Ancient China produced many types of beautiful works of art. Among them, calligraphy (书法), poetry (诗歌) and painting were the most famous. Often they would be put together in art. These became important starting with the Song dynasty.

    Calligraphy is the art of handwriting. In the old time the Chinese considered writing as an important form of art. Calligraphers (书法家) would practice for years to learn to write perfectly, but with style. Each of the over 40,000 characters needed to be written correctly. And each stroke (笔画) in a character had to be written in a certain order.

    Poetry was also an important form of art. Great poets were famous all over the country, but all educated people were expected to write poetry. During the Tang dynasty poetry was so important that writing poetry was part of the examinations to become a civil servant (文官) and work for the government.

    Chinese painting was often connected with calligraphy. It is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as "national" or "native painting (国画)", which is quite different from Western painting. People can draw mountains, homes, birds, trees and water on it.

    Do you have a special talent or skill but there is no one that enjoys it? If so, you might want to go to Christ church, New Zealand, for the World Buskers Festival.

    January is summer time in New Zealand, and the entertainment (娱乐活动 ) takes place outside. However, this is not the typical outdoor music concert or festival you have known. The buskers-people who perform on the streets and in other public places—bring the city to life with amazing entertainment.

    The event begins in late January and attracts (吸引) around 300,000 visitors every year with about 500 performances. The performances include the circus(马戏表演) and magic acts, street dancing and singing, and other crazy forms of entertainment.

    One of the best things about the festival is how well it attracts many people, from the youngest to the oldest .Laughs are everywhere, especially when unprepared visitors are asked to become a pan of the performance.

    The festival director says, "We have performers from all over the world. Most of the performances are free, so it means you can bring your family and spend a whole day here."

    There's something for everyone at the World Buskers Festival, one of the biggest and most popular street festivals in the world.

Grain in Ear, also Mangzhong in Chinese, is the 9th solar term (节气). It usually begins on June 5 and ends on June 20. During the period of Mangzhong, farmers in South China are busy growing rice {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. How about the farmers in North China? They need to harvest wheat before {#blank#}2{#/blank#} days come. In order to celebrate the solar term, there are many activities.

When Mangzhong comes, people in Anhui Province make different types of anmiaobao and colour it with vegetable juice. Anmiaobao is a kind of bread {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of wheat flour. People hope to have a good harvest in autumn by making it. 

In Guizhou, people {#blank#}4{#/blank#} mud wrestling (泥摔跤) matches during Mangzhong for many years. On this day, new couples plant rice together with good friends. While {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, they throw mud at each other. The person who gets the most mud {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to be the most popular person. 

Boiling green plums (煮青梅) is also a popular activity among people. In South China, June is the best time to harvest plums. And eating green plums is good for {#blank#}7{#/blank#} health. But remember to boil green plums before eating {#blank#}8{#/blank#}.

{#blank#}9{#/blank#} of years ago, people used solar terms to help with farm work. But even today, they are still of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} to our life. We can learn a lot from them. For example, life is like farming, and you get what you plant.

Everyone has a family name. My name is Jane Armstrong. Armstrong is my family name. What does Armstrong mean （意思是）? Does it mean my arms （手臂） are strong? No {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I don't like strong arms. My best friend is Lucy Long. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} No，she isn't. She is short. But she has long hair. 

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} My friend's name is James Cook. Does it mean he can cook （烹饪）? No，he can't. And he doesn't like cooking at all. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} And he likes the TV show A Bite of China（《舌尖上的中国》），because it is all about nice food. 

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Ann Hill is my classmate. Is there a hill near her home? Yes. There is one hill behind her home. But her uncle，Tom Hill lives 20 kilometers （千米） from a hill.