The audience and viewership for this year’s Spring Festival TV gala, which was aired on Feb 9, Lunar New Year’s Eve or Chinese Lunar New Year, both reached record
This year, the gala, in addition
Since its broadcast in 1983, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala
There comes a time when the old must give way to the new. Finding and
In the 1950s, the Egyptian government wanted to build a new dam across the Nile
After listening to the experts’ opinion, the government turned to the United Nations for help. Then a committee
World Olive (橄榄) Tree Day takes place
Protecting and growing the olive tree is
World Olive Tree Day is set up
There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Olive Tree Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate in
Wedding Customs from Around the World Each traditional wedding custom is very special, because it marks the importance of the wedding. |
Brazil Important Details of the Wedding Ceremony A wedding ceremony in Brazil has many important details. For example, the bridegroom can't see the bride wearing her wedding dress before the ceremony. The bride has to use something old, something new, and something that is borrowed. One more detail is the bride's ring should be engraved the name of the bridegroom —María Celina Brandao |
Eastern Europe Asking the Girl's Father for Permission In my country, the engagement is an event previous to the wedding. One month before the wedding, the bridegroom asks the girl's father for permission to take the girl out of her family house. He goes to her house early in the morning with a band, if he can afford the expense. All the neighbours come to see the new bride and to tell her something nice —Stoyan Grigorou |
Japan A Wine Ceremony Symbolizes Dedication A Shinto wedding has a typical ceremony. A couple drinks Japanese rice wine in front of a priest. First, the bride drinks the wine from a small cup. Next, the bride passes the cup to the bridegroom and he also drinks the wine from the cup. They try to drink wine three times. This ceremony means that they promise to be dedicated to each other. —Maki Kubo |
Venezuela Promises to Love and Take Care of Each Other The most important and unforgettable event of someone's life is marriage. In Venezuela, the bridegroom has to promise his bride to love her all his life and to take care of her forever. The bride also has to repeat the same commandments. It is popular for the couple to read the promises to each other. This moment is really beautiful. In addition, the couple receives a list of commandments. —Sonia Dale |
For more, please click here. |
| A．Use something not new. |
| B．Use something someone else lends him. |
| C．Have his bride wear the ring engraved with his name. |
| D．See his bride in a wedding dress before the ceremony. |
| A．Before the wedding is celebrated. | B．After the girl is taken out |
| C．After a band is paid by the bridegroom. | D．When the neighbours arrive. |
| A．It is the priest's order in the ceremony. |
| B．The cup is not big enough to hold much wine. |
| C．It means they promise not to be against each other. |
| D．It is typical for all young Japanese to drink wine. |
5 . Start of Winter is the first solar term of winter, which means winter is coming and crops harvested in autumn should be stored up.
Beginning or winter or not
In ancient times, the Chinese people took the Start of Winter to be the beginning of the winter. However, in fact, the Start of Winter is not the beginning of winter in terms of meteorology. The climate every year is different.
The four beginnings of the season were important festivals in ancient times. Before the Start of Winter, the ancient emperor would take a shower and have no more meat. On that day, the emperor would lead his officials to the suburbs and perform the ceremony of welcoming the winter.
Nourishing the winter
On the day of Start of Winter, there is a custom, “nourishing the winter”, in Southeast China in places such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces.
Offering sacrifices (供品) to ancestors
The Start of Winter, when the autumn crops have been placed in storage，was the time of the festival for the people of the Manchu Eight Banners and Han Eight Banners in Benxi of Liaoning province.
| A．Winter Solstice is a time for the family to get Together |
| B．To prepare for the oncoming cold winter |
| C．Here are things you should know about Start of Winter |
| D．Welcoming the winter in ancient times |
| E．After this day, many places in China go through the coldest period |
| F．Incense was burned and sacrifices offered to ancestors |
| G．Therefore the beginning of winter could be quite different |
1. 春节在中国的地位；
2. 春节持续的时间；
3. 春节期间人们做的事情。
注意：词数80左右；
可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jack,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
7 . If you look around your city, you might spot girls wearing hanfu in subways or people wearing T-shirts with Chinese characters on the streets. A new trend is taking hold in China — guochao, or “China-chic”.
It means the rise of China’s native fashion trends. It has expanded the concept of “Made in China”, which has been recognized as the representation of Chinese culture offered by homegrown Chinese brands. China chic came into the spotlight in 2018. During the 2018 New York Fashion Week, Li-Ning introduced its Taoism-inspired Wu Dao collection. The collection not only had a fashionable look, but also included elements of traditional Chinese culture. It immediately obtained attention at home and abroad. As a result, the company recorded 20 percent income growth in 2018, marking the first time the brand had hit the 10-billion-yuan mark since its founding.
Since then, the trend to hug home brands has spread rapidly to various sectors (领域) and products, from food and drinks to clothing, mobile phones and electric vehicles. For example, White Rabbit, whose sweet candy brings back childhood memories for many, launched its milk, cosmetics (化妆品) and so on. “We want White Rabbit to be a brand that young people want to share,” said Shen Qinfeng, the company’s marketing manager.
This March, several Western brands refused to use Xinjiang cotton. To show national pride and cultural confidence, the “I support Xinjiang cotton” campaign spread across the country, Many Chinese turned to Chinese home brands that support Xinjiang cotton, like Li-Ning and Anta. No matter how the guochao trend changes, there’s one thing that won’t change; Behind the story is people’s positive attitude toward the country’s development and their recognition of and growing confidence in national culture.
1. What is China-chic according to the text?| A．Increase in Chinese culture in fashion. |
| B．Young Chinese people’s preference for ancient culture. |
| C．The international popularity of products made in China. |
| D．The growing role of Chinese home brands in developing economy. |
| A．It took the lead in the world market. |
| B．It adopted Western design in its sportswear. |
| C．Its products had a trendy look with Chinese elements. |
| D．Its income hit the 10-billion yuan mark that year. |
| A．It upgraded its packaging. |
| B．It expanded into other fields. |
| C．It increased the variety of its candies. |
| D．I used childhood memories in advertisements. |
| A．Chinese products are better than Western ones. |
| B．Cheap and quality native materials are more popular. |
| C．Chinese home brands are facing a big problem. |
| D．Chinese people’s cultural confidence drives the guochao trend. |
8 . It is always said that China is the homeland of tea, which has a very long history of tea.
➢Color
➢Flavor(味道)
New tea is extremely clear and transparent with strong aroma(芳香), while old tea is characterized by brown color and weak fragrance. Take green tea and black tea for example, new green tea tastes a little bitter first, and then the fresh sweet taste begins to surface gradually, leaving a long and memorable after taste in mouth.
➢Place of origin
There is great gap of quality among various places of origin.
| A．Every tea leaf has its own shape. |
| B．Some varieties are identified by tightness of the leaves. |
| C．It is always advised to select tea from its main producing areas. |
| D．While you’re selecting tea, you should pay attention to following aspects. |
| E．For foreigners in China, drinking tea may seem like simple refreshment(提神). |
| F．Generally, new tea leaves look fresh and pleasing, with light green or dark green. |
| G．On the contrary, if bitter taste takes the lead and fresh sweet taste subsides(减弱), it is black tea. |
9 . As more and more people speak the global language of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will be likely to die out by the next century, according the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi 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 content 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, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to schools but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.| A．promote global languages | B．rescue disappearing languages |
| C．search for languages communities | D．set up language research organizations |
| A．having detailed records of the languages | B．writing books on language users |
| C．telling stories about language speakers | D．living with the native speakers |
| A．The cultural studies in India. | B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. | D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write, sell and donate. | B．Record, repair and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. | D．Design, experiment and report. |
10 . The meaning of silence varies among cultural groups. Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore attempts may be made to fill every gap（间隙）with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person's needs.
Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied（暗示）is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for reflection.
Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with different conflicts among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.
Nurses and other care-givers need to be aware of the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient's silence is not interrupted too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing（治愈）value of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.
1. What does the author say about silence in conversations?| A．It is content-based. | B．It develops friendship. |
| C．It implies anger. | D．It is culture-specific. |
| A．The French. | B．The Mexicans. |
| C．The Russians. | D．The Chinese. |
| A．Make use of its healing effects. |
| B．Let it continue as the patient pleases. |
| C．Break it while treating patients. |
| D．Evaluate（评估）its harm to patients. |
| A．Sound and Silence. |
| B．What It Means to Be Silent. |
| C．Silence to Native Americans. |
| D．Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Gold. |
