When you use a knife and fork, you have to take the knife with one hand and the fork with the other hand, _________ you can’t put food into your mouth. But with chopsticks, you can solve the eating problems with just one hand. It’s _________ and efficient (有效率的).

Chopsticks were called zhu or jia in ancient China. It is said that they were invented _________ DaYu who successfully _________ the heavy flood (洪水). According to the legend (传说), one day, Da Yu was busy dealing with the flood. In order to _________ time when eating, he used two sticks from a tree to take the hot food. That was how chopsticks came into use.

In fact, the earliest chopsticks found in China were _________ bronze (青铜) but not wood. Year ago, archeologists (考古学家) found _________ in Yinxu in Anyang City, Henan Province.

Chopsticks are regarded as one of the symbols of Chinese _________ culture. Do you notice that one end of chopsticks is square and the other end is round? And do you know _________ people make chopsticks like this? According to our ancestors, the round end symbolized (象征) Heaven and the square end symbolized Earth. So when you hold the chopsticks, it means you’re holding the whole __________.

Mrs. Li is over 80 years old. She has lived in Beijing all her life. A reporter interviewed her yesterday. The followings are their questions and answers.

What was your life like in the past?

My family lived in a tiny house. My father was a postman, and he often worked twelve hours a day outside in the winter cold or in the summer heat. My mum was a farm girl before she met my father. She was a kind and loving mother. She didn’t go out to work. There were five children in my family, and looking after us was more than a full-time job.

The food we ate was simple. We could only eat meat once or twice a year. I wasn’t sent to school because my family couldn’t afford the tuition.

How has life changed?

Families have got smaller than they were in the past. The role of women has changed too. My daughter is really lucky. She has a good education. I’m happy that she can go to work even after getting married, but sometimes I feel lonely because she can’t come to see me often.

Transport and travel are easier today. When I was young, I went everywhere on foot. Now you can take the bus, drive the car or ride the shared bikes. What I don’t like is that there’s so much more traffic. It’s so difficult to cross the road. And, of course, we have television today and I really enjoy watching TV. But I hate some of the shows because they are too noisy for me.

Generally speaking, I think life is better today. We eat better and we live longer.