1 . Tea originated in China over two thousand years ago. Today, the country owns over 2,000 varieties of tea, differing in taste, sweet and purpose. Some teas, such as Huang Shan, refresh the sense of taste with their special flavor, while others, such as spicy chai, are added with spices (香料) .
China first started exporting tea during the Ming dynasty (1368—1644), and the drink has since come to lead humanity’s drinking habits far beyond Asia. It is the most widely consumed drink on Earth today, aside from water and coffee.
In Chinese mythology, tea was first discovered by Chinese Emperor Shennong (“Divine Farmer”) in 737BC， when a soft wind carried some leaves into a pot of boiling water. However, the oldest dependable evidence comes from ancient plant remains found in 2016 in Xi’an and western Tibet, showing that tea was grown at least 2,100 years ago during the Western Handy nasty when it was most likely used as medicine.
Generation after generation of tea makers experimented with different brewing (冲泡) techniques, leaves, and ceremonies, resulting in today’s tea culture full of life. There’s no doubt that China’s tea culture has become one of the most popular, diverse, and unique traditions in the world.
China is already the world’s largest tea exporter. The inclusion of the country’s traditional tea-making process on the UNESCO list will obviously generate practical benefits for tea makers in the country and across the world as more resources are given to protect and preserve such millennia-old tea culture and technical practices. As additional attention is brought to this traditional technique, the Chinese tea sector will further tap its potential and improve its growth.
As one of China’s oldest cultural practices, traditional tea processing techniques show the spirit of modesty (谦逊), peace, and comity (礼让). No matter your preference for green or dark tea, with milk or without, Chinese tea isn’t just brews. Instead, it is a bridge connecting different cultures and peoples.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly tell us?| A．Chinese tea has a fresh taste. | B．Chinese tea is added with spices. |
| C．Chinese tea has a long history. | D．Chinese tea has a rich variety. |
| A．In about 737 BC. |
| B．Two thousand years ago. |
| C．During the Ming dynasty. |
| D．During the Western Handy nasty. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Objective. | C．Careless. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Chinese Tea Benefits the Globe a Lot |
| B．Chinese Protect and Develop Its Tea Culture |
| C．Chinese Tea Is Included in the UNESCO List |
| D．China Plays a Vital Part in Cultural Diversity |
2 . Christmas cards are a big tradition in the English-speaking world. In 2017, people in Britain sent and received about 900 million cards. That’s an average of about twelve cards for every person, from tiny babies to the oldest grandparents. The number of cards that are sent around Britain causes an annual headache for the postal service. Each year, the postal service has to take on seasonal staff to help with the extra mail, and postal sorting offices are stretched to their maximum capacity and sometimes beyond it.
In 1994, before the age of email and social media, the service handled about 1.6 billion cards! In spite of advertisements telling people to “Post Early for Christmas”, few people got round to sending their cards off before December 10th; and from that point on, the postal service slowed down. Until the age of faxes, emails and social media, the pre-Christmas period often caused a lot of problems for firms, as “urgent” letters and documents took several days to reach their destinations by post, which were slowed down by the mass of Christmas mail!
During the month of December in Britain, a house with no Christmas cards is like a pub with no beer. For the most part, however, people of all faiths and of no faith join in the tradition of celebrating Christmas as a festival, whether they do so for religious reasons or not. Every British home at Christmas is merrily decorated not just with hollies, but also with a display of Christmas cards received from friends, family members, neighbors, employers and a variety of other people. In some places, the number of Christmas cards people receive is seen as a measure of their status among their friends and neighbors.
As for the subjects of Christmas cards, the range, today, is enormous. At one time, two principal themes predominated (占多数): the Christmas story, with pictures of the biblical scenes; and “traditional Christmas”, with imaginary scenes of Christmas which included burning wood fires and happy-looking parents and kids sitting together. Today, while “traditional Christmas” is favored by most people, there is no limit to the variety of pictures on cards.
While more and more people send e-cards to their friends and family members, you can’t hang an e-card on the wall, and you can’t decorate a room with rows of e-cards. Sending and receiving Christmas cards is still best done by “snail mail” which includes a real card and a real envelope. It’s much more fun.
1. How did the postal service handle the problem of Christmas cards?| A．By hiring temporary employees. | B．By sending the cards off earlier. |
| C．By turning to social media for help. | D．By delaying sending letters from firms. |
| A．The popularity of Christmas. | B．The decoration of British homes. |
| C．The religious belief in Christmas. | D．The significance of Christmas cards. |
| A．The religious story. | B．The holiday gift. |
| C．The family reunion. | D．The landscape painting. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Neutral. | D．Unclear. |
3 . No matter how many times you go, Dubai always has something new in store for its natives and tourists. Let’s take a look at a few must-dos for your first time in this impressive city in the United Arab Emirates!
●Hit the famous Dubai Mall.
Any shopaholic (购物狂) worth their salt knows about the Dubai Mall, one of the most famous and the most expensive shopping centres in the world.
●Mind your manners.
While you’re searching for the next adventure, make sure you follow some basic rules of conduct that the local law prescribes. For example, if you’re travelling with your significant other, public displays of affection are strictly forbidden.
●
Although you’ll find many tourists wearing clothes considered not entirely polite by the locals, there are certain rules that are strictly implemented in restaurants, malls, and entertainment centres. So, if you put on something considered inappropriate or revealing, you risk being asked to leave a place.
●Save some time for Jumeirah Beach.
Situated conveniently close to Burj al Arab, this spectacular stretch of the coast is a perfect way to spend some time sunbathing and enjoying the warm waters of the Persian Gulf.
●Prepare your palate for Emirati cuisine.
Have you ever had a chance to sample Al Machboos, camel meat, or Manousheh? Arabic cuisine has some of the most extraordinary delicacies you could possibly imagine, few of which are prepared in the same manner outside of their native lands.
| A．Jumeirah Beach is about 10 kilometres long. |
| B．Pay attention to your dressing requirements. |
| C．If you’re travelling with kids, you’ll find the beach perfect. |
| D．Try the authentic Arabic coffee for a flavourful taste of the East. |
| E．Dubai is indeed a destination packed with adventure and culture. |
| F．Getting drunk or using offensive hand gestures are all illegal activities. |
| G．Home to around 1,300 stores, it is a wonderful shopping place. |
4 . With the rapid pace of working and living, more and more Chinese are facing a phenomenon: They tend to forget how to write Chinese characters. Some media have described the problem as a “crisis” for Chinese characters. So how important is Chinese writing and how can we avoid “character amnesia” in the future?
Texting and typing are replacing the elaborate strokes(笔画) that make up written Chinese. And when it comes to writing down a few words, more Chinese are realising they can’t remember exactly how lo write a given character.
Professor Meng Man, associate professor of Minzu University of China, is one of the judges of the Chinese Character Dictation Contest broadcast on CCTV. She says she learnt a lot. “I was amazed by some competitors because even I couldn’t remember how to write certain characters. The writing ability of adults in China falls short of our expectations. This TV programme is really great in drawing people’s attention to writing Chinese characters.”
This is a strange new form of illiteracy. The longer people use their cellphones and computers, the less often they write with pens. Whether typing on their computers or texting on phones, most Chinese use a system where they type out the sound of the word in Pinyin, which is commonly used, and they are given a choice of characters to use. Experts say the situation may not rise the level of “cultural crisis”, but we need to be aware of the problem.
Meng said, “Chinese characters are generally square. This is meant to teach people to be upright and respectable. Typing tends to cut off the Chinese bond with the root of traditional culture. This might be potentially dangerous.”
To settle this problem, experts suggest people change mobile phone typing from Pinyin to handwriting or five-stroke typing to help avoid forgetting how to write characters. After all, writing Chinese characters and being a decent Chinese person are what we need to pass on to future generations.
1. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Writing. | B．Popularity. | C．Memory loss. | D．Usage. |
| A．She thinks highly of the Chinese Character Dictation Contest. |
| B．Most adults’ writing ability is satisfactory. |
| C．People should pay more attention to the writing of Chinese characters. |
| D．She herself could not write some characters sometimes. |
| A．Chinese characters reflect the Chinese culture in all ways. |
| B．By changing mobile phone typing to handwriting, one can improve his or her writing ability. |
| C．Experts hold the opinion that the situation has already caused “cultural crisis”. |
| D．Chinese characters are to be forgotten in the future. |
| A．To tell people how to write Chinese characters. |
| B．To introduce the mobile phone typing system— Pinyin. |
| C．To encourage people to take part in the Chinese Character Dictation Contest. |
| D．To appeal to people to write Chinese characters more often. |
5 . Top 4 Traditional Festivals in China
The Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, falls on the first day of the first lunar month. Chinese New Year is the most important festival in China. It is an important family reunion time for Chinese people around the world.
2022 Date: February 1 (Tuesday)
2023 Date: January 22 (Sunday)
The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival, also known as Yuanxiao Jie or Shangyuan Festival, falls on the15th day of the first lunar month, it traditionally marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration.
Tangyuan, also called yuanxiao, is a must-eat food for the Lantern Festival. Shaped like a round ball, tangyuan symbolizes people’s desires for happiness and family reunions. Besides eating tangyuan, Chinese people would also light colourful lanterns and guess lantern riddles to celebrate this festival.
2022 Date: February 15 (Tuesday)
2023 Date: February 5 (Sunday)
The Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duan Wu Jie in Chinese, falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Chinese people celebrate this festival by racing dragon boats, eating zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and hanging Chinese Mugwort to honour Qu Yuan.
2022 Date: June 3 (Friday)
2023 Date: June 22 (Thursday)
The Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Like the Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also an important time for family reunions. Chinese people would eat moon cakes, admire the full moon, and hang up colourful lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
2022 Date: September 10 (Saturday)
2023 Date: September 29 (Friday)
1. Which do people traditionally have on the 15th day of the first lunar month?| A．Realgar wine. | B．Yuanxiao. | C．Zongzi. | D．Moon cakes. |
| A．On January 22. | B．On February 5. | C．On June 3. | D．On June 22. |
| A．They’re a great time for reunion. | B．They’re only celebrated in China. |
| C．They’re in memory of a great man. | D．They’re known for colourful lanterns. |
6 . As you get older, you’ll meet a wider range of people from diverse cultures. If you haven’t met many people from different backgrounds, it can be hard to know how to respect their culture.
One of the best ways to understand other people’s cultures is to first consider your own. Most of us don’t realize that our customs and beliefs might seem strange to someone else. Don’t think of your own way of life as the only normal one and everyone else’s to be strange.
Maybe you’ve recently met someone from a different culture, or you’re curious about how different people live. When you meet people from a different culture, ask them about their lives. Also, you can read books, watch movies or listen to radio shows.
Differences between us are what make life so interesting, so just accept the differences between yourself and your friends from different cultures. The best way to respect people from other cultures is to strike a balance between curiosity and appreciation:
| A．Respect other cultures. |
| B．Appreciate the differences. |
| C．Ask questions if your friends are open to it. |
| D．In this way, you may find it hard to know your own culture. |
| E．Otherwise, it’s hard to approach those differences with respect. |
| F．Here are some tips for learning more about them and about yourself. |
| G．These will help you get an insider’s view on a different culture. |
7 . Traditional tea processing techniques and social practices in China were added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List (非物质文化遗产名录) on November 29. China now ranks first in the world with 43 items on the list.
In China, there are 44 registered items of national intangible cultural heritage related to tea. More than 40 vocational (职业的) colleges and 80 universities in China offer majors in tea science or tea culture.
Tea is everywhere in Chinese people’s daily life. You can find it at home, work, tea houses, restaurants, temples and even at social events like weddings or ceremonies.
Tea has delighted and fascinated the world for many thousands of years. It is a shared cultural treasure of mankind.
| A．It’s a big part of Chinese culture. |
| B．The techniques are related to many ways. |
| C．Tea was eventually spread to the west and beyond. |
| D．Most tea grows between 18°—37° N and 94°—122°. |
| E．E. Tea- related customs reflect Chinese people’s values. |
| F．Experts explored the long history of this universal drink. |
| G．Every year over 3,000 graduates enter tea production and art. |
8 . Papermaking is widely known as one of the Four Great Inventions of ancient Chinese civilization. Among different types of paper, Xuan paper holds an important place.
Regarded as one of the Four Treasures of the Study, Xuan paper has always been valued by the Chinese as a source of pride since it is a necessary part of the Chinese culture.
Five Oxen by painter Han Huang is acknowledged as the oldest Chinese painting on Xuan paper.
Featuring a smooth surface, pure texture (质地) and high tensile strength, Xuan paper’s most well-known feature is that it can be preserved for a long time.
| A．If it were not for the paper |
| B．It is also a witness to the Chinese history |
| C．As it has a history of more than 1,500 years |
| D．Because it has excellent water-absorbing capacity |
| E．The quality will not change for more than 1,000 years |
| F．The undamaged art piece is more than 1,200 years old |
| G．Up to now, Xuan paper has not yet been produced by modern machine |
9 . Chinese Kung Fu (Martial Arts or as popularly referred to as Gongfu or Wushu ) is a series of fighting styles which has developed over a long historical period in China.
In order to survive in an extremely hostile environment, our primitive Chinese ancestors developed primary means of defense and attack that included leaping, tumbling and kicking.
Over the centuries of development in China, Kung Fu has become a large system containing various schools or sects. It is recorded that there are over 300 distinct types of boxing existing around the country.
| A．Although being fighting styles, Kung Fu advocates virtue and peace, not aggression or violence. |
| B．The most outstanding and influential schools are listed as follows. |
| C．Although they knew how to fight with rudimentary weapons made from stones and wood, fighting with bare hands and fists became essential skills. |
| D．In the recent years, learning Chinese martial arts has been more and more popular among people of different ages and nationalities. |
| E．The styles in northern and southern China are quite different, so it is hard to be simply classified. |
| F．Nowadays, it is regarded as a traditional sport gaining more and more popularity and even stands as a representative for Chinese culture. |
10 . This year some twenty-three hundred teenagers (young people aged from 13-19) from all over the world will spend about ten months in US homes. They will attend US schools, meet US teenagers, and form impressions of the real America. At the same time, about thirteen hundred American teenagers will go to other countries to learn new languages and gain a new understanding of the rest of the world.
Here is a two-way student exchange in action. Fred, nineteen, spent last year in Germany with George’s family. In turn, George’s son Mike spent a year in Fred’s home in America.
Fred, a lively young man, knew little German when he arrived, but after two months’ study the language began to come to him. School was completely different from what he had expected-much harder. Students rose respectfully when the teacher entered the room. They took fourteen subjects instead of the six that were usual in the United States. There were almost no outside activities.
Family life, too, was different. The father’s word was law, and all activities were around the family rather than the individual. Fred found the food too simple at first. Also, he missed having a car. “Back home, you pick up some friends in a car and go out and have a good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon learn to like it.”
At the same time, in America, Mike, a friendly German boy, was also forming his idea. “I suppose I should criticize American schools,” he said. “It is far too easy by our level. But I have to say that I like it very much. In Germany we do nothing but study. Here we take part in many outside activities. I think that maybe your schools are better in training for citizens. There ought to be some middle ground between the two.”
1. The whole exchange program is mainly to ________| A．help teenagers in other countries know the real America |
| B．send students in America to travel in Germany |
| C．let students learn something about other countries |
| D．have teenagers learn new languages |
| A．There is some middle ground between the two teaching buildings. |
| B．There are a lot of outside activities. |
| C．Students usually take 14 subjects in all. |
| D．Students go outside to enjoy themselves in a car. |
| A．A better education should include something good from both America and Germany. |
| B．German schools trained students to be better citizens. |
| C．American schools were not as good as German schools. |
| D．The easy life in the American school was more helpful to students. |
| A．Praised. | B．Regretful. | C．Ignorant. | D．Blameful. |
