1 . Experts believe that there are more than 8 million restaurants in the world today. So it might surprise you to learn that restaurants, as we know them, have only been around for a few centuries. Before 1765, there were no restaurants. That it is to say, there were no places that provided the restaurant experience. There was nowhere in which a waiter brought you food and drinks that you picked from a menu. In fact, there were no menus anywhere.
A man called Boulanger changed that. In 1765, he opened a place in Paris that sold soup. On his sign, he used the word “restaurant” to describe what he was selling. At that time, it was believed that soup could help restore(恢复) your health—in French the word “restore” is “restaurer”—so he called the soup “restaurant”. Soon, people started buying his soup even when they were not ill. And later, people begin to use the word “restaurant” to mean a place selling soup rather than(而不是) the soup itself. People could see more “restaurant” in France, and they began to buy soup more often.
Later, restaurant in Paris began to serve other food besides soup. In the 1790s, menus started to appear. By the mid-1800s. there were many kinds of restaurants around the world. The United States offered coffee shops. Tea houses become popular in China. Paris created beautiful restaurants for the rich. The British began to copy the French, and the restaurant idea spread in Britain.
Today, cities are filled with all kinds of restaurants. Diners have millions of choices for what to eat. They like going to eat at those restaurants and always have a good time.
The | |
| Before 1765 | People never had the |
In 1765 | French man Boulanger He put up a sign with the word “restaurant” in front of his shop. Then, soup Over time, the word “restaurant” was more often used to mean a place selling soup. At last, more “restaurant” selling soup appeared. |
| By the mid-1800s | Restaurants in Paris served both soup and other food after 1765. Menus in restaurants first appeared in the 1790s. The idea of opening restaurants was spread to foreign countries. |
| Now | Over 8 million restaurants are in the world. All kinds of restaurants got great |
2 . In the 13th century, Marco Polo, the world-known Italian traveller saw many wonderful things in China. One of the things he discovered was money made of paper. People in the West did not have such kind of money until the I5th century. However, the Chinese began to use it in the 7th century.
Paper was invented by a Chinese man called Cai Lun almost 2,000 years ago. But it was not made in Europe until the year 1100. Four hundred years later, a German discovered that he could make the best paper from trees. After that countries rich in forests, such as Canada, Sweden, America and Finland became the most important ones in paper making.
Paper can be used in many ways. The common uses include newspapers, magazines and books. But do you know that paper can be used for keeping warm? In Finland, the farmers wear paper boots to keep their feet warm in the snow. And even houses can be insulated (使绝缘) from heat or cold with paper.
However, we have to understand that paper still comes from trees now. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth some day in the near future. Every day people throw away about 2, 800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting down nearly 48,000 trees every day. The fact is that it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow.
So we must start saving paper right now. We can use both sides of every piece of paper. We can make useful things out of used paper. We can use china cups instead of paper ones. When shopping, we can use fewer paper bags and reuse them if possible.
In short, we should keep a balance (平衡) between using paper and protecting trees, and do it now before it is too late.
1. When did the Chinese begin to use paper money?| A．In the 5th century | B．In the 6th century |
| C．In the 7th century | D．In the 15th century |
| A．Because it was a large country. |
| B．Because it had lots of forests. |
| C．Because it was a very rich country. |
| D．Because the inventor was from Canada. |
| A．making beds | B．reducing waste |
| C．making umbrellas | D．keeping warm |
| A．how paper boots are made | B．how paper was invented |
| C．how we can save paper | D．how we can make useful things |
3 . Beijing Opera appeared in the Qing Dynasty(朝代). In 1790, many opera troupes(戏班)went to Beijing for performances to celebrate the birthday of Qianlong. This kind of unusual performance touched the hearts of the people deeply. While in Beijing, the troupes created a new kind of opera called Beijing Opera. It was on the basis(基础)of Anhui Opera by taking in the advantages of other operas.
Beijing Opera is quite unique(唯一的)in role shaping because it divides the roles into different kinds. They are sheng, dan, jing and chou which are quite different in many ways.
A popular song goes like this, “Foreigners call Jingxi Beijing Opera.” In fact, Beijing Opera is different from opera. Opera tells the story and expresses the thoughts by singing instead of speaking. But Beijjing Opera stresses(强调)chang, nian, zuo and da. Chang means singing; nian means musical spoken parts; zuo means dance movements and da means martial(武打)skills.
Mei Lanfang is an excellent performing artist of Beijing Opera in China. In 1930, he led an opera troupe to America and presented Beijing Opera before western people. Today, Beijing Opera has become the sign of Chinese culture. It is changing with the development of different musical styles.
1. Beijing Opera appeared in the ________Dynasty.| A．Song | B．Yuan | C．Ming | D．Qing |
| A．performing in Beijing | B．touching the hearts of the people |
| C．celebrating Qialong’s birthday | D．taking in the advantages of other operas |
| A．roles | B．styles | C．shapes | D．signs |
| A．nian | B．zuo | C．da | D．chang |
| A．Beijing Opera is the same as opera. |
| B．Opera expresses the thoughts by speaking. |
| C．Beijing Opera has never changed until now. |
| D．Mei Lanfang thought Beijing Opera to the world. |
4 . You're probably used to getting takeaway delivered（递送）to your home these days. Maybe you and your parents even order pizza sometimes. But the first pizza delivery in history took place nearly 150 years ago - in Italy.
In 1878, Queen Margherita became the first queen of Italy. As the story goes, the queen grew tired of eating "fancy" meals and wanted to eat "common" food. Raffaele Esposito, the most famous pizza chef at that time, was asked to deliver a pizza to the queen. He prepared a pizza with tomatoes, and cheese - the red tomatoes, and white cheese standing for the colors of Italy's new national flag. As soon as the pizza was out of the oven, he quickly delivered it to the queen himself. The queen had never eaten pizza before and said it was one of the best things she'd ever eaten.
Today, pizza remains one of the world's most popular fast foods. In 1973, US pizza company Domino's Pizza promised to deliver its pizzas in "30 minutes or less"- if the pizza was late, it would be free.
Little Caesars, another US pizza company, offers a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza at nearly all of its stores. These pizzas are cooked around the clock so that there are always fresh pizzas available. You go to the store, pay $6（about 42 yuan）and walk out with a fresh pizza with no waiting time.
Pizza, it seems, might be the ultimate "fast" food.
1. When was the first pizza delivered?| A．100 years ago | B．1500 years ago. | C．In 1878 | D．In 1973. |
| A．精致的 | B．吃厌的 | C．普通的 | D．难吃的. |
| A．The company wants to sell the clock at the same time |
| B．The clock is invented to cook a special pizza. |
| C．People should put $6 into the clock to buy one. |
| D．People can always eat or buy fresh pizza in time. |
| A．How is pizza delivered? | B．The fast food pizza in history |
| C．Delicious pizza now. | D．How was pizza invented? |
5 . The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected Europe, Africa and Asia. People reached these different places along these roads. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3, 000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk trade became important in the world, the Silk Road covered almost 6,500 kilometers. It spread from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.
Traders traveling along the Silk Road carried silk of course. They also carried and traded spices (香料), cloth, valuable stones and gold.
There is a famous old story along the old road. It is said that Roman soldiers (士兵) traveled through central Asia. They started to live somewhere near the ancient Chinese village of Liqian. Some of these Romans married local Chinese women and the story of blue-eyed villages of China was started.
During its busiest period, the Silk Road allowed people from many different cultures and countries to meet each other and mix. The Silk Road allowed the sharing of valuable goods and new ideas. These included people and trading goods from the Mediterranean, Persian, Magyar, Armenian, Baetrian, Indian and Chinese areas. All these people traveled the Silk Road, and they shared goods, stories, languages and culture.
In modern times, the old Silk Road routes(路线) are still used, but now they are crossed by trains instead of camels and horses. There is even a Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35,000 objects from all along the Silk Road. In this way, China protects the history of many countries and peoples.
1. Traders carried all kinds of goods along the Silk Road. Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?| A．Silk | B．Cloth | C．Gold | D．Tea |
| A．Asian soldiers | B．European soldiers |
| C．African soldiers | D．American soldiers |
| A．Valuable things could not be sold along the Silk Road. |
| B．The Silk Road allowed people from different countries to mix. |
| C．Ancient Chinese along the Silk Road may be able to speak different languages. |
| D．The objects in the museum in Jiuquan in China are from all along the Silk Road. |
| A．History and geography | B．Sports world |
| C．Man and animals | D．Popular science |
6 . The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected Europe, Africa and Asia. People reached these different places along these roads. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk trade became important in the world. The Silk Road covered almost 6500 kilometers. It went from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.
Merchants travelled along the Silk Road to carry silk, of course. They also carried and traded other things like spices (香料), cloth, jewels and gold.
Along and around these ancient path(小路), have come many fascinating and mysterious stories.
It is said that Roman soldiers who lost a war travelled through central Asia. They decided to live somewhere near the ancient Chinese villages. Some of these Romans married local Chinese women and the legend of the blond-haired, blue-eyed tribes of China was started.
Some historians believe that the people of Kashmir were taken away from their country Israel. They were prisoners (俘虏) of war almost 2800 years ago. People say that these people travelled along the Silk Road. They kept their Jewish way of life for a long time.
During its busiest period, the Silk Road allowed people from many different cultures and countries to meet each other and mix. The Silk Road allowed the sharing of valuable things and new ideas. It included people and trading goods from different areas. All these peoples travelled the Silk Road. And they shared goods, stories, languages, and cultures.
In modern times, the old Silk Road routes (路线) are still used, but now they are crossed by trains instead of camels and horses. There is even silk route museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35, 000 objects from all along the Silk Road. In this way, China protects the history of many countries and peoples.
1. The underlined word“Merchants”in the passage probably means _______.| A．foreigners | B．businessmen | C．soldiers | D．prisoners |
| A．the Silk Road began with the wars |
| B．the Silk Road covered almost 6500 kilometers in China |
| C．people began to travel the Silk Road about 3000 years ago |
| D．people from Israel were not included among people on the Silk Road |
| A．there are many old stories about them |
| B．the historians and scientists think highly of them |
| C．China will make good use of the Silk Road again |
| D．people can keep on traveling and trading along them |
| A．Stories along the Silk Road | B．Silk Route Museum |
| C．Trade for Silk | D．The West and the Far East |
7 . The envelope (信封) is designed to protect letters. It is so common today. But do you know when and where the envelope first appeared? The history of envelopes is probably much longer than you think.
It is believed the envelope first appeared in ancient China. It was used to protect royal (王室的) messages. However, the early envelope was nothing like what we use today. It was made from clay and looked like a ball. After the message was put into it, the envelope would be covered with more clay. To read the message, one had to break the “envelope”.
The first paper envelope appeared around 200 B.C. It was also invented by the Chinese. However, at first, people used it only to send money to each other as gifts. It was not until around the seventh century that it was used for sending messages. The design of the early paper envelope was very simple. It was just a piece of paper folded and covered with wax (蜡). Since the envelope was made completely by hand, it was very expensive.
In the 19th century, printing and producing methods improved greatly. In 1853, American inventor Russel Hawes invented an envelope maker. The machine could produce about 12,500 envelopes every day. With these improvements, the cost of envelopes went down. The design also became more difficult.
Today, emails have become more popular than handwritten letters. However, billions of (几十亿的) envelopes are used around the world every year. They are still part of modern life.
1. From the second paragraph, we’ve learnt it’s about _______.| A．the introduction to the early envelope | B．the place to make the envelopes |
| C．the shape of the early envelope | D．the steps of sending the envelope |
| A．was made like a ball | B．couldn’t be folded easily |
| C．was used for keeping money | D．was only used to send messages |
| A．the clay envelope was invented after paper envelope |
| B．most envelopes were made by American inventors |
| C．people stopped using envelopes because of emails |
| D．envelopes played an important role in modern life |
| A．The Development of Emails | B．The History of Envelopes |
| C．The Popularity of Emails | D．The Protection of Envelopes |
8 . Here’s an everyday situation: you buy a magazine and you use money to pay for it. But think about that for a minute. You’ve actually given the shopkeeper just a piece of paper, a few pieces of metal or nowadays just a piece of plastic. It’s all very easy. However, at one time, there wasn’t any money. How were things paid for then?
In a barter system(易货贸易), things are exchanged by people. But there is a problem with barter: What if the bread-maker wants some eggs, but the egg seller doesn’t need any bread? What will happen then?
The problem was solved by the introduction of money. The first things used as money were shells and stones. The first real coins were made of gold and silver by the Lydians in about 650BC(公元前) in what is now western Turkey. They were traders and soon their coins were being used all over the Mediterranean. The idea was taken to India by Alexander the Great and his army, and from there it spread to China and other parts of Asia. The first paper money was produced by the Chinese in the 9th century.
In the modern age, new ways of paying for things have been invented. More and more things are paid for by card or on a mobile phone. In the future everything may be paid for without using notes or coins at all.
1. The first real money was made ___________.| A．in India | B．over 2600 years ago |
| C．by a Lydian king | D．of shells and stones |
| A．China was the inventor of paper money. |
| B．No money will be used in the future. |
| C．These days all things are paid for by card or on a smart phone. |
| D．In a barter system, people had no problems exchanging things. |
a. India b. Japan c. Turkey d. the Mediterranean e. China
| A．c-d-a-e-b | B．c-a-d-b-e | C．b-c-d-a-e | D．e-d-c-a-b |
| A．The Importance of Money | B．The Popularity of Money |
| C．The Development of Money | D．Different Kinds of Money |
9 . Do you know the highest bridge in the world? Is it in America? Is it in the UK? NO, It’s in China. It’s called the Beipanjiang Bridge, and it is the highest one in the world. It’s near Bejie in Guizhou Province. The bridge stands 565 meters above （在……上面）a deep river. It connects the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan.
Guizhou Province is already home to seven of the ten highest bridges in China. The Beipanjiang Bridge has just overtaken（超过）the Sidu River Bridge in Hubei Province to become the world’s highest. The Beipanjiang Bridge is five meters higher than the previous（以前的）record holder. The third highest bridge in the world is also in our country.
The building of the Beipanjiang Bridge started in 2012 and it was opened to traffic on December 29, 2016. It cost about 100 million yuan. Over 10,000 engineers and technicians（技术人员） worked on this project, which took over three years to complete.
The Beipanjiang Bridge is part of highway（高速公路）connecting Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province and Ruili City in Yunnan Province. The bridge is 1341.4 meters long and it cuts the travel time from Liupanshui in Guizhou to Xuanwei in Yunnan from around five hours to over an hour.
1. How high is the Beipanjiang Bridge？2. What was the world’s highest bridge before the Beipanjiang Bridge？
3. Where is the world’s third highest bridge？
4. When did the Beipanjiang Bridge start being used？
5. How long does it take people to travel from Liupanshui to Xuanwei now？
10 . Study a calendar. It looks simple and orderly. But a calendar is more of a mathematical puzzle than you might guess. The calendar we use today has gone through centuries of changes.
For millennia, people watched the seasons, sun, moon, and stars to help them keep track of time passing. Ancient people did not know that Earth orbits (沿轨道运行) the sun about every 365.25 days. They tried to track the year by counting the full moons. Each year had 12 full moons. Twelve moons, or months, made one lunar year.
Calendars in Babylon used a lunar year. Twelve months added up to only 354 days. That made the lunar year 11 days too short. As years went by, the months and the seasons no longer matched up.
People in ancient Egypt came up with a solar calendar of 365 days. They observed that Sirius, the Dog Star, appeared near the rising sun every 365 days. Soon after that, the Nile River would rise. They looked forward to the flooding of the Nile, because it brought good things. The rich soil left by floodwaters was good for planting.
The ancient Romans used a calendar of 10 months. Because a Roman year was only 304 days, it seemed to always be out of step with the seasons. Holidays showed up at the wrong time of year.
A Roman ruler named Julius Caesar ordered a change. He created a calendar with 12 months, each 30 or 31 days long. He added an extra day every four years to keep things on track. This calendar was used for more than a millennium. But by the end of the 16th century, it was ten days out of step.
Pope Gregory XIII created today’s calendar in 1582. He set new mathematical rules for keeping the calendar in step with the seasons. Today, the Gregorian calendar is used almost everywhere in the world.
1. How long does the Earth orbit the sun?2. Why did people in ancient Egypt look forward to the flooding of the Nile?
3. Who created a calendar with 12 months in ancient Romans?
4. When was today’s calendar created?
5. What is the passage mainly about?
