During festival occasions like spring festival，you often see that a "lion" wags （搖） its head and tail，tweaks （扭） its ears and scratches its cheeks accompanied with the sounds of gongs （鑼） and drum beats.
   Lion dance，which mimics （模仿） a lion with kung fu and acrobatic （雜技的） styles，is a （1）t

raditional

raditional

Chinese performing art.The tradition is believed to have （2）s

tarted

tarted

in the Three Kingdoms period.In ancient China，the lion was regarded as a symbol of good （3）l

uck

uck

，capable of driving away evil.The lion dance is often （4）p

erformed

erformed

in celebrations to this day and in 2006，it was listed as a national intangible culture heritage （非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)）.
   Qiu Haiwei，17，and Huang Qingliang，16，are two lion dance lovers.The duo （組合） started learning the dance two years ago. "The lion dance has been an （5）i

mportant

mportant

part of life.In my childhood，whenever I （6）h

eard

eard

the beating of drums and clanging of gongs，I knew the lion dance was being performed，" Huang told Xinhua.
   Though lion dance performances are breathtaking，learning the art is another （7）m

atter

atter

.
   "It took us half a year to learn the basic skills and various moves.We practice so hard that we are always sweating all over and sometimes even （8）h

urt

urt

ourselves，" Huang said.But their passion for the traditional art has kept them going.As their skills （9）i

mprove

mprove

，they got more opportunities to perform at celebrations.
   Still，the ancient art form has fallen out of favor with the young generation，as the skills take years to master while only a little money can be （10）e

arned

arned

.Also，coaches and funding （資金） can be hard to find，so it's difficult for a lion dance troupe （表演隊(duì)） to survive.