Today, most people in Western cultures expect to eat meals with their own set of tableware. People use plates to hold their food and drink only from their own glasses. But Europeans didn’t always eat this way.
In the 1500s, members of the royalty and nobility（皇室与贵族）used knives to cut meat. Since they hardly had their own plates and bowls, they would eat the slice of meat off the tip of the knife. They would use shared spoons to eat soup and would dip bread or their fingers into gravy（调味汁）. There were a few eating rules. For example, if you had a bone left in your hand after eating a chicken leg, you were expected to throw it politely under the table.
When some of the Europeans settled（定居）in the North America, they brought this eating style with them.
While the new settlers were sharing cups and dipping their fingers into bowls of food, royalty and nobility in Europe were starting to increase their tableware. They were also starting using a set of manners to go with their new knives, forks, spoons, plates, etc. They started to think that sharing cups or plates were unclean and even impolite. Their new manners made them feel higher than the lower classes.
By the 1700s, these new customs had spread to rich American settlers. As new landowners, they wanted to have a higher class than they would have had in Great Britain. They bought their own tableware and brought them to America.
By the late 1800s, mealtime manners had changed for everyone. As the American middle class grew, they needed more tableware to show that they were rich. There was also a new system of manners by this time. Though it was difficult to understand, it had a great effect on people’s everyday life.
1. Which of the following was considered impolite in the 1500s?| A．Getting gravy with one’s fingers. | B．Having soup with shared spoons. |
| C．Eating meat off a knife tip. | D．Keeping the bones in one’s hand. |
| A．wanted to feel higher than the royalty |
| B．hated to share cups and plates again |
| C．wanted to feel higher than the lower class |
| D．made more money in America than in Britain |
| A．The tableware. | B．The mealtime. |
| C．The American middle class. | D．The new manner system. |
①The European royalty shared their spoons, plates and bowls at first.
②The American middle class grew and needed more tableware.
③Some Europeans moved to North America with their eating style.
④New American landowners bought more tableware.
⑤The European royalty started to increase tableware.
| A．③①⑤②④ | B．①⑤③④② | C．①③⑤④② | D．③⑤①②④ |
2 . People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years.
The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows exactly why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet (字母表).
The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary (普通的) people could not understand it.
1. Why were pictures of animals painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain according to the passage?| A．Maybe the hunters loved animals. |
| B．Maybe the hunters wanted to be artists. |
| C．Maybe the pictures could be helpful to the painters. |
| D．Maybe the pictures could stop the hunters telling stories. |
| A．hear | B．watch | C．symbolize | D．build |
| A．Human beings have been painting pictures for less than thirty thousand years. |
| B．The earliest pictures can be found in Europe. |
| C．People in Far East have used pictures as kind of writing for five thousand years. |
| D．The Egyptians invented today’s English alphabet. |
| A．Picture writing and numbers together were used to record information and tell stories by the Egyptians. |
| B．An important Egyptian could be studied through the walls of the place where he was buried. |
| C．Egypt is the home of the modern comic strip books. |
| D．Ordinary people can easily understand the Egyptian’s way of writing. |
| A．An encyclopedia. | B．A science book. | C．A fashion magazine. | D．A newspaper. |
In China, writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and ink stones are called the Four Treasures of Study. Among the high-quality (质量)treasures, the writing brush produced in Huzhou, the ink stick produced in Huizhou, the xuan paper made in Xuancheng and the ink stone made in Duanxi are the best-known.
The writing brushes can be used to draw the pictures on painted potteries (陶器). They are mainly made of the hair of animals. Those made of wool are called yanghao and those made of the weasel's(鼬) tail hair are called langhao. Their artistic effects (效果)in writing and painting cannot be copied by any other pens.
The ink stick is the pigment(颜料)used in writing and painting. The ink stick produced in Huizhou is of high quality. A story goes like this: Two famous skilled men Xi Chao and his son produced a kind of high-quality ink stick. As a result, the Emperor Li Yu in the Southern Tang Dynasty agreed to give them the family name "Li". From then on, the fame of the Li Ink Stick was widespread. In the Song Dynasty, its producing area was changed into Huizhou, and it was then called the Hui Ink Stick.
Paper is among the four great inventions in ancient China. The famous xuan paper appeared in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In Xuanzhou, Anhui Province where the xuan paper is produced, it's said that Cai Lun's pupil Kong Dan took the job of producing paper but failed to make perfect white paper. Later he happened to see the ebony (檀木)in the rivers. It was wet with the water and turned white. Then he used the bark (树皮)to produce the world-famous xuan paper.
The ink stone was already very popular in the Han Dynasty. The Ming and Qing dynasties saw the appearance of the Four Famous Ink Stones - Duan Ink Stone, She Ink Stone, Tao Ink Stone and Chengni Ink Stone. They can not only be used in writing and painting but also for admiration.
1. What are the writing brushes mainly made of?2. Why did Xi Chao and his son get the family name from the Emperor Li Yu?
3. What does it in paragraph 3 refer to (指的是)?
4. How did Kong Dan find the way to make the famous xuan paper by accident?
5. When did the Four Famous Ink Stones appear?
6. What's the title (标题) for the passage? (不超过10个词)
but, south, house, build, cook, rich, become, money, even, anyone |
Why are so many British people interested in historical (历史的) television programs like Downton Abbey ( 《唐顿庄园》) ? Maybe because they want to see how both
Downton Abbey is not a real place,
Highclere Castle in the
Why did people
But as we know from the story of Downton, the
Today, many country houses are open to
Some of the houses were sold and
And some are used for making films and TV programs like Downton Abbey.
Before paper was invented, people wrote or drew on materials such as bamboo,
Paper had already existed (存在) in China , but the process for
With Cai Lun’s papermaking method, Chinese culture
6 . Early Writing and Alphabets (字母表)
When people first began to write, they did not use an alphabet.
The Ancient Egyptians had a
An alphabet is quite
| A．However | B．Instead | C．Also | D．Then |
| A．amazing | B．powerful | C．strange | D．slow |
| A．wall | B．piece | C．system | D．collection |
| A．finally | B．seldom | C．nearly | D．especially |
| A．similar to | B．different from | C．full of | D．close to |
| A．noticed | B．arranged | C．developed | D．discovered |
7 . Why Is It “Eleven, Twelve” Instead of “Oneteen, Twoteen”
English number words are pretty logical after a point. From twenty-one to ninety-nine, the same principle applies. The units (个位数) f
Eleven and twelve come from the Old English words “endleofan” and “twelf”, which can be traced back further to a time when they were “ain+lif” and “twa+lif”. So what did this “-lif” mean? The best guess is that it is from a r
So then the question is, why don’t we have “threelif”, “fourlif”, “fiflif”, “sixlif” and so on? The answer has to do with the development of number systems over history. A long, long time ago, when the number words were first being formed, most people didn’t have much reason to distinguish numbers above ten. In fact, some languages of a
Maybe there was a “threelif”, “fourlif” type system, but 11 and 12 were used more often in daily life. Many number systems are based on 12 because it can be divided e
You can extend that idea to other number words. We have more irregularities of pronunciation in the tens (“twenty”, “thirty”, “fifty” instead of “twoty”, “threety”, “fivety”) because we’ve been making everyday use of those numbers for longer than we have for “two hundred”, “three hundred”, and “five hundred”). “Thousand” is an old word, but its original sense was “a great multitude”. It is not a specific number, but a very useful idea. The words we needed earliest, and used the most frequently are usually the most irregular.
So the short answer is, we created words for 11 and 12 a long time ago by calling them “one left after ten” and “two left after ten”. They were more useful to us than the bigger numbers, so we said them more and they became a h
On Easter Day 1722, some European explorers found an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They surprisingly found that there were around 800 big stone statues（石像）called Moai, just like human heads. They weigh up to 270 tons and the tallest one is over 11 meters.
Since their discovery, these stone men have created one of the greatest mysteries of all time. Who built them? Why did they do it?
Some experts say the stone statues were created by people of Peruvian descent（秘鲁人后代）. Others believe that they came from other space. However, the latest information suggests that it is a kind of wasting in human history.
It is said that a small group of Asians lived on Easter Island sometime between 400 and 700 AD. At the top of their civilization（文明）. The Asians began to build the stone men. Why they did this is still unknown, but it is believed that they do this to worship（祭拜）their gods or ancestors.
As the statues grew larger, the people’s lifestyles became more and more wasteful. The forest began to disappear and animals died out. The people had food shortage and they had to eat other humans to live. From then on, the society began to break down and the stone men were finally destroyed by the islanders themselves.
1. Where did European explorers find the big stone statues?2. How high is the tallest Moai?
3. Is it believed by some people that Moai were created by aliens?
4. Why did Asians in the island build Moai?
5. What did the islanders do when they couldn’t get enough food?
9 . We all have our favourite music, films or books — but which are the most popular ever?
The most popular album (音乐专辑) Thriller by Michael Jackson At the time Jackson started writing his best-selling album Thriller, he hoped that his album would sell 50 million copies. He was wrong — it sold over ten million more than that. Even today around 130,000 copies are sold in the USA every year. |
The most popular classical music Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony When Beethoven was alive, his Fifth Symphony wasn’t his most popular piece of music. But now most people know the da da da dah introduction. In the 20th century, the first four notes (音符) were used by other musicians to make different types of music like hiphop and rock and roll. |
The most popular novel A Tale of Two Cities Many people think the best-selling book of all time is one of the Harry Potter books. It’s true that all the Harry Potter books together have sold about 450 million copies. But the most popular single novel is much older. A Tale of Two Cities was written by Charles Dickens in 1859 and has sold 250 million copies. |
The most popular ________ The Shawshank Redemption The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont in 1994, didn’t make much money at the cinema. It only became popular later on video, DVD and TV. It was based on a book by Stephen King. The writer sold the story for only a dollar. |
| A．painting | B．film | C．poem | D．sculpture |
| A．Thriller turned out to be more popular than Michael Jackson expected. |
| B．The Fifth Symphony was used in many other music forms by Beethoven. |
| C．A Tale of Two Cities has sold more copies than all the Harry Potter books. |
| D．The Shawshank Redemption made much money as soon as it came out. |
| A．Sports Time. | B．Science Study. | C．Culture World. | D．Nature Watch. |
10 . Early in the 16th century, it was difficult for people to live without enough food. So lots of people tried hard
Magellan sailed from Seville in August, 1519,
They then continued, hoping to reach Asia But they couldn’t see any land
The remaining officers then had to get back to Spain. They decided to sail around Africa. After
The adventure of Magellan’s expedition told us that when facing difficulties, we should not give up easily. Instead, we need to be confident of
| A．reach | B．reached | C．to reach | D．reaches |
| A．found | B．to find | C．finding | D．founded |
| A．for | B．with | C．without | D．by |
| A．success | B．successful | C．successfully | D．succeed |
| A．while | B．after | C．since | D．until |
| A．a | B．an | C．the | D．/ |
| A．killed | B．was killed | C．killing | D．had killed |
| A．many | B．any | C．few | D．little |
| A．great | B．greater | C．greatly | D．the greatest |
| A．our | B．us | C．ourselves | D．we |
