Have you ever picked up a pen to write some characters, but you can't {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(记得) what they look like?

    You're not alone. CCTV-10 started a show {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(叫做) Chinese Character Dictation Com-petition (《中国汉字听写大会》) last year. On the show, only three out of 10 adults{#blank#}3{#/blank#}（正确地）wrote bingjiling (ice cream 冰激凌), and no one could   write out penti (sneeze喷嚏). According to a survey, 94.1% of people said they had memory lapses (差错) when {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(写) some characters.

    It seems that Chinese characters are in danger. Since the digital(数码) age began, fewer and {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(少) people use pens and paper. Most people now write Chinese on keyboards using pinyin. As a{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(结果), many people would forget the features（特征）of a Chinese character, such as its structure and {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（意思）easily.

    Chinese characters are one of the world's{#blank#}8{#/blank#}（古老的）written languages, dating back (追溯到) to 1100 BC. It's not only a way for us to record things,{#blank#}9{#/blank#}（而且）it's important to pass on Chinese culture. For example, the character nan (male男) is made up of two{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(部分), tian (farmland田) and li (strength力). We can tell from it that in the old times Chinese men were in charge of (负责) working on the farmland.