Each year, thousands of people come to Shaanxi, China, to visit the Terracotta Army,     1     shows the life of Qinshihuang, the country’s first emperor.

As one of the most famous tourist sights in the world, the Terracotta Army is a form of funerary (葬礼的) art     2     (bury) with the First Emperor in 210 to 209 BC. It was designed     3     (protect) the emperor in his afterlife.

Since their     4     (discover), experts have questioned whether the life-size models of soldiers     5     (base) on real warriors or whether they came off a production line.

In October a BBC documentary (纪录片) the Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China, suggested the inspiration (灵感) for the Terracotta Warriors may have come     6     Ancient Greece, about which Archaeologist Li Xiuzhen said, “We now have     7     (evident) that close contact did exist between the First Emperor’s China and the West.”

On the 41st International Museum Day, it was     8     (official) announced that new technology has just made     9     possible for visitors to be guided. Thanks to an interactive 360-degree video, visitors can choose either to view the figures close-up     10     from a distance.

Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry    1    (write) in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms and close connections with particular historical    2    (period), such as the poetry of the Tang Dynasty. Its existence    3    (record) at least as early as the publication of the Classic of Poetry or Shijing.    4     (variety) combinations of forms and genres exist.

Many or most of   these    5    (arise) at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Use and development of Classical Chinese poetry    6    (active) continued up to the year of 1919,    7     the May Fourth Movement took place, and is still developed even today. Poetry created during this 2,500 year period of more or less continuous development shows    8    great deal of diversity-classified by both major historical periods and by dynastic periods. Of the key aspects of Classical Chinese poetry, another is    9    (it) intense interrelationship with other forms of Chinese art, such as Chinese painting and Chinese calligraphy.

Classical   Chinese poetry has proven to be of strong influence    10    poetry worldwide.

The youth version of The Peony Pavilion (《牡丹亭》) successfully entered the stage of the Spring for Chinese Arts at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.

The Peony Pavilion,     1     cultural treasure of the world, was written by China’s Ming Dynasty playwright and writer Tang Xianzu, who is compared to William Shakespeare. And Kunqu Opera,     2     (combine) songs performed in the Suzhou dialect, graceful body movements, martial arts and dance, was     3     (origin) born in the region of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. It was listed as one of the representative     4     (work) of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2001.

Kunqu Opera uses a seemingly endless     5     (vary) of gestures to express specific emotions and has distinguished itself by its rhythmic patterns. It also has a major impact     6     all the more recent forms of opera in China, such as Peking Opera.

    7     excites the organizing committee is that The Peony Pavilion     8     (attract) a growing young audience since its first performance in Beijing. Up to now, Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center,     9     aim is to emphasize the inheritance, promotion, development and popularization of traditional Chinese culture and arts, has also held many exhibitions related to traditional drama, and established the Peking Opera inheritance class     10     (popularize) the traditional art to children.

Kung fu, also     1    (name) as wushu or Chinese martial arts, is     2    important part of traditional Chinese culture.

It is     3    (probable) one of the earliest and longest lasting sports. The theory(原理)of kung fu is based     4    classical Chinese philosophy. Over its long history it has developed as a unique combination(结合体)of exercise, practical self-defense, and art. There are many     5     (form) of kung fu, namely Shaolin Kung Fu, Wing Chun, Tai Chi, etc. Each form of kung fu     6    (have) its own principles and techniques. It is in the late twentieth century     7    this term was used in relation to Chinese martial arts by the Chinese community.

Historically, the influence of Chinese martial arts can     8     (find) in books and in the performance art. Recently, those influences have appeared in the movies and television that have a much     9     (wide) audience. As a result, Chinese martial arts have spread beyond (超出) its ethnic roots and have a global influence. Nowadays, it is regarded as a traditional sport becoming more and more popular     10    even stands as a representative (代表) of Chinese culture.

Peking Opera is a form of traditional Chinese theater that    1    ( appear) in Beijing in the late 18th century.    2    (combine) music, song, dance and acrobatics (杂技动作) in a lively and colorful display, it is a    3    ( relative) new style of drama, compared to other types of Chinese theater.

In the early years of Peking Opera, all the actors were men,    4     the roles of women played by young boys. The stories fell into two main    5    ( category) -wen, or civil theater, which focused on love, marriage and other civilian concerns, and wu,or military theater, which focused on the theme of war and was known for featuring thrilling stage actions.

In the first half of the    6    (twenty) century, the most famous actor of Peking Opera was Mei Lanfang,    7     played a key role in popularizing Peking Opera and introducing Chinese theater to the West. Additionally, Mei also took the bold step of taking on female students, which was    8    highly risky and unconventional step at the time.

After the founding of the People' s Republic of China, Peking Opera performances, which dealt with contemporary and revolutionary themes, were encouraged. Despite    9    ( it) ups and downs, Peking Opera was revived(复兴) in the 1980s and continues to    10    (perform) today.

8 . When we think of a generation gap we usually think of conflicting tastes in music, or pastimes. But now the generation gap is handwriting. After one teacher in Tennessee discovered that she had students who couldn’t read the assignments she was writing on the board, she posted it on the Internet saying handwriting should be taught in schools.

Opponents claim that handwriting has become out of time in our modern world. Typed words have become a primary form of communication. Once a practical skill, handwriting is no longer used by the vast majority of Americans. It is no longer taught in schools, and some claim that the time that it would take to teach it could be put to better use, for instance, by teaching the technical skills.

But even in today’s world there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a pen and apply it to paper. Many American institutions still require original signatures, for instance, signing for a registered letter and buying a house. And original signatures are much more difficult to forge（伪造）than their digital counterparts. There is also strong evidence that writing by hand is good for the mind. It activates a different part of the brain, and improves fine moving skills in young children. People also tend to remember what they write by hand more than what they type, and the process of writing by hand has been shown to stimulate ideas. Not only that, studies have shown that kids who write by hand learn to read and spell earlier than those who don’t. Not to mention, handwriting is pleasing, as is evidenced by the fact that no one has ever typed a love letter. And handwriting remains popular as an art form.

Yes we live in a modern world, but we live in a modern world that is based on fundamental values.

9 . It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr. Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators(评论员) fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.

Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that” To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.

Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, “because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena(现象).” The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.

Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs ,which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”, In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.