The traditional Chinese calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. In China, the 24 solar terms were created thousands of years ago to guide agricultural（农业的）production. But solar term culture is still useful today to guide people's lives through cultural activities and special foods that go with each term.
Great Heat, the 12th solar term of the year, begins this year on July 22 and ends on August 6. During Great Heat, most parts of China enter the hottest season of the year. Here is something you should know about Great Heat.
Great Heat is a season of harvesting（收割）. During this time, the sunshine, high temperatures, and heavy rainfall are good for the plants. But many natural disasters also happen. So, it's important to harvest and plant in time.
Sending the Great Heat ship is a tradition in Taizhou. The ship is full of all kinds of meat. More than 50 fishermen take turns carrying the ship as they walk through the streets. The ship will finally be pulled out of the port and burned at sea. People believe that is a symbol of good harvests and health.
Great Heat is a season with most crickets（蟋蟀）in the countryside. Cricket fighting is popular game for some people in China during this period. The custom dates back over 1,000 years ago.
People in different places enjoy different food. For example, in southern Shandong, people would like to drink mutton soup. Grass jelly is very popular in Guangdong because there is a saying “Eating grass jelly in Great Heat will make you stay young.”
1. Ancient Chinese people created 24 solar terms to ________.| A．keep a healthy life | B．serve different food | C．help farming |
| A．6 | B．16 | C．22 |
| A．just for fun | B．to get exercise | C．with good wishes |
| A．Great Heat is an important time to harvest and plant |
| B．cricket fighting games are getting popular in China now |
| C．people in Guangdong enjoy mutton soup during Great Heat |
A． | B． | C． |
2 . One day in the eighth grade, I was taking a Math Test trigonometry (三角学) . Now for a middle school student, there was nothing easy about it. So I had studied for about two hours the night before. After reviewing it for some time, I had started to understand it, so then I closed the book and
“How could you have failed the test? I am sure that nobody else in the whole class got as bad a grade as you did!”
Naturally I didn’t want that to happen. My dad was also really busy at work at present, so I was afraid that this may make him mad. When feeling hopeless, I noticed that my table partner was writing fast on his test. I was attracted to look over at his test, but then the many bad results I had heard about cheating (作弊) came into my mind. I know that if I started cheating now, it would be hard to give up that habit during high school. In the end, I decided not to copy his answers, and got a B on that test. Even though my dad gave me a hard time about it, it would have been a lot worse if he found out that I had given in and cheated.
1. The writer might feel________ before the Math Test.| A．surprised | B．relaxed | C．worried |
| A．had breakfast | B．went to bed | C．rode to school |
| A．he thought his table partner was better at math. |
| B．he had a habit of cheating. |
| C．he didn’t think his answer was right. |
a. The writer thought about whether to cheat.
b. The writer prepared for the test.
c. The writer was afraid that his father would be mad at him.
d. The writer tried to work out the hard problems.
| A．c-b-d-a | B．b-d-c-a | C．d-a-c-b |
| A．got a good grade at last | B．didn’t cheat at last | C．didn’t work hard that night |
