1 . The art of paper cutting in China has a long history, which originated from the 6th century. As paper became more affordable, paper cutting has become one of the most important types of Chinese folk art. Later, this art form spread to other parts of the world, with different areas adopting their own cultural styles. Because the paper cuts are often used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to as “window flowers”.
Scissors and knives are the basic tools to make a paper cut, and the subjects are different in figures, such as flowers, bird, characters, familiar folk stories and fairy tales. It’s also common to see some Chinese characters on paper cuts. The most famous paper cutting characters in Chinese are words meaning “lucky” and “double happiness”. Even these days, Chinese people love to hang paper cutting of these two characters at their doors.
Chinese paper cuts were used for religious and ceremonial purposes in the past. They have been buried with the dead and burned at funerals. At the same time, paper cuts have special significance on festivals and holidays.
Paper cuts are made in many areas through the country; in general, the northern style is bold and free while the southern is delicate (精致的) and smooth.
People express wishes and hopes with paper cutting. As a national non-material culture heritage (遗产), paper cutting is really precious.
1. What is necessary if you want to learn paper-cutting?| A．Glue. | B．Scissors. |
| C．Chinese characters. | D．Different colors. |
| A．Paper cutting skills. | B．Paper cutting experts. |
| C．The art of paper cutting. | D．The history of paper cutting. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Neutral. |
2 . While my cousin and I were riding horses over the dry, grassy hills and swimming in the Navarro River, Mother, Grandma, Auntie Gert, and my elder cousins had begun the annual work of preparations for Thanksgiving on our farm, five months ahead of Thanksgiving.
By mid-July, the summer kitchen was running full steam. Peas were always the first to be processed. Everyone Grandma could get help from sat shelling(剥落) the peas into large pans, but as we wished we were out swimming. Then came the cherries. Mother packed them into jars, while Auntie Gert separated the riper cherries into a large pot to make delicious jam, which is my favorite. Peaches followed shortly. They were carefully washed, then skinned, halved and packed.
By fall, ropes of onions and garlic hung at the end of the shelves; apples, potatoes and pumpkins lined the floor.
With the coming of November rains, Grandma filled the remaining shelf space with coffee cans(罐) packed with her famous fruitcakes. The smell of spices, apples and bay leaves came into the house, announcing the Thanksgiving season.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, aunts, uncles, and cousins began to arrive. My uncles helped Grandpa catch up on repairs around the farm; my aunts baked pie and bread; and my cousins and I played card games in the front room, staying as close to the warm woodstove as possible. When the Thanksgiving dinner was ready, we’d all sit around the dining table, which extended into the front room. Grandpa would pray. And then it was time to enjoy the delicious food prepared months ago.
How I miss those simple happy old days!
1. What does the author mainly intend to show in Paragraph 1?| A．Thanksgiving food was hard to prepare. |
| B．He loved riding horses with his cousins. |
| C．All his relatives lived together on the farm. |
| D．Preparations for Thanksgiving began early in his family. |
| A．Wash peaches. | B．Nothing. | C．Pack cherries. | D．Shell peas. |
① making jam ② baking bread
③ doing repairs ④ making coffee
| A．①②③ | B．①③④ | C．①②④ | D．②③④ |
| A．To attract attention. | B．To show the diversity of preparations. |
| C．To record activities. | D．To stress the long period of preparations. |
| A．They are challenging. | B．They are worth the efforts. |
| C．They are troublesome. | D．They are a waste of time. |
3 . The world is a colorful landscape of different languages, skin colors, and different cultures. It's important to have a good understanding of different cultures in order to become a well-rounded person
One way is to read books written by authors from a particular culture. Reading works by authors who have a close relationship with a particular culture allows people to gain an authentic glimpse into the food, music, language, religion, and way of a life of a particular group of people.
Another way to learn about different cultures is to try to learn a foreign language.
Communicating with people from other countries through email or snail mail is another useful way to become familiar with different cultures.
| A．Trying authentic food from a specific cultural group is also a great idea. |
| B．The Internet has made it possible to communicate with others from different countries. |
| C．Making contact with native speakers of the language allows one to gain firsthand knowledge. |
| D．There are several ways to become knowledgeable about different cultures. |
| E．Stories based on a local culture expose one to a different culture. |
| F．One way to develop this appreciation is to try to team about other cultures around the world. |
| G．A variety of language-learning books, software, and audio programs is available. |
4 . The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar. This day is always the first full moon in the new year. Ancient people also called it Shangyuan Festival. Celebrations and traditions on this day began from the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Tang Dynasty.
Watching the red lanterns is one of the main traditions. Lanterns of different shapes and sizes are usually put on trees, or along river banks on show. It is said that sky lanterns were first used by Zhuge Kongming to ask for help when he was in trouble. Today, when the lanterns slowly rise into the air, people make wishes. Another tradition is guessing lantern riddles. The riddles are usually short, wise, and sometimes humorous(幽默的). The answer to a riddle can be a Chinese character, a famous person’s name, or a place name.
The most important thing is to eat sweet dumplings with different tastes. In northern China, they are called yuanxiao while in southern part they’re named tangyuan. Because making sweet dumplings is like a game or an activity, they are usually done happily by a group of friends or family members.
In old times, the Lantern Festival was also a good time for young people to find love. Watching lanterns gave young people a chance to meet each other. And there were many romantic stories about this festival. A line from Xin Qiji, a poet during the Song Dynasty, shows this, “Hundreds and thousands of times I searched for her in the crowd. Suddenly I turned, and there she stood in the dim light. ”
In a word, the Lantern Festival has brought us Chinese so much fun and joy over the years. We hope the young people can carry on these traditions and take pride in Chinese culture.
1. In ancient times, sky lanterns were first used for ______by Zhuge Kongming.| A．making wishes | B．celebrating birthdays |
| C．getting aid | D．guessing lantern riddles |
| A．They have different tastes. |
| B．They are named “yuanxiao” all over the country. |
| C．People enjoy the process of making them. |
| D．People usually make them with family and friends. |
| A．boring | B．humorous |
| C．romantic | D．important |
5 . Craziest Food Festivals sounds like a joke topic, but once you start looking into it, you’ll realize they’re everywhere — the crazier, the better.
1. Bibimbap Festival
In the South Korean town of Jeonjuloves, their “mixed rice” dish is a hearty serve of rice topped with raw beef, a rainbow of vegetables, a raw egg and gochujang sauce so much. They take four days out of October to celebrate it.
Like any festival there’s music, entertainment and magic, but making it that little bit different is the bibimbap that’s whipped (搅拌) up in a big bowl by dozens of chefs and served to over 400 people.
2. Waikiki Spam Jam
Who knew this canned meat had so much love? Well, it turns out that a can of Spam is the go-to item in Hawaii, along with a grass skirt and garland (花环). The people of Hawaii love Spam so much that they even spend a day in May giving out the best Spam, a type of cheap canned meat made mainly from pork.
3. Bessieres Easter Egg Festival
At Easter time, for those in the French town of Bessieres it’s all about an egg far less sweet.
Here they celebrate the holiday by getting dozens of chefs to make one large omelette (煎蛋卷) — 15,000 eggs strong — for the townsfolk (市民).
4. Potato Days Festival
This festival actually takes place in Barnesville, Minnesota, the US. Over the last Friday and Saturday in August the town celebrates its potato-growing skills by hosting potato picking and peeling contests, as well as a Miss Tater Tot pageant (盛典) for five- and six-year-old girls.
1. What makes Bibimbap festival special?| A．They take four days to celebrate it. |
| B．The mixed rice is rich in many vegetables. |
| C．There’s music, entertainment and magic during the festival. |
| D．The rice dish needs to be mixed in one big bowl by dozens of chefs together. |
| A．The spam is the most favorite for Hawii people. |
| B．People spend one day to prepare the Jam. |
| C．The Jam isn’t affordable for the plain townsfolk. |
| D．The Jam is mainly made from raw beef. |
| A．Bibimbap Festival | B．Waikiki Spam Jam |
| C．Bessieres Easter Egg Festival | D．Potato Days Festival |
6 . March, April and May are months full of festivals and events all over the world. Here are four wonderful festivals around the world that happen in spring.
SongKran--Thailand
Dates: 13th-15th, April
In Thailand, it’s time to celebrate the coming monsoon season, which will bring the rain many people have been looking forward to. They celebrate it with a festival called Songkran, when people head out to the streets with water guns to spray (喷洒) everyone who walks past.
Naghol--Vanuatu
Dates: Every Saturday from April to May
Every year, villagers come together to celebrate the harvest of yams, a kind of root vegetable popular in Vanuatu. The festival is most famous for its “land diving ceremony”. During the ceremony men and boys dive to the ground from high wooden towers with only two thin vines (葡萄藤) attached to their ankles.
Cherry Blossom Viewing ---Japan
Dates: The cherry blossom season is different from year to year depending on the weather forecast.
The cherry blossom season has huge importance to the people of Japan, who celebrate the days when the flowers finally blossom. In Japan, almost everyone has picnics in the parks to view the flowers.
Sinhalese New Year--Sri Lanka
Dates: 13th or 14th, April
Just like in many other countries in South or South East Asia, this is the time when the Sinhalese celebrate the traditional New Year, an ancient celebration which marks the end of the harvest season and is one of two times of the year when the sun is straight above Sri Lanka. There are a lot of delicious foods during the celebration.
1. What does the underlined phrase “monsoon season” probably refer to?| A．Windy season. | B．Rainy season. |
| C．Dry season. | D．Foggy season. |
| A．A gardener. | B．A sports lover. |
| C．A woodcutter. | D．A music fan. |
| A．Summertime sunshine. |
| B．Ancient Architecture. |
| C．Traditional dances. |
| D．Excellent foods. |
7 . In China, poetry is 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.
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.
| A．Few people read it for pleasure. |
| B．Poems can also express beauty. |
| C．Poetry is difficult to recite. |
| D．Of course, to really appreciate poetry, it has to be read aloud. |
| E．You are lucky that you now have seventy-two poems to learn! |
| F．It is a pathway to understanding your history and your society. |
| G．A good poem can put those emotions into words and bring us self-understanding. |
8 . As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and French, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars (学者) from a number of organizations-UNESCO and National Geographic among them-have for many years been documenting (记录) dying languages and the cultures they reflect. Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Centre Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not satisfied to simply record these voices before they disappear without record. At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials, including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes, which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded, the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project, Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, for the world available not just to scholars but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin’s notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to .| A．save global languages |
| B．search for new languages |
| C．rescue disappearing languages |
| D．set up language research centers |
| A．Writing books on language teaching. |
| B．Having full records of the languages. |
| C．Telling stories about language users. |
| D．Living with the native speaker. |
| A．His experience in Nepal. |
| B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. |
| D．The cultural studies. |
| A．Write, sell and donate. |
| B．Record, repair and reward. |
| C．Design, experiment and report. |
| D．Collect, protect and reconnect. |
9 . The Chinese word “Shanzhai” means a small mountain village, but now it becomes an accepted name for fakes, after “Shanzhai Cell-phones” produced by small workshops in southern China became popular in the mainland market over the past two years. Besides “Shanzhai” electronic products, there are “Shanzhai” movies, “Shanzhai” stars and even a “Shanzhai” Spring Festival Gala, a copy of the 25-year-old traditional show presented by CCTV on Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve.
“Shanzhai” has become a culture of its own, meaning anything that imitates something famous. In Chongging, “Shanzhai” version “Bird’s Nest” and “Water Cube” woven by farmers with bamboo attracts wide attention from tourists. Both are copies of the famous Olympic buildings in Beijing.
A literature critic said that taking the “Shanzhai” Gala as an example, when the traditional CCTV program becomes less and less attractive to the audience, the “Shanzhai” version appears timely to attract people. “Although it is often connected with poor techniques and operation, ‘Shanzhai’ culture meets the psychological needs of common people and could be a comfort to their minds,” he said.
To the mainstream culture, the rise of “Shanzhai” culture is a challenge and a motivation. People believe different kinds of cultures developing together is a perfect way and it is for the public to choose.
1. The Chinese word “Shanzhai” may have started with ________.| A．fake (假的) cell-phones | B．electronic products |
| C．Spring Festival Gala | D．Olympic buildings |
| A．the action that a person imitates famous people |
| B．products with poor techniques and quality |
| C．anything that are copies of something famous |
| D．those similar names to famous brands |
| A．is held back by “Shanzhai” culture |
| B．is the challenge of “Shanzhai” culture |
| C．will be replaced by “Shanzhai” culture |
| D．may develop faster because of the challenge of “Shanzhai” culture |
10 . More and more people in America are celebrating the Indian holiday Diwali. Diwali is Hindi for “row of lights”. It is the most important holiday in India.
Many people around the world are beginning to celebrate it as well. The United States is one of the places where the festival is becoming more common. Diwali celebrations can now be found at American landmarks like Disneyland in California and New York City’s Times Square. They are also held in many parks and museums.
Neeta Bhasin created the Times Square event. She said Indian immigrants have found great success in America. But, she said, many Americans still do not know much about India. So, she decided to act. “I felt it’s about time that we should take India to mainstream America and show India’s rich culture, heritage, arts and variety to the world,” she said, “and I couldn’t find a better place than Times Square.”
Bhasin came to the United States from India 40 years ago. She is president of ASB Communications, the marketing firm behind Diwali at Times Square. Tens of thousands of people attend the event, now in its fourth year.
In India, Diwali is a five-day harvest festival held just before the Hindu New Year. The exact dates change from year to year but Diwali is always in the fall. Celebrations include lighting oil lamps or candles called “diyas”.
A Diwali celebration will light up Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim this year. Visitors can watch performances of traditional Indian dances and take part in a Bollywood dance party. The event is part of a Festival of Holidays program at the theme park to show cultural traditions from around the world. The program takes place on November 10th through January 7th.
San Antonio, Texas, also holds a Diwali celebration. And it is one of the nation’s largest celebrations, with more than 15,000 people in attendance each year. Visitors can enjoy Indian dance, food and fireworks. Organizers also plan to float hundreds of lighted candles in the San Antonio River, along the city’s famous River Walk.
1. Which is the main symbol in the Indian holiday Diwali?| A．Dances. | B．Lamps. |
| C．Food. | D．Clothes. |
| A．To make the American culture richer. |
| B．To create a new business for the firm. |
| C．To make Indian culture better known in the US. |
| D．To show the achievements of Indian immigrants. |
| A．It is held in autumn in India. |
| B．It lasts five days in America. |
| C．It has been held for 40 years in America. |
| D．It happens from November 10th to January 7th in India. |
| A．Diwali is mainly celebrated in Disney Parks. |
| B．Many American cities compete to hold Diwali. |
| C．Indian Holiday Diwali lights up America, too. |
| D．Diwali has become the most important holiday in India. |
