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题型:阅读理解-阅读单选 难度:0.65 引用次数:75 题号:15624283

Every so often, a Chinese fashion symbol unknowingly turned the fashion landscape upside down. This time, we unearth the imperial tomb of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi(慈禧)(1835-1908)and find her great passion for luxurious nails.

Ancient Chinese nobles started growing long nails during the Warring States Period to show that they weren’t manual laborers, but it wasn’t until the Ming Dynasty that long nails and nail guards became an important symbol of material prosperity. And the trend reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, with Cixi as its poster woman. Cixi nurtured a nail length of roughly 20 cm on her ring and pinky fingers and took care of them in gem-laden(镶满宝石), colorful nail guards. During the day, Cixi usually wore nail guards made of gold or silver. According to the memoirs of her maid, before bed, she would switch them into nail pockets made of bright yellow satin(缎子), probably in a motherly manner similar to covering her nail babies into their sleeping bags.

The origins of nail guards began in the Han Dynasty more than 1000 years prior to their mainstream glory. At that time, they weren’t particularly decorative. It wasn’t until the Qing Dynasty that they became as expensive and delicate as people today know them to have been. Common design patterns included plants, flowers, and calligraphy art. Cixi, on the other hand, had unique rights to dragon and phoenix(凤凰)carvings on her nail guards. Needless to say, she didn’t skimp on exercising these rights.

Long nails may no longer be front and center on the fashion stage today. Yet the period drama series like Empresses in the Palace (2011), Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace (2018), and Story of Yanxi Palace(2018)brought in the popularity of the Morandi color palette(莫兰迪调色盘)in China’s nail art circle. Inspired by Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, the manicure(美甲)industry today also adopts a more softened color scheme that gives off a feeling of balance and elegance.

1. What does the writer mainly tell us?
A.The legend of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi.
B.The history of long nails and nail guards.
C.Long nails plays an important role in period drama series.
D.Women in ancient times should wear long nails and nail guards.
2. What can we learn from the text?
A.Cixi took off nail guards when she went to bed.
B.Nail guards can show the status on the royal ladder in the Han Dynasty.
C.Ming and Qing Dynasties had lower degree of acceptance of long nails.
D.Cixi can only wear nail guards with dragon and phoenix carvings.
3. What do underlined words “skimp on” mean in the third paragraph?
A.subscribe toB.delayC.be mean withD.practice
4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?
A.Fashion nail art will permanently be on the fashion stage.
B.The period drama series are very popular today.
C.Morandi is a great master in period drama.
D.There is still a market for nail art.
【知识点】 历史知识 说明文

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【推荐1】Why did Chinese people have more than one name in ancient times?

In ancient China, people’s names had three parts, their family name, given name and courtesy name. Take famous poet Li Bai for example. His family name, which came from his father’s name, was Li. His given name was Bai, and his courtesy name was Taibai.

People used their given names when they were among family members. But in social life, they called each other by their courtesy names to show respect. This was mostly done among people of similar age. If you were talking about yourself, or if your elders were talking about you, the given name would be used instead of the courtesy name.

Men would get their courtesy names when they turned 20. It was a symbol of adulthood (成年礼). Women would get their courtesy names after getting married.

One’s courtesy name often had something to do with one’s given name. For example, the name of Mencius was Meng Ke. His courtesy name was Ziyu. Both Ke and Ziyu mean “carriage (马车)”. Zhuge Liang’s given name was Liang, which means “bright”. His courtesy name was Kongming, which means “very bright”.

1. How many parts are there in people’s names in ancient China?
A.3.B.4.C.5.D.6.
2. What does the underlined word “courtesy” in Paragraph 2 mean in Chinese?
A.名B.姓氏C.字D.昵称
3. Why did people call each other by their courtesy names in social life?
A.To show their love.B.To show their good relationship.
C.To show their kindness.D.To show their respect.
4. What would be used if your elders were talking about you according to the passage?
A.Family name.B.Nickname.C.Given name.D.Courtesy name.
5. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A.The famous poet Li Bai.B.Three parts of ancient names.
C.The ancient names and the modern names.D.The development of names.
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【推荐2】Wearing ties (领带) was originally the mark of Britain’s most powerful classes. That made the tie itself a symbol of power and respect. And this led the tie to be adopted by a much larger tribe (群体) — the business tribe.

You cannot wear a tie if you work with machinery. So wearing a tie became a sign that you were a man who used his brain to make a living, rather than his hands. It showed you were serious. It showed you were a professional. It meant that everyone who wanted a job in business had to wear one. It was just impossible to take seriously a man who didn’t wear a piece of coloured silk around his neck. This is how millions of people came to be wearing ties across the world. They are part of the uniform of business.

“Ties offer a point of difference,” says John Milne, head of the British Guide of Tie Makers. “They give a chance to say something about their owner’s personality.”

So if you happen to meet a man with a very brightly coloured tie, there’s a good chance that he is the office joker. There’s also a good chance that he will be wearing brightly coloured socks.

Is there a future for ties? The signs are not promising. Tie wearing seems to be rare among the new breed of entrepreneurs(企业家) in the Internet and new technology industries. Many political leaders now go without ties. This shows they are men of the people — but not the people wearing ties.

Up until around 1960, it was common for men across the Western world to wear hats as part of their business uniform. That changed with the election of John F. Kennedy to the presidency of the United States. Kennedy never wore a hat — in fact his nickname was “hatless Jack”. Seeing that the most powerful man in the world did not have to wear a hat, millions of other men decided that they did not have to either. Hats simply vanished across the Western world. Perhaps “tieless Tony” will have the same effect on ties as “hatless Jack”.

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名校

【推荐3】We live surrounded by advanced technology.    1    . You can get the information you want immediately over the Internet. With various technologies surrounding us, it's easy to wonder how ancient people got anything done.

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    3    .The first "kitchen" flames were still older. Ancient human relatives cooked food over fires in Europe 800,000 years ago. The first spear-throwers threw their weapons 279,000 years ago - before modern humans existed.

At first, scientists long believed that the ancients who lived 80,000 years ago were the first to throw spears with stone tips. Then came the discovery of 279,000-year-old stone spear tips in Ethiopia These pushed the date back.    4    .

Scientists have been trying to figure out how ancient people developed their tools and build their cities and monuments.    5    . They are also recreating ancient techniques themselves — from rolling pyramid rocks to testing out ancient tar (沥青) recipes. They detect mystery holes in Great Pyramid of Giza: Using high-tech tools normally reserved for particle-physics research, scientists have found a large hidden hole inside Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. They have made some great discoveries, but they know there are still a lot of things waiting to be discovered.

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