1 . Walking through his neighborhood supermarket in Australia, where packs of Chinese sauerkraut line the shelves, Huang Xiqing feels like he’s shopping in his hometown of Shenyang in Liaoning province.
Chinese sauerkraut, a pickle made of wombok, or Chinese cabbage, is a traditional specialty of the northeastern region and is now sold across the country and exported.
In the past, only a few fresh vegetables were available during the cold northeastern winters. Wombok, which was cheap and could be stored for a relatively long period of time, gained popularity with ordinary households.
In Shenyang, 70-year-old Wang Shuqing still maintains the habit of making Chinese sauerkraut every winter. After harvesting wombok from her garden, she puts the leaves into a big jar along with water and salt and two months later, it is ready to eat.
However, it is no longer the main course on her menu for Lunar New Year’s eve, which now includes braised prawn, fried beef and carp cooked with sweet-and-sour sauce. “Now that our livelihood has improved and the logistics have developed, we can find whatever we want to eat during the winter,” she says.
“Now people have more food to choose from, they don’t just want enough food to eat, but also to eat well,” says Zhang Sining, a research fellow from the Liaoning provincial academy of social sciences.
Chinese sauerkraut has become a signature northeastern dish, and restaurants there now serve sauerkraut burgers and sauerkraut pizzas to cater (满足…的需要) to the tastes of young people.
For Huang however, Chinese sauerkraut is largely about nostalgia (对往事的怀恋) and an enduring link to home.
“Now that I have tried delicacies (美味佳肴) from across the globe, Chinese sauerkraut is still one of my favorites, and reminds me of my hometown,” Huang says.
1. Where is Huang Xiqing at the moment?| A．His neighborhood supermarket in Australia. | B．Chinese sauerkraut supermarket in Liaoning. |
| C．Shenyang in Liaoning province. | D．Supermarket in his hometown. |
| A．It is a traditional specialty of the northeastern region. | B．It is fresh vegetables. |
| C．It is inexpensive and kept for a long time. | D．It is a better snow artwork. |
| A．When people have more food to choose from, they don’t want food to eat. |
| B．If people don’t want food to eat, they will eat well. |
| C．Chinese sauerkraut is no longer the main course on her menu for Lunar New Year’s eve. |
| D．People not only have enough food to eat, but want to eat healthy and good nowadays. |
| A．Nostalgia and an enduring link to home | B．Delicacies from across the globe |
| C．A signature northeastern dish | D．Sauerkraut burgers and sauerkraut pizzas |
2 . Acupuncture (针灸) is a traditional Chinese medical practice of treating various physical and mental conditions. It won respect and interest in the United States after New York Times reporter James Reston visited China with President Nixon and needed an operation.
Chinese doctors used acupuncture on James after surgery (外科手术) to reduce his pain, and his recovery was quick. Curious about this, James was allowed to watch surgery on patients who received acupuncture for anesthesia (麻醉). Patients talked with their doctors during the operation and then walked back to their rooms on their own.
Acupuncture left James such a deep impression that he wrote a front-page article in New York Times about his operation upon returning to the United States. “A leading medical expert sent by Premier Zhou Enlai removed my appendix (阑尾). I was awake in the whole process.”
The National Institutes of Health began to organize some of their top doctors to visit China to investigate acupuncture and its possible functions in western medicine. With years going by, acupuncture has become popular across the world with magical effect.
1. What did James Reston do?| A．A reporter. | B．A doctor. | C．A translator. | D．A scientist. |
| A．Receive. | B．Study. | C．Create. | D．Develop. |
| A．It is a traditional Chinese medical practice. |
| B．It treats physical and mental conditions. |
| C．It is a kind of surgery to reduce pain. |
| D．It is popular for its magical effect. |
3 . Accompanied by the rhythmic sound of bamboo strips (竹板), Yang Ziqi, 17, from Xi’an Qujiang No l High School, listens to interesting stories in the Shaanxi dialect. The stories range in subject greatly from the story of the Monkey King to instructions on garbage sorting.
“Shaanxi kuaiban is amazing. It can not only bring you great joy, but also broaden your horizons” said Yang. Shaanxi kuaiban is a traditional Chinese form of storytelling in the Shaanxi dialect to the rhythm of bamboo clappers. In June, it was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage at the national level. It can be performed by a group or solo. The art form can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644 — 1911). According to its performers, the art was originally used by farmers to share their knowledge and earn money. But now, more people perform Shaanxi kuaiban on different occasions-for example, at festival celebrations, parties and art shows.
Yang Jinlong, 45, is an experienced Shaanxi kuaiban artist. He first learned the art at the age of 9. Before that, he often went with his father, an amateur performer, to watch kuaiban performances.
“As a young boy, I was attracted to the art form because many of the stories are about heroes. The performer tells stories while playing kuaiban, and it’s easy for the audience to remember the stories since all the lines rhyme,” Yang said. He has practiced Shaanxi kuaiban for more than 30 years. Since 2003, he has been teaching the art form to young people. At 9 am on weekdays, he drives to primary and middle schools in Xi’an and teaches students about Shaanxi kuaiban until about 6 pm. Then, he returns home to prepare classes for the next day. On the weekends, he teaches for six hours each day at art education institutions in Xi’an.
Yang has made some adaptations to the art form to relate more to students. When he tells modern stories, Yang abandons the traditional gown and wears a suit. He also integrates many pop elements like tap dance, ballet, jazz dance and the rhythm of popular music into kuaiban performances. His stories focus on more trendy topics, like stories of heroes who have worked to alleviate poverty (扶贫), as well as the Chinese Olympic team.
“Art education is important for students in China. Just as many students learn to play Western musical instruments like the piano and violin, there are many people learning traditional Chinese folk arts, including Shaanxi kuaiban. They are committed and passionate,” Yang said.
1. What do we know about Shaanxi kuaiban?| A．It dates back to the late Ming Dynasty. |
| B．People perform it in Shaanxi dialect. |
| C．It was originally used by teachers for teaching. |
| D．It focuses on Chinese ancient literature. |
| A．Because all the lines rhyme. | B．Because he liked stories about heroes. |
| C．Because it was away to earn money. | D．Because he wanted to be like his father. |
| A．He wore local clothes of Shaanxi. |
| B．He told stories about superheroes. |
| C．He added pop elements to performances. |
| D．He performed Shaanxi kuaiban in We stem countries. |
| A．Talented and modest. | B．Patient and capable. |
| C．Determined and creative. | D．Humorous and responsible. |
4 . An 80-foot floating library, built in 1963 and called Bokbaten in Norway, visited around 250 small communes along the west coast of Norway twice every year before 2020. Many of the villages along the west coast of Norway are most easily accessible by boat rather than car, so in 1959, a group of librarians got government funding to s art a waterborne library service with special on stress on children’s literature.
Large enough to hold around 6, 000 books, the boat also hosted readings, children’s pays, and other cultural events onboard. It traveled along the coast on 64-day tours during the fall and winter months, welcoming up to 150 children at a time and unloading books for each community to keep until the boat made it swayback the next time around. In summer, the library was repurposed as a tourist boat.
But in 2020, it looked like it might be the end for the library. After nearly 60 years in action, the popular boat had its funding cut by the government, which ended the floating library program. “The book boat is a floating house of culture, which means a lot to thousands of children in the communities that don’t have a good library offering,” Norwegian librarian and author Stig Holmas wrote on Facebook at the time. “It has large numbers of visits,” he went on, adding: “What a shame!”
Luckily, 28 local municipalities (市政当局) banded together in support of the beloved library, helping organize 88 cultural events to make people realize the importance of the boat between August and November 2021. Then, in February 2022, the Fritt Ord Foundation, a private Norwegian nonprofit, provided the library with nearly $300, 000 to keep the program running. Later that year, journalist Maria PileS vas and, whose grandfather built the library, was employed as manager for Bokbaten.
The boat is now a traveling bookstore, and it continues to carry on the tradition of inviting authors, actors and musicians to come aboard and perform live readings for children.
1. What do we know about Bokbaten?| A．It also held a variety of activities. |
| B．It was not that popular in the summer. |
| C．It was suggested by the 250 communities. |
| D．It allowed people to keep the book for 64 days. |
| A．Relieved. | B．Shocked. | C．Puzzled. | D．Angry. |
| A．They provided enough funds for the library. |
| B．They helped to promote the value of the library. |
| C．They invited Maria Pile Svasand to manage Bokbaten. |
| D．They set up the Fritt Ord Foundation to raise funds for Bokbaten. |
| A．Why the floating library in Norway is so popular |
| B．The establishment of a floating library in Norway |
| C．How a floating library in Norway was saved |
| D．The influence of a floating library in Norway |
5 . Since tea spread from China worldwide, it has become one of the most popular drinks in the world. Different countries have their own tea cultures, like afternoon tea in England.
The tradition of afternoon tea is a very special part of English culture. The custom of drinking tea became popular in England during the 1660s. It was not until the mid-19th century that the idea of “afternoon tea” first appeared.
Afternoon tea is served in the mid-afternoon, between lunch and a late dinner. The idea came from Anna, the seventh Duchess(公爵夫人) of Bedford, in 1840. At the time, many families would eat a late dinner at about 8 p. m., which was one of only two main meals each day, and the other was a mid-morning meal.
With a long time between breakfast and dinner, Anna would become hungry around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. So she asked some tea, bread, butter and cakes to be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.
Later, Anna continued it, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking in the fields”.
Others soon picked up on the idea. By the 1880s, afternoon tea became an event for many ladies. They would be dressed beautifully to be served in the sitting room between four and five o’clock, talking about the latest news, their daily life and fashion.
Today’s afternoon tea is simpler than traditional afternoon tea. It is just a biscuit or small cake and a cup of tea. However, there is one thing that has never changed - the meaning of afternoon tea.
1. When did the idea of “afternoon tea” first appear in England?| A．In the 1660s. | B．In the 1880s. |
| C．In the mid-19th century. | D．In the 1840s. |
| A．Because she felt hungry. | B．Because she loved drinking tea. |
| C．Because she needed to treat friends. | D．Because she wanted to change the meaning of afternoon tea. |
| A．Afternoon tea has spread all over the world. |
| B．People used to drink tea more often than now. |
| C．Afternoon tea gives people a chance to communicate. |
| D．Women like afternoon tea much more than men. |
6 . The National Football Museum has the world’s largest public collection of football objects and archives (档案), which is known as the Football Heritage Collection. In 2013 it was recognised as an official Designated Collection by Arts Council England and described as “of outstanding importance and value”. There are currently over 40,000 items within the collection, which continues to grow as we acquire new objects to preserve and help us share stories about football. Below provides a brief summary of the individual collections that contribute to the Football Heritage Collection.
The FIFA — Langton Collection
The finest single collection of football in the world was collected by Harry Langton, a London journalist with a passion for the game. The vast collection includes artwork, toys and games and playing equipment, and also houses a number of objects relating to women’s football.
The Football League Collection
This collection reflects all aspects of the history and development of the world’s oldestprofessional league, founded in 1888. Handbooks, attendance records, programmes and a large range of books provide an invaluable research tool for the museum.
The People’s Collection
This rich and developing collection features objects donated to us by members of thepublic, footballers (and their families) and other people related to the game. The 6,000-strong collection features all kinds of items.
Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End Collections
The official collection from Preston North End contains over 1,000 objects and celebratesone of the most famous clubs in the history of the game, and the team that play at the oldest football league ground in the world.
1. What do we know about the Football Heritage Collection?| A．It was originally founded in 2013. | B．It has no more than 40,000 objects. |
| C．It is a collection of football items. | D．It helps us share basketball stories. |
| A．The People’s Collection. |
| B．Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End Collections. |
| C．The Football L eague Collection. |
| D．The FIFA — Langton Collection. |
| A．A research paper. | B．A museum guide. |
| C．A campus poster. | D．A film review. |
7 . London will see thousands of people join together for one of the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia. Here's everything to expect on the big day.
When and where The parade (游行) will begin at 10 a.m, with activities starting in Trafalgar Square from 11 a.m. The parade will start on Charing Cross Road, heading north to Shaftesbury Avenue, before turning into the heart of Chinatown. |
How to get to Chinatown For anyone brave enough to try and drive in, there is a large Q-Park in Chinatown itself. That said, the train to Charing Cross or Piccadilly Circus will likely be your best choice. Follow the official @TfL on Twitter for real time service updates and be sure to check before you travel. |
What is on Throughout the day there will be plenty of live performances. Martial artists will perform in Trafalgar Square and many food stands will line the streets. People looking for entertainment designed for children can head to Lecester Square, where they'll likely find amazing activities, including sugar painting and dressing up opportunities. |
Where to eat In Chinatown there are plenty of top options. Dumplings’ Legend on Gerrard Street and Gold Mine on Wardour Street are best for excellent dumplings. |
What to wear Many will wear red for the day as this means good luck for the coming year— particularly so this year as the Rabbit is the luckiest of all the 12 zodiac signs (生肖). |
| A．On foot. | B．By train. | C．By bus. | D．By car. |
| A．Leicester Square. | B．Piccadilly Circus. |
| C．Trafalgar Square. | D．Wardour Street. |
| A．To introduce a celebration. | B．To recommend zodiac signs. |
| C．To describe a fun event. | D．To recall a Chinese festival. |
8 . When you think of Chinese food in the US, fried rice, or General Tso’s chicken may first come to your mind. But a new museum exhibition in New York City is trying to expand visitors’ palates (味蕾). It features stories of famous cooks like Martin Yan and home cooks whose food represents 18 different regional cooking styles of China.
“I think it’s unfair to just classify Chinese cooking as one,” says Kian Lam Kho, an organizer of “Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America” at the Museum of Chinese in America. “Even with the same dish or same cuisine, every family has a different variation.” That’s why the organizers say if you want to taste the full range of Chinese cuisine in the US, you’ll need to go beyond restaurants and into home kitchens, which can play a central role in many immigrants’ lives.
“The kitchen itself is kind of a comfort when you come to a new country. That’s the one place where you set up as your home base, and you cook things that you remember from your past,” explains Audra Ang, another organizer.
One of the home cooks showcased in the exhibition is Ni Biying, 80, of Manhattan. She worked as a live-in babysitter for years before she could finally afford to rent a home with her own kitchen. These days, you can usually find her moving around her one-bedroom apartment as a sweet smell of vinegar and rice wine floats from her stove. For Ni, a small dinner for friends and family means preparing almost a dozen different dishes. She learned some of her techniques from her father, who made most of her family’s meals when she was a child. “I still miss the beef with stir-fried celery my father used to cook,” she says. And it’s the kind of comfort food that defines Chinese food for Ni.
1. What is the new museum exhibition mainly about?| A．Cuisine of different countries. | B．Exploration of famous restaurants. |
| C．History of Chinese immigration. | D．Stories of Chinese food and cooks. |
| A．It provides a wealthy life. | B．It brings a sense of belonging. |
| C．It helps them to accept new cultures. | D．It enables them to forget the past. |
| A．Cuisine Gains New Variations | B．Home Cooking Brings More to the Table |
| C．Immigrants Seek Their Fortune in the US | D．Chinese Restaurant Tells Immigrant Tales |
9 . It was a snowy day during the spring break when I walked into a great restaurant. In this blizzard weather, it was the only restaurant that remained open.
The restaurant has a long history in Hong Kong. Its owners, the couple, Peter and Michelle, have been running the restaurant since 2007.
“Things have changed a lot in the past 30 years,” Peter said. “Chinese students 20 years ago thought that a 70-cent bowl of rice was too expensive, but now a $ 20 meal is acceptable”. He also said that the new generation of Chinese students engaged with other students, bringing all their non-Chinese friends to visit the restaurant.
Peter takes great pride in his own cooking. He was curious about how the food was made and why particular foods or sauces had specific tastes. He chose to serve mainly Guangdong and Sichuan food at the restaurant, featuring the family-style Chinese dim sum or hot pot.
When I asked whether he would modify the taste of the dishes to suit the taste of most Americans, Peter said, “We are not like those American Chinese restaurants. We provide the genuine Chinese taste to our customers, and they will love it because it is delicious, and their taste will suit the taste of our dishes, not the other way around.”
“If I hear complaints from my customers, I will be so upset that I can’t fall asleep at night”, he said. “Luckily most of my favorite dishes received wide acclaim from my customers and it takes more than one person’s effort.”
He compares himself with the craftsmen in China who are proud of preserving ancient Chinese art and whose motivation is only on people’s enjoyment of their work and thought.
Such a spirit of craftsmanship has been remarkable and greatly valued in the past. The craftsman’s spirit with perfection, precision, concentration, and patience remains in Peter and his cooking.
1. How long have the couple been running the restaurant?| A．17 years. | B．20 years. | C．30 years. | D．70 years. |
| A．Its customers are mainly Chinese. |
| B．It adjusts the taste according to the customers. |
| C．Its menu merely contains Guangdong and Sichuan food. |
| D．It sticks to its original taste of the dishes. |
| A．He believes that cooking just needs one person’s effort. |
| B．He takes pride in cooking the best typical Chinese cuisine. |
| C．He shows an interest in preserving ancient Chinese art. |
| D．He doesn’t care about the customers’ complaints at all. |
| A．Geography. | B．Art. | C．Food. | D．Literature. |
10 . Located at the foot of the Wudang Mountains in China’s Hubei Province is the home of 64-year-old Marc Verlant, which possesses a fascinating collection of Chinese artifacts. The artfully arranged decorations such as miniatures (微缩模型) of ancient Chinese towers, traditional wooden carvings and Chinese paintings clearly convey that the house owner is trying to creatively explore and develop a better understanding of Chinese culture.
As a keen enthusiast of martial arts, Chinese architecture and history, this Frenchman is currently savoring his 19th year of living in a rural Chinese-style environment and finds it pleasant to live here. “Wudang is like my second home, and some locals say that I am almost a native of Wudang,” said Verlant.
The Wudang Mountains, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, are considered “the cradle of Tai Chi” and are home to numerous palaces and temples that show the wisdom and beauty of ancient China’s architecture. In 2004, to treat his body after an accident, Verlant moved here to learn Chinese martial arts, and gradually fell in love with martial arts as well as Wudang’s culture. For him, it all started when his French-language student, who was a local tour guide, aroused his interest in local culture. For years, he volunteered as a foreign-language interpreter and tour guide in the Wudang Mountains, sharing Wudang’s culture with tourists from across the world. During the past two decades, he has witnessed and experienced the rapid development of this mountainous region. “When I first arrived in Wudang, there was neither the high-speed railway nor the shuttle bus, and many foreigners didn’t know how to come here, ” he recalled.
The Frenchman’s enthusiasm inspired those around him. “I learned a lot about Wudang from Marc, and his positive attitude toward life also influenced me to be more outgoing and energetic,”said his wife, who is a native of Shiyan City, where the Wudang Mountains are located.
1. Why does the author mention the decorations of a house?| A．To sing the praises of traditional Chinese artifacts. |
| B．To highlight its owner’s insights into Chinese art. |
| C．To show its owner’s passion for Chinese culture. |
| D．To suggest the perfectly-matched decorating style. |
| A．Adjusting. | B．Exploring. | C．Rebuilding. | D．Enjoying. |
| A．He worked as a tour guide while teaching. |
| B．He contributed to the promotion of Wudang’s culture. |
| C．He became energetic under the influence of martial arts. |
| D．He offered great help to the development of the local economy. |
| A．A tourist attraction—Wudang. |
| B．An encounter with martial arts. |
| C．A journey of intercultural communication. |
| D．A French enthusiast of Wudang’s culture. |
