Zodiac animals are important to the Chinese people for long. Many years ago, a president from a foreign country v___1___  China. At the dinner, he presented people with a riddle, “There are twelve things that can be given to all the Chinese, and each person can get his or her o___2___ . What are the twelve things?” The answer is of course the “12 zodiac animals”. As a cultural sign that stays with a person since his or her b___3___, the zodiac animal of the year plays an important role in e___4___ life. Even today, many Chinese people will use “What is your zodiac animal?” instead of “How old are you?” when they ask about a person’s a___5___.

In ancient times, people formed clans (部落). Different clans had different signs. The clans usually used the looks of animals. O___6___, an important meeting was held. At the meeting, the animals used by the most powerful clans were d___7___ as the zodiac animals.

Just l___8___ China, many other countries also have similar systems of zodiac animals. For example, India has a system of 12 zodiac animals, which is a___9___ the same as that of China, with only the lion in the place of the tiger. The Vietnamese (越南的) system has cat instead of rabbit, but the other e___10___ animals remain the same. It is widely believed that it was the Chinese zodiac culture that spread to the countries nearby.