Chopsticks(筷子)come in many different shapes and styles, and have been around since 1200 B.C.E. The utensils(器具)earned their place at the Chinese dinner table around 400 B.C.E. More than 20 percent of the world’s population relies on chopsticks for eating. China alone uses 45 billion disposable(一次性的)pairs per year.
China was the first to experiment with chopsticks nearly 3000 years ago.
In Japan, where bamboo chopsticks were adopted in 500 C.E., chopsticks have evolved over time. They’re now particularly fine-tuned for one of Japan’s main foods: fish. “Japanese chopsticks are short and sharp, mainly because the Japanese are good at eating fish, and it is easy to remove fish bones with sharp chopsticks,” Hu says.
Head over to South Korea where chopsticks look a bit different.
| A．Chopsticks are different throughout Asian cultures. |
| B．But at that time, they weren’t used as eating utensils. |
| C．There, chopsticks are flat and typically made of metal. |
| D．So how did two sticks start a massive mealtime revolution. |
| E．So why were silver chopsticks gaining popularity overseas? |
| F．They usually eat their own dishes instead of sharing them with others. |
| G．On the contrary, disposable wooden chopsticks were first invented by the Japanese in 1878. |
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【推荐1】Growing up in England with a British father and a Chinese mother, I’ve enjoyed food from both countries ever since I was able to hold a knife and fork — and chopsticks!
Mum has sweet memories of the food from her hometown in Sichuan, and often cooks spicy dishes. On account of this, Dad has come to love hot pot! But there are still some dishes that Dad dare not try even after many years of marriage to my mother. He once told me he was surprised by what he saw on the table when he first visited my mother’s parents in China. He was even shocked at their wedding when he saw how the Chinese ate almost every part of an animal. Even today, he still does not easily take to eating things like chicken feet.
But I enjoy that sort of food myself. Last week, I went to the butcher’s and asked, “Do you have pigs’ ears?” “No,” the butcher (屠夫) said, pulling at his own ears, “just these ordinary ones.” He must have thought I was joking.
Dad can cook a super “full English breakfast” of bacon, eggs, beans, sausages and toast with butter. Mum and I just have to find a way to get him into the kitchen! He also does a typical Sunday roast. We all love roast beef and vegetables, but Mum says we’d better not eat too much roast food as it may make us suffer from heat inside our bodies, according to traditional Chinese medicine.
I’ll never forget my visit to China. Mum encouraged me to try different kinds of food, and I did! I loved everything. But just when I thought I could deal with all Chinese food, I came across stinky tofu, a terrible grey thing that looked and smelt like a burnt sports shoe. “You needn’t try it if you don’t want to,” Mum said, but I gathered all my courage to take a bite and was amazed to find it wasn’t that bad. It reminded me of blue cheese, a similarly strong smelling type of food you either love or hate. Maybe I’ll fall in love with stinky tofu someday.
People say that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, but I feel at home with different food from both China and Britain. To me, there’s nothing better than a cross-cultural afternoon tea of English biscuits and a cup of Chinese oolong tea in a fine china cup!
1. What do you know about the author’s taste for food?| A．He prefers British food to Chinese food. |
| B．He has tried but cannot stand Chinese food. |
| C．He will never get used to some Chinese food. |
| D．He enjoys British food as well as Chinese food. |
| A．The author just played a trick on the butcher. |
| B．Almost no people in England eat pigs’ ears. |
| C．Pigs’ ears are popular in Britain. |
| D．The butcher was interested in pigs’ ears. |
| A．People have different tastes for food. |
| B．Some food can be harmful to health. |
| C．A good diet can build up one’s health. |
| D．People ought to digest different food. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Upset. | C．Concerned. | D．Pleased. |
【推荐2】One of the most popular street food found in China is no doubt the barbecue. A new programme, called the Story of Chuaner, tells the story of this popular food cooked over hot coals on just about every street corner in cities and towns across the country. Barbecued meat is an important part of people’s nightlife.
Shown on June 20, the programme has had more than 25 million clicks on the video site bilibili.com. To find the most popular barbecue stalls(摊位), the production team travelled to more than 500 locations in 30 cities across the country. Some viewers compare the Story of Chuaner to Midnight Diner, a Japanese TV programme telling stories from late-night informal Japanese bars.
“I’m happy to hear this comparison because Midnight Diner is a good programme and we share the same topic—night food,” the Story of Chuaner’s director Chen Yingjie said. “However, they are quite different.” He said that Midnight Diner focused more on food itself, though there was some conversation while people were eating. However, the night food scene of Chinese people means joy and a more lively atmosphere. People eating these barbecue snacks develop a feeling of connection, which can be a cure for loneliness.
The barbecue, regarded as the most ordinary and common night street snack, is different from home-made food by mothers as that is a symbol of family and kinship. The barbecue is where you go to become connected to people in society. And unlike official business lunches, during which people are rather polite, the barbecue lets people relax with old friends and new friends, leaving a lasting impression of friendship.
The world, as a whole, holds deep-rooted good feelings towards the barbecue, either for the taste or the warmth produced by fire. “What we should do is to present the Chinese barbecue just the way it is. Because with its special ingredients(食材), ways of cooking and more importantly, the special environment and people, the world will recognize it and might fall in love with it just as we do,” said Chen.
1. What do we know about the Story of Chuaner?| A．It has become very popular on the Internet. |
| B．It mainly talks about the most famous Chinese food. |
| C．It is thought highly of by most of the foreign tourists. |
| D．It shows the colourful nightlife in large cities of China. |
| A．It showed the eating habits. | B．It showed more kinds of food. |
| C．It focused more on people. | D．It was less popular than Midnight Diner. |
| A．The importance of the barbecue to family. |
| B．The role of the barbecue in people’s relationship. |
| C．The influence of the barbecue on people’s lifestyle. |
| D．The influence of the barbecue on people’s manners. |
| A．To show the feature of Chinese food. | B．To research a special way of cooking. |
| C．To introduce the history of the barbecue. | D．To help the world understand China. |
【推荐3】Growing up in an Italian-American household was, for me, pretty special. My mother, Gina, an immigrant from Italy, held on to so many of her family's traditions that at times, regardless of the fact that I was living in American, our home felt like in Italy.
To this day, my mother only speaks to me in Italian. She may speak in some English terms and expressions from time to time, but our conversations are, for the most part, in her mother tongue. And most of those conversations are about food. For us, food —Italian food is an important part of our lives. The food my mother prepared for me and my sister as children is the same food my grandmother created in her small farm kitchen high up in the mountains.
One of my family's dishes of heritage I made sure to learn and perfect is my mother's arancini di riso (Italian rice balls). Arancini, in Italian, means little oranges. After you roll some leftover rice into a small ball, place a piece of mozzarella (马苏里拉奶酪 ) in the center, then bread that and fry it, the golden outside resembles one of our favorite fruits. For my family, it also showcased my mother' s ability to always find a delicious way to never let anything go to waste: Last night's good rice was repurposed into this perfect mid-day snack or dinner appetizer.
So, when I take a perfect little arancini out of the hot oil and crack it open, I am immediately transported back to my childhood: I am a little girl getting off the bus and running through the back door to the smell of last night's rice transformed into sticky, delicate goodness. This small snack symbolizes so many important elements in my life: my mother' s waste-not philosophy, her ability to take a few simple ingredients and transform them, and finally, the way she carried her mother' s recipes to the U. S. in her mind and heart so she could, years later, teach me about my heritage through food.
Eating arancini, and all the other recipes my mother continued to make here in the U. S. after leaving Italy, allowed her to teach me who I am, where I come from, and why I should be proud of it all.
1. What makes the author's home feel like in Italy?| A．Fruit and snacks. |
| B．Neighbors and friends. |
| C．Names and holidays. |
| D．Food and language. |
| A．It saves valuable food from going to waste. |
| B．It reminds the author of her days at school. |
| C．It plays a major role in continuing family tradition. |
| D．It showcases the cooking skills of the author's mother. |
| A．Arancini di riso. |
| B．Mother' s kindness. |
| C．The Italian language. |
| D．Amazing cooking skills. |
| A．Why learning to cook is important for a mother. |
| B．How the family heritage is taught through food. |
| C．How childhood experiences change one's life. |
| D．Why mothers are important in children's education. |
【推荐1】Clocks around the world mark every passing second, minute and hour. But to humans, seconds of pain can feel like minutes, and hours spent at a party can end in a second.
The brain can stretch or squeeze the feeling of time for many reasons, including pleasure, pain, fear and age. Although the science behind this “subjective (主观的) time” is not fully understood, some research suggests that an additional factor might influence the subjective length of your life: your income.
Research already suggests that, on average, wealthy people live longer, biologically. Now, fresh research indicates that varied and novel experiences could create more “time codes (编码)” in the human brain as it processes (处理) memory formation. This, in turn, could mean that people who can afford to enjoy more vacations and hobbies, and who have more stimulating jobs, will recall having lived for a longer time on Earth.
“Even though time flies when you’re having fun, when you look back on it, you can remember much more of this extended experience compared to a boring experience,” says Jorgen Sugar, a postdoctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. He’s part of a team of scientists investigating these mental time codes.
The idea that novelty can affect the experience of time also seems to fit cultures that don’t measure time using clocks — many cultures rely on seasonal events to mark the flow of time. “Our experience of time does vary according to circumstances, and also according to the kind of rhythm of activity we engage in,” says Chris Sinha, a cognitive (认知) scientist working with Hunan University.
But other experts aren’t convinced (使信服). According to Monica Capra, an economist with a background in neuro-economics at Claremont Graduate University, subjective time isn’t well understood scientifically. Even if higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences, wealthy people aren’t necessarily spending money that way. A millionaire, for example, may spend money on a fancy watch, but this isn’t likely to change their feeling of time the way a vacation or even a low-cost hike would, she says.
Even though the human brain is the most complex biological system we know, researchers from many fields are still eager to uncover the mysteries of subjective time.
1. What do we know about “subjective” time from the passage?| A．It has nothing to do with one’s income. |
| B．Its pace is influenced by a person’s mood. |
| C．It is a thing that is completely understood. |
| D．It marks every passing second for a person. |
| A．Wealthy people tend to engage more in remembering things. |
| B．Wealthy people may feel life is relatively longer psychologically. |
| C．Wealthy people tend to have a better memory than poor people. |
| D．Wealthy people usually need more time to process memory formation. |
| A．She is not convinced that money can extend subjective time. |
| B．She doesn’t believe that wealthy people can buy good memories. |
| C．She thinks that the excitement of fun experiences can hardly wear off. |
| D．She doubts whether higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences. |
| A．Researchers are exploring the mysteries of memory. |
| B．Many factors can influence how you feel time. |
| C．Your subjective time may depend on your income. |
| D．The brain is a complex biological system. |
Like animals, people also use different languages. Each culture has its own words and symbols that are used by people within that culture to communicate with others in the same culture. For example, a person living in Japan will use the Japanese language to communicate with other Japanese. Unlike animals though, some cultures use more than one language. People within these cultures are said to be either bilingual (双语的) or multilingual (多语的). One such place is Canada. It is very likely that a person living in Canada may speak both French and English. Likewise, a person living in Switzerland may speak Italian, German and French.
Not only do people use different languages to communicate, but languages also have different dialects. A dialect is a difference of a language which uses words and grammar somewhat differently from the standard form of the same language. For example, people who live in Manchester, England speak a dialect that is a little different from people who live in London, England; however, people in both cities speak English.
There are also some people who don’t use a spoken language at all. These people use their hands to communicate. This type of language is called sign language and is most commonly used by people who are deaf.
Now that we know how people communicate, we are faced with a question. Are we part of a certain culture because of the language we speak, or do we speak a particular language because we are part of that culture? To put it more simply, is a Chinese person Chinese because he speaks Chinese, or does he speak Chinese because he was born in China? What part does language play in the definition (定义) of culture?
1. The examples of bees and whales are used to show ______.
| A．animal languages are simple to learn |
| B．people can understand animal languages |
| C．different animals use different languages |
| D．animals communicate with each other |
| A．people communicate with those in the same culture |
| B．there can be different languages in the same culture |
| C．a culture can be expressed in several languages |
| D．the symbol of a culture is the language spoken by its people |
| A．what words and grammar he uses |
| B．whether he uses sign language |
| C．where he lives |
| D．who he communicates with |
| A．The culture of different countries |
| B．The language in different cultures |
| C．The development of language |
| D．The meaning of the language |
【推荐3】An alarming scientific review has found human activity is driving insects to extinction. When the bottom of the food chain is endangered, so is everything up the chain, including people. Insect reductions threaten birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians (两栖动物)that eat insects, as well as many plants that require them for pollination(授粉). Insects are also important to soil health, nutrient recycling and ecosystem functioning.
Habitat loss from intensive agriculture and urbanization is the main cause of the reductions, according to the review “Worldwide reduction of insects： A review of its drivers”. Agricultural pesticide(杀虫剂)and fertilizer use, pathogens, invasive species and climate change are also major reasons.
A World Wildlife Fund study concluded that we’ve wiped out 60 percent of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles since 1970. Another study found people have destroyed 83 percent of wild mammals and half of all plants since the dawn of civilization. As frightening as that, the rate of insect extinction is eight times that of mammals, birds and reptiles. If these trends continue, most insects could be gone within a century, which will severely affect all life.
Some solutions can be carried out quickly and relatively easily, such as banning the worst pesticides, carrying out many available and emerging solutions to pollution and global warming, and examining better ways to grow, produce and distribute food. Sanchez-Bayo argues that changes in agricultural methods are extremely important, noting organic farms and farms that used limited pesticide amounts in the past had more insects. Research also shows organic farms maintain healthier soils, use less energy, send out fewer greenhouse gas emissions and produce higher yields than conventional farms, especially during droughts.
Many people are frightened at the thought of bites and stings by insects. But whatever you think of them, there’s no doubt that they’re essential to all life. If insects die out, we won’t survive. From banning destructive pesticides to reforming agricultural methods to planting insect- and pollinator-friendly gardens in urban areas, there’s much we can and must do to help the creatures survive and develop.
1. What may insect extinction result in?| A．Improving soil health. |
| B．Reducing human activities. |
| C．Increasing the varieties of plants and animals. |
| D．Threatening all up the food chain depending on them. |
| A．Plants. | B．Wild mammals. |
| C．Insects. | D．Birds and reptiles. |
| A．Allowing people to keep insects. | B．Improving the way of farming. |
| C．Banning destructive pesticides. | D．Planting insect-friendly gardens. |
| A．Like Them Or Not, We Need Insects |
| B．Find Out Better Ways To Grow Food |
| C．Insects Are Developing Very Quickly |
| D．Agricultural Methods Need Changing |
