In the world, more and more people are studying Chinese as a second language. More and more Chinese words are playing a part in the English language. Maybe that’s because 300 million Chinese people are now studying or speaking English.
Chinese is too hard to learn, right? Really, written Chinese is difficult to learn! However, the spoke language is quite different. Many famous people in the world ask their children to learn how to speak Chinese at first. When the US President Donald Trump visited China in November last year, his granddaughter Arabella sang Chinese songs and recited Chinese poems in a sweet voice in the video. President Xi Jingping praised her in public. Actually, Arabella has been learning the Chinese language since she was only eighteen months old.
Why do many famous people begin to pay more attention to learning Chinese? The first reason is that Chinese is the language spoken by the largest number of people in the world. Learn to speak Chinese and you can speak with millions of people around the world. Second, with thousands of years of history, Chinese culture is very fascinating.
Learning Chinese well will help you understand Chinese culture better. Of course, there are still other reasons, such as travel, business and so on.
All in all, it is more convenient for you to develop all kinds of relationships with China if you can learn Chinese well.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?| A．Written Chinese is easier to learn than spoken Chinese. |
| B．Arabella began to learn Chinese when she was two years old. |
| C．Chinese is spoken by the largest number of people in the world. |
| D．Learning English well will help you understand Chinese culture better. |
| A．Because Chinese is useful than English. |
| B．Because more people speak Chinese than English. |
| C．Because too many Chinese are studying or speaking English. |
| D．Because Chinese words are easy to speak. |
| A．Chinese culture. | B．English study. |
| C．Famous people. | D．Chinese learning. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Popular English words can be fun. “Heart” is one of them.
Let us suppose you and I were speaking freely about something private.
If we had an honest discussion, both of us would know that the other person’s heart is in the right place.
My heart goes out to anyone who loses a friend over an argument.
I promise that what I have told you is true—cross my heart.
根据材料内容，从下面五个选项中选出能填入文中空缺处的最佳选项，使短文意思通顺、内容完整。
| A．For example, I would know that you are a kind-hearted and well-meaning person. |
| B．It really is a sad situation. |
| C．We would be having a heart-to-heart discussion. |
| D．But, let us suppose you get angry over what I tell you. |
| E．If this happens, I might think that you have a heart of stone. |
【推荐2】People use sayings every day. You may ask an unhappy friend why she’s “feeling blue.” If you’ve done only a small part of a big job, you might call it “a drop in the bucket.”
These sayings don’t mean exactly what the words say. But it’s easy to tell why we use them. Blue is a cool, quiet color. So it’s a good word for “sad”. A bucket holds too many water drops to count. So just one drop is very little.
Other sayings are more difficult to understand. When you are about to go to bed, you are going to “hit the hay (干草).” This saying does not make much sense unless you know where it came from. It was first used in the 1930s. At that time, many Americans were out of work. Some went from place to place, looking for jobs. At night they were very tired. They often made a bed of hay in a field or barn (谷仓). As soon as their heads “hit the hay,” they fell asleep.
Here is another saying. When you are sick, you might say you are “under the weather.” But why? This saying is more than 200 years old. It began in the days when many people went from place to place by boat. When the storm winds rocked (使摇摆) the boat, people often felt sick, The boat was sailing “under the weather.”
Old sayings like these can be hard for kids to understand. But new sayings come along every day. Kids often understand new sayings better than older people do. That’s why your grandmother might not know what you mean when you say “chill out” or “give me five”. She might think you’re “off your rocker”.
1. In which part of the magazine can we read this passage?| A．Sports. | B．Culture. | C．People. | D．Science. |
| A．“hit the hay” | B．“a drop in the bucket” |
| C．“give me five” | D．“under the weather” |
| A．You are clever. | B．You are my friends. | C．You are crazy. | D．I don’t believe you. |
| A．“feeling blue” means a person is sick |
| B．old people don’t know any new sayings |
| C．people prefer old sayings to new sayings |
| D．kids can learn new sayings more easily than old people |
| A．Old sayings | B．Feeling blue | C．A cool, quiet color | D．People around us |
【推荐3】Do you use hand gestures when you talk? Do you open your mouth and eyes wide when you are surprised? These are all examples of body language. How important can it be? Follow Teens and have a look.
Body language does not use words. It uses the movement or position of your body to show certain meanings.
According to American scientist Edward T. Hall, in a conversation between two people, 65 percent of communication is body language. In some cases you even express yourself without words. For example, if your friend asks you to join him in a picnic, you will give him an "OK" gesture to say: "Yes, sounds great!" Sometimes, your words say one thing, but your body language says another. You may do things unconsciously(无意识地) like touching your face while telling a lie.
In different cultures, the same body language means different things. In the US, making eye contact(眼神交流) with someone means you are interested in what the person is saying. While in some Asian countries, it is rude to look into a person's eyes during a conversation.
Sometimes, different body language expresses the same meaning. Take "hello" for example. French people kiss cheeks (脸颊) to say hello. Japanese people bow (鞠躬). Maoris in New Zealand, however, touch noses in greeting.
What are you trying to say?
Body language is important to teenagers. Understanding this language helps you to communicate better with others.
1. What does body language use to show meanings?| A．Words. | B．Sentences. | C．Letters. | D．Movement or position. |
| A．He is bored with the person. | B．He is interested in the person. |
| C．He is angry with the person. | D．He doesn't want to say anything. |
| A．Old people. | B．The disabled. | C．Adults. | D．Teenagers. |
| A．The same body language always means the same thing. |
| B．Different body language can express the same meaning. |
| C．Asian people like making eye contact. |
| D．Japanese people kiss to say hello. |
Do you enjoy dancing? Many people do. Some of them, however, dance in special places. Yang Liu, a 24-year-old woman from Guizhou, dances on a piece of bamboo.
Yang is an inheritor (继承人) of bamboo drifting (独竹漂), an intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) in her hometown. Bamboo drifting has a history of 2,000 years. In the past, people used it to cross the river. Now, it becomes a traditional art.
Yang started to learn bamboo drifting at the age of seven. The girl was always ill when she was very young. To have a strong body, her grandmother brought her into the world of bamboo drifting. Learning this traditional skill, in fact, is not easy. The bamboo is thin and slippery (滑). And it is never still. Keeping standing on the bamboo is very difficult. Yang fell into the water and got hurt (受伤) again and again. But with the help of her family and a love for this “cool skill”, the girl didn’t give up. She always climbed back onto the bamboo. Yang put herself into learning how to bamboo drift all year round, even in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. After three years of hard practice, she could finally stand on the bamboo.
▲ . She had the idea of dancing on the bamboo drifting. She went on practicing many difficult acts on her bamboo and went through all kinds of difficulties along with it.
Now, Yang has made a name for herself as a dancer on the bamboo. She is busy performing this traditional art and she will perform in more than 30 cities in 2023. It’s difficult to get the tickets to enjoy her performance.
Thanks to the people like her, Chinese traditional skills pass down (传承) from our ancestors (祖先).
1. People in the past used bamboo drifting to ________.| A．perform to others | B．cross the river | C．have a strong body | D．make money |
| A．不变的 | B．摇晃的 | C．静止的 | D．危险的 |
| A．But Yang didn’t stop there | B．Bamboo drifting is becoming popular |
| C．Yang stood and danced on the bamboo | D．Grandmother still helped her face difficulties |
| A．Yang will be a dancer on the bamboo |
| B．her grandmother was strict with Yang |
| C．more people may be interested in bamboo drifting |
| D．Yang began to learn bamboo drifting when she was seven |
There are a lot of Chinese cultures about fish. In Chinese, “fish” sounds like “surplus” (余， 盈余).
Crucian carp
The first kind of fish is crucian carp. It sounds like the Chinese word “吉”.
Chinese carp
The second kind of fish is Chinese carp. It sounds like the Chinese word “礼”.
Catfish
| A．Do you know what kind of fish Chinese people like to eat for the New Year? |
| B．This Chinese word means “good luck”. |
| C．Chinese people always like to have a surplus at the end of the year. |
| D．The third kind of fish is catfish. |
| E．They draw pictures about fish. |
| F．It means gifts or presents. |
【推荐3】On January 14, a dance show entitled “Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting”（只此青绿）was staged at Chongqing Grand Theater, to show respect to the famous painting “A Panorama of Mountain and River”（千里江山图）, by Wang Ximeng, a genius painter from the Northern Song Dynasty. It became a great success judging from the comments of the audience, many of whom traveled a long distance from neighboring regions to experience the beauty of the dance show.
When modern people meet a Northern Song young painter.
The “poetic dance” brings people the inner world of the ancient painter Wang Ximeng from the view of a modern researcher of the Palace Museum who unfolds the painting scroll, making the audience lost in the charm of legendary traditional Chinese artwork.
According to Xie Suhao, who plays the character, it is not to tell people how great the painting is, but to guide people into an immersive（沉浸式的）and exciting experience of the painting and the traditional Chinese culture. The dancers also hope to create a sincere performance to show respect to the cultural relics protection workers who have made great effort to protect ancient artworks.
A rewarding experience for the performers of the poetic dance.
Which kind of body language can express the characters most correctly? According to Zhang Han, who plays the character of Wang Ximeng, to capture the essence of painting Wang Ximeng in a natural, lively way, he went to a teacher expert in Chinese blue-green landscape painting to learn how to draw “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers”. From line drawing to coloring, he gradually felt a stronger and deeper connection with the character. “Sometimes, I failed to get myself out of the character and just cannot stop crying. Such immersive experiences make me even more deeply respect the character,” said Zhang Han.
As Ximeng painted in the center, more characters appeared on the stage, presenting a painting that starts with and ends in charming shades of blue and green. Thus, “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers” painting has been given a new lease of life.
1. What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The dance show. | B．The famous painting. |
| C．The Northern Song Dynasty. | D．The Chongqing Grand Theater. |
| A．An Art teacher. |
| B．An ancient painter. |
| C．A modern dancer. |
| D．A researcher of the Palace Museum. |
| A．The dancers painted the picture on stage. |
| B．The actors described the painting with music. |
| C．The artists showed the painting through dancing. |
| D．A researcher told the details of the painting on stage. |
| A．It taught people how to protect an ancient artwork. |
| B．It helped people understand Chinese culture better. |
| C．It attracted more and more people to learn painting. |
| D．It made the history of the Northern Song Dynasty popular. |
| A．Business. | B．Education. | C．Culture. | D．Tourism. |
【推荐1】Almost everybody loves snacks (零食). When I first came to Beijing, I was surprised to see that some of my favorite snack brands (品牌) from back home were also in China. Many of them also have new flavors (口味) for Chinese.
For example, the Dove brand of chocolate has a green tea-flavored chocolate bar (巧克力棒). The Lay’s brand of potato chips has a cucumber (黄瓜) flavor. I find shrimp-flavored (虾味的) snacks, too. And of course, fast food restaurants like KFC also have their own Chinese food such as youtiao and porridge.
Some of these “Chinese” flavors are quite good. The green tea-flavored snacks tasted a bit odd (奇怪的) to me at first, but I like the taste now. As for the shrimp-flavored snacks, well, I think I’ll leave those ones alone for now.
By Mike
1. The underlined (划线) phrase “from back home” in Paragraph 1 refers to (指代) __________.| A．in the writer’s family | B．in the writer’s country |
| C．in his home in Beijing | D．in another city in China |
| A．Because Chinese people like snacks so much. |
| B．Because he likes Chinese food very much. |
| C．Because he saw many snacks from his country. |
| D．Because Chinese food is too delicious. |
| A．The Dove brand of chocolate. | B．Cucumber-flavored potato chips. |
| C．Shrimp-flavored snacks. | D．Youtiao and porridge. |
| A．He wants to eat the shrimp-flavored snacks. |
| B．He doesn’t want to try the shrimp-flavored snacks. |
| C．He will give away the shrimp-flavored snacks as gifts. |
| D．He will take the shrimp-flavored snacks back to his country. |
| A．Chinese people don’t like American snack brands. |
| B．Chinese people give new flavors to many snacks. |
| C．Chinese tastes are odd and hard to understand. |
| D．Chinese snacks are not as healthy as those in the US. |
【推荐2】Humans are getting away from the nature gradually because of the developing technology. But now Digital Technology is offering us an opportunity to listen to the sounds in the nature in powerful ways, making us get closer to the worlds of animals and plants.
All around the nature, there are sounds that we struggle to pick up and understand. Elephants, for example, communicate with each other using infrasound, a sound far below our human hearing range. Coral in the ocean also communicates with each other through sound waves, with one purpose of attracting baby coral to areas where it can successfully grow. This is a shocking fact as coral doesn’t have any ears!
To pick up sounds humans are normally unable to bear, scientists have placed listening devices in these environments. Researchers have attached tiny microphones to honeybees and turtles, and stuck listening posts that can receive different sound waves from coral reefs and trees. These devices are controlled by computers and networked with digital sensors and satellites. When interconnected, they work like a hearing aid: enabling humans to observe and record nature’s sounds beyond the limits of our own listening ability. After the sounds are recorded, AI is then able to determine their meanings.
With this technology, humans can not only understand the animals, but also communicate back to them. For example, a team of researchers in Germany decoded the honeybees’ behavior with AI. Then they taught tiny robots how to do the honeybee dance. Using these dancing machines, the scientists were able to order the honeybees to stop moving, and to communicate where to fly to collect a specific nectar. In addition to the possibility of speaking with animals, the research could also be used to create a form of healing for animals and plants. That’s to say, in the near future, scientists might be able to get coral to grow in certain areas by playing “healthy reef” sounds, which could help to heal some of the damage we have caused.
Now, Digital Technology provides a new way for humans to listen to the vivid sounds all around us. The dream of allowing humans to socialize with different animals and plants throughout the nature is being on its way.
1. According to the passage, now people can use Digital Technology to ________.| A．see coral’s ears | B．listen to the sounds of trees |
| C．play with elephants | D．dance with honeybees themselves |
| A．devices | B．computers | C．trees | D．satellites |
| A．More people will choose to live in the nature. |
| B．There will be much fewer animals in the nature. |
| C．People can protect the environment more easily. |
| D．Robots can be used to communicate with anything. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
One of the main problems in cities is traffic congestion (堵塞). The main reason is that we are not expanding (扩展) our transportation systems fast enough to meet the ever-increasing demands (需求). One solution is to create a new type of transportation that doesn’t rely on (依赖) roads.
In the last century, planes and cars changed the way we lived. Cars have allowed us to move farther. Planes have cut travel time to faraway places. At the beginning of a new century, we may see the realization of a century-old dream---the mix of cars and planes---the flying cars. You might have heard news about flying cars before. The technology to make them safe and easy to fly may finally be here. With progress in lightweight material, computer models and no-man control, the dream is very close to becoming real.
Car maker Moller went public with the Skycar M400 in 2011. It is the first car that can take off and land straight. The four-seat-Skycar is powered by eight engines (引擎). The cost of the car is about $1million at first, but when it begins to be produced in large amounts, that price could come down to as low as $60,000.
The latest flying car CityHawk is said to be tested between 2021 and 2022. It is similar to the Skycar except for its power source. The important difference lies in the power fans that seem much quieter on the road. The CityHawk is as large as a middle-sized car. It could be used as an air taxi for news collection and traffic control.
The popularity of flying cars could be very exciting or very scary (令人害怕的), depending on how you see it. With proper rules, they could be the answer to our ever-heavier traffic pressure.
1. According to the first paragraph, the new type of transportation should be used to _______.| A．improve the speed of cars | B．solve traffic congestion |
| C．increase people’s demands | D．replace the present transportation system |
| A．show the importance of flying cars | B．explain how flying cars work |
| C．encourage people to buy flying cars | D．show flying cars are coming to us |
| A．The Skycar has fewer seats. |
| B．The Skycar is more expensive. |
| C．The CityHawk is much smaller. |
| D．The CityHawk makes less noise. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
5. We can infer from the text that the writer feels ________ about the future of flying cars.
| A．doubtful | B．hopeful | C．negative | D．worried |
