The Manly History of Knitting (编织)
Knitting has seen a massive return lately.
It’s been suggested that the earliest roots of knitting were found in the minds and hands of fishermen. The theory, although it’s unproven, says that catching fish one at a time with a single line was difficult and time-consuming.
The earliest knitted objects we have ever found are some pretty impressive Egyptian socks. The socks have some small, complex patterns on them. The art form had been just about perfected around the 10th century.
In the 1400s came the establishment of guilds (公会) to teach the art of knitting. The guilds only consisted of males, and the process that was required to join them was extremely difficult. Teenage boys who were destined (注定) for the knitters’ guild had six years of training ahead of them before they could even think about becoming an official knitter.
The shift in knitting from a male-only occupation to a female-dominated hobby came in the Victorian era. With the invention of knitting machines, it was no longer necessary for tradesmen to go through all the years of training.
| A．The history of knitting is a little foggy. |
| B．Fishermen tied ropes together to form nets. |
| C．Women began to take up knitting as a hobby. |
| D．European knitting came around by 1275 or so. |
| E．They would be required to create a knitted carpet. |
| F．Social media is full of people sharing their latest creations. |
| G．Men would then need to complete an entrance exam for the guild. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】If you travel to nearly any Chinese city in the summertime, you will see people, mostly men wearing T-shirts, sitting out on the sidewalks on low chairs in the shade, playing a game with large round disks of wood.
And, though it may look quite a bit different than Western chess, Xiangqi is actually quite similar in what the pieces can do and how the game is played. Like Western chess, the object of the game is to capture the other player’s “king”.
Unlike Western chess, instead of placing the pieces in squares, the pieces are placed on the intersections of lines. Another big difference between Western chess and Xiangqi is that there is a large empty space in the middle of the board, which the elephants cannot cross.
| A．Actually, in Xiangqi he is just a general. |
| B．During the Qing Dynasty its popularity grew. |
| C．It is called “the Chu River and the Han Boundary”. |
| D．The game is called Xiangqi, a game of ordinary people. |
| E．There are many differences between Xiangqi and Western chess. |
| F．An intense battle is about to take place on this small chessboard. |
| G．Several sayings related to Xiangqi are in common use in China today. |
【推荐2】Turf (草皮)has been used as a building material for thousands of years across Europe and the Arctic since the Neolithic period. In Iceland, these green-cloaked (绿色斗篷的)houses fit into the natural landscape, an architectural method that first appeared with the arrival of Norse and British settlers during the 9th through 11th centuries at the height of the Viking Age in Europe.
Across Europe, turf bricks were cut from local wetlands and often transported for use in higher places. The turf was then laid over a wood structure (结构物)to form walls and a thick roof from terrible northern climates. After the wetland plants died, dryland grasses grew over the roofs, providing further stability (稳定性). Turf walls were replaced as frequently as every 20 years, and in other regions, they could last up to 70 years.
Historic records suggest that up to 50 percent of Icelandic houses were partly made of turf until the late 19th century. As populations began to gather in cities like Reykjavik, wood buildings replaced stones and earth architecture. After fires burned up the city in 1915, concrete (水泥)became the material of choice. In 1918 Iceland gained independence from Denmark, bringing about a wave of nationalism that threatened the survival of turf houses. Traditional methods were considered as “rotten (腐朽的)Danish wood” from a troubled period, and there was a movement to clear them in favor of modern buildings—a move later criticized (批评)by many as destruction of cultural heritage.
A tourism rise in the latter half of the 20th century encouraged Iceland to reexamine the value of traditional architecture, and the Turf House Tradition of Iceland was called “UNESCO World Heritage status” in 2011. “The form and design of the turf house is an expression of the cultural values of the society and has adapted to the social and technological changes that took place through the centuries.”
1. Why did people use turf to build houses in the past?| A．It matched nature perfectly. | B．It could be changed often. |
| C．It was strong and accessible. | D．It was a request by settlers. |
| A．The cold northern weather. | B．Turf bricks cut from wetlands. |
| C．The structure made of wood. | D．Dryland grasses growing on roofs. |
| A．Lots of people moved into Reykjavik. |
| B．Traditional architecture was in favor. |
| C．Turf houses were almost unable to exist |
| D．Concrete became a new building material. |
| A．Great changes have taken place in the turf of Iceland. |
| B．Tourists poured into Iceland to appreciate its architecture. |
| C．Traditional architecture owns certain cultural values in Iceland. |
| D．The turf house plays an increasingly important role in the history of Iceland. |
【推荐3】14-year-old Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States. She correctly spelled 22 words during 90 seconds. Most Americans, however, would find it difficult to spell any of these words!
Native English speakers know there are clear differences between how words are pronounced and spelled. But they do not know that the differences are unique to English among major languages. Languages like Italian or Finnish can be spelled more easily because each letter matches one sound. Students studying these languages can have 90 percent reading accuracy after the first year.
In English, many letters have two or more sounds. This is why even after years of learning, students of English are still far below Italian or Finnish students in reading accuracy.
English started as a Germanic language. It is most closely connected to German and Dutch, especially in grammar and basic vocabulary. During the Norman attack in the 12th century, Old English was spoken but French was used in government and formal papers. As a result, more French and Latin words entered the English language.
The printing machine was invented in the late 1400s. This helped to establish English spelling and strengthen the connection between how English is spoken and how it is written. The English of today is how the language was written at the time.
However, the spoken language started to change in the 1500s with the pronunciation of all long vowels, especially in southern England. For example, the word “bite” was pronounced closer to “beet” in the 1400s, before changing through the years to its present sound. The effect was that the English language had old spellings but new sounds.
English has 26 letters, but over 44 different sounds depend on the difference of spoken English. There are several sounds from only one letter. For example, the letter “C” can sound like an “S” as in “city”, and it also sounds like a “K” as in “cat”.
1. Why is English harder to spell than Italian and Finnish?| A．English has more letters. | B．English is used more widely. |
| C．Some English letters have more sounds. | D．English words are made up of more letters. |
| A．Grammar. | B．Writing. | C．Spelling. | D．Pronunciation. |
| A．Words were simpler to spell. | B．Words were easier to pronounce. |
| C．Words had old spellings but new sounds. | D．Words spellings matched with their sounds. |
| A．How English Developed | B．Why English Is Hard to Spell |
| C．How to Spell English Correctly | D．Why English Letters Have More Sounds |
