There are several qualities of literature. One of them is its description of     1    (true) and beauty. Some truth and beauty remain unnoticed     2    a sensitive human soul brings them to our attention. A hundred men may pass a field and     3    (see) only dead grass; but a poet stops, looks deeper, sees truth and beauty, and writes. “Yesterday’s flowers am I.” One     4    (read) it is capable of seeing the beauty that     5    (hide) from his eyes before. Another quality is its appeal to our feelings and imagination. Its attraction lies     6    (much) in what it awakens in us than what it says. When Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus asks in     7    presence of Helen, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?” he opens a door through     8    our imagination enters a new world, a world of love, beauty and     9    (hero). In general, literature is the written record of man’s     10    (think) and feelings, and the history of the human soul.

A yellow teddy bear, found in a dustbin half a century ago,    1    (become) a star exhibit of the Benaki Museum of Toys in Athens since the museum opened in 2017. The adventurous bear,    2     important collection item in Europe associated with childhood, has also reached China through a children's book written by Greek     3    (educate) and author Eleni Geroulanou. In her fairy tale Once upon a time, a bear,    4     has been translated into Chinese and published by China's Hebei Children's Publishing House, the teddy bear wanders around the city     5     search of his home. He     6    (eventual) finds a new home and family in the embrace of Maria Argyriadis, a Greek researcher of toys who picks up the bear from the dustbin.

Along with the museum opening its doors in 2017, people were delighted to see the book    7    (print) in Greek. In 2019 at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, a Greek publisher showed the book to a Chinese publisher, who     8    (touch) by the story and decided to publish it in China. Due to the pandemic, Geroulanou has not been able to visit China yet, but she is looking forward to, when things get better,    9    (meet) with Chinese readers of her book. She says that both Greece and China have rich cultures and traditions dating back to ancient times, and     10     there is so much to learn from each other.

While English speakers look back to the time of Shakespeare and Milton 400 years ago as a Golden age, Chinese look back far     1     (far), to the Tang dynasty 1, 200 years ago as their Golden age of literature.

A key feature of Chinese poetry is     2     it is concise (简洁的). Each character places a thought, an impression, an image. Emphasis is put on use of rhythm and sometimes in a     3     (balance) look of the characters so that it is     4     (visual) pleasing on paper.

Amazing 48, 000 poems have survived from the many Tang dynasty poets. After the Tang, poets struggled     5     (establish) a modern style that was not rooted in the glories of the past. Later the style of the Song dynasty did become a popular form. So many people enjoy such     6     (popular) because it was more fluent and less rigid than that of the Tang.

Many poems contain specific events from Chinese history, and that makes understanding these poems     7     challenge to non-Chinese. Translating Chinese poems into English     8     (cause) all sorts of problems. For many years, writers have tried to convey the spirit of poems     9     different ways. Although much is lost in translation, the core (核心) meaning can     10     (catch) and appreciated.