—It's very nice of you. I appreciated {#blank#}1{#/blank#} to the party. (invite)

    The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture(雕塑品) Festival is Harbin's main tourist highlight every year. It {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(become) the world's biggest winter festival so far. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} makes the Harbin festival special are the scale and size of the sculptures and the beautiful lighting. It is bigger than the ones in Japan, Norway, and Canada.

    At first, mainly the Chinese took part, but now it is an international festival and {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(compete). As the festival grows, the size of the snow sculptures and ice architecture exhibits keeps {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(increase). The work of making these exhibits is {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(astonish), and their size and beauty are amazing.

    The festival is {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(official) held from the end of December through February. Opening dates keep changing, and closing dates partly depend {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the weather. More than 1,000 ice sculptures are on show such as ice lanterns, magical figures and animals that {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(love) by children. It is mostly an ice world {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(aim) at kids. There are interesting activities kids may enjoy, like ice skating. If you are planning a Harbin tour, please attend {#blank#}10{#/blank#} wonderful festival.

Barbara Millicent Roberts, also called Barbie, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (consider) the most successful toy doll in history. She first {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (appear) in the world of toys about 60 years ago, and has become very popular among little girls.

According to the Mattel Company, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} created Barbie, 90% of all American girls between 3 and 10 have at least one Barbie at home. However, today there are many dolls competing {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Barbie on the market. Bratz dolls, for example, look more like today's pop {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (star) with lots of makeup and miniskirts. Now Bratz is {#blank#}6{#/blank#} great challenge to Barbie, as the company offers various clothing, too.

It seems that Barbie is no longer {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (attract) to older girls. "For younger girls, playing with a Barbie is much fun, but when they get older, they want something more fashionable and modern," says a shop keeper of a toy store in New York. On the international scene, Barbie remains number one. Although Mattel has been selling fewer Barbies in the United States over the past years, sales in other countries have kept {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (rise). It is hard {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (say) how long Barbie will stay on as a celebrity in the world of toy dolls, but {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (undoubted) 60 is not the age to retire.