcala in 2023, the USPS art director, with original art by Camille Chew. It features a colorful, three-dimensional mask depicting a dragon, which is a contemporary take on the long tradition of paper-cut folk art crafts created by Chew. Gold and red     9     (colour) represent prosperity in the coming year and good fortune.

The Year of the Dragon stamp is on sale now at post offices across the US and on USPS.com.     10     total, 22 million new stamps have been printed.