Chinese New Year's Day is called "Guo Nian" in Chinese, which means "to pass over Nian" or "to overcome Nian".

    In ancient times, there was a monster {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (name) Nian. It had a long head and sharp horns (角). It lived deep in the sea all year round and only {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (show) up every New Year's Eve to eat people and animals in nearby villages.

    Therefore, on the day of New Year's Eve, people would run away to far away mountains so that they would not be hurt {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the monster. People had lived in fear of this monster until an old man visited the village on one New Year's Eve. The villagers asked {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (he) to run with them. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} he said he had a way to deal with the monster and stayed in the village himself. He pasted (粘贴) red paper on every door and lighted candles in every house. Then he wore red clothes and made loud noises by {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (burn) bamboo. In this way, he {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (successful) frightened away (吓走) the monster. When the villagers came back, they were {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (surprise) to find that the village was still in good condition (完好的).

    After that, every New Year's Eve, people did as the old man instructed and the monster Nian never appeared again. This tradition {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (continue) by people nowadays. It has become {#blank#}10{#/blank#} important way to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

    Reading newspapers has become an important part of our everyday life. Many people read newspapers {#blank#}1{#/blank#}the first thing to do in the morning.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(other) read newspapers as soon as they are free during the day so that they can learn what is {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(happen) in the world.

    Sometimes, however, we do not have enough time to read all the news carefully, so we just take a quick look at the front page, at other times, we may be in such {#blank#}4{#/blank#} hurry that we only have a few minutes to look {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the names of the passages.

    Newspapers can {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(find) everywhere in the world. We can get many different kinds of newspapers in the big cities, of course,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} in some of the mountain villages we can see few newspapers.

    Some newspapers are published {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(one) a week, but most of the newspapers are published once a day with many pages, some even published twice a day! As you know different people enjoy reading different newspapers, some like sports news, some like economic news and others prefer short stories. They just choose what they are {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(interest) in.

    Today newspapers in English have the {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(large) number of readers in the world.