Colorful lanterns are lighting up China's night sky, as activities begin across the country to celebrate Lantern Festival today.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (date) back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), the Lantern Festival is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(mark) the first full moon of the lunar new year.

    You Guoqing, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} folk custom expert in Tianjin, said the Lantern Festival was about going out for a colorful celebration rather than a family get-together. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}watching lanterns, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} is also a day to appreciate the full moon, solve lantern riddles, watch art {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(performance) and eat tang yuan.

    The festival was once also a time for romantic encounters. In feudal times, young women were not allowed to go out {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(free), but Lantern Festival was an exception, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} young men and women could meet up.

    Some aspects of the festival, such as its romantic atmosphere, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (fade), but people {#blank#}10{#/blank#} see the Lantern Festival as a day to rejoice and a chance to wish for happiness.

    Long before Barack Obama became president of the United States, he wrote a book{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(call) Dream from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which has since become{#blank#}2{#/blank#}bestseller. It is an{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(appeal) book that includes what he went through during{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(he) childhood. Obama has little contact with his father{#blank#}5{#/blank#}roots were in Kenya because he left home when Obama was very young. His mother got married{#blank#}6{#/blank#}a student from Indonesia shortly after the family moved to Jakarta. A few years later, Obama came back with his grandparents to Hawaii, where he{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(attend) a private high school.{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (study) at Columbia in New York City, he then entered Harvard Law School. This autobiography also touches{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(heavy) on Obama's exposure to racism. Readers will find his reflections of childhood {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(experience) which involved racial discrimination to be especially moving.

    Dragon Head Raising Day,{#blank#}1{#/blank#} falls each year on the second day of the second lunar month, is one of the Chinese traditional festivals. As the proverb goes: “The dragon is awaked,{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (raise) his head”. On this day, dragons, a prominent totem (图腾) in Chinese culture raise {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (they) heads with the sound of thunder. Around this time, the earth {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (burst) with life. Grass and trees are beginning to shoot up. In ancient China, people {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (pray) the dragon god beside a river or a lake for the precious spring rains to breed their crops.

    {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (tradition), food eaten on this day was renamed after parts of the dragon. For instance, wontons were called “dragon's eyes.” The special {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (food) usually eaten on this day include dragon's scales, popcorn and pig's head.

    In Shanxi, people get their hair {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (cut) in a symbolic move to remove the old and embrace the new. In {#blank#}9{#/blank#} countryside in Hebei Province, people would fetch water from a well at dawn. It was believed {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on this day the well was full of dragon eggs which would bring the collector good harvest.

    Positive thinking does not mean you have to find every idea absolutely wonderful.

    It {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (do) mean you have to be ready to explore an idea and to try and bring out whatever good features it has .The next step might be to find the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (weak) in the idea and to try and strengthen them, rather than use them {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (simple) as an excuse for rejecting the whole idea. Finally, the idea, after it {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (explore), may not be used because there is a {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (good) one or because, good {#blank#}6{#/blank#} it is, it is not suitable. There is {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (something) wrong with being positive about an idea at first and then {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (reject) it later, when you see that it won't work.

    It is easy to be negative and critical and too much talent is wasted in negative thinking. It is time we {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (show) less respect for this kind of destructive thinking and focused {#blank#}10{#/blank#} positive thinking more. So remember to think positively.

    Agricultural experts say crop diversity is important to feed the{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(increase) population of our planet. They say having a large variety of plants also{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(help) to protect against possible crop diseases and future crises. But many experts say the number has decreased sharply during the past century.

    One of the world's {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(large) seed conservation projects has predicted further losses. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is warning that up to one hundred thousand plant species could {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (permanent) disappear. The rich collection of genes{#blank#}5{#/blank#} decide their qualities would disappear with them.

    Many experts blame climate change and loss of habitat, normal growth area, for damaging plant life. They say human{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(activity) and poorly planned, overly heavy use of land also are responsible. Modern business farming is responsible{#blank#}7{#/blank#}loss of farmers' traditional crop varieties. The "Green Revolution" of the twentieth century changed agriculture. Some experts say the use of modern commercial farming methods saved millions of people from{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(starve). Farmers planted, watered, and fertilized their crops with the help of machines. They treated their fields with chemicals{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(control) diseases and insects. Harvests grew larger and higher quality,{#blank#}10{#/blank#} another result was that some traditional crops were lost. Damage to the environment over the past century makes people believe that crop diversity also suffered.