There are a variety of activities in celebration of the Double Ninth Festival: climbing, wearing cornel (山茱萸) leaves, appreciating chrysanthemums (菊花), drinking chrysanthemum wine (雄黄酒) and eating Chongyang cakes.

Autumn is the    1    (good) season for climbing high places. When you look down from the height you find     2     (you) free from cares and becoming part of nature. The climbing custom     3    (start) from the Han Dynasty (202BC-220AD). To begin with, they climbed high terraces (梯田) on the outskirts of     4     capital Chang’an and later the hills and mountains around. And then it became a custom    5    the custom spread about.

When people climbed they wore cornel because they believed that cornel could keep away evils. Cornel is an ever green shrub (灌木)     6    a strong fragrance (香味). Its roots, stems and leaves can    7    (process) as a medical herb (草药) that can relieve some symptoms (症状) of a bad disease and keep away mosquitoes (蚊子). The poem “Reminiscing My Brother in Shandong on the Double Ninth Festival”     8     (write) by Wang Wei describes climbing with cornel: “Being a    9    (strange) in a foreign place, I miss my flesh and blood all the more. I know you are climbing with cornel, but your brother is not with you.” Even today when people miss their relatives and friends on festivals, this is the poem they are likely     10    (sing).