1 . The exhibit, Digital Dunhuang — Tales of Heaven and Earth, which was held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, brought to Hong Kong more than 100 exhibits including the visual murals and other related programs that could allow visitors to learn about the art and history of the Mogao Caves in a fun way.
“Dunhuang was an international city, a place where East met West, on the old Silk Road. So the Mogao Caves, which were completed in a period of over 1,000 years, record the ways of life and beliefs of the different peoples that crossed paths there,” explained Fion Lin of Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
Visitors can now get up close and personal with these faraway treasures without having to step into the caves, thanks to the digitization project of the Dunhuang Academy, a pioneer that has made great progress in the digitization and 3D scanning of the Dunhuang treasures.
“Studies have shown that in a cave, both temperature and CO2 concentration level can rise with 15 tourists inside for ten minutes. As a result, the wall paintings are going to eventually fade. Digital technology has helped to strike a balance between sharing the treasures and protecting them,” said Lin.
However, digitization of the caves faces many challenges such as poor lighting and rough wall surfaces. On average, 40,000 pictures have to be taken to cover 300 m2. Great amount of efforts have been made to piece the pictures together. What the exhibition presented is the result of years of hard work.
During the exhibition period, a mini display on Dunhuang music culture was also being held at the Museum for public participation.
1. What could visitors see at the Digital Dunhuang exhibit?| A．The Mogao Caves. | B．About 40,000 Dunhuang pictures. |
| C．Digital Dunhuang wall paintings. | D．Ancient records of Dunhuang. |
| A．It helps Dunhuang become an international city. |
| B．It lets people better appreciate the Dunhuang art. |
| C．It is effective in cutting the CO₂ level in the caves. |
| D．It attracts more tourists from East and West to Hong Kong. |
| A．They are brightly lit. | B．They are very rough. |
| C．It is very hard to protect them. | D．It is impossible for the tourists to see them. |
| A．In paragraph 2. | B．In paragraph 3. |
| C．In paragraph 4. | D．In paragraph 5. |
2 . After finishing a meal at an American Chinese restaurant you probably expect to receive a handful of fortune cookies after you pay the bill. Fortune cookies are in Chinese restaurants throughout the United States. It’s rather satisfying to crack open a cookie at the end of your meal and read your “lucky fortune” on the slip of paper inside.
The exact origin of the fortune cookie is unknown. It is thought that the tasty snack was the first introduced into San Francisco in 1914, after an immigrant began distributing the cookie with “thank you” notes in them. These “thank you” notes were intended as symbols of appreciation for friends who stood with him through the economic hardship and discrimination of his early life in America.
There is an alternate origin story. Los Angeles is regarded as the site of the fortune cookie’s invention. In this version of the story, David Jung, a Chinese immigrant residing in L. A., is thought to have created the cookie in order to uplift the spirits of the poor and homeless. In 1918, Jung handed out the cookies for free to the poor outside his shop and each cookie contained a strip of paper with an inspirational sentence printed on it.
Fortune cookies first began to gain popularity in mainstream American culture during WWII. Chinese restaurants would serve them in place of desserts, as desserts were not popular in traditional Chinese cuisine. Today fortune cookies are not tied to Chinese-American culture. In fact, the largest fortune cookie manufacturer is located in the United States and it produces 4.5 million fortune cookies a day —— an evidence to the modern-day popularity of the snack. However, an attempt to introduce the fortune cookie to China in 1992 was a failure, and the cookie was cited for being “too American.”
So the next time you break open a fortune cookie and read a fortune about the many successes you should expect in your future, remember that the conclusion to your Chinese restaurant meal may not be as Chinese as you think.
1. What do we know about fortune cookies?| A．They are as popular in China as in America. |
| B．They contain slips of paper with good wishes. |
| C．They first appeared in America during WWII. |
| D．They are often charged to the customers’ bill. |
| A．To make profit. |
| B．To express gratitude. |
| C．To uplift people’s spirits. |
| D．To help people out of hardship. |
| A．The fortune you seek is in another cookie. |
| B．Every exit is an entrance to new experiences. |
| C．I’m being held prisoner by a Chinese bakery. |
| D．Only taste fortune cookies; disregard all others. |
| A．A Symbol of Chinese Culture |
| B．Chinese Restaurants in America |
| C．Can fortune cookie tell your fortune? |
| D．Fortune cookie, Chinese or American? |
