Woodblock painting（木版画）are often hung at homes during the Chinese Lunar New Year.

    For many Chinese, the bright-colored paintings are quite time-limited. As soon as the festival comes to an end, these print works are at once thrown away. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, these short-lives New Year paintings require a year of hard work by the artists, many of {#blank#}2{#/blank#} have devoted their entire life to this traditional folk art.

    Yang Luoshu, a 92-year-old man from Weifang City, Shandong Province, is {#blank#}3{#/blank#} those who have had a great love of the art. Yang has worked as {#blank#}4{#/blank#} craftsman for 77 years, and has kept improving his carving skills with every piece of work.

    Yangjiabu New Year woodblock paintings, which Yang has fallen in love with, {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(appear) in the Ming Dynasty. As a national cultural heritage, it is now one of China's three {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(representative) of traditional folk paintings for the New Year, together with Tianjin's Yangliuqing and Suzhou's Taohuawu.

    {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(run) a centuries-old folk art family workshop named Tongshunde, Yang has carved all kinds of images, including flowers, birds, mountains, rivers and traditional Chinese gods. But he realizes that something must be changed {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(make) sure handmade New Year paintings live on. “We are now thinking about development, allowing the paintings to be more {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(create).” he said. For him, the next thing to do is to find qualified successors to ensure that the skills {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(pass) to younger generations.

    Henry Bond was about ten years old when his father died. He lived {#blank#}1{#/blank#} poor life with his mother. When in fourth grade, Henry wanted a grammar book in order to join a class in the school. But his mother didn't have money {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (buy) one for him. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(trouble) by it, Henry started thinking about {#blank#}4{#/blank#} could be done.

    One morning, it snowed {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (heavy) and the cold wind blew hard. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (look) at the deep snow, Henry said to {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (he), “It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.”

    He ran to the house of a neighbor, and offered his services to clear a path in front of his house. The offer was accepted. After {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (complete) this work, he received a tip. Then he went to another place for the same purpose, and then to another, until he earned enough to buy the book.

    When school {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (start), Henry was in his seat, the happiest boy in the class, ready to begin the lesson in his new book.

    Henry was always one of the top students in his class. He knew no such word {#blank#}10{#/blank#} “fail”. Having the will, he always found the way.

    The Mid­Autumn Festival {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (celebrate) by the Chinese people all over the world every year. The moon is said to be its biggest and {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (bright) on this day. The Mid­Autumn Festival is {#blank#}3{#/blank#} special occasion for family. People eat many different kinds of moon cakes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (include) fruit, coffee, chocolate, etc. The Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. There are many stories about how the Lantern Festival {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (start). Nowadays, most lanterns come in many {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (shape). People often eat sweet dumplings boiled and {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (serve) in hot water on this day. The Dragon Boat Festival, which started more than 2, 000 years ago, marks the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (begin) of the hottest season of the year. There is a special food called zongzi {#blank#}10{#/blank#}the festival.

    Yuan Longping was born in 1930.Since he graduated from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953, he{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(devote)his life to finding ways{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(grow)more and more rice. As a young man, he saw the great need for increasing the rice output. At that time{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(hungry)was a serious problem in many parts of the countryside. Yuan searched {#blank#}4{#/blank#} a way to increase rice harvests without {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(expand) the areas of the fields. In 1950, Chinese farmers could produce about 56 million tons of rice. In{#blank#}6{#/blank#}recent harvest, however, nearly 200 million tons of rice were produced. These increased harvests mean that 22% of the world's people{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(feed)from just 7% of the farmland in the world. Yuan Long Ping is now circulating his knowledge in India and many other less{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(develop)countries to increase their rice harvests.{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(thank)to his research, the UN is trying to rid the world{#blank#}10{#/blank#}hunger. Using his hybrid rice, farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before.

    The Amber Room was made of several tons of amber. The amber which{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(select) had a beautiful yellow-brown colour like honey. The design of the room was in the fancy style popular in those days. It was also a treasure decorated with gold and jewels, {#blank#}2{#/blank#}took the country's best artists about ten years {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (make).

    The Amber Room was designed for the palace of Frederick I. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, the next King of Prussia Frederick William I, to whom the Amber Room belonged, decided not to keep it. In 1716 he gave {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to Peter the Great. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} return, the Czar sent him a troop of his best soldiers. So the Amber Room became part of the Czars winter palace in St Petersburg.

    Later, Catherine II had the Amber Room {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(move)to a palace outside St Petersburg where she spent her summers. She told her artists to add more details to it. In 1770 the room was completed the way she wanted. Almost six hundred candles lit the room and its mirrors and pictures shone like gold.{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(lucky), although the Amber Room was considered one of the{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (wonder)of the world, it is now{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(miss).