3 . 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 spread from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.

Traders travelling 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 travelled 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, Bactrian, Indian and Chinese 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 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.

5 . The distance between ancient Rome and ancient China was about 4,000 miles by land. It was a very dangerous trip because here were terrible deserts and high mountains on the way.

For a very long history, the ancient Romans did not know who was making this wonderful cloth called silk. The Romans first discovered pieces of silk in the goods they took from some of dead people they had conquered (征服). But those people did not know where the silk was made. They only traded for the silk.

The Romans tried to find more traders as they came into villages to trade silk for other goods. But the traders did not know who made the silk, either. In fact, the trading along the Silk Road was a relay (接力) system. One trader would travel for a while, stop and trade, and return home. The next trader would continue, stop and trade, and return home. And so it went, no trader made the whole trip because the trip was too dangerous. The Silk Road shows its trade value between ancient Rome and ancient China.

The Silk Road had a lot of value (价值). As the years went by along the Silk Road that is more valuable, there were even cities built on the oases (绿洲). It was never easy to travel by land from ancient China to ancient Rome. But it was worth it. Ancient Rome traded treasure mainly for ancient China’s silk and spices. In fact, more things traveled along the Silk Road than traders and goods. Ideas traveled along the Silk Road as well. The ideas changed the world.

How much do you know about the Silk Road? It is a historically important international trade route between China and the Medier-ranean (地中海). It began during the Western Han Dynasty and has been a bridge between East and West for over 2,000 years.

The ancient road started from Chang’an (now Xi’an) and ended in Eastern Europe, near today’s Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea. It was about 6,500 kilometers long and went across one-fourth of the planet.

The Silk Road got its name in the 19th century because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. Silk, jade, ceramics and iron went west to Rome. And from the west came glass, gems and food like carrots.

The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world. It was more than an ancient international trade route. Besides trade, knowledge about arts, science and literature, as well crafts and technologies was shared across the Silk Road. In this way, languages and cultures developed and influenced each other.

Today, China is trying to build the “21 st Century Marine (海洋的) Silk Road”. With the help of APEC held in Beijing in November 2014, the dream of One Belt One Road (the “Silk Road Economic (经济的) Belt” and “21st Century Marine Silk Road”) (“一带一路”) is coming true.

7 . Hundreds of years ago, a Norse (挪威的) army came from the north of Europe and stepped onto the land of Scotland. The Scots, a brave people, loved their country very much. They fought hard to keep the Norsemen out of Scotland, but there were too many of them. It looked as if the Norsemen would win.

One night, the leader of Scots took his soldiers to the top of a hill. “We will rest here tonight, my men,” he said. “Tomorrow we will have another fight. We must win or we will die.”

They were all very tired, so they ate their dinner quickly and fell asleep. There were four soldiers on duty, watching out for any danger at night. But they were also very tired. One by one, they fell asleep as well.

The Norsemen were not asleep. Very soon, they came together at the foot of the hill. In order to walk quietly, the Norsemen took off their shoes. Slowly they climbed up the hillside without making any sound. Closer and closer, they moved towards the sleeping Scots. They were almost there. A few minutes more, the war would be over.

Suddenly, one of the Norse soldiers put his foot on a thistle (蓟) and got hurt. He cried out and his sudden cry woke up all the Scots. In a moment, they were on their feet and ready to fight. The fighting was hard but it did not last long. The Scots drove the Norsemen away and saved their country.

From then on, the thistle has become popular in Scotland. Although it is not beautiful and has sharp needles all over it, Scottish people still make it their national flower.

8 . People have painted 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.     1     About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as a kind of writing.     2     And also they represented the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet (字母表).

    3     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.     4     But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.

The Silk Road went from China to Eastern Europe. It went along the north of China, India, and Persia and ended up in Eastern Europe near today’s Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea.

It was called Silk Road because one of the major products (产品) traded was silk cloth from China. Chinese silk was soft and of high quality. So people all over the Asia and Europe loved it very much.     1     Even the Romans called China the “land of silk”.

Besides silk, the Chinese also sold tea, salt, sugar and porcelain (陶瓷) .     2     This was because it was a long trip and traders didn’t have a lot of room for goods.

Traders travelled in large caravan (旅行队). They would have many guards with them.     3     Most of the road was through dry land. So camels were popular animals for transport.

Although there was some trade between China and the rest of the world for some time, the silk trade developed quickly during the Han Dynasty which ruled from 206 BC to 220 AD.     4     During this time the Mongols (蒙古) controlled most of the trade road, and Chinese traders travel safely. Also, traders had a higher social position during the Mongol rule.

    5     It not only helped to develop trade between different countries, but also helped for ideas, culture and inventions to spread across the world.

10 . After the Trojan War, one of the soldiers inside the wooden horse told his story to his family.

We tried to capture Troy for ten years, but did not succeed. Then we thought of a trick.

We built a huge wooden horse and left it outside the main gates. During the night, our army disappeared, but they didn’t go far away. In the morning, the Trojans saw the horse. He was inside the horse with another five soldiers, but the Trojans did not know.

The Trojans opened the gates and pulled the horse into the city. That night, they celebrated. They song and danced, and they made jokes about us. Then they locked all the gates and went to sleep.

When they were asleep, we climbed out of the horse. We opened the main gates and our army entered the city.

Then we went to the captain’s room. We caught him.

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