There’s no better way to better understand a foreign culture than through one of its festivals. Here are some interesting festivals in the world.
La Tomatina(Spain)
Last Wednesday of August
This “largest food fight in the world” is believed to have been started with a tomato—but it certainly didn’t end with just one. Now, more than 50,000 people pack the streets of Bunol, Spain, armed with cheap tomatoes, ready to pelt friends and strangers alike. Gloves and safety glasses are suggested as the battle can get quite heated, even though it lasts just an hour. While past years allowed anyone and everyone to take part, the large number of attendees pushed town officials to require tickets.
National Beer Day(Iceland)
March 1
It’s no secret that Icelanders are fond of a bit of partying. After all, when there are days when the sun won’t stop shining, it makes sense to throw a few back to celebrate. However, it wasn’t that long ago(1989) that Iceland was still under a form of prohibition(禁酒令) and unable to sell beer. When the laws were passed to make beer legal on March 1,1989, Icelanders were excited and have since celebrated National Beer Day each March 1 with pub dances and other celebrations that last until the early hours of the morning. Beer has since become the most popular drink in the country.
Lopburi Monkey Banquet(盛宴)(Thailand)
Last Sunday in November
If you’ve ever come in close contact with monkeys, you know that they’re often a bit troublesome, taking a sandwich from your hand without warning or breaking into your hotel minibar if you forget to lock the doors(true story). However, in 1989, in Lopburi, Thailand, a local innkeeper decided to feed the monkeys a banquet as they’re also believed to bring good luck. Thus, a tradition was born and the banquet has grown each year. As the monkeys run into the banquet, they soon get a bit excited and start dancing on the tables and throwing food. For visitors, it’s a highly enjoyable sight—just be sure to wear clothes that you don’t mind being decorated by the monkeys.
1. To attend La Tomatina, you must .| A．bring the tomatoes by yourself | B．wear gloves and safety glasses |
| C．ask town officials for entry | D．pay for the attendance |
| A．Throw at. | B．Greet. |
| C．Share with. | D．Welcome. |
| A．To enjoy the sunshine. |
| B．To remember the period. |
| C．To celebrate the legality of beer selling. |
| D．To appreciate beer as the most popular drink. |
| A．attract visitors | B．gain good luck |
| C．feed monkeys | D．enjoy a joyful sight |
| A．La Tomatina | B．National Beer Day |
| C．Lopburi Monkey Banquet | D．The Lantern Festival |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Each year Canada Chocolate Town, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, celebrates our community’s rich and delicious heritage with our annual Chocolate Fest. Now in its 30th year, this week-long, family-oriented festival is “choc-full” of activities, fun events, and all things chocolate-related. Our beloved mascot, the Great Chocolate Mousse, and his lovely wife Tiffany, invite you to join us this August for the sweetest festival of the year — Chocolate Fest!
Carma Charlotte County Coffee Morning9:30 a.m. to 12 noon
Location: St. Stephen Town Square
Come out and join us for a Starbucks coffee, cup of tea or juice and scrumptious home-baked goods, many featuring chocolate. Sponsored (赞助) by Carma Charlotte County and adoption programs — caring for homeless and feral cats.
Dots Delecto Birthday Party11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Location: Boys and Girls Club of Charlotte County
Who does St. Stephen love? Dot Larsen! Please join us for chocolate cake and chocolate milk and help celebrate Dot’s birthday. Come and play in our indoor/outdoor playground, have your face painted and enjoy a barbecue to help raise funds for the Barracuda Swim Team. For details call BGCCC, 466-4300.
Lucy the Lady Bug’s Birthday Party12 noon to 3 p.m.
Location: Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews
Come to celebrate with Lucy and her friends for a picnic on our front lawn (草坪) — bring your own picnic or have lunch at our Garden Cafe. At 2 p.m., join Lucy and her friends for an amazing race adventure through the big maze (迷宫), find treasure in the fantasy garden!
Cost: $38/Family Day Pass, $16/Adult, $12/Students and Seniors, Free/Children 6 and younger.
1. When is it available if you are interested in barbecue?| A．9:30 a.m. | B．2:30 p.m. | C．12:00 a.m | D．3:00 p.m. |
| A．$12. | B．$44. | C．$38. | D．$32. |
| A．To compare the three activities. |
| B．To raise funds for a swimming team. |
| C．To introduce a popular festival. |
| D．To appeal to people to care for homeless cats. |
【推荐2】Argentina lies in the South America. There are many festivals in Argentina during the year. Therefore, you can enjoy the different interesting festivals when traveling there.
First of all, we should talk about the Tango (探戈) Festival inArgentina, which is held in the capital of this country — Buenos Aires, from February to March. You ought to know that Argentina is the home of tango, so Argentinians admire this dance very much. Even if you cannot dance perfectly, you should join the people and try to perform this dance.
The next festival in Argentina is Open Polo (马球) Tournament. You should go to Palermo to see this festival in Argentina. This festival is held every year and is the most important polo tournament in Argentina.This kind of sport is considered the most important in Argentina.
Attending this festival in Argentina, you will be able to communicate with different people and admire the fascinating competition between the teams of different countries, such as Argentina, England, Australia, as well as the US. This festival in Argentina is usually held between November and December every year. So don’t miss the opportunity if you travel to Argentina at this time.
The other festival in Argentina is the Semana Musical Liao Liao. This is a festival of classical music. The festival was created in 1993 and is held at the Liao Liao Hotel, near Bariloche. The festival is held yearly in October. So if you admire this kind of music, you should travel toArgentina in October.
There are also many carnivals in Argentina in summer. Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about festivals in Argentina into just one article. We hope that you have found this article interesting and eye-catching.
1. What would be the best title for the passage?| A．Entertainments in Argentina | B．Festivals in Argentina |
| C．Travel to Argentina | D．A brief introduction to Argentina |
| A．is organized by the government |
| B．welcomes everyone to take part in it |
| C．is held in summer |
| D．holds parties for different dances |
| A．Open Polo Tournament. | B．Every carnival in Argentina. |
| C．The Tango Festival. | D．The Semana Musical Liao Liao. |
| A．Buenos Aires in spring | B．Palermo in April |
| C．Palermo in winter | D．Bariloche in October |
【推荐3】Happy New Year
Celebrations in the Philippines
In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud in order to scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.
Celebrations in Japan
Japan uses the Gregorian calendar and celebrates New Years on January 1. Families eat soba noodles, and sushi for dinner, and ring bells 108 times at midnight to clear away the previous year. Adult relatives give money to the children in their families, and many people send postcards to their friends and families, making sure that they arrive on January 1.
Celebrations in Italy
Like U.S. southerners, Italians eat vegetable and pork on the New Year, which means “head of the year.” After big family dinners on New Year’s Day, Italians go to their local square for huge firework displays and public concerts. Italians are also known to wear red underwear on New Year’s Day to bring luck for the year to come.
Celebrations in Russia
Russia’s New Year celebrations have been greatly affected by the country’s history. As religion and Christmas celebrations were banned in the Soviet Union, New Year’s celebrations often had Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were relabeled(确认) as New Year Fir Trees. As the ban left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration.
1. Which country celebrates the New Year with midnight feast?| A．Philippines. | B．Japan. | C．Italy . | D．Russia. |
| A．To scare away evil beings. | B．To clear away the past. |
| C．To welcome the friends. | D．To bring luck for the new year. |
| A．It includes traditions of Christmas. |
| B．People wear red underwear on New Year. |
| C．There are firework displays and concerts. |
| D．People usually send postcards to their friends |
【推荐1】GPS has completely transformed how we get around. But other animals have long had their navigation (导航) systems built right in --- like ants and bees.
“We know their eyes are quite sensitive to polarized light (偏振光), and the sky has a particular pattern of polarized light, connected with the position of the sun.” says Barbara Webb, a bioroboticist at the University of Edinburgh. You can see polarized light firsthand if you take a pair of polarized sunglasses and spin them against the sky --- the light passing through the lenses changes. Webb says the insects have polarization like that built into flat sides of their compound eyes. “You can think of it as the equal of having a little polarization directional filter (滤镜) over them or lots of sunglasses pointed in different directions.”
But Webb was curious about whether there's really enough information in the sky to give insects an accurate sense of direction. So her team built a sensor modeled after a desert ant eye and put it under artificial light meant to simulate the sky. They then fed that sensor input into a model meant to copy the brains of desert ants and other insects with a sky compass. And they found that with the insects' natural sensing and processing equipment, they can likely sense compass direction down to just a couple degrees of error.
A system based on that of insects could someday be a cheap, low-energy alternative to GPS. “Insects have very tiny brains, a brain that's using hardly any energy. And yet they're still able to navigate better than we can with GPS, which is a huge system.” Webb is now working on building a robot that can, like the desert ant, use light to get its direction. Although after sundown, it may have to ask for directions.
1. What make(s) it possible for ants and bees to sense the direction?| A．Flat eyes. | B．Polarization. |
| C．A directional filter. | D．Polarized sunglasses. |
| A．To copy the brains of desert ants. |
| B．To model after the desert ant eye. |
| C．To satisfy their desire for answers. |
| D．To test an accurate sense of direction. |
| A．To save energy. | B．To be a substitute for GPS. |
| C．To guide the blind. | D．To help GPS work better. |
| A．To introduce an invention. |
| B．To praise a scientific achievement. |
| C．To present new scientific findings. |
| D．To encourage people to learn science. |
【推荐2】
How to Improve Your Listening Skills How are your listening skills? Listening in any language can be a challenge. You have to focus on the other person, understand their verbal and non-verbal cues and respond in the right way. Listening and comprehending what a native speaker says is an important part of learning English. After all, how can you have a conversation if you don’t understand what the other person is saying? Here are three tips that can help you improve your listening skills in English! Tip One: ___________________ This tip is useful when you are practicing your listening skills using podcasts, music, TEDtalks or other audio-only material. The first time you listen, you should just listen straight through without stopping. The second time you could pause when there is a word you don’t know or a sentence you don’t understand and do some research. Chances are, if you listen a third time, you’ll understand a lot more! Tip Two: Find a Conversation Partner One of the best ways to improve your listening skills naturally is to practice listening in active conversation. This can be accomplished by having a native speaker, or someone who is more fluent than you are, to talk to. It’s best to find someone who you can hire to do this. Or find someone who wants to do language exchange and make a trade! Tip Three: Listen for Key Words In English, not every word in a sentence is important. If you try to listen to every single word that someone is saying while you’re still learning, you’re going to get frustrated. Instead, focus on the nouns, especially proper nouns like names, places and dates, and verbs so that you can understand the actions and movement of what the speaker is trying to communicate. Finding these key words will make your life a lot easier! Although listening to native English speakers can be difficult and tiring, it gets easier and easier as you practice. Hope these tips can help you! |
| A．Pause Anywhere If Necessary | B．Use Different Listening Material |
| C．Listen to the Same Content Repeatedly | D．Understand as Many Details as Possible |
| A．Listening is harder than speaking. | B．Practicing with native speakers helps. |
| C．Each word counts in a conversation. | D．Listening skills only develop in listening. |
| A．Translators of languages. | B．Native English speakers. |
| C．Traders of language training centers. | D．English language learners. |
【推荐3】China is a large country and has a population of about 1. 3 billion. But most people live in the east and the living standard is much higher than in the west. Recently, the Chinese government has decided to promote development in central and western China. The part includes 11 provinces and autonomous regions (自治区) with a population of 285 million and an area of 5. 4 million square-kilometers.
The rich nature resources in western China is one of the advantages for development. According to the plan, the government will focus on improving transportation. Highways and railways will be built. To protect nature, farmers will turn farmland back into forest. Since the western part is developing fast, all kinds of talents are badly needed. In June, 2003, several thousand college students chose to start their career in the west. They worked as volunteers. Some people even give up the chance of working in big companies in China' coastal cities. For example, Wang Fei was a student from Qinghua University. Before June, he had received a job offer in Shanghai. However, he turned down the offer. Instead, he became one of the "Go West" volunteers.
Since 2003, tens of thousands of college students have gone to the west. They are trying their best to make the west become more and more beautiful. We are sure that the development will be a great success. China will be richer and stronger.
1. According to this passage, we know that ________.| A．eastern China is developing faster than western China |
| B．China is the richest in the world |
| C．eastern China has a population of 285 million |
| D．There are more people in the west than in the east |
| A．Forest | B．Highways and railways |
| C．skilled talents | D．Resources |
| A．They want to make contributions to the development of western China |
| B．Western China is more beautiful than eastern China |
| C．They want to get more money |
| D．They hate working in coastal cities |
| A．Return |
| B．Refuse to accept |
| C．Make something less |
| D．Review |
| A．Volunteers |
| B．China's development |
| C．The bright future in western China |
| D．Western China needs help |
