There are many festivals in Guizhou Province. One of them is Dong New year, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} falls in the eleventh lunar month after the harvest. In some villages, the festival {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(take) place in the tenth month. Dong New Year is as {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(importance) as the Spring Festival. In the days {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(lead) up to the new year, the Dong people make new clothes, clean their houses, and make rice cakes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the eve of the New Year, the prepare “cold dish” with bean curd and homemade vinegar. It {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (give) as an offering to one's ancestors. Dong New Year is {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (usual) celebrated in many Dong villages in the area of Rongjiang in Guizhou Province. The exact date varies but falls during the period late October to early November. Public {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(celebration) include the Lusheng Festival and water buffalo fighting.

    Another one, Miao Sisters Festival, is celebrated from the 15^th to the 17^th day of the third lunar month calendar, when {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(marry) women make a return to the homes of their mothers. At home, they prepare and eat {#blank#}10{#/blank#} special kind of food, black rice cake. When they return to their own homes, they bring with them some of it and give it to their husbands as gifts.

    Steam trains were replaced by electric ones many years ago, so when the newspaper I worked for {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (hear) that the Admiral steam engine had been restored (恢复), they decided to send me on {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (it) first trip. I wanted to go even though I {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(general) disliked travelling by train. In fact, I was looking forward to {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (see) something I had never seen before.

    When I arrived at the station, lots of people had already been there for a while, enjoying the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (celebrate) of the rebirth of the Admiral. At two o'clock, everyone was ready {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (board) the train. I settled myself into a compartment (列车车厢) where I was soon joined by an old man {#blank#}7{#/blank#} claimed to be one of the original workers on the Admiral. He told me how much he had hated being covered in coal dust all {#blank#}8{#/blank#} time. His family had been too poor to buy more things {#blank#}9{#/blank#} the basic necessities. It was a pleasure to listen to him. At every station, people were waiting to greet the train, and it was {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(excite) to see their faces as the past seemed to come alive again.