The Chongyang Festival is a traditional Chinese festival. It is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar (阴历) month. It’s also called the Double Ninth Festival.
The festival started as early as the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). It has a history of more than 1,700 years. Among the numbers from zero to nine, nine is the highest odd number (奇数). People believe that two “ninths” meeting together stand for a long life. So it is a special holiday for Chinese people to show love and respect (尊敬) for their elders. They hold many kinds of activities in honor of old people to wish them good health and a long life.
The festival comes during the golden time of the fall. On the day, people traditionally drink chrysanthemum (菊花) wine, eat Double-Ninth Cakes and climb mountains. They also carry a kind of plant, and its name is dogwood (茱萸). People in ancient times believed that the plant could drive away evil (邪恶的) spirits and prevent them from catching an illness in winter.
根据短文内容完成表格，每空一词。
| The Double Ninth Festival | |
| On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month | |
| How long Chinese people have been celebrating it | For over |
| Who people show love and respect for | The |
| What people do on that day | Drinking chrysanthemum wine, eating Double-Ninth Cakes, climbing |
| Why people carry dogwood | In order to drive away evil spirits and prevent people from being |
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Have your mom or grandma ever made embroidered (刺绣的) clothes for you? People in the past often embroidered on handkerchiefs (手帕), bed covers and dresses. Girls would embroider on a sachet (香囊) as a gift for their lovers.
Shu embroidery comes from Sichuan. It is the oldest kind of embroidery in China. People began to make it during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). They sold it to other countries along the South Silk Road.
Embroidery takes time. It might take as long as a whole day to finish just 10 cm. By the 1970s, Sichuan had as many as 5,000 embroiderers. But since modern machines can make cheaper embroidery products today, fewer people are buying handmade Shu embroidery products. Young people aren’t learning the skill. To protect this skill, Shu embroidery was added to China’s intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) list in 2006.
Meng Dezhi, a national-level inheritor (国家级传承人) of the skill, has been making Shu embroidery for 40 years. After her factory closed down in 2005, she didn’t give up loving this form of art. So she decided to teach others to make Shu embroidery. The work is hard and the pay is low. Not many people want to learn it. But Meng wants to change that. She now teaches it in universities and communities.
Shu embroidery stands for (代表) thousands of years of Sichuan culture. We should try to save it.
1. Where does Shu embroidery come from?________________________________________________________
2. How many embroiderers did Sichuan have by the 1970s?
________________________________________________________
3. Are many people buying handmade Shu embroidery products today?
________________________________________________________
4. How long has Meng Dezhi been making Shu embroidery?
________________________________________________________
5. What does Shu embroidery stand for?
________________________________________________________
When Wang Haiyan was young, her favorite toys weren’t Barbie dolls. Instead, she started learning to make shadow puppets from her father at 13. Now 43, Wang has spent thirty years practicing and spreading the art.
Shadow puppetry is a form of theater that uses puppets made from leather(皮) or paper, accompanied by music and singing. Invented during the Western Han Dynasty, it tells us about folk stories and historical stories, passing down culture and customs over thousands of years.
Shadow puppetry is all about creating the puppets and performing with them. Wang’s hometown of Hua County, Shanxi is known as the birthplace of the folk art.
Puppet-makers must follow 24 steps to make the puppets, including washing the leather, carving(雕刻) and painting, according to Wang. Carving is the most difficult part.
“We have a special carving technique(技巧)—moving the leather under the knife,”Wang said. You have to hold the knife still in your right hand and only move the leather in your left hand.
It took Wang three years to master this skill. She used a brick(砖块)to make her left hand strong while practicing. It takes about 3,000 carves to make a shadow puppet. “The complicated(复杂的) steps make it hard to hand down the folk art,” she said.
But Wang has used some new ways to do so. In 2016, she made shadow puppets based on some cartoon series and gave a livestreaming performance(直播). She used colors like blue and purple that are hardly seen in shadow puppetry and added more sticks to the puppets to make the performance livelier.
1. Translate the underlined words Shadow puppetry into Chinese.2. When and where was shadow puppetry invented?
3. How long did it take Wang to master the carving technique?
4. According to Wang, why is it difficult to hand down shadow puppetry?
5. What is the last paragraph about? (No more than ten words）
It’s about the new ways
【推荐3】You may sometimes notice athletes with purple circles on their skin from cupping. Or maybe you know someone who swears (极其信赖) acupuncture for their back pain. More and more people use practices from traditional Chinese medicine like these not only to fight disease, but also to prevent it.
TCM is short for traditional Chinese medicine. It is an ancient system of health and wellness. It’s been used in China for thousands of years. Western medicine focuses mainly on treating disease. But TCM looks at your entire well-being.
Western medicine tends to view the body a lot like a car. It has different systems that need the right inputs and outputs. It’s very specific (具体的) and logical.
TCM is based on balance, harmony (和谐) and energy. There are two central ideas behind TCM. One is qi, the other is yin and yang. Qi is also called life energy or vital energy. The belief is that it runs throughout your body. It’s always on the move and continually changes. TCM treatments often focus on ways to promote and maintain the flow of qi.
Yin and Yang are opposites that describe the qualities of qi. The belief is that everything in life has a little bit of its opposite, too, and balance is the key. For example, a drug from your doctor might cure disease. But it’s dangerous if you take too much of it.
According to TCM, these ideas play out in our bodies. When you balance the yin and yang of qi, you feel healthy and well. If they’re in disorder, you feel sick. TCM aims to create harmony and a healthy flow of qi.
Experts believe it’s safe, if you go to someone who knows what they’re doing. This is especially true of acupuncture, tai chi, and cupping. With a little background on how it’s used, I believe you can make wiser choices to improve your health.
2. What is TCM based on?
3. When do you feel healthy and well according to TCM?
4. If you don’t feel well, would you like to try TCM? Why?
We all need deep and lasting friendships with other people. However, some people complain that they find it hard to make new friends. Do you have such problems? The following may help you.
Be active to meet new friends.
Heather Havrilesky is a famous writer for a magazine. She points out that believing other people also need friends is important to making friends. “Many people think that everybody already has his or her friends,” she says. “This is a wrong idea. People do have their own friends, but they are still willing to meet new ones.”
When you try to communicate with someone you don’t know well, you often feel uncomfortable. Accept such a feeling. Otherwise, you can’t have new friends.
Spend time on what you love.
If you ask people how you can make new friends, many of them will tell you to try picking up a hobby. Havrilesky says that this truly works. “Do the things you like, and people will naturally come to you,” she says. “You will meet people who share your hobbies.”
You may start with the hobby you like best. If it doesn’t work, remember that you have many talents. You don’t have to be interested in just one thing.
Care about your friends.
If you want to have deep friendships, you have to take care of them. In her book The Art of Showing Up, Rachel Wilkerson Miller shares two ideas.
● Take notes. Your notes will help you remember their birthdays or other information.
● Remember the names of other people in your friends’ lives. You may ask to see pictures of the people they are talking about. They will help you to better remember these people in the future. Your friends will be happy because you know them well.
It’s not an easy thing to keep deep and lasting friendships. However, no friends come to your life for no reason. Act right now, and you’ll find a friendship is developing silently.
| Introduction | Deep and lasting friendships are | |
| Main body | Be active to meet new friends | ◆In fact, nobody ◆Accept the |
| Spend time on your | ◆Do the things you like, and people with the ◆Start with your | |
| Care about your friends | ◆Write down the important points to ◆Remember the names of other people in your friends’ lives. Asking to see photos of them is | |
| Conclusion | ◆Keeping deep and lasting friendships is not an easy thing, but if you take action right now, a friendship may | |
It’s the tallest peak (山峰) on Earth. Here, you can see snowy mountains shine under the blue sky. You can take a breath of the freshest (最新鲜的) air. Welcome to Qomolangma (珠穆朗玛峰)!
The name “Qomolangma” means “Mother of the Earth”. It’s also called Mount Everest. It stands on the border (边境) between Nepal and China.
Qomolangma is part of the Himalayan Mountains. It is 8,848. 86 meters tall, reaching into the sky as high as airplanes fly.
Every year, hundreds of climbers from all over the world come here. They wear warm clothes, sunglasses and get together in teams. Tents are their homes.
The first two people to climb Qomolangma were Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. They made history by climbing the mountain in 1953.
The weather there is always very cold and windy. There is snow everywhere. The wind blows all year long. In winter, the lowest temperature (温度) can reach –60 C.
There is very little oxygen (氧气) on the mountain. Not many animals can live there, although you can see some yaks (牦牛). Yaks have long hair to keep them warm. They are very strong and able to walk on narrow paths. People call yaks “the ships of the highland”.
回答下列下面5个问题，每题答案不超过5个词。
1. Where is Qomolangma?
2. What’s the height of Qomolangma?
3. When did first two people climb the mountain ?
4. What do people call yaks?
5. How can yaks keep themselves warm?
Have you seen this photo yet? This is the first— ever image of a black hole. On April 10, people around the world got their first look at a real black hole. Scientists say it is a landmark(里程碑) in the history of science.
The image shows a black hole with a bright ring around it. The black hole lies in a galaxy(星系) named Messier 87 which is about 55 million light— years from earth. Scientists say that the image proves that black holes are real. It also supports Einstein’s theory of general relativity(广义相对论).
The image is fuzzy ( 模糊的). Scientists said it might be possible to make the image sharper by using algorithms(计算机算法). They are also working on taking pictures of other black holes.
More than 200 astronomers helped to capture ( 捕 捉 ) the image, including 16 from we Chinese mainland.
回答下面问题, 每个答案不超过 5 个单词。
1. When did people got their first look at a real black hole?
2. What is around the black hole?
3. Which galaxy does the black hole lie in?
4. How can scientists make the image sharper?
5. How many astronomers helped to capture the image?
Full Moon, Full Feelings  Chinese people have been celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying mooncakes for centuries. Mooncakes have the shape of a full moon on mid-autumn night. They carry people’s wishes to the families they love and miss. There are many traditional folk stories about this festival. However, most people think that the story of Chang’e is the most touching. Chang’e was Hou Yi’s beautiful wife. After Hou Yi shot down the nine suns, a goddess gave him a magic medicine to thank him. Whoever drank this could live forever, and Hou Yi planned to drink it with Chang’e. However, a bad man, Feng Meng, tried to steal the medicine when Hou Yi was not home. Chang’e refused to give it to him and drank it all. She became very light and flew up to the moon. Hou Yi was so sad that he called out her name to the moon every night. One night, he found that the moon was so bright and round that he could see his wife there. He quickly laid out her favorite fruits and desserts in the garden. How he wished that Chang’e could come back! After this, people started the tradition of admiring the moon and sharing mooncakes with their families. |
2. What is the relationship between Hou Yi and Chang’e?
3. How did Hou Yi feel after Chang’e flew to the moon?
4. Which festival do you also like besides Mid-Autumn Festival and why?
One of the biggest festivals for Chinese people is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a good chance for Chinese families to get together and enjoy delicious foods. On this special day, everyone eats mooncakes. They play an important role during the festival. Mooncakes are round in shape. They signify family reunions and best wishes. That’s why people in China buy and send mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are different kinds of mooncakes. Let’s see some new kinds of mooncakes.
The ice-cream mooncake
The ice-cream mooncake is made of ice-cream. Although the festival is in mid-autumn, the weather often stays a little warm, so many people enjoy eating ice-cream mooncakes — especially kids.
The healthy food mooncake
The healthy food mooncake is good for people’s health. It is made of many healthy ingredients.
The naliang mooncake
This is the newest kind of mooncakes. The naliang mooncake is made of green beans and tea. Both of them have a cooling effect on the body.
根据短文内容简要回答问题。
1. Is the Mid-Autumn Festival one of the biggest festivals for Chinese people?
2. How many kinds of mooncakes are mentioned in the passage?
3. According to the passage, what’s the weather often like in mid-autumn?
4. What kind of mooncakes is the newest?
5. What’s the naliang mooncake made of?
The Mid-Autumn Festival has a history of 2,000 years. During these 2,000 years lots of Mid-Autumn traditions have been thought up by Chinese people. All the celebrations show the happiness and excitement of people.
The main celebrations during the Mid-Autumn Festival are appreciating (欣赏) the moon, eating mooncakes together and making Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns. These three celebrations have been passed from generation to generation. Chinese people may think the Mid-Autumn Festival is not coming if they don’t do these three things.
In some places in China people celebrate the festival in different ways. In Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, people eat taro (芋头) to celebrate the festival, because the taro harvest occurs (发 生) at the same time as the festival. They eat taro and hope the harvest is good in the next year. In Nanjing, people cook duck with sweet-scented osmanthus (桂花) because Nanjing people think sweet-scented osmanthus is a symbol of peace. In some places people make fires inside towers to celebrate the festival, because they think the fire is a symbol of good business.
In the literary history of China, many poets penned praise to the pure moon of the Mid-Autumn night and gave words to their delicate (柔和的) feelings. The following is one of the best of those poems.
Thoughts in the Silent Night
-Li Bai
The moonlight is shinning through the window,And it makes me wonder if it is the frost on the ground,
Looking up to see the moon,
Looking down I miss so much about my home town.
Li Bai used his lines (诗) to express his homesickness at the Moon Festival.
1. All the Mid-Autumn celebrations show the
2. The main celebrations during the Mid-Autumn Festival include appreciating the moon, eating
3. People in Nanjing cook
4. In some places people
5. The
