1 . Looking for something entertaining to do? Check out some wonderful festivals around the world.

Koningsdag — The Netherland

Koningsdag or King’s Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is celebrated on 27 April (26 April if the 27^th is a Sunday), the date marking the birth of King Willem-Alexander. Orange is the national color, and the streets become a sea of feather boas (羽毛围巾) and body paint as crowds gather in the plazas and on the boats in the rivers. Amsterdam is the center of this outdoor party, with many live music events, but nearly every town is alive with orange on this day.

Thai National Elephant Day — Thailand

Thai National Elephant Day is a national holiday in Thailand. Thai National Elephant Day has been celebrated on March 13^th of every year since 1998. Because the elephant is the national animal of Thailand, it is highly respected and treasured. During the festivals elephant are honored during a ceremony (典礼) in which they are fed with bananas, other fruit, and sugarcane.

The Fire Festival — Shetland

On the last Tuesday of January the entire town of Lerwick, Shetland is in flames. At the festival, you’ll find yourself sitting, dancing, or stumbling around the largest bonfire you’ve ever seen in your life. The festival lasts only one day but takes the entire year to plan. Be prepared for an evening of singing, dancing, and fast paced activities, and don’t worry about making it to work next day — it’s a national holiday!

Holi — India

Holi, the Festival of Color, is a Hindu celebration full of joy and one of India’s most important holidays. On the last full moon day of the lunar month, usually late February or early March, the air is full of bright-colored powder. The festival is celebrated differently throughout the country, with bonfires and music, but the cheerful spirit is common throughout Hindu communities around the world.

1. The festival celebrated on March 13^th in Thailand is held to ______.

A．show people’s respect for their Queen

B．show Thai people’s respect for elephants

C．ask people to protect endangered animals

D．help people relax by singing and dancing

2. Why don’t people have to worry about working the day after the Fire Festival?

A．Because people are allowed to sleep at work next day.

B．Because the activities are too simple to get people tired.

C．Because people don’t have to go to work next day.

D．Because the festival ends very early at night.

3. Where should you go if you are interested in the Festival of Colors?

A．India.	B．Shetland.
C．Thailand.	D．The Netherlands.

2 . 请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。

When a thought has found words

Poetry is the forgotten child of literature. Few people read it for pleasure and modern poets are looked upon as odd creatures from a strange universe. In Western high schools, poetry is seldom taught because it is considered old-fashioned and not relevant to the needs of today’s students.

In China, however, poetry is still an important part of the curriculum and, with recent changes announced by the Ministry of Education, the number of poems students will have to memorize and recite is being increased from fourteen to seventy-two. Now, before you gasp in horror, let’s think about the reasons why studying so many poems, especially ancient poems, is important.

First of all, poetry is an essential part of traditional Chinese culture. It is a pathway to understanding your history and your society. It is also the key to understanding the thoughts and emotions that are common to everyone but which we may be unable to express—the joy of Li Bai dancing with the moon, for example. Everyone has feelings of joy, love, loneliness, sadness and even anger, and a good poem can put those emotions into words and bring us self-understanding.

Poems can also express beauty. In a few short lines, even something commonplace can become beautiful. Here is a poem called “Fog” by Carl Sandberg: The fog comes / on silent haunches (弓腰蹲着) / and then moves on. Yes, fog does move smoothly, silently and mysteriously like a cat, and Sandberg captures that feeling and image, and makes it beautiful.

Of course, to really appreciate poetry, it has to be really aloud. After all, a poem is really just a song without music. Most ancient poetry, especially Western poetry, was actually spoken before it was written. Take Homer’s Iliad (伊利亚德), the story of the Trojan War (特洛伊战争), for example. That epic saga (史诗般的故事) of Helen’s kidnapping and the war that followed was apparently told for hundreds of years in palaces, taverns (客栈) and on street corners before Homer wrote it down and was given credit for it.

The American poet Robert Frost said, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” And poems are very concise—there is not a wasted word. You are lucky that you now have seventy-two poems to learn!

Passage outline	Detailed information
Awkward situation	Poetry is thought to be     1     from the life of people and poets beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
China’s recent     2	3    the number of poems for school students to memorize and recite
4     behind	Poetry is a reflection of Chinese culture. Learning poems help with the     5     of history and society. Poems enable people to express thoughts and feelings which would otherwise be     6     to express. Poetry conveys the beauty that     7     in common things. Poems use as     8     words as possible.
A tip on     9	Poetry is to read out. Poems are songs without music; Many ancient poems first appeared in     10     form.
Conclusion	Chinese students should feel lucky to have seventy two poems to learn!

3 . 3:00 pm It’s Friday. Alice comes home from high school to her mother who greets her at the door. She puts her backpack on her bedroom floor. She sees that she got a text from her friend, and hurriedly texts back before getting a head start on her homework.

4:15 pmAlice takes a moon cake from the kitchen that her mother has set aside for her. Her mother sits her down in the dining room to ask about Alice’s day. Alice tells her mother in Chinese about her math test that morning. She fails to tell her about her history class on women’s rights and her modern art class, because she knows it would make her mother uncomfortable.

6:30 pm Alice tells her mother in rapid Chinese that she’s done her homework and mentions that there is a mandatory(强制的) school function that night which she will have to attend. She asks her if she can go over to a friend’s house to study in the meantime. Her mother refuses because she has arranged for a tutor to come over.

7:00 pm Alice puts on a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, because she knows her mother would approve, but secretly packs a crop top(露脐装) and shorts. She empties her backpack of books and puts in her change of clothes.

7:45 pm Alice’s mother drives her to the school and drops her off. She tells Alice that she’ll pick her up when the function is over. The girl tells her mother that she will call.

8:00 pm Alice finds her friend. She changes to English and tells her that she’ll be right back. She goes into the bathroom and changes into the clothes that she brought. She now looks like all the other kids at the dance. She deeply loves her mother and hates lying to her, but she knows that is the only way she’ll understand. Avoiding the issue entirely by just “slipping out” is the only way she feels she can maintain her loving relationship at home, but still fit in with her schoolmates, who are themselves doing something that is supported by their parents.

In today’s world, scenarios (情况) like this one are more than frequent. They’re everywhere. Being born or living in a different country than the country your parents grew up in has become more and more regular. In the U.S. where the word “immigration” (移民) is often on people’s lips, nearly one-quarter of the 70.9 million children and adolescents under 17 in 2009 had at least one immigrant parent. The untold story of immigration is the stress put on the adolescents who need to live in two different worlds at the same time.

In the home, these teenagers are brought up within the traditional culture of their parents. They eat sushi, andxiao long bao, but even more than that, they’re brought up with the ideas and values of their parents’ cultures. Even the most independent teenager is influenced by his or her parents. However, as soon as these teenagers leave their houses, these values and expectations begin to lose their meaning. Instead of it being something that unites them with others, these traditional principles create cultural boundaries between teenagers. Seeing this and desperately wanting to connect with others, teenagers cast off(抛弃)their identities and roles in the home and put on a new culture and set of values.

These teenagers change themselves many times a day to adapt to these different worlds. Of course this isn’t something that they necessarily have to do. But following what their parents want and what their friends expect gives them the ability to feel accepted both in their home and in their school. In most cases, these teenagers are not pretending to be something they’re not. Rather, they are simply willing to play double roles in the drama of their life, adding an extra layer of stress to their teenage years.

1. What does Alice probably do between 3:00 pm and 4:15 pm?

A．She keeps texting her friend.	B．She prepares for supper.
C．She does her homework.	D．She tidies her bedroom.

2. What can be inferred (推断) from Alice’s story?

A．Her social life is limited by her mother.

B．She is forbidden to speak Chinese at school.

C．Her mother is interested in history and art.

D．Her mother doesn’t seem to care much about her studies.

3. By “slipping out” in Paragraph 6, the author probably means Alice ________.

A．tells her mother she’ll go over to her friend’s home

B．goes to dance at the school party with other kids

C．fails to tell her mother what she’ll truly do

D．wears a long-sleeved shirt and jeans

4. According to the passage, what do you think of the life of teenagers from immigrant families?

A．Colorful.

B．Embarrassing.

C．Traditional.

D．Independent.

5. The last paragraph implies (暗示) that teenagers from immigrant families ________.

A．have their own ways to cope with stress

B．are fairly glad to learn different cultures

C．feel rather satisfied with their social activities

D．want to be accepted by the people around them

4 . When Mark Levine, an English-language instructor at Beijing's Minzu University of China, was first invited to attend a Chinese colleague's wedding in Jiangsu Province in 2016,his second year in China, the California native was ready to present a small decorative gift for the new couple as he used to do in the United States.

However, his gesture suddenly seemed inappropriate as he realized the Chinese at the ceremony had red envelopes filled with cash to present rather than a packed gift.

"It's a little bit embarrassing when you present something that people didn't expect to receive on certain occasions," Levine told China Daily recently. "In the US, people do that as well but only for close relatives. People would normally give things as presents, while here in China red envelopes are more commonly welcomed."

It was the first time that the 66-year-old had discovered the Chinese rules in gift giving. He was not alone.

British Minister of State for Transport Baroness Susan Kramer presented a watch in January to Ko Wen-je, mayor of Taipei, when she visited the city, immediately sparking headlines as she broke a long-held tradition in Chinese culture.

A clock or watch, or zhong in Mandarin, represents "the end" in Chinese, and many associate it with death. Therefore, giving someone, especially an elder, a clock or watch implies "your time is up".

Kramer later apologized for the mistake, but Ko also came under fire for his response as he told reporters that he had no use for the watch and would sell it for cash.

However, some foreigners in China stand by Ko in this particular debate, such as Mark Dreyer, a British citizen who has lived and worked in China since 2007."After all, 'don't give clocks or watches to your hosts' is on page l of most China travel guides. I'm embarrassed by the lack of respect shown by the British for not even reading about the customs beforehand."

1. What does the underlined word "that" in Paragraph3 refer to?

A．Giving cash.	B．Presenting gifts.
C．Receiving money.	D．Attending weddings.

2. How did the public view Ko's response to the gift?

A．They thought it appropriate.	B．They believed he had no other choice.
C．They considered it a smart move.	D．They saw it as a rude response.

3. What was Dreyer's attitude to the British Minster's gift to Ko?

A．Positive	B．Doubtful.
C．Negative.	D．Supportive.

5 . RED lanterns adorn(点缀) the aisles of a small supermarket. There are stacks of red envelopes on sale, for stuffing cash in and handing out as gifts. A sign offers seasonal discounts. Such festive trappings are quite common in China in the build-up to the lunar New Year, which this year starts on January 28th. But this is Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, where Han Chinese are a mere 2.5% of the country’s population. They are a sign that Chinese New Year is becoming a global holiday.

Several countries in Asia celebrate the lunar New Year in their own way. But dragon and lion dances in Chinatowns the world over have helped to make China’s the most famous. These days growing numbers of people who are not of Chinese descent are joining in. In Tokyo window cleaners dress up as the animals of the Chinese zodiac(十二生肖). Barcelona’s Chinese parade includes dracs (a Catalan species of dragon). America, Canada and New Zealand have issued commemorative stamps for the year of the chicken. Last year New York City made the lunar New Year a school holiday for the first time.

The spread of the spring festival, as China calls it, is partly due to recent emigration from China: 9.5 million Chinese people have moved abroad since 1978, many of them far richer than earlier waves of migrants. It also reflects the wealth and globe-trotting ambitions of China’s new middle class: festivities in other countries are partly aimed at the 6 million Chinese who are expected to spend their weeklong holiday abroad this year. International brands are trying to lure these big spenders with chicken-themed items.

Conscious of China’s growing economic and political clout, foreign leaders have taken to noting the occasion. Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, has given a video address, a tradition started in 2014 by her predecessor, David Cameron. Last year the country’s royal family tweeted a picture of Queen Elizabeth dotting the eye of a Chinese lion-dancer’s costume. Also in 2016, Venezuela’s culture minister admitted that his country was celebrating Chinese new year for the first time—with six weeks of festivities—in a bid to improve economic ties with China. It is rumored that this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos was held a week earlier than usual to avoid clashing with Chinese New Year.

China also sponsors related events, such as a display this year of martial arts in Cyprus and a traditional Chinese temple—fair in Harare, Zimbabwe. It may give Chinese officials satisfaction to see foreigners enjoy such festivities. They lament the growing enthusiasm among Chinese for Western celebrations such as Christmas—in December cities across China are bedecked with Santas and snowflake decorations. Chinese New Year is a welcome chance to reverse the cultural flow.

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Many countries in Asia are similar to each other in celebrating the Chinese lunar New Year.

B．This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos was held a week earlier than usual to avoid clashing with Chinese New Year.

C．Venezuela is the first country in South America to celebrate the Chinese spring festival.

D．Partly owing to recent emigration from China, the Chinese spring festival could be spread worldwide.

2. Paragraph 2 is conducted by means of ________.

A．analyzing reasons	B．giving examples
C．listing arguments	D．comparing facts

3. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word in Para 3?

A．hook	B．attack
C．interfere	D．exclude

4. The sentence “China hopes the festival will boost its cultural ‘soft power’ abroad.” should be put at the beginning of Paragraph ________.

A．Two	B．Three
C．Four	D．Five

5. Why are Chinese officials pleased to see foreigners enjoy Chinese new year festivities?

A．Because these activities are beneficial to improving economic ties with foreign countries.

B．Because these activities can bring about large amounts of money.

C．Because these activities offer a chance to promote Chinese culture.

D．Because these activities would bring forth peace and harmony of the world.

6 . In 1929, a peasant in Sichuan Province uncovered jade (玉器) and stone artifacts(手工艺品) while repairing a ditch(沟渠) located about 24 miles from Chengdu. But their significance wasn’t understood until 1986, when archaeologists unearthed two pits(大坑) of Bronze Age treasures. The discovery suggests an impressive technicality(手工技艺), said Peter Keller, a geologist and president of the Bowers Museum in California, which is currently hosting an exhibit of some of these treasures.

The treasures came from a lost civilization, now known as the Sanxingdui, a city on the banks of the Minjiang River.

“It’s a big mystery,” said Keller, who is not involved in the current study.

“Archaeologists now believe that the culture disappeared sometime between 3,000 and 2,800 years ago,” Niannian fan, a river science researcher at Tsinghua University in Chengdu, China, said.

“The current explanations for why it disappeared are war and flood, but both are not very convincing,” Fan told Live Science.

But about 14 years ago, archaeologists found the remains of another ancient city called Jinsha near Chengdu. The Jinsha site, though it contained none of the bronzes of Sanxingdui, did have a gold crown covered with fish, arrows and birds similar to golden objects found at Sanxingdui. That has led some scholars to believe that the people from Sanxingdui may have relocated to Jinsha.

Fan wondered whether an earthquake may have caused landslides that dammed the river high up in the mountains and rerouted it to Jinsha. That catastrophe may have reduced Sanxingdui’s water supply, spurring its people to move.

And some historical records support their assumptions. In 1099 B.C., ancient writers recorded an earthquake in the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, in Shanxi Province, Fan said. Though that spot is roughly 250 miles from the historic site of Sanxingdui, the latter culture didn’t have writing at the time. So it’s possible the earthquake epicenter(震中) was actually close to Sanxingdui－but it just wasn’t recorded there.

Around the same time, geological sediment(沉积物) suggest massive flooding occurred, and the later-han Dynasty document The Chronicles of the Kings of Shu records ancient floods pouring from a mountain in a spot that suggests the flow being rerouted, Fan said.

Together, the findings hint that major earthquake triggered a landslide that dammed the river, rerouting its flow and reducing water flow to Sanxingdui, Fan said.

1. In the first paragraph, the author wants to _____.

A．introduce the topic of a lost civilization

B．tel us how beautiful the jade and stone artifacts look

C．remind us to pay attention to the earthquake

D．inform us we can easily find treasures in a ditch

2. According to the passage, the following statements are true EXCEPT that ______.

A．Bowers Museum is exhibiting some of Bronze Age treasures

B．Peter Keller is the lead researcher on the study of Sanxingdui

C．some scholars think that the people from Sanxingdui may have moved to Jinsha

D．some findings support the idea that an earthquake caused a landslide, which dammed the river, rerouting its flow and reducing water flow to Sanxingdui

3. Which of the following is the most probable explanation of mystery of the disappearance of Sanxingdui’s civilization?

A．War.	B．Flood.
C．Earthquake.	D．Hurricane.

4. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “spurring” in the seventh paragraph?

A．Forcing.	B．Allowing.
C．Supporting.	D．Favoring.

5. What type of writing is this passage?

A．Science fiction.	B．An official document.
C．A newspaper report.	D．A research report.

7 . The most wonderful time of the year (the Christmas season) is also the most stressful for lots of people struggling to fit in increased end-of-the-year workloads, holiday parties, shopping, guest hosting, travel, and seeing friends and relatives who you’d otherwise avoid. Luckily, the same coping mechanisms that can help relieve stress and find better balance during the year also work for this holiday.

Here are four tips to finding work—life balance during this season.

1. Know and avoid your stressors(压力源).

If cooking for a large group, baking cookies, or Christmas shopping are your key stressors, don’t do them. Lots of grocery stores will help cater your next holiday meal. Bakeries exist for a reason, and gift cards are much appreciated by all. Stop trying to live up to someone else’s expectations of the holidays and stay merry by outsourcing the pain points.

2. Get flexible at work.

If you normally travel an hour each way at work, see if your boss will let you work from home in this special season to save time, get more done, and reduce your stress. Or ask if you can start work from home in the mornings and come to the office later in the day to avoid peak hours. Leave early and finish your day from the comfort of home, too.

3. Make your own list and check it twice.

Make a to-do list for yourself, for both work and life, then divide it up into categories like “must do,” “want to do,” and “feel obligated to do.” If you can remove any or all of your required list, the rest of your to-dos will start to look a lot easier.

Once you have your lists in order, it’s time to start crossing things off. In between your must-dos tasks, include a want-to-do task to break things up and re-energize yourself. Yes, this holiday is a time to give back to others and be selfless, but there’s still a bit of “self” in selflessness, isn’t there?

4. If you start to feel a cold coming on, come to a full and complete stop.

The best way to stop a cold from exploding into a weeks-long sickness is to stop it at the start. Unless a task or activity is an absolute necessity, cancel your plans, put away your to-do lists, and settle in for a long winter’s nap. A day of rest and enough sleep is the only thing you NEED right now. Feel bad about declining holiday invitations from your friends and family? You’re doing them a favor. Once people hear that you’re sick, they’ll be glad you stayed away — they don’t want to come down with a cold during the holiday any more than you do!

It is certain that you can feel less stressed in this hectic season when you stop expecting so much from yourself, because nobody puts so much expectation on you as you do to yourself. Trying to satisfy clients, co-workers, friends and family can be draining and can finally negatively impact you in many ways. When you simplify things up front, you relieve the stress off of yourself and everyone else in the process. Stop focusing on what you feel like you’re obligated to do, and start focusing on what you want and need to do, the load will get lighter and you will feel a lot merrier under the Christmas tree.

1	Four Ways to Find Work-life Balance during the Christmas Season
Introduction	◆The Christmas     2     is often a time when work and social activities collide with each other. ◆Luckily,     3     relief mechanisms can be found to cope with the problem.
Four Tips	◆Your stressors like cooking, baking and shopping can be     4     because there is enough outsourcing for you to turn to and it is OK if you fail to live up to people’s     5    . ◆You can talk to your boss for a     6     schedule. ◆You can make a list of what really     7     and let go of the obligatory list. ◆Your friends and family don’t want to come     8     with a cold at all, so feel free to cancel all your plans when     9    .
Conclusion	◆Start     10     on what you want to do and you can enjoy the season better.

8 . A good joke can be the hardest thing to understand when people are studying a foreign language. As a recent article in The Guardian noted, “There’s more to understanding a joke in a foreign language than understanding vocabulary and grammar.”

Being able to understand local jokes is often seen as an unbelievable icebreaker for a language learner eager to form friendships with native speakers. “I always felt that humor was a ceiling that I could never break through,” Hannah Ashley, a public relations account manager in London, who once studied Spanish in Madrid, told The Guardian. “I could never speak to people on the same level as I would speak to a native English speaker. I almost came across as quite a boring person because all I could talk about was facts.”

In fact, most of the time, jokes are only funny for people who share a cultural background or understand humor in the same way. Chinese-American comedian Joe Wong found this out first-hand. He had achieved huge success in the US, but when he returned to China in 2008 for his first live show in Beijing, he discovered that people didn't think his Chinese jokes were as funny as his English ones.

In Australia, meanwhile many foreigners find understanding jokes about sports to be the biggest headache. “The hardest jokes are related to rugby because I know nothing about rugby,” said Melody Cao, who was once a student in Australia. “When I heard jokes I didn’t get, I just laughed along.”

In the other two major English-speaking countries, the sense of humor is also different. British comedian Simon Pegg believes that while British people use irony(反话)——basically, saying something they don’t mean to make a joke—every day, people in the US don't see the point of using it so often. “British jokes tend to be more subtle and dark, while American jokes are more obvious with their meanings, a bit like Americans themselves,” he wrote in The Guardian.

1. It is implied in the noted sentence in Paragraph 1 that __________.

A．making jokes is a possible way for one to learn a foreign language better

B．humor is always conveyed to foreigners through vocabulary and grammar

C．vocabulary and grammar help you understand jokes in a foreign language

D．there tends to be something behind the words of a joke in a foreign language

2. What can we learn about Hannah Ashley?

A．She thought that Spanish people generally did not have much of a sense of humor.

B．She believed that one had better rely on facts when speaking a foreign language.

C．She found that humor was a barrier to her to get along well with Spanish people.

D．She had a better command of Spanish language than English language.

3. Joe Wong is used as an example to ___________.

A．suggest that there are cultural differences in humor

B．show that it’s hard to put jokes into another language

C．prove that local people have different taste in humor

D．show that expressing ability affects the sense of humor

4. From the text we can learn that ___________.

A．jokes about sports are difficult for all foreigners to understand

B．Americans are generally more humorous than British people

C．not all English speakers can understand English jokes easily

D．British people’s dark jokes often make people uncomfortable

9 . Transportation and communication networks bring people together. Yet sometimes people themselves create barriers(障碍) to transportation and communication. In some countries, laws stop people from moving freely from place to place. Over the centuries, many groups of people have been denied the freedom to travel because of their race, religion, or nationality. In the Middle Ages, for example, Jews were often forbidden to move about freely within certain cities. South Africa's government used to require black Africans to carry passes when they travel within the country. Some governments require all citizens to carry identification papers and to report to government officials whenever they move.
Countries set up customs posts at their borders. Foreign travellers must go through a customs inspection before they are allowed to travel in the country. Usually travellers have to carry special papers such as passports and visas(签证). Some countries even limit the number of visitors to their country each year.   Others allow tourists to visit only certain areas of the country, or they may require that travellers be with an official guide at all times during their stay.
Many of those barriers to travel also act as barriers to communication.
When two governments disagree with each other on important matters, they usually do not want their citizens to exchange news or ideas freely. Countries often try to keep military or industrial information secret.
Today, people have the ability to travel, to communicate, and to transport goods more quickly and easily than ever before. Natural barriers that were difficult or dangerous to cross a hundred years ago can now be crossed easily. The barriers that people themselves make are not so easy to overcome. But in spite of all the different kinds of barriers, people continue to enjoy travel and the exchange of goods and ideas.
1. The examples in paragraph 1 are used to tell the readers that _______

A．people have been allowed to travel freely within the country

B．people have not been permitted to travel freely for various reasons

C．travellers have to carry special papers such as passports and visas

D．customs posts are necessary at the borders of the countries

2. Some governments limit the freedom of communication because___

A．they intend to keep their national secrets unknown to others

B．they think such freedom will lead to wars

C．they often disagree with each other on important matters

D．they want to show their authority over communication

3. We may learn from the passage that _______

A．people do not care about the removal of barriers between countries

B．people can not remove the obstacles made by themselves

C．man-made barriers are sometimes harder to overcome than natural ones

D．barriers should be taken for granted as they always exist

4. Which of the following can serve as the best title of the passage?

A．Barriers Made by People

B．Functions of Communication

C．Restrictions on Transportation

D．Progress of Human Society

10 . Getting married can be one of the happiest moments in a person’s life. Throughout the world, weddings are very important events. Let’s look at some interesting wedding customs from different countries.

For African Americans, it is tradition for the married couple to jump over a broom covered with flowers. This represents the beginning of family life. It is interesting to note that African slaves who were brought to the USA started this tradition. African American couples were not allowed to have a legal marriage, so instead they had a ceremony where the bride and groom jumped over a broom “into marriage”.

       Making jokes about the bride and groom is a wedding tradition in both France and Germany. In France, this includes making loud noises with pots; in Germany, wedding guests break dishes. Weddings in Germany often last for three days. On Thursday, there is a simple ceremony at a government office noting the official marriage of the couple. Then the couple will have a dinner with family and close friends. On Friday, there is a party. This is when guests break dishes to represent the start of a new life. Then on Sunday, there is a ceremony in a church.
       In Greece and Italy, people eat special kinds of sweets at the wedding. Both Greece and Italy also have their own special wedding dances, which all of the guests enjoy.
       In Russia, couples tie a doll to their wedding car if they want to have a daughter, or a toy bear if they want to have a son.

In England, it is tradition for the little girls to throw flowers on the ground on the way to the wedding ceremony. The bride and groom walk on these flowers. This represents the hope that the couples will follow the path that leads to a happy life.

Topic	·Getting married can be     1     than any other moment in a person’s life. ·Interesting wedding customs differ     2     country to country.
Countries/ People	Wedding Customs
African Americans	·Married couple jump over a broom covered with flowers, which     3     the beginning of family life. ·In the past, African American couples were     4     to get married legally.
France and Germany	·Make jokes about the bride and groom. ·In Germany, wedding guests get dishes     5     ·A German wedding often     6     three days.
The Greek and the     7    __________	·Either Greece     8    _________ Italy has its own special wedding dances, which all of the guests enjoy.
Russia	·If couples want to have a daughter, they will have a doll     9     to their wedding car.
The English	·The bride and groom walk on the flowers thrown by little girls. It represents the hope of     10    __________ the path leading to a happy life.