as popular as;cut out;in front of;puts on;work hard
Every Saturday,Wang Weifang(1)
a play with his friends in a small town near Xi'an.The audience can hear them,but they cannot see them.That is because they are putting on a shadow puppet play. Shadow puppets are made of hard leajye.air.The leather is (2)
in the figure of a person,an animal or an object.Each puppet is painted in bright colours and put on a stick.Some puppets have movable arms and legs. During a shadow puppet play,Wang stands behind a white screen with lights behind it.The audience sit (3)
the screen.Wang and his friends hold the puppets very close to the screen so the audience can see the puppet's shadows clearly.Then they move the puppets around and do the voices of the different characters. Shadow puppet plays are an ancient Chinese art.Now with TV and films,shadow puppet plays are not (4)
before. Wang and his friends often (5)
for little money,but they do not mind.They want to keep this traditional art form alive.