Grain Rain (谷雨) is the sixth of the Twenty-four Solar Terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, which falls on April 20 this year. As the last solar term in spring, this period sees the temperature rise and rainfall increase, creating a good environment for plants and animals.
Grain Rain is still linked with modern agriculture. It links grain with rain, reflecting an increasing amount of rainfall, which is good for the growth of crops. For farmers, it is a good time to sow.
It might not be so well-known that in Chinese tale an actual “grain rain” was recorded in the story of Cang Jie, who invented the first Chinese characters. Cang Jie created a set of characters from observing(观察)the tracks(足迹)of birds and mammals. After his great invention, grains started to pour down from the sky.
The Grain Rain Day has become a day to honor Cang Jie and the invention of the Chinese language and April 20 has been designated as the annual UN Chinese Language Day since 2010. Chinese characters are a treasure of the spiritual homeland of Chinese people, the thousands of years of Chinese culture, and an important symbol of cultural identity.
Answer the questions according to the passage.1. Who invented the first Chinese characters according to the passage?
2. What usually happens on the day of Grain Rain?
3. Do you think the Twenty-four Solar Terms are useful? Why or why not?
相似题推荐
Hanfu has become popular again in China. A growing number of young people are now proudly wearing the traditional Han Chinese clothing. (A) The style has already attracted some foreigners. Among them is Rian, a young man from Brazil.
Rian teaches English in Xi’an. In the city, people are often seen in the streets wearing Hanfu. As time goes by, he developed a strong interest in the outfit (装束). (B) 他想要亲自试穿它。 “My first taste of Hanfu was the Tang style,” said the young man. “Today, it is still my favorite Hanfu style.”
Rian’s interest in Hanfu has also helped him learn more about China. In the past, he knew China has a long h_________ and a profound (深厚的) culture. He knows more than that. But Hanfu has shown him more details about Chinese culture.
(C) Rian plans to stay in Xi’an for at least another five years. He’ll go on working as an English teacher while making short videos about Hanfu. He hopes more people will learn about Hanfu and China ________ /θru:/ his videos. “I want to share Chinese culture with the world,” said the Brazilian.
1. 把(A)处画线句子改为一般疑问句Has the style attracted any foreigners
2. 将(B)处的画线句子翻译成英语
3. 在文中找出与下列英文释义相符的单词
4. 根据句意和首字母补全单词h
5. 写出(C)处画线句子的同义句
Rian plans to stay in Xi’an for at least
6. 根据音标写出单词
7. Do you like wearing Hanfu? Why?
【推荐2】The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Winter Solstice (冬至) is the 22nd solar term. It usually falls on December 21st, 22nd or 23rd. On that day, the sunlight hits directly on Tropic of Capricorn (南回归线). In the northern part of the earth, people will experience the shortest daytime and the longest night of the year, From then on, the days become （A） and the nights become shorter. The Winter Solstice also marks the arrival of the coldest season in the year. In the southern part of the earth, （B） it occurs in June.
As early as Zhou Dynasty, people worshipped (祭拜) the ancestors on the day of Winter Solstice. On this day, both officials and common people would have a rest.
During Winter Solstice in nor them part of China, dumplings are the most traditional food to the festival. There is a saying that goes “Have dumplings on the day of Winter Solstice and noodles on the day of Summer Solstice”. In southern part of China, people eat tang yuan, a kind of sweet small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour to celebrate Winter Solstice.
（C）Winter has come, can spring be far behind?
1. 选择：下面哪一幅图是文章所指节气(图中阴影部分为黑夜)?A． | B． | C． |
3. （B）it指代的是：
4. 从文中找出与eating dumplings is the tradition of the festival意思相同或相近的句子。
5. 将（C）处划线句子Winter has come, can spring be far behind?译成汉语。
6. 用英语回答问题。
The Winter Solstice is mark of the coldest season in the year, then when is the mark of the hottest season?
In early spring, the changing temperature usually makes a number of Chinese people uncomfortable. Cold air, bringing rain or even snow, easily tears up (破坏) the warmth of the spring within a night. However, with the coming of Guyu—the Grain (谷物) Rain, the blue sky and gentle winds would finally stay. Falling usually on or around April 20 every year, Guyu is the sixth of the 24 solar terms (节气). It means the beginning of a lively summer and people get busy from now on and people do many things on this solar terms.
Sow (播种) grains
This is an important period of the growth of grains. The ancient Chinese already knew that as Guyu comes, the weather will become warm enough for sowing. The farmers usually catch the chance to plant rice, corn and beans.
Hope for safety and harvest
For those living near the sea, they will hold some ceremonies (仪式) on Guyu, hoping for safety as well as harvest (丰收) during the coming fishing season.
Watch the peony (牡丹)
It’s also a great time to see the peony, which is known as ”the Queen of All Flowers” in Chinese culture. As a result, watching peonies becomes one of the most enjoyable activities for many people. The flower is said to be the favourite of Empress (女皇) Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, who was the only woman ruler in Chinese history.
Pick tea leaves
Tea leaves picked before Guyu are among the best tea leaves. People believe that the tea leaves picked on the day of Guyu can make eyes clear and drive away bad luck. So the habit of drinking tea at this time of year has become a tradition in some places of China.
1. Guyu is the2. As Guyu comes, the farmers usually
3. People hold some ceremonies on Guyu, they hope for
4. People think drinking the tea that picked on the day of Guyu can bring
5. According to this passage, people are always
Computers and smart mobile phones are good tools (工具). (A) The Internet is also good, but some people spend too much time online. They can’t stop. Doctors say this is a sickness. They called the sickness international addiction disorder (网瘾).
People with IAD are online a lot. They spend hours sending messages to their friends or playing online games. Many people with IAD spend more time on the Internet than with family and friends, some people with IAD even leave school. Do you have IAD? Think about these questions. How many hours a day, are you online? Is (B) it a lot or a little? When you are not online, are you thinking about playing computer games or checking your messages. When you are online, do you forget the time? (C) Do you get angry when you can’t play a game? If you have IAD, what can you do?
Here’s experts’ advice. First, ask yourself “why am I online a lot as a student?” Then try to take a break and make a rule for yourself. For example use die computer or play games twice a week, not every day. In this way, you can give up IAD little by little and have a good social life.
1. 将 (A) 处译成汉语：2. 将 (C) 处译成汉语：
3. 写出 (B) 处指代的内容：
4. 列出专家给你的两个建议：
5. 用短语或句子概括本文的主题：
Have you heard of TED? TED represents Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of meetings, held in different cities around the world every year. With different speakers—also from different parts of the world—all the speeches are uploaded (上传) to their websites, for everyone to see.
TED meetings invite speakers to give speeches on different kinds of topics. The speakers usually have success in their fields and talk about new ideas and recent development that are important to their work. The speakers are also well known. There are many talks on environment, international development and aid work. There are a number of talks about education as well. As there are many kinds of topics, all speakers have a strict time limit—each speech must last less than 18 minutes.
Nowadays, www.ted.org, the organization’s website, is where the many interesting talks become reachable to everybody who has an Internet connection. Every weekday, a new video is uploaded from a TED event, allowing people from around the world to listen to the talks for free. At only 18 minutes, even if the video is no that interesting, you know you are not going to waste too much time.
Most TED talks are in English but there are talks in other languages, too. Besides, most of the English-language talks also have the choice of subtitles (字幕) in different languages and, as a result, the website is great for practicing English and learning new vocabulary, especially in a topic that you find interesting and enjoyable. With so many choices of subjects, the videos are often much more exciting.
An
TED stands for Technology, Entainment and Design. It is a set of meetings held around the world. | |
Speakers | ● They are ● They often talk about new ideas and recent development that are of importance to their work. |
Talks | ● The TED talks ● The time of each speech is limited strictly—no more than 18 minutes. ● Most TED talks are in English but they also have the choices of subtitles in different languages. |
Viewers | ● People from around the world can enjoy the talks ● They can practise English and learn new vocabulary when they watch the videos. |
Conclusion: There are many subjects for people to | |
【推荐3】Have you ever counted the number of digits(数字) in your mobile phone number? It has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That’s because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?
There are three parts in the phone number. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service provider(提供者) you are using. For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered(注册). And the last four digits are random(随机的).
The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That’s enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.
Not only China, but also Britain and Japan use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they can’t have as many numbers as we can. Countries like the USA, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada’s phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.
根据短文内容回答问题。
1. Is China the only country that uses 11-digit mobile phone numbers in the world?
2. What can you know from the first three digits of a mobile phone number in China?
3. Why does China use 11 digits for mobile phone numbers?
4. When did we begin to use 11 digits in China?
5. Which country perhaps has the shortest mobile phone numbers in the world?
