The word “longevity” comes from the word “long”. It means that people are living a long life. So in the traditional Autumn Period, there were considered longevity as the most important goal.

__1__ Early in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were celebrations for the elderly.

__2__ So the Chinese people started to hold the birthday ceremony at the age of 40. Later celebrations would also be held for people’s 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays. The 60th birthday ceremony was the most common. As the length of people’s lives is increasing in modern society, more celebrations have been held in the later decades (十年). In addition, people now have the habit of celebrating the birthday before the end of the decades. __3__ Why so? As the pronunciation of “nine” in Chinese is the same as the pronunciation of the word “long”. Nine is also the largest single-digit number. __4__ The highlight of the celebration is birthday feast (宴会), which is different from other feasts. ___5___ Besides being a form of celebrating old age, the birthday ceremony is also a way to wish for the health of the elderly people and hope that they can overcome difficulties they may meet in later life.

A. It stands for best wishes for longevity.

B. Six is another lucky number in people's eyes.

C. Only a few people could live long in ancient times.

D. At birthday feasts, eating “longevity noodles” is the most important part.

E. There were many activities and customs about the celebration of longevity.

F. In ancient times, people didn’t celebrate birthdays because of poor living conditions.

1.1.

A

B

C

D

解析：选C。第一段末尾提到春秋时期以“长寿”为重要目标，紧接着第二段开头说“早在那时就有敬老庆典”。空格 1 位于这两句之间，需要一个过渡句来解释为什么当时会如此重视“长寿”。C选项“古代很少有人能长寿”给出了这个社会背景，解释了长寿之所以成为目标的原因，逻辑顺畅。

2.2.

A

B

C

D

解析：选F。空格 2 后面说“所以中国人从40岁开始举办寿宴”。这表明前面的句子应该是一个原因，解释为什么从40岁开始（而不是更早）。F选项“在古代，由于生活条件差，人们不庆祝生日”提供了这个根本原因。正因为古代一般不庆祝生日，所以后来有条件庆祝时，就将起始年龄定在了中年（40岁），逻辑上构成“原因-结果”关系。

3.3.

A

B

C

D

解析：选A。空格 3 前面提到“现在人们习惯在整数年龄的‘前一年’庆祝生日”（例如在59岁庆祝60大寿），然后问“为什么这样？”。空格后解释了数字“九”的发音和象征意义。因此，空格 3 应该是对“提前一年庆祝”这个习俗的本质目的进行点明。A选项“它代表着对长寿最美好的祝愿”正是这个目的，完美衔接了现象与原因解释。E选项是干扰项，它谈论的是“有很多庆祝活动”，但这并未回答“为什么提前庆祝”的问题。

4.4.

A

B

C

D

解析：选E。 这里是一个陷阱。实际上，结合全文布局和剩余选项，空格 3 已经选择了A，因此空格 4 不能再选A。仔细观察空格 4 的位置，它在解释完“九”的发音和作为最大个位数之后。这个解释本身已经很完整，空格 4 可能不需要再填入内容，或者需要填入一个总结性的、与文化心理相关的句子。但根据选项，F、C已用，E未用。E选项“关于庆祝长寿有很多活动和习俗”放在这里，与上下文联系不紧密，它是一个更宽泛的陈述，更适合作为段首总起句或段末总结句，放在这个具体解释“九”之后显得突兀。因此，最合理的做法是，空格 4 不填入任何选项，因为前面的句子已经回答了“为什么”的问题。但考虑到是六选五，必须选一个。重新审视，B选项“六在人们眼中是另一个幸运数字”与上下文讨论的“九”和提前庆祝无关，排除。因此，空格 4 应选 E，将其视为对“九”所代表的长寿文化现象的一个延伸性说明，虽然逻辑上不如A紧密，但比B更相关。标准答案应为E。

5.5.

A

B

C

D

解析：选D。空格 5 前面说寿宴不同于其他宴会，后面说寿宴还是祈福的方式。空格处应填入寿宴的一个具体特色来体现其“不同”。D选项“在寿宴上，吃‘长寿面’是最重要的部分”正是这样一个具体、标志性的习俗，完美地举例说明了寿宴的独特性，并自然引出后文关于祈福的意义。