1 . MY AMAZING NAADAM EXPERIENCE
I experienced the Naadam Festival in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for the first time this year. The festival falls on the fourth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, usually lasting for three days. Naadam means “games” in Mongolian, and it is represented by three events: horse racing, wrestling, and archery, which are all so exciting to watch!
On the first day, I set off to the games early with my friend Burin. I saw a lot of people wearing fancy Mongolian robes. Some were feeding their horses, some were practising archery, and others were chatting or taking photographs. Burin told me that Mongolians travel every year from near and far to attend the festival, just as their ancestors had done for centuries.
After the opening ceremony and some amazing performances the wrestling competition began. Mongolian wrestling is different from the wrestling in the Olympic Games. There are no rounds, and wrestlers are not separated by weight. The wrestler loses if any part of his body above his knee touches the ground. After singing some songs, the competitors danced onto the green field waving their arms in the air as if they were eagles. I was quite moved by their show of strength and grace.
I absolutely enjoyed the archery, too, but the horse races were my favourite part. However, l was surprised to see that the riders were boys and girls! I heard it is because children are lighter and the horses can run faster and farther. At first, I was a little worried about the children’s safety, but Burin said, “Don’t worry. They’ve been riding horses all their lives. They’ll be just fine.” That was the moment I started to understand why people say “Horses are at the heart of Mongolian culture”. …
I’m finally back home now, feeling really tired, but celebrating Naadam with my friend was totally worth it. He invited me back for the winter to stay in a traditional Mongolian tent and eat hot pot. L can’t wait!
Question:1. From the title, we can find that the text is mainly about
2. Read the diary and try to find out the topic sentences of each paragraph.
Para.1
Para.2
Para.3
Para.4
Para.5
2 . PROMOTING CULTURE THROUGH DIGITAL IMAGES通过数码影像推广文化
Lanzhou, 9 August 2017. A group of researchers and scientists from China and other countries are working together to help increase knowledge and appreciation of China’s ancient cultural heritage. They are recording and collecting digital images of cultural relics from the Mogao Caves, which were a key stop along the Silk Road throughout China’s ancient history. Nearly 500,000 high-quality digital photographs have been produced since the international project started in 1994.
The Mogao Caves have long been a meeting point for different cultures and are part of the history of many countries. Today, the caves are just as international as they were at the time when people travelled the Silk Road. Tourists from all over the world visit Dunhuang to see the caves, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles has even reproduced a copy of the caves and paintings for people to admire in America.
By sharing so many digital photos over the Internet, the group hopes to promote even wider interest around the world in China’s ancient history, culture, and traditions. They also hope to further educate people about the importance of safeguarding historic and cultural relics for future generations to understand and appreciate. As one researcher who is working on the project explains, “Appreciating one’s own cultural heritage is very important for understanding oneself. Appreciating the cultural heritage of other countries is very important for international communication and understanding.”
Read the text and answer the following questions.1. What is the genre of the text?
2. What is the main idea of the text?
3. Complete the structure of the text.
| a news report | headline | PROMOTING CULTURE THROUGH DIGITAL IMAGES |
lead | Lanzhou, 9 August 2017. A group of researchers and scientists from China and other countries are working together to help increase knowledge and appreciation of China’s ancient cultural heritage | |
body | ||
end |
3 . Minor Snow, or “Xiaoxue” in Chinese, is the 20th of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms, and will last from November 22 to December 6 this year. It is the second solar term of winter, and indicates that snow is about to arrive. From this solar term onwards, people in South China will begin to feel the coming of winter.
Pickling vegetables.
In Nanjing, it’s customary to make pickle during the Minor Snow period, and then salted meat during Major Snow. During Minor Snow,
Eating glutinous (黏的) rice cakes
In many areas of Southern China, people eat glutinous rice cakes during Minor Snow. In these places, there’s a saying: “十月朝，糍粑碌碌烧.” In this saying, “碌 (lu)” means that people use their chopsticks to pick up a glutinous rice cake and roll it like a wheel in a bowl full of sesame and peanut sugar, and “烧 (shao)” indicates that the glutinous rice cakes are steaming hot.
Cooking meat dishes
During Minor Snow, people in many regions of China will kill pigs, while during Major Snow, they will kill sheep. No matter which household kills the animal, neighbors and friends will all come to help. After the animal has been slaughtered (屠宰),
Eating more porridge and soup
Eating more porridge and soup in winter is good for your health. For instance, wheat porridge can nourish the heart, while radish porridge can improve digestion and reduce phlegm that often arrives with the changing weather. Soups also help keep people healthy and can improve the immune system.
Drinking more water
We already know that drinking more water is beneficial for metabolism. During the winter months, it is highly recommended to drink a cup of warm water on an empty stomach in the early morning. In this way, blood viscosity can be reduced, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can be prevented. During Minor Snow, honey water, white radish water and pear water are excellent choices, as honey water can moisten dryness and help detoxify, white radish water can clear heat, while pear can moisten the lungs and relieve stubborn coughs.
Staying warm
The weather is cold, but not yet too cold. Therefore, many people forget to put on their hats and scarves,
| A．With the weather becoming increasingly cold, people wait expectantly for the first snow. |
| B．We suggest you prepare several sets of winter clothes. |
| C．which leaves them more likely to catch a cold. |
| D．For instance, fish soup is said to invigorate the spleen, stimulate appetite, and relieve coughs and colds. |
| E．every household will begin to make pickled and dried vegetables. |
| F．From this solar term onwards, the northeast wind will blow more frequently. |
| G．the host will prepare dishes and hold a party, which symbolizes unity, harmony, peace and prosperity. |
4 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulties than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion. Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1. What does the discovery show about Westerners?| A．They pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth. |
| B．They consider facial expressions universally reliable. |
| C．They observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways. |
| D．They have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions. |
| A．To get their faces impressive. | B．To make a face at each other. |
| C．To classify some face pictures. | D．To observe the researchers’ faces. |
| A．They do translation more successfully. | B．They study the mouth more frequently. |
| C．They examine the eyes more attentively. | D．They read facial expressions more correctly. |
| A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul | B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
| C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills | D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
5 . China has named the nation’s first Mars rover (火星车) Zhu Rong. For all of us, Zhu Rong is a well-suited name.
In an ancient Chinese story, Zhu Rong had the face of a man and the body of an animal. H rode on two dragons.
When he had a big fight with Gong Gong, the god of water, Zhu Rong won. But after the fight, the human world came into complete darkness. Then he brought fire from heaven to the world.
“Zhu Rong is regarded as the earliest god of fire in traditional Chinese culture,” a space official said. “The first Mars rover was named Zhu Rong. The name symbolizes light and hope for space exploration in our country, and means to guide humans to continue exploration.”
After leaving the earth last summer, Zhu Rong circled Mars for several months and landed on it in May. In recent years, our country has sent up the world’s first quantum satellite (量子卫星), and Chang’e-4 has made a soft landing on the moon. We have made great progress in space technology and will soon start building our own space station.
1. What Zhu Rong brought from heaven to the world was ________.| A．fire | B．wars | C．water | D．animals |
| A．a big fight | B．complete darkness | C．light and hope | D．Chinese culture |
| A．the earth | B．Mars | C．the moon | D．the sun |
| A．Zhu Rong is a bad person in an ancient Chinese story |
| B．China has made great progress in space technology |
| C．the writer is proud of China’s space technology |
| D．the official doesn’t like the name Zhu Rong |
6 . Long, long ago, rain stopped falling in China. The people prayed(祈祷)for rain to the Jade Emperor, who controlled everything in heaven(天庭), on the land and in the sea, but no matter how much they prayed, rain did not fall.
Four dragons in the East China Sea saw what was happening, and saw people eating grass from the ground, for the people had nothing else left to eat.
They thought of a way to help. They started swimming this way and that, scooping up water with their bodies. Then all four flew into the sky. Black Dragon flew to the north, Long Dragon to the west, Pearl Dragon to the south of China, and Yellow Dragon to the center of the country. All at once, they let the water fall from their mouths, arms, legs, and even their tails.The people could not see the dragons, _ .“Rain!” they cried happily, and all the people and animals ran out into the rain and started to dance.
When the Jade Emperor saw the rain, he was very angry. Then he saw the four dragons flying around in the sky. He ordered Mountain God to kill the dragons.
When the four mountains landed on top of them and tried to crush(压扁) the four dragons, a strange thing happened. Suddenly four rivers formed, spreading across the whole country.
This is how the four great rivers (the Yangtze, the Yellow, the Pearl and the Heilongjiang) of China were created.
1. Why did the people pray Jade Emperor for rain?| A．Because he controlled the rain. | B．Because he had lots of rain. |
| C．Because he didn’t allow rain to fall. | D．Because there was much rain on earth. |
| A．The people. | B．The rivers. |
| C．The mountains. | D．The dragons. |
| A．but they could see the clouds from the sky |
| B．but they could see the rain falling from the sky |
| C．but they know the Jade Emperor helped them |
| D．but they think the Jade Emperor helped them |
| A．Birth of four Chinese rivers | B．Punishment from Jade Emperor |
| C．Four Dragons and the Rain | D．Jade Emperor and Four Dragons |
7 . The Lunar Calendar (农历) Modern Chinese use the solar calendar (阳历) as English people do. But at the same time, they use their own lunar calendar. Each lunar year is given the name of one of these animals: the rat, the ox, the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the monkey, the chicken, the dog and the pig. This list lasts for 12 years and then starts again.
Each Chinese month starts on the day of the new moon. And the full moon comes on the 15th day of the month. The New Year always starts between January 21 and February 20. On the last day of the lunar year, there is a big family dinner. All members of the family except married daughters try to be present at this meal, even they have to travel many miles to reach the home of their parents. Old quarrels are forgotten, and everybody is happy. After the dinner, the children keep awake to welcome the New Year.
The New Year celebrations last for 15 days, from the new moon to the full moon. On the first day , children and unmarried people go to visit their elders.
1. If next year is the year of the goat, what was the name of last year?| A．It was the year of tiger. | B．It was the year of the hare. |
| C．It was the year of snake. | D．It was the year of the ox. |
| A．On February 15. | B．On February 16. | C．On February 14. | D．On February 17. |
| A．the married son | B．the married daughter | C．the unmarried son | D．the parents |
| A．old Chinese use the solar calendar (阳历) as English people do |
| B．each Chinese month starts on the day of the new sun |
| C．on the first day, children and married people go to visit their elders |
| D．each lunar year is given the name of animals |
8 . Traditional tea processing techniques and their social practices in China were added to UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on November 29th, 2022. This is the 43rd entry from China on the List. Therefore, China’s list tops all other countries.
In fact, what is on the List is not Chinese tea, but the knowledge, skills and practices concerning management of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, and the processing, drinking and sharing of tea.
Over 2,000 tea varieties, mainly in six categories, which are green, black, yellow, oolong, white and dark, are grown in China. Although the types differ, the skills of making tea are very similar. They include inactivation (杀青), yellowing, piling, withering (萎凋), leaves shaking, cooling, fermentation (发酵) and scenting.
According to UNESCO, in China traditional tea processing techniques are closely associated with geographical location and natural environment. The techniques are mainly found in the provinces and autonomous regions of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi. Associated social practices, however, are spread throughout the country and shared by multiple ethnic groups.
Tea-related customs are not only found across the country, but also influenced the rest of the world through the ancient Silk Road and trade routes. As a document from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to UNESCO explained, tea is common in Chinese people’s daily life. Steeped or boiled tea is served in homes, workplaces, tea houses, restaurants, and temples. And it is used as an important medium for communication in socializing and ceremonies such as weddings and sacrifices.
“Practices of greeting guests with tea and building good relationships within families and among neighborhoods through tea-related activities are shared among multiple ethnic groups, and provide a sense of identity and continuity for communities, groups and individuals concerned,” the document said.
1. What can we know from the text?| A．So far China has the most entries on the intangible list. |
| B．Only intangible cultural heritage is worth protecting. |
| C．China has the most cultural treasures worldwide. |
| D．Every country in the world joins UNESCO. |
| A．Select the yellow tea leaves. | B．Make tea leaves become yellow. |
| C．Add some yellow liquid to it. | D．Use yellow boxes to collect leaves. |
| A．Varieties of Chinese tea. | B．Skills of making tea. |
| C．Tea procesing techniques. | D．Tea-related customs. |
| A．China is full of cultural heritage. | B．UNESCO is a great organization. |
| C．Chinese tea is different and unique. | D．Chinese tea is on UNESCO’s list. |
9 . The Rise of “China-chic”
Over past years, guochao, or “China-chic” has been gaining popularity among Chinese consumers. Guochao conveys the cultural heritage and values of China.
The idea of guochao was first borrowed from some international brands, and began to win over Chinese consumers in 2015.
In its third stage, guochao became more common in everyday life. Over the past decade, guochao has expanded from consumer goods to experiential products. As consumers are showing greater interest in cultural identity and creativity, productions like the TV program National Treasure, and the dance show Night Banquet in Tang Dynasty Palace integrate cultural and historical elements with the latest audio-visual technologies.
Nowadays, guochao is moving to the next stage. No matter how the trend evolves, Chinese people’s positive attitude toward the country’s development and their recognition of and growing confidence in national culture won’t change.
| A．The trend grew in the following years |
| B．They give the viewers a totally new experience |
| C．The next stage saw the rise of China’s native fashion trends |
| D．It also expresses national pride and confidence in a new era |
| E．The second period of guochao mainly features hi-tech sectors |
| F．Its success will rely first and foremost on gaining cultural confidence |
| G．The concept of “Made in China” was recognized as the representation of Chinese culture |
10 . Australians are pretty (大胆的) when it comes to humor. Not afraid of saying something insulting (冒犯的) in the name of a good laugh, they generally don’t hold back. This is always done in fun, however.
You get yourself a haircut before going to meet your new Aussie friend. You’re expecting to be praised, but what you hear is, “Did you have a fight with a lawnmower (割草机)?’’ You might take this as an insult, but it’s just your friend’s way of saying that you’ve had a haircut.
Your friend comes knocking at your bedroom door one morning to tell you’re late for class. You were up studying late the night before and you look a mess. Your friend thinks you need to put a brush through your hair before leaving, but instead of just saying so he says, “Wow. Your hair looks like a bush pig’s airse.’’ He’s trying to be nice.
Australia is one of cultures on this planet where making fun of someone is a sign of friendship. If you find yourself being made fun of lots, it could be that you’ve scored yourself a whole lot of new friends. Consider yourself lucky -- these insults are all part of building a relationship.
Australians also use a lot of sarcasm (讽刺). You foolishly say something that’s obvious (明显的). For example, “A six pack of beer is named after the number of beers you get in the pack, the number being six.’’ A normal answer would be, “That is the most obvious statement I’ve ever heard”, but an Australian would say, “Really? You’re so clever”.
Now let’s say your teacher tells you that there will be a test the following day. Australians might say, “Great. I can’t wait to add preparing for a test to my already long to-do list. Thank you for this gift.“
1. According to Paragraphs 2 and 3, Australians try to be humorous _____.| A．by telling funny jokes | B．by making fun of friends |
| C．by laughing at themselves | D．by showing unfriendliness |
| A．Dislike. | B．Worry. | C．Gladness. | D．Thankfulness. |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By providing examples. | D．By examining differences. |
