1 . As the weather turns warmer and air becomes ________ , it is recommended that people eat fresh vegetables and juicy fruits to keep ________ hydrated (使吸人水分). Bamboo shoots are among the best foods for this season. Bamboo shoots, a root vegetable with few calories but lots of fiber, are________ harvested and eaten in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces ________ the climate is ideal for bamboo growth. There are many ways ________spring bamboo shoots, from nutritious soups to fun snacks. Now, we’ll take a look at some crowd-pleasing bamboo shoot dishes.

Dishes with bamboo shoots are enjoyed in almost every household in eastern China in springtime. An all-time favorite dish and symbol of springtime in Zhejiang is Yan Du Xian, a delicious soup ________with fresh spring bamboo shoots, cured pork and fresh pork. In Shanghai, there’s also a famous snack known ________ Xiasha Shaomai, a steamed dumpling from Nanhui in the Pudong New Area. ________use spring bamboo shoots and fresh pork as fillings of it. In the Tianmu Mountain region, there’s ________ appealing local dish called hand-peeled bamboo shoots, which are cooked in salty water and then cooled and packaged as a snack. The hand-peeled bamboo shoots________ as cold appetizers, which are fun to eat.

3 . Cecilia Chiang died on Wednesday at her home in San Francisco. She was 100. Her San Francisco restaurant, the Mandarin, __________American diners in the 1960s to the richness and________of authentic Chinese cuisine(菜系).

Ms. Chiang was born in a__________family. When she was little, children were not allowed in the _________, but she paid close attention on trips to the __________ markets with her mother and listened carefully as__________ instructions were given to the cooks. After her parents died, she __________the family business in her teens.

After the Japanese occupied Beijing in 1939, she was__________to join relatives in Chongqing, where she married Chiang Liang, a professor.

Ms. Chiang sailed to San Francisco in 1960 to help her sister. There she met two women who wanted to__________ a restaurant that __________Chinese diets. Later, when the two women __________, Ms. Chiang decided to open a restaurant herself. The early days were __________ . But little by little, customers came__________for hot and sour soup and pan-fried potstickers. One evening, Herb Caen, the popular columnist(专栏作家)for The Chronicle, __________at the restaurant. In a __________column, Herb Caen__________it “a little hole-in-the wall” that was offering “some of the best Chinese food east of the Pacific.”

Overnight the __________filled. The Mandarin was on its way. In 1968, Ms. Chiang moved the restaurant to __________quarters, where she could__________300 diners. “I think I__________what average people know about Chinese food,” Ms. Chiang told The Chronicle in 2007, “They didn’t know China was such a big country.”

4 . Chinese cuisine is widely known and enjoyed all around the world. Who doesn’t ______ a favorite Chinese dish? But there is one interesting ______ concerning Chinese food which is almost unheard-of in the West, and ______ ignored by the youth of the East the ancient custom of “tonic (滋补) food”.

Tonic food is food consumed to improve one’s well-being or ______ sickness. ______, it was once the ______ for new mother to eat a sesame-oil (麻油) hotpot every day for the first month after giving ______. It was believed that this dish would ______ the muscles, reduce pain, improve circulations, stimulate sweating and ______ the body.

Some food are ______ as “hot”, such as goat meat and coriander (香菜), while others, such as Chinese cabbage and radish (小萝卜) are“cold”. One should be ______ not to eat too much “hot” or “cold” food. ______, how much “hot” or “cold” food one should eat ______ the time of the year, ______ the food is prepared and what it is prepared with, and the individual’s ______.

The custom of employing tonic food for a healthier life also ______ the catering (餐饮) industry. Some Chinese herbal medicines can often be found on many a restaurant ______. Whether you need to ______ yourself to boost your energy with a large helping of chicken soup or increase your ______ power with a serving of pig’s brain soup, you may find that this ancient Chinese custom could be ______ the tonic you are looking for.