Chinese calligraphy has developed along with China’s     1    . It is difficult to say when     2     calligraphy started. Chinese writing was first done by carving symbols onto bones and shells, but as it developed into a writing     3    , it also developed as a form of art done with a brush. It is believed that Chinese calligraphy dates back to at least the Han Dynasty. Soon after that, the idea developed that calligraphy was not only a beautiful art form but also a     4     of showing the character of the “man behind the brush”. Today, anyone from small children to old people can enjoy practicing the     5     art of Chinese calligraphy.

3 . If you travel to nearly any Chinese city in the summertime, you will see people, mostly men wearing T-shirts, sitting out on the sidewalks on low chairs in the shade, playing a game with large round disks of wood.     1     Xiangqi dates back as early as the Warring States period. While experts have different opinions as to who created Xiangqi and how it is linked to Western chess, there is no doubt that by the Tang Dynasty Xiangqi was a popular game in China.     2     And in the 20th century both Sun Yat-sen and Zhou Enlai were big fans of the game.

And, though it may look quite a bit different than Western chess, Xiangqi is actually quite similar in what the pieces can do and how the game is played. Like Western chess, the object of the game is to capture the other player’s “king”.     3    

Unlike Western chess, instead of placing the pieces in squares, the pieces are placed on the intersections of lines. Another big difference between Western chess and Xiangqi is that there is a large empty space in the middle of the board, which the elephants cannot cross.     4     This space refers to an area in China where Liu Bang and Xiang Yu had a life-or-death war. The war was so influential that “the Chu River and the Han Boundary” has become a metaphor(隐喻)referring to any boundary between two opposing armies. When the Chinese people today see this name on the board, the battle scenes come to their mind, as though they are surrounded by thick smoke, able to hear the beating of war drums.     5    

ZHENGZHOU—Pingdingshan University in Central China’s Henan province has found more than1,000 ceramic (陶瓷) balls used in a golf-like ball game in ancient China. The university make the     1     (discover) while     2     (sort) out its ceramic collection.

The relics are related to an ancient game called “Chuiwan” in Chinese,     3     shares various features with modern golf, such as knocking balls into holes using sticks; and is     4    (wide) known as the ancient “Chinese golf”.

Most of the balls arc about 5 centimeters in diameter. The relics date back to as early as the Tang Dynasty,     5     more than l,800 such balls made in the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties.

“This is the first time that China     6     (find) so many Chuiwan balls, providing important materials for     7     (refer) when it come to studying the origin and development of the ball game.” said Cui Lequan, a researcher.     8     (locate) between the two ancient capitals of Luoyang and Kaifeng, the Pingdingshan area boasted a highly     9     (develop) porcelain handicraft industry in ancient times.     10    was likely a large production base for Chuiwan balls, said Cui.