1 . It may seem as if Mother's Day was invented by a company named Hallmark, but people have been taking time on the calendar to give a shout-out to Mom for a long time. The Greeks and Romans had mother goddess festivals — although their celebrations didn't involve the menfolk taking their underappreciated mothers out to dinner. A more recent tradition was Mothering Sunday, which developed in the British Isles during the 16th century. On the fourth Sunday in April, young men and women who were living and working apart from their families were advised to return to their mothers’ houses.
Mother's Day as it is observed in the United States started in the 1850s with Ann Jarvis, a West Virginia woman who held “Mothers' Work Days” to promote health and hygiene(卫生 ) at home and in the workplace. During the Civil War, Jarvis organized women to improve sanitary conditions for soldiers on both sides, and after the war she became a peacemaker, furthering the cause by bringing together mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers and promoting a Mother's Day holiday.
Jarvis's work inspired another 19th-century woman, Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe published her “Mother's Day Proclamation”, which envisioned(设想) the day not as appreciation of mothers by their children but as an opportunity for women to exercise their collective power for peace. Howe started holding annual Mother's Day celebrations in Boston, her hometown, but after about a decade she stopped footing the bill and the tradition faded away.
It was Jarvis's daughter Anna who succeeded in getting Mother’s Day recognized as a national holiday. After her mother died, in May 1905, Anna started holding yearly ceremony on the anniversary and conducting a tireless PR campaign to have the day made a holiday. In 1908 she succeeded in enlisting the support of John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia department store magnate and advertising pioneer, and by 1912 West Virginia and a few other states had adopted Mother's Day. Two years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution declaring the second Sunday in May a national holiday.
It wasn't long, though, before whatever ideals the day was supposed to celebrate were buried under an amount of greeting cards and candy. By the 1920s Anna Jarvis was campaigning against the holiday she had been instrumental in creating. “I wanted it to be a day of emotionalism, not profit,” she said.
1. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that .| A．mothers didn't get enough appreciation in the past |
| B．Mother's Day was invented by Hallmark |
| C．young people all returned to their mothers' houses |
| D．Greeks and Romans were the first to celebrate Mother's Day |
| A．Ann Jarvis. | B．Julia Ward Howe. |
| C．Woodrow Wilson. | D．Anna Jarvis. |
| A．Because it was extremely emotional. |
| B．Because the festival was not profitable. |
| C．Because the celebrations went against the original spirit. |
| D．Because the day was celebrated in the form of exchanging greeting cards and candy. |
| A．The Definition of Mother’s Day |
| B．The Argument on Celebrating Mother's Day |
| C．The Story Behind the Creation of Mother's Day |
| D．Different Forms of Celebration on Mother's Day |
2 . In the West, people are taught to wear masks only when they get sick. Masks are seen as a tool to protect sick people and prevent the disease from spreading, so healthy people don’t need to wear them. Therefore, during the novel coronavirus outbreak, overseas Chinese students said that they would be “stared at like a virus spreader” if they go out with a mask. According to a survey done by Global Times among some European and American people, wearing a mask in public can make them feel “worried”, “shy”, and “afraid of being looked at differently.”
But as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow around the world, many people in the West are changing their attitudes. In the US, for example, the need for masks is very high now. The US surgeon general (卫生局局长) has been asking people to avoid hoarding too many masks, as they are more needed in hospitals than by the general public.
However, in Asian countries like China and Japan, there has been a long tradition of mask-wearing. In China, for example, when doctor Wu Liande invented the modern medical mask during the pneumonic plague (肺鼠疫) in 1910, the mask became a symbol of China’s position as a modern, scientific nation, according to Scottish medical anthropologist (人类学家) Christos Lynteris. The 2003 SARS epidemic led to the wide use of masks as a form of anti-viral (抗病毒的) protection in China and elsewhere in East Asia.
In Japan, wearing masks has long been seen as a manner to reassure (使安心) others when one catches a cold or flu. Some Japanese also turn masks into fashion accessories (配饰), with different colors and patterns to match their clothes. Wearing masks is also a way to “hide” for young women when they don’t have their makeup (化妆) on.
In more collectivist (集体主义的) cultures in Asia, wearing masks might also be a symbol of solidarity (团结) during the outbreak, according to Lynteris. People wear masks “to show that they want to stick together” in the face of danger, Lynteris wrote.
1. Why don’t healthy people in the West wear masks?| A．They don’t think masks can prevent disease. |
| B．Only medical workers need to wear masks. |
| C．They think masks are for sick people to wear. |
| D．Wearing a mask looks funny. |
| A．wearing | B．making | C．throwing | D．keeping |
| A．the outbreak of SARS in 2003 |
| B．the pneumonic plague in 1910 |
| C．Christos Lynteris wore one publicly |
| D．the invention of the modern medical mask |
| A．proving the importance of wearing masks during an epidemic |
| B．showing opinions about masks between different countries |
| C．explaining why Westerners don’t wear masks |
| D．introducing the history of wearing masks |
“Funny”, a made-in-China emoji, seems to have recently moved beyond China. Now, it is more than an emoji, but a cultural expansion.
● Reaching Global Markets
A series of “funny” emoji-based bolsters(抱枕) have attracted the attention of Japanese customers. Even if one bolster is more than three times as expensive as in China, it doesn’t kill their desires to buy it. One Japanese customer Miki said, “They are just so cute and I bought three bolsters at one time for my family. And every time I see them, my mood just brightens suddenly.”
A Japanese netizen Kiro Kara said, “I think the emoji implies very complicated meanings. My dad will send it when he doesn’t agree with someone but he has to say something and behave politely.”
● Addition to Domestic Social Media
Compared with Japanese impressions of the “funny” emoji, Chinese netizens prefer to use the emoji to tease one another on social media.
One commonly seen online comment is, “We strongly suggest stopping the usage of the emoji. Because every time other people send me the emoji, I feel very uncomfortable and consider myself as a fool.”
Regarded as the most popular emoji, the “funny” emoji has received much attention since its release in 2013. In fact, the “funny” emoji is the updated version of its original one; “funny” has a smiley mouth, two eyebrows and a naughty look. All these characteristics present users a sense of satire(讽刺).
● In Everyday UseAbroad
It’s not the first time the Chinese emoji takes the world stage. Earlier this year, one emoji from the Chinese basketball celebrity Yao Ming has been spread through the Middle East region. In a city in southern Egypt, Yao’s smiling emoji has appeared frequently in local traffic signs to remind people the road ahead is one-way. Many locals do not know Yao Ming but are familiar with his emoji and nickname “Chinese Funny Face”.
As a new online language, emojis have become a necessary part of people’s daily life, helping people express their views in a more vivid and precise way. Also, it can help foreigners learn about Chinese culture. But how to properly use “the fifth innovation in China” without hurting others and turn them into commercial advantages still need answers.
1. Why do the bolsters attract Miki’s attention?| A．They are inexpensive. |
| B．They help reach an agreement. |
| C．They help brighten the mood. |
| D．They are helpful to express desire. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．express their views more vividly |
| B．present their sense of satire directly |
| C．imply very complicated meanings properly |
| D．tease one another on social media purposely |
4 . Time talks. It speaks more plainly than words. Time communicates in many ways.
Consider the different parts of the day, for example. The time of the day when something is done can give a special meaning to the event. It is not customary to telephone someone every early in the morning. If you telephone him early in the day, the time of the call shows that the matter is very important and requires immediate attention. If someone receives a call during sleeping hours, he assumes it is a matter of life or death. The time chosen for the call communicates its importance.
In social life, time plays a very important part. In the United States, guests tend to feel they are not highly regarded if the invitation to a dinner party is extended only three or four days before the party date. But this is not true in all countries. In other areas of the world, it may be considered foolish to make an appointment too far in advance because plans which are made for a date more than a week away tend to be forgotten.
The meaning of time differs in different parts of the world. Thus, misunderstandings often arise between people from cultures that treat time differently. Promptness(准时) is valued highly in American life, for example. If people are not prompt, they may be regarded as impolite or not fully responsible. In the U.S., no one would think of keeping a business partner waiting for an hour; it would be too impolite. A person who is five minutes late is expected to make a short apology.
This way of treating time is quite different from that of several other cultures. This helps to explain the unfortunate experience of a certain agriculturist from the United States, assigned to duty in another country. After a long delay, the agriculturist was finally agreed an appointment with the Minister of Agriculture. Arriving a little before the appointed hour, the agriculturist waited. The hour came and passed. At this point he suggested to the secretary that perhaps the minister did not know he was waiting in the outer office. This gave him the feeling of having done something to solve the problem, but he had not. Twenty minutes passed, then thirty, then forty-five. To an American, that is the beginning of the “insult period”. No matter what is said in apology, there is little that can remove the damage done by an hour’s wait in an outer office. Yet in the country where this story took place, a forty-five-minute waiting period was not unusual.
In the West, particularly in the United States, people tend to think of time as something fixed in nature. As a rule, Americans think of time as a road stretching into the future, along which one progresses. The road has many sections, which are to be kept separate— “one thing at a time”. People who cannot plan events are not highly regarded. Thus, an American may feel angry when he has made an appointment with someone and then finds a lot of other things happening at the same time.
Since time has such different meanings in different cultures, communication is often difficult. We will understand each other a little better if we can keep this fact in mind.
1. According to the passage, an announcement broadcast during class must be very important because ________．| A．it is a customary time to make. | B．it makes everyone surprised. |
| C．it requires immediate attention. | D．it speaks more plainly than words. |
| A．the value of promptness for Americans. |
| B．the cultural differences in treating time. |
| C．the bad manners of the Minister of Agriculture. |
| D．the importance of time in different parts of the day. |
| A．boring. | B．patient. |
| C．shameful. | D．hopeless. |
| A．they are concerned with the value of time. |
| B．they know how to communicate with each other. |
| C．they escape dealing with many things at one appointed time. |
| D．they keep in mind that different cultures treat time differently. |
China is well known as the Kingdom of Bamboo. Bamboo culture has already been rooted
