Chinese Teachers’ Day is the very festival     1     celebrates the 2,300-year tradition of respecting teachers and education in China. It bears much     2     (similar) to the birthday of Confucius or the birthday of private school tutor in ancient China.

The history of Chinese Teachers’ Day dates back to the Han Dynasty. During the Han and Jin dynasties, on August 27 each year, the birthday of Confucius,     3     (follow) by court officials, the emperor would go to Confucius’ temple to show respect for the ancient philosopher,     4     would also invite royal teachers to the imperial (皇家的) court for a banquet. Local     5     (chief) followed the court, and on this day, teachers around the nation enjoyed a day’s vacation and were given dried meat as gifts.

With local officials or the emperor     6     (lead) a series of activities, the capital, all states and counties would also stage sacrificial (祭祀的) ceremonies     7     (admire) Confucius. Excellent-performing teachers would     8     (choose) from academies and learning institutions nationwide, reporting to the royal court and given 500 liang silver coins as awards.

Until the Qing Dynasty, the sacrificial ceremony, on August 27, was of     9     larger scale. The teachers’ salaries in schools and academies. around the nation were raised and well-performing teachers would be awarded official titles or promoted to     10     (high) positions.

2 . The days when art was an Olympic sport

Did you know that creating works of art used to be an Olympic competition?     1     In the first year, Walter Winans became the first and the only Olympian to win medals for both art and sports. Despite this seemingly optimistic start, the idea of the arts being included in the Olympic Games soon met with disinterest, finally resulting in the removal of the art competition from the Olympic Games.

The idea to include art in the Olympics came from Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was the founder of the International Olympic Committee, which created the modern Olympics. Coubertin believed that the arts and sports were linked and was impressed by anyone who had a firm command of both a sport and an artistic discipline.

For starters, only amateurs were allowed to compete in the arts part of the Olympics.     3     Having artists of average quality competing while only the most competent athletes were allowed to compete created a dramatic divide and gave the impression that the arts were not as important as sports.

Secondly, works of art created had to have sports as the subject matter.     4     Limiting the subjects also contributed to making the arts part of the Olympic Games boring to the general public.

Finally, one of the biggest reasons was that the arts are subjective. Sports can be judged by time and distance, making it easy to determine who is the winner.     5     This difficulty in judging a definite winner resulted in the arts part becoming a non-competitive exhibition that ran for the duration of the Olympic Games.

Starting around 4,000 BC, traditional Chinese painting has developed continuously over a period of more than 6,000 years. Its growth has certainly reflected the changes of time and social conditions.

With Buddhism introduced     1    China from India around the first century AD, the art of painting religious murals (壁画) became important. By the 4th century, landscape painting     2     (make) itself an independent form of expression.

    3    , during the Song Dynasty (960~1279), paintings of historical characters and stories of everyday life gained growing     4     (popular).

Around the 9th century, bird-and-flower painting     5     (separate) from decorative art to form an independent style,     6    subjects included a rich variety of flowers, birds, insects and fish. Many of the scholar painters worked with ink and brushes.They produced paintings of such things as plum blossoms(梅花), orchids(兰花), bamboo, chrysanthemums(菊花), pines, etc., using their subject matter     7     (reflect) their own ideals and characters.

Modern paintings often mix several colours on one brush or mix their colours with black inks. As     8    result, they have obtained varied colours. Such     9     (technique) have been widely adopted and     10     (far) developed in the contemporary period.

5 . Children's Games in Ancient China Unlike the children nowadays, the children during ancient times didn't have smart phone, iPad or computer to entertain themselves.    1    Let's take a look.

Kicking stone balls

During the Qing Dynasty, kicking a stone ball around was a popular sport in the northern part of China, and it was often played in the winter to keep warm. Stones were carved into small balls and kicked along with feet.

Flying kites

Kites have quite a long history. The earliest kites were made of wood, instead of paper. Nowadays, the three most famous kites are the Beijing kite, Tianjin kite and Weifang kite.     2    . For example, the swallow-shaped kite is a well-known Beijing style.

Playing hide-and-seek

Hide-and-seek is a traditional game for children, popular around the nation. Even nowadays, many children like playing it. There are two ways to play. One way is covering a child's eyes while other kids run around to tease him.     3    

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The closest thing to watching a film or television for entertainment during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. Folk artists manipulate puppets behind the screen, narrating stories and accompanied by music.

Setting off firecrackers

Firecrackers have a history of more than 2,000 years. It is said that there was a beast named Nian in ancient China.    5    After gunpowder was invented, it gradually replaced the bamboo joint cracker. Crackers are still set off during Spring Festival to symbolize auspiciousness.