阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

    Several countries in Asia celebrate the Lunar New Year in their own way. But dragon and lion dances in Chinatowns all over the world have helped to make China's New Year the most famous. These days growing (number) of people who are not of Chinese origin are joining in. In Tokyo window cleaners dress up like the animals of the Chinese Shengxiao. America, Canada and New Zealand have published memorial stamps for the year of the rooster. Last year New York City made the Lunar New Year school holiday for the first time.

    The spread of the Spring Festival is (part) due to recent immigration from China: 9.5 million Chinese people (move) abroad since 1978, many of are far richer than earlier waves of immigrants.

    Aware China's growing economic and political influence, foreign leaders have noticed the occasion. Britain's prime minister, Theresa May, has given a video address, a tradition (start) in 2014 by her predecessor (前任) . This year's World Economic Forum in Davos was held a week earlier than usual (avoid) conflicting with China's New Year.

    China hopes the festival will promote  (it) cultural “soft power” abroad. It may give the Chinese people (satisfy) to see foreigners enjoy such festivities.

    Learning to speak English well may be the best thing you can do to improve your life. That's right. If you can communicate in English, you can do the following things:

    Contact (联系) people from all over the world. Talk about your ideas and opinions on Internet discussion groups. Send e-mails to interesting people. Learn about their life and culture.

    Travel more easily. Communicate with people wherever you go—English is spoken in more than 100 countries. Ask directions, have a conversation, or ask for help. Maybe English will save your life some day!

    Push your career forward. If you want a good job in business, technology, or science, get out of that armchair and start learning English now! If you already have a good job, start learning before you lose it! Knowing English will let you do the following things:

    Put “excellent knowledge of English” on your CV (履历). Get your dream job, and earn more money.

    Gain technical knowledge. English is the language of technology, especially high technology like computer science, and medicine. If you're going to read about technology, you'll probably have to do it in English.

    Be a world-class businessman or woman. It's simple. International business is done in English. And all business today is international. So if you want to play, you have to know English—to contact other business people, go to conferences, and read international business newspapers and magazines, ect.

    Become a better scientist. Contact scientists from other countries, go to international conferences, and visit research centers abroad. Learn about new scientific discoveries by reading papers, books, and magazines.

    Use your computer more effectively. Most computer applications are in English, so you will understand them better—and become a better employee.

    I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

    So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

    Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲); it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

    It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It_is_so_easy_to_exist_instead_of_to_live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

    By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.

—The trees           well, but we didn't water them.