B: Well, the date is a little different every year, but it usually happens at the end of January or the beginning of February.

A: What do you usually do to celebrate it?

B: My whole family gets together- my grandparents, all my aunts and uncles, and all my cousins. We usually talk about what we've done in the past year. Then we cook a lot of food.

A: What special food do you eat?

B: We almost always make and eat dumplings. That's the most traditional Spring Festival food.

A: What is the origin of Spring Festival?

B: Well, there are several old stories about Spring Festival. In old Chinese stories, there was a

monster named Nian who would come into towns at the end of the year and frighten people. Sometimes he would eat them. At some point, people discovered that the monster Nian was frightened of loud noises and the color red. They began to put red paper on their doors and set off firecracker.It became the tradition to do this every year to frighten the monster away from the town.

A: Wow! That's an amazing story! Why is Spring Festival such an important holiday in China?

B: I guess it's like Christmas in Western countries. It's the most important family holiday all year.

2. Pre-reading by talking and sharing

1. Questions

What festivals or celebrations do you have in your city or town? What part of a festival do you like best- the activities, the music, the sights, the food or the people who visit?

2. Prediction

Look at the pictures and title of the passage below. What kind of information you think will be introduced in the passage.