So far, Tomb-Sweeping Day 【小题1】 (celebrate) in China for centuries. It is a Chinese holiday and also one of the Chinese Twenty-four Solar Terms, which falls on either April 4^th【小题2】 5th of the Gregorian calendar (公历). It’s also a time for people to remember family members 【小题3】 have passed away.

The day is also regarded as the start of spring. As trees turn green and the sun shines brightly, people will go outside and enjoy the 【小题4】 (amaze) spring. They will take this opportunity【小题5】 ( travel) together and go on long walks in parks, laughing and 【小题6】 (chat). Therefore, Tomb-Sweeping Day not only is a day to memorize the dead, but it is also a time for people to enjoy 【小题7】  (they). There are many different activities, such as taking a spring outing, or flying kites.

On Tomb Sweeping Day, people often eat a kind of green colored balls 【小题8】 (make) from glutinous rice (糯米). The green color is from 【小题9】   juice of brome grass (雀麦草) that is added in the rice.

All in all, Tomb-Sweeping Day is a combination of sadness and 【小题10】 (happy).

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year 【小题1】24 solar terms. Grain Rain, as the 【小题2】(six) term, starts on April 20 and ends on May 4. Grain Rain originates from the old saying, “Rain brings up the 【小题3】(grow) of hundreds of grains,” which shows that this period of rainfall is extremely important. The Grain Rain festival signals the end of cold weather and 【小题4】rapid rise in temperature. From the end of April to the beginning of May, the temperature rises much higher than it does in March. On the day of Grain Rain, people in southern China drink tea, 【小题5】those in northern China eat the vegetable toona sinensis. Also, the Grain Rain festival【小题6】(celebrate) by fishing villages in the 【小题7】 (coast) areas of northern China. Grain Rain marks the start of the fishermen’s first voyage of the year. The custom 【小题8】(date) back more than 2, 000 years ago, 【小题9】 people believed they owed a good harvest to the gods, who protected them from the stormy seas. People would worship the sea, 【小题10】(pray)for a good harvest and a safe voyage for their loved ones.

Autumn Equinox

Autumn Equinox (秋分), the 16th solar term of the year, lies at the midpoint of autumn, 【小题1】 (divide) autumn into two equal parts. After that day, the location of direct sunlight 【小题2】 (move) to the south, making days shorter and nights longer in the northern hemisphere. Since the Autumn Equinox, most of the areas in China have entered the cool autumn. 【小题3】 the cold air southward meets the declining warm and wet air, precipitation (降水) is the result.

As 【小题4】 (say) in the ancient book, The Detailed Records of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 — 476BC), “It is on the Autumn Equinox day that the Yin and Yang are in a balance of power. Thus the day and night are of equal length, and 【小题5】 are the cold and hot weather.”

In South China there is a custom 【小题6】 (popular) known as “having Qiucai (autumn vegetable) on the Autumn Equinox day”. Every Autumn Equinox day, all the 【小题7】 (village) go to pick Qiucai in the wild, which is taken back and made into soup with fish, 【小题8】 (name) “Qiutang” (autumn soup).

On Autumn Equinox day, there are thousands of people in the world trying to make eggs stand on end. According to experts, on the Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox, the earth’s axis (轴), on its 66.5 degree tilt, is in a relative balance of power 【小题9】 the earth’s orbit around the sun. Thus it is an 【小题10】 (easy) time for people to practice the game.