1 . Books That Celebrate Diverse Holidays and Traditions
It’s important to remember there are a diverse set of holidays available to explore. Below are a few books that help introduce children to different holiday cultures and traditions.
Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, illustrated by Ed Martinez
While helping her mother with Christmas celebration, Maria is tempted to try on her mother’s diamond ring. After getting caught up in the joy of the holiday and playing with her cousins, Maria realizes the ring is missing! That’s when she and her cousins come up with a plan to eat all of the tamales, in hopes of finding the ring.
Together for Kwanzaa by Juwanda G. Ford, illustrated by Shelly Hehenberger
This is a story about a little girl named Kayla who wants to see her older brother Khari come home so they can celebrate Kwanzaa together as a family. Khari is stuck at college when a snowstorm hits and his car breaks down. Will he make it home in time for Kwanzaa?
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
This book is a funny, nostalgic tale of Christmas Eve afternoon through Christmas night in Wales, and is full of unique imagery and poetic prose. It will arouse a sense of familiarity for some young readers while introducing them to different aspects of Christmas traditions.
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frane Lessac
The word otsaliheliga is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. This is an amazing story that describes a journey through the seasons with a modern-day Cherokee family. Cherokee history and traditions are also woven into the story in a very kid-friendly way.
1. What makes it difficult for Khari to return home in time for Kwanzaa?| A．A car crash. | B．Delayed flights. | C．Extreme weather. | D．Academic pressure. |
| A．Traci Sorell. | B．Ed Martinez. | C．Dylan Thomas. | D．Trina Schart Hyman. |
| A．how to find hidden treasures at home | B．how to strengthen bonds with friends |
| C．the lifestyles of different ethnic groups | D．different holiday celebrations and customs |
2 . India is known for many colorful and fun festivals. But none is as popular as the festival of lights, Diwali, which is also called Deepavali.
The celebration begins on October 21st, with Dhanteras. For those who love shopping, this is the best day of the celebration. That’s because in addition to honoring Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, the day is also considered lucky to buy everything—from gold and silver ornaments (装饰品) to new clothes.
The following day is Kali Chaudas, or Narak Chaturdashi. For some Indians it is celebrated with good food and fireworks. For others, it is the time to drive out bad spirits from homes. No matter how it is celebrated, everyone’s mind is already focused (集中) on the big day that comes after—Diwali!
Diwali begins with a visit to temples where prayers (祷告) will be given. Then families and friends get together and celebrate by exchanging gifts and sweets. Those who missed the opportunity to buy goods on Dhanteras can make up for it on this equally lucky day. In the evening, households light up their homes with oil lamps and prepare delicious Indian food. Then starts the real fun—fireworks! What makes the displays exciting is that everyone gets to create his/her own show by lighting up their favorite fireworks.
For Indians, Diwali also marks the end of the year. They will celebrate the first day of the New Year the following day.
The final day of the festival honors the relationships between brothers and sisters and is celebrated with more special food and prayers.
For kids, Diwali is like Christmas, except earlier. They get a week’s vacation from school! It is no wonder that most kids consider Diwali the best festival of all.
1. On Kali Chaudas, people will do the following EXCEPT .| A．eat great food | B．play with fireworks |
| C．honor Lakshmi | D．drive out bad spirits |
| A．go shopping | B．receive goods |
| C．give prayers | D．celebrate Dhanteras |
| A．relatives to visit each other |
| B．neighbors to improve relationships |
| C．friends to meet and have fun together |
| D．brothers and sisters to deepen their relationships |
| A．Diwali is the longest festival in India. |
| B．Indian New Year starts from October 24th. |
| C．The celebration of Diwali lasts for a week. |
| D．Indians think gold can bring them good luck. |
3 . Classical Chinese furniture — a desk, a cabinet or any other fine piece of furniture and often out of precious wood —impresses us with its delicate shape. The secret of its graceful form is less visible and lies in its complicated sunmao (榫卯) system, which allows the various components to be assembled neatly without glue or nails.
Suzhou, a scenic and peaceful city in Jiangsu, a province long known for its wealth, developed its own tradition of classical furniture design over the centuries. Examples of the Suzhou-style furniture are currently on display as part of Oriental Wisdom in Sun Mao, a group exhibition at the Prince Kung’s Palace Museum in Beijing.
Running until Sunday, the show demonstrates the way that the complex sunmao technique has been used in making furniture, as well as the variations that developed in different parts of the country. Also on display are models of different kinds, as well as the components of two chairs, which are disassembled and laid out to give museum goers a clear view of the inner structure of classical furniture.
The Suzhou style flowered during the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), and once dominated the market in Jiangnan, the southern region along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It integrated input from the intellectual class, who put their ideals regarding living spaces and spiritual harbors into its design. According to Xu Jianping, one of the inheritors of classical furniture design in the city, the Suzhou style presents beauty in the same delicate way the city does, and represents the life philosophy of its people to achieve “refinement through careful calculations”.
Guangzhou style furniture is normally made out of tropical hardwood, and its forms and decorative patterns show the influence of European furniture styles resulting from Guangzhou’s history as an international trade port. The Beijing style, which is more splendid, incorporates aesthetic (美学) and stylistic elements from both Suzhou and Guangzhou.
“While the Suzhou style is light in weight and elegant in outline, furniture in the Beijing style is more magnificent, as it used to be made for royalty and aristocracy.” Xu says. “Ultimately, people live with their furniture, so the principle of quality furniture is that it should be appropriate to the space.”
1. What is on display in the exhibition?| A．The lifestyle in Sunzhou. | B．The modern furniture in Suzhou. |
| C．The secret of sunmao system. | D．The classical furniture in China. |
| A．taken apart | B．broken up | C．torn down | D．given away |
| A．The beauty of the delicate city. | B．The development of the Suzhou Style. |
| C．The influence of historical design ideas. | D．The formation of the Suzhou life philosophy. |
| A．To compare their differences. | B．To evaluate the usage of furniture. |
| C．To express the way to display furniture. | D．To illustrate the theory of furniture design. |
4 . In America, we have a thing called stand-up comedy. This popular form of entertainment consists of a comedian standing up at the front of a club, holding a microphone, and telling jokes. Of course, comedy is popular in Chinese culture as well, but the performances are quite different from the style in the US. In China, it’s called cross-talk, which usually involves two guys engaging in an entertaining dialogue.
It’s believed that cross-talk came into being in the Qing Dynasty as a bit of a by-product of the imitation shows that were a popular form of entertainment in the Song Dynasty. After the PRC was established in 1949, this comedic art became more and more popular. Today, it’s still heavily featured in the CCTV New Year’s Gala programmes in China. The 1990s was the golden age of cross-talk; even foreigners studied the art of cross-talk. Mark Roswell, a Canadian named Da Shan in Chinese was relatively unknown in his native land but was a superstar in China. At the turn of the century, cross-talk began to decline, and many well-known actors left the stage.
There are four skills that are essential in cross-talk: speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing. Most of the time, it is performed with two actors—one serves as the lead actor while the other plays a support role. However, sometimes it is performed simply as a one-man show, and at other times there are several actors. In order to criticize something, the humor involved in cross-talk is satirical.
1. What’s the difference between American stand-up comedy and Chinese cross-talk?| A．Chinese cross-talk actors don’t use a microphone. |
| B．American stand-up comedy actors are all men. |
| C．Chinese cross-talk is more liked by Canadians. |
| D．American stand-up comedy is only a one-man show. |
| A．History. | B．Future. | C．Features. | D．Difference. |
| A．He was an American stand-up comedian. |
| B．He was very popular with Canadians. |
| C．He was a famous cross-talker in China. |
| D．He left the stage in the early 1990s. |
| A．Acid-tongued. | B．Good-tempered. |
| C．Warm-hearted. | D．Smooth-tongued. |
5 . We love all types of hugs, from the one-armed hug to full bear hugs. Open up your heart and your arms on January 21 for National Hugging Day! As you might guess, this day is a yearly event.
Here are some facts about the big day National Hugging Day was created in 1986 by Kevin Zaborney. Zabomey chose January 21 because it was the time between the winter holiday season and the new year’s birthday, which he noticed was a time people tended to feel in low spirits. He also felt that Americans were too embarrassed to show love in public.
Nowadays, we don’t even think about the fact that hugging in public was considered improper.
| A．It’s not practiced enough these days! |
| B．We hug to greet friends and family |
| C．“Hug” is believed to come from ”hugga“ |
| D．A hug is one of the most natural gestures, |
| E．One is that some once thought it wasn’t so formal |
| F．He hoped National Hugging Day would change that. |
| G．It encourages us to express love in the simplest way. |
6 . The term ScotchIrish is an American term used to describe those ScotsIrish who live in America.In Britain the term ScotsIrish used for these people is UlsterScots. Then, where did the ScotsIrish come from on earth? To find the answer, you should get to know a little bit about the history of Scotland.
After the Celtic invasion (入侵) of Britain about 500 BC, what is now Scotland was controlled by the Celtic people known as the Picts. This name came from the Latin word pictus meaning “painted”. They painted their bodies with dyes (染料).
In the fifth century, the Scots from northern Ireland invaded what is now western Scotland and established a kingdom in the highlands. They spoke Gaelic, a Celtic language. At this same time the AngloSaxon invasion of Britain was taking place. Scotland is made up of the highlands and the lowlands, and the Gaelic name for the lowlands is a’Ghalldachd, meaning “the place of the foreigners”．And whom might those foreigners be? The AngloSaxon invasion of Britain included the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The Jutes came from what is now northwestern Denmark.They settled (定居) in the southernmost part of Britain. The Saxons came from the northwest coast of Germany and they settled in the southern third of Britain. The Angles came from southwestern Denmark and they conquered what is now northern England and the lowlands of Scotland. They were the foreigners referred to in the Gaelic name for the lowlands.
In the 17th century, the British leaders decided to settle some of its people in the Northern Ireland province of Ulster. They chose the people from Lowland Scotland. This migration (移民) started about 1605.
When the British colonization (殖民) of North America began many of them chose to join this migration. By the time of the American Revolution it was said that onesixth of the population was the ScotsIrish.
1. Which of the following had the custom of body painting?| A．The Scots. | B．The Picts. |
| C．The ScotsIrish. | D．The AngloSaxons. |
| A．A kingdom was set up by the Scots fell. |
| B．The Scots lost the lowlands in a war. |
| C．Gaelic was widely spoken in the highlands. |
| D．The highlands were controlled by the Jutes. |
| A．northern England |
| B．western Scotland |
| C．Ulster of Northern Ireland |
| D．southernmost part of Britain |
| A．Why the ScotsIrish chose America to settle. |
| B．The AngloSaxon invasion of Britain. |
| C．The history of the country Scotland. |
| D．Who the ScotsIrish were exactly. |
7 . The Yamuna River flows around the Taj Mahal, and the river is heavily polluted. Large numbers of insects are breeding (繁殖) in the polluted waterway. During the evening time, the insects get attracted to stone walls and during the night they stay over there. The insects’ droppings are beginning to turn the walls green.
Workers first discovered the problem last year. But they have found out the cause of the problem only recently. A fly known as the genus Geoldichironomus is responsible for all the waste. Those insects survive best in the hot weather. Workers try to remove the insects’ waste. But experts fear cleaning could damage the artwork of the Taj Mahal.
Environmentalist D. K. Joshi says, “The way to stop this new threat is to save the dying river. There are many coalbased power stations along the river. The Taj Mahal’s white stone has turned yellow because of air pollution. Besides, waste from industries is polluting the river. Millions of dollars from the government has been spent on the river, but nothing has happened.”
Experts say ashes (骨灰) from burnt human dead bodies are part of the problem. For 200 years, people have set fire to dead bodies near the Taj Mahal. Smoke from the fires was greatly influencing the color of the white stone. So city officials should force people to try more environmentally friendly customs.
D. K. Joshi believes cleaning the Yamuna River is possible with a shortterm program. The insects have got the attention of city officials. But he is also concerned about the pressure that tourism puts on the Taj Mahal. About six million people visit the Taj Mahal every year and they like to touch the white stone.
1. What’s the new threat to the Taj Mahal?| A．Water around it is dirty. |
| B．Some stone walls get broken. |
| C．Many insects live in the Taj Mahal. |
| D．Insects leave waste on stone walls. |
| A．Useless. | B．Creative. | C．Challenging. | D．Interesting. |
| A．It’s necessary to deal with polluters. |
| B．All the power stations should be closed. |
| C．It’s a waste of money to clean the Yamuna River. |
| D．The government pays no attention to the Yamuna River. |
| A．City officials should ignore the insects. |
| B．Tourists should help clean the Taj Mahal. |
| C．Fires should be used to kill some insects. |
| D．People should give up the tradition of burning the dead near the Taj Mahal. |
8 . What do the following places have in common: the Serengeti Desert, Edinburgh’s Old Town and the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve?
The Serengeti Desert is in Tanzania and Kenya, Africa. It contains (包含) thousands of kilometers of dry grasslands and many rare kinds of animals.
Edinburgh’s Old Town is in the capital city of Scotland. It has many old buildings and streets.There are very few new buildings in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is near Mexico City in Mexico. It has beautiful flowers and forests. It is also the home of millions of butterflies in the winter.
There three places are very different. But they are all under special protection by UNESCO (联合国教科文组织). They are World Heritage Sites.
The story of World Heritage Sites begins more than 3, 000 years ago. At that time, the great king of Egypt built many temples. But after thousands of years, sand covered them.
Stories tell of a young boy named Abu Simbel who found the temples. One day, Abu Simbel saw something under the sand. Soon, the ancient temples of Ramses Ⅱ were officially rediscovered. But they were not safe. The government of Egypt planned to build a dam on the Nile River. It would create a large lake, which would cover the temples in water.
Many people did not want the temples destroyed. UNESCO agreed and raised 40 million dollars from around the world to save the temples. From 1964 to 1968, engineers took the temples apart in many pieces and rebuilt them hundreds of meters back from the Nile River. Today, they are called the Abu Simbel Temples, in memory of the young boy who first found them.
The effort to save the Abu Simbel Temples was a success. So in 1972, UNESCO formed the World Heritage Committee, which protects places on the earth that are of great cultural or natural value.
Any country in the world can ask for protection from UNESCO.The countries send a list of places to the World Heritage Committee. Once a year, the World Heritage Committee meets and votes on which places to protect. When they choose a place, it officially becomes a World Heritage Site.
1. What’s special about Edinburgh’s Old Town?| A．It has no new buildings. |
| B．It’s a World Heritage Site. |
| C．It’s in the capital city of Scotland. |
| D．It has the oldest streets in the world. |
| A．grew up to be a great engineer |
| B．took part in building the temples |
| C．lived in Egypt about 3, 000 years ago |
| D．was the first to discover the hidden temples |
| A．By storing their pieces away. |
| B．By keeping them under the sand. |
| C．By moving them to a much safer place. |
| D．By preventing the government building the dam. |
| A．how a World Heritage Site is chosen |
| B．why the World Heritage Committee was formed |
| C．how often the World Heritage Committee works |
| D．why countries ask for protection from UNESCO |
9 . Guqin-making is a process that takes patience and carefulness. Patience is one of the key parts in making a guqin.” It takes about two years to finish making one,” says Sui Yiyangg, 37, who, has been applying himself to guqin-making for over ten years.
The body of a guqin is made of two parts, a fat bottom and an arched (拱形) top. The body of the instrument is carefully and repeatedly covered with a thin layer of oil paint, which can take months to finish.
The strings (琴弦) of a guqin are traditionally made of silk; today they are often specially developed into steel-and-nylon strings.
Sui learned guitar as a teenager. He was introduced to the guqin when he travelled with his father. During the seven-hour drive from Beijing to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, he listened to the guqin recording in his father’s car and was attracted.
“The beautiful and lasting sounds of the guqin are different from the Western musical instruments I learned,” he remembers.
After returning to Beijing, he started learning the instrument. Later, he learned how to make the guqin from HAN Tingyao, now 85, a Beijing-based master artist.
Sui travels nationwide and even abroad to buy high-quality materials and tools. For example the kind and quality of the wood is very important, so he often travels to Fujian and Jiangxi provinces in search of the right materials. He gets the paint, which is used to protect the guqin from corrosion (腐蚀)，from a single place — Rentoushan, a village in Maoba township, Lichuan city, Hubei province.
Years of guqin-making experience has gifted Sui with the ability to make high-quality instruments. “Each guqin has its unique sense of reality, which you can only get to know after you feel it with your own hands,” he says.
1. Which of the following can best describe Sui Yiyang?| A．Out-going and loving. | B．Easy-going and careless. |
| C．Patient and careful. | D．Confident and responsible. |
| A．Five years ago. | B．After the trip with his father. |
| C．During a party with his friends. | D．While visiting a famous artist in Beijing. |
| A．Because he wanted to learn guitar. |
| B．Because he wished to visit the places of interest. |
| C．Because he hoped to become an artist like Han Tingyao. |
| D．Because he wanted to find the good wood of making the guqin. |
| A．People. | B．Sports. | C．Travel. | D．Nature. |
10 . In our country, it is very important for people to have Chinese traditional festivals (传统节日). They bring love and happiness to us. Let’s see what people are doing during these festivals.
| Today is Spring Festival Eve. At 7:00 p.m., Wu Ming’s family are all together at home. His grandparents are cooking. His parents are cleaning the house. He is helping them to clean the table. An hour later, they will have a big dinner together. |
| It is 9:00 p.m. on the Lantern Festival. Li Fang is going out to watch the lanterns with his cousins. There are many kinds of tiger lanterns on the street. They are so happy and having a good time. |
| Today is Dragon Boat Festival. It is 8:00 a.m. and Li Lei’s family are very busy. His father is making zongzi with his grandma. It takes them two hours to finish it. His family are watching the boat races on TV when they are eating zongzi. |
| Ling Tao and his family are in the garden now because today is Mid-Autumn Festival. They are talking with each other and sharing the story about Chang’e. It is an interesting story. At the same time, they are eating mooncakes and watching the round moon. |
| A．cleaning the house | B．watching TV |
| C．cooking the soup | D．cooking the food |
| A．Li Lei | B．Ling Tao |
| C．Li Fang | D．Ling Fen |
| A．eight in the morning | B．seven in the morning |
| C．nine in the evening | D．we don’t know |
| A．in the garden | B．on the street |
| C．at home | D．at the hotel |
| A．people clean up the house before festivals |
| B．people like to have festivals with their family |
| C．people are always spending festivals outside |
| D．people don’t like to have festivals with their family |
