Tree-planting Day is the day when some countries widely advertise (宣传) the helpful effects of forests, and encourage people to plant trees. In this way, people can be inspired to plant and love forests, and the environment will be improved. Many countries in the world have set their Tree-planting Day based on their own real situations.
Tree-planting Day is on March 12 every year in China. There are two reasons for it. One is the sunshine, because spring is very warm and good for trees to grow. The other is to memorize SunYat-sen, who is considered the “Father of Modern China” for his role in the events that led to the end of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. Sun Yat-sen passed away on March 12, 1925. When he was alive, he paid much attention to forests. China takes the death day of Sun Yat-sen as Chinese Tree-planting Day to memorize him. March 12, 2024 is China’s 46th Tree planting Day.
In America, Tree-planting Day is a state festival, so there is no nationwide date, but America will organize tree-planting activities in April or May every year, and even take a day off in some states. The first Tree-planting Day was held on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. People planted over one million trees on that day.
Every year, Cambodia celebrates Tree-planting Day (also called Arbor Day) in each of the twenty-five provinces of the country on July 9, with a tree-planting ceremony attended by the king of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
1. The first paragraph tells of the advantages of forests.2. March 12 is the date when Sun Yat-sen passed away.
3. Americans planted more than one million trees in April every year.
4. The king of the Kingdom of Cambodia takes Arbor Day seriously.
5. The passage is mainly about Tree-planting Day in different countries.
Do you hear of the Old Tea Forest of Jingmai Mountain? The mountain is in the city of Pu’er, Yunnan province. On September 17, 2023, this cultural landscape (文化景观) was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List (《世界遗产名录》). It includes nine villages, three old tea planting places and three forests.
In the tenth century, the ancestors (祖先) of the Blang (布朗族) people came to the mountain. They discovered wild tea trees and started to produce tea from them. Later, the Dai and some other ethnic groups (民族) also came to live here with their colorful cultures. These cultures added something more to Jingmai.
Here, the locals hold important festivals. The Shankang Festival of the Blang people, for example, honors their “tea ancestors.” Another example is the Water Festival of the Dai people. During these festivals, they give their thanks to the tea trees. They also make good wishes for the tea forests.
In Blang culture, every tea tree is said to have a spirit (灵魂). For this reason, the Blang people there do not use pesticides (杀虫剂) on their tea trees. They use natural ways to get good tea.
In this place, the mountain nurtures (养育) tea, and tea nurtures people. Tea is an important part of the locals’ lives. They are thankful for the gifts from nature!
1. Jingmai Mountain is in Yunnan.2. The ancestors of the Dai people came to the mountain in the 10th century.
3. During the festivals, people there only give their thanks to the tea trees.
4. The Blang people think every tea tree has a spirit in their culture.
5. The passage tells us something about the Old Tea Forest of Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er.
Do you know “guo nian hao” means “Happy New Year”? But in China, New Year isn’t the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival is a big festival in China. It means the beginning（开始）of a new year. In the Spring Festival, people welcome the new year and say goodbye to the old year.
People often do many things for the Spring Festival. They clean their houses. They buy new clothes. They make a big dinner.
During the Spring Festival, we can see some red things. In China, red is the symbol（象征）of good luck. Some people love to wear red clothes. Lanterns are red. Children can get red envelopes（红包）. Their parents or grandparents always put some money in red envelopes. Children are always happy when they get red envelopes.
1. In China, the Spring Festival is New Year.2. For the Spring Festival, people often do many things.
3. All the people love to wear red clothes during the Spring Festival.
4. Parents or grandparents always put some cards in red envelopes.
5. This passage is about the Spring Festival.
Are you interested in space? Do you want to be an astronaut? Let’s come close to them and know more.
Can anyone be an astronaut? Of course not. You don’t have to have a science degree, but most astronauts do. Most of them are pilots too. Life in a spaceship is hard so you must have a healthy body and mind. You need to be easy-going and helpful to spend so much time in a small space with other people.
What’s the training like? People have to train for a year to learn how to stay healthy and safe. They practice space walking and living in zero gravity (重力). They train in difficult situations to learn how to solve problems and to work on a team. Everyday life like eating, washing and sleeping can be difficult in a spaceship. There is no running water to wash hands. It’s hard to enjoy the dry food that astronauts have to eat. And to sleep, you must cover your eyes because the sun rises every 90 minutes on the International Space Station. You also must tie yourself to something, so you don’t fly away!
What health problems do astronauts have? Astronauts often get backache (背痛) because you grow in space-up to 8 centimeters! It’s also common to feel terrible at the beginning. So you must do a lot of exercise in space to stay healthy. And you must have vitamins to take the place of fresh fruit and vegetables.
1. Astronauts need to be easy-going and helpful.2. People can wash hands with running water in a spaceship.
3. The sun rises every ninety minutes on the International Space Station.
4. Astronauts often get backache because they do a lot of exercise in space.
5. The article is about the importance of being an astronaut.
5 . The Chinese character fu is a necessity in Spring Festival celebrations. The tradition of pasting（粘贴） the character fu on walls and doors has been around for a long time. It’s recorded that people already practiced this tradition in the Song Dynasty.
There is a story about the origin（起源）of pasting the “reversed（颠倒）fu”. Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, once used the character fu as a secret signal to kill a family for insulting（侮辱）his wife, Empress Ma. To avoid the disaster（灾难）, the kind-hearted Empress Ma ordered every family in the capital to paste the character fu in front of their doors before the sun rose the next day. Everyone followed her order, but one family pasted the character fu upside down, because they couldn’t read or write.
The next day, when the emperor ordered his soldiers to check, they found the character fu everywhere, including the upside-down one. The emperor was very angry and immediately ordered his palace guards to kill the family who had pasted the character fu differently.
Realizing the situation was not good, Empress Ma said to the emperor, “That family knew that you were coming to visit them today, so they pasted the character fu upside down on purpose. Doesn’t it have the same meaning as “fu arrives”?”
After hearing this, the emperor immediately set the family free. From then on, people began to paste the character fu upside down with the purpose of hoping for luck and honoring Empress Ma.
判断正误（正确“T”，错误“F”）
1. People didn’t paste the “reversed fu ”on walls and doors until the Ming Dynasty.
2. The family pasted the character fu upside down in order to insult Empress Ma.
3. The emperor set all the families in the capital free at last.
4. From the passage, we can know that Empress Ma is kind-hearted and smart.
5. This passage is mainly about how to celebrate the Spring Festival.
6 . The Longtaitou Festival, also known as the Eryue’er Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival. It is on the second day of the second month of the Chinese calendar. This year it falls on February 21st. As an old saying goes, “Er yue er, long tai tou.” It means on the second day of the second month, the dragon lifts his head.
Ancient people believed that after this day, the rain would increase because the rain—bringing Dragon King woke up from his winter sleep. So it marks the start of spring and farming.
There are many ways to celebrate the festival. The most famous tradition is to have a haircut. It is said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the mother’s brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Longtaitou Festival.
Also people eat special food on that day. People in Fujian Province eat tofu balls during the festival. They often make tofu and vegetable balls to pray for family and business. Eating chengyao cakes on this day is a tradition in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It is said that if you eat chengyao cakes on Longtaitou, your waist (腰) won’t hurt the whole year. People in parts of Shandong Province eat fried beans to celebrate the festival.
Other foods, like noodles, dumplings, spring rolls and popcorn, are all named after dragon. Noodles are called dragons’ beard (long xu), dumplings are dragons’ears (long er), spring rolls are dragons scales (long lin), and popcorn is called dragon seeds (long zi). It’s said that eating these foods on this day can bring good luck.
判断正误（正确“T”，错误“F”）
1. The Longtaitou Festival is a traditional festival in the world.
2. The Longtaitou Festival of 2023 falls on February 21st.
3. The Eryue’er Festival marks the start of spring and farming.
4. Eating chengyao cakes on Longtaitou is a tradition in Yangzhou.
5. The passage is mainly about the Eryue’er Festival.
The world is full of tea drinkers. For many, they simply enjoy the taste. But new research suggests tea might help those who drink it live longer than those who do not.
Tea is known to contain helpful substances that can reduce inflammation (炎症). Past studies in China and Japan, where green tea is popular, have suggested several health benefits (好处). Now, scientists say black tea may show similar benefits.
Scientists from the United States National Cancer Institute carried out the study. They examined years of data gathered about the tea drinking behavior of almost 500,000 adults in Britain for as many as 14 years. Black tea is the most common kind of tea in Britain.
The study found that high tea intake (摄入)—two or more cups a day—was linked to a moderate benefit: a 9 to 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause than non-tea drinkers.
Tea contains different elements, including polyphenols (多酚). Experts at the U. S. National Institutes of Health say polyphenols are thought to be responsible for the health benefits that have traditionally been linked to tea, especially green tea.
Green tea is reported to improve mental ability, ease (缓解) digestive problems and head pain, and help people with weight loss. Green tea can also prevent people from getting heart disease and cancer.
1. Many people drink tea simply because they enjoy the taste.2. Tea drinkers might live longer than those who don’t drink tea.
3. Green tea is popular in China and Korea.
4. In Britain, people don’t like black tea.
5. The passage mainly talks about the benefits of drinking tea.
Cuju first appeared in the ancient Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce, which described cuju as a form of amusement among the public. Later, cuju was commonly played in the army for military (军事的) training purposes during the Han Dynasty.
Cuju, as the ancestor (祖先) of football, has had many changes throughout China’s history.
During the Tang Dynasty, the original hair-filled ball made out of two pieces of leather (皮革) was replaced by an air-filled ball made out of 8 pieces of good leather, making the ball rounder and lighter. Then during the Song Dynasty, the skills of making football further improved. The eight pieces of good leather developed into 12 pieces of better leather, and the ball was more closely connected together, fully round, and weighing about 500g. Moreover, at the time there were already forty different kinds of changes, and each had its advantages and disadvantages.
In ancient times, women were also good cuju players. The earliest record of women cuju players can date back to the Han Dynasty. We can see from some paintings that there were girls with their hair put up, waving their long sleeves (长袖) and looking fantastic when playing cuju.
1. According to Zhan Guo Ce, cuju was a sport for fun.2. In Tang Dynasty, the shape of cuju was a hair-filled ball.
3. Cuju had 14 kinds of changes in the Song Dynasty.
4. The first women cuju players were recorded in the Han Dynasty.
5. This passage mainly talks about the purposes of playing cuju.
9 . Shopping used to mean going to shops, but nowadays, you can shop without even leaving your home. Just sit in front of your computer, click(点击) your mouse and your things will be sent to your house in several days. You can also use your mobile phone to buy things you want. Nov. 11 was a big day for many people who like shopping online. On that day, many stores offer a big sale. The biggest Chinese online shopping sites are Taobao. com and Tmall. com.
Goods(商品) online are often much cheaper. Shopping online also saves you a lot of time. And you often have more kinds of goods online than in shopping centers. Another big advantage of online shopping is that it helps you get things easily from different cities, even different countries.
While enjoying online shopping, many people also have worries, especially for middle school student buyers. They often buy things that they don’t need. “Middle school students should pay more attention to their study. Searching for things to buy online wastes their time.” said teachers.
1. Nowadays, shopping becomes easier than before.2. Many people like shopping online on November 11.
3. Shopping online can’t save time and money.
4. Teacher think middle school students should pay more attention to their study.
5. This article is about disadvantages of shopping online.
10 . There are 24 solar terms（节气）in year in China. Summer Solstice（夏至）, the 10th solar term of the year, usually begins on June 22.
On the summer Solstice itself, daylight is the longest for the whole year in the northern hemisphere（北半球）. After this day, daylight hours get shorter and shorter. The temperatures become higher in the northern hemisphere.
Summer Solstice was an important festival in ancient China. As early as the Han Dynasty, people have already begun to celebrate the Summer Solstice. Women gave colorful bags with good smell to each other on that day.
Hani is a small town of Mojiang in the southwest China’s Yunnan province. It lies in the northern part. Every year on the Summer Solstice, the sun sits directly over the Tropic of Cancer（北回归线）and returns from north to south. Then, the amazing event known as “upright pole with no shadows（立杆无影）” happens.
There is a saying which goes, “Eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice and eat noodles on Summer Solstice.” People in different areas of northern provinces eat cooled noodles on this day.
1. Summer Solstice is the eleventh solar term in a year.2. The underlined word “sits” in Paragraph 4 probably means shines.
3. Women were given gifts by their parents on Summer Solstice.
4. The sun returns from north to south on Summer Solstice.
5. The passage tells us information about 24 solar terms.
