1 . In the long history of about 5,000 years, numerous Chinese traditional festivals were celebrated in honour of gods or some significant days, some of which are passed down from generation to generation and people always practice special traditional activities in each festival.

The Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival is on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (春分), around April 4 or April 5 every year.     1    . They remove the weeds growing on their ancestors’ tombs to make them clean, so this festival is also called Tomb-Sweeping Day. In some areas, people are forbidden to use the fire to cook food, so they only eat the cool food. Thus, it is also named the Hanshi Festival.

The Double Ninth Festival

    2    . The Chinese character of September is the same as 9, so we get this special name. Chinese people, especially in the northern region, climb up the mountains to enjoy the wonderful view, and admire the beauty of chrysanthemums (菊花).

The Winter Solstice (冬至)

The winter solstice is on around December 22 or 23 of the solar calendar each year. From that day on, the daytime will be longer and longer.     3    . Chinese people in the northern region eat dumplings and wontons (馄饨), while in the southern region rice balls.

    4    

In China, this festival is in late January or early February, the last day of the lunar year. People celebrate it by having a family reunion dinner, setting off fireworks and staying up late. Breaking the dishes and bowls is a thing all the people are afraid of, but if you did it, you should say “Sui sui ping an!”     5    .

A．The Spring Festival

B．New Year’s Eve

C．People will go to commemorate (纪念) their ancestors

D．People always visit their friends and relatives

E．It is celebrated on Sep. 9th of the lunar calendar, around in October of the solar calendar

F．It’s a holiday which is regarded as important as the Spring Festival

G．It is a double-meaning word, meaning you will be safe during the new year

4 . You might think of martial arts movies when you see people performing graceful moves down a river, all standing on a bamboo strip, but actually it is a form of intangible cultural heritage: single bamboo drifting (独竹漂).

Over 2,000 years ago, the high-quality wood, nanmu, in Guizhou was in great demand by the royal court in the north. With no better transportation, people had to stand on one log to drift down the river. Later, local people began to compete along the way and the game of wood drifting was born. In the Qing Dynasty, wood drifting became single bamboo drifting because of bamboo’s lower price. Due to various skills it takes for one to master this act, single bamboo drifting was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2021.

Yang Liu, an inheritor(继承者) of single bamboo drifting, learned it at 7. “Usually, the bamboo under our feet is about 9 meters long, and the bamboo in our hands is about 5 meters. If the length of the bamboo is not long enough, it will not float. Keeping our feet firmly positioned on the narrow bamboo pole is the key, so we should fight against the current(水流) by constantly changing the angle. I lost my balance and fell into the water many times while practicing. Once I fell, I gave it another try until I knew how to handle the most difficult part,” she said.

The love for the ancient skill keeps Yang going. Yang also shows creativity when spreading the culture of single bamboo drifting. For example, she includes dance in single bamboo drifting to make it more graceful. As hanfu culture has been on the rise, Yang started wearing hanfu while performing, creating a more beautiful feel. In 2020, Yang began to post her videos on social media. “I’m extremely proud to get the response from viewers that single bamboo drifting makes the line between what is possible and impossible unclear. It’s my mission to keep it alive and make it known to more people,” Yang Liu told China Daily.

1. What can be learned from the first two paragraphs?

A．Nanmu was delivered to the north by land.

B．Single bamboo drifting needs lots of skills.

C．Bamboo was costly in Guizhou over 2,000 years ago.

D．The martial arts movie is a form of cultural heritage.

2. What is the biggest challenge in learning single bamboo drifting?

A．Keeping balance.

B．Maintaining a fixed angle.

C．Finding the proper bamboo.

D．Holding the bamboo firmly in hands.

3. What do the viewers think of single bamboo drifting?

A．It’s confusing.	B．It’s impossible.
C．It’s unbelievable.	D．It’s effortless.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Balancing with Grace

B．Chinese Cultural Heritage

C．Yang Liu: a Creative Performer

D．Transporting Bamboo down the River

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Tang Tianyuan from Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was viewed as a lucky dog, for he succeeded in     1     (build) a business based on a passion.

Tang,     2     majored in ceramics (制陶艺术) and decorative sculpture design at college, set up a workshop after his studies to make Ningxi pottery, which is considered one of the top four     3     (variety) of pottery in China.

    4     (original), the pottery business was hard, as he had to make pottery himself while also     5     (take) care of management and sales. But the past five years of efforts have earned him many more orders,     6     (compare) to none at the very beginning.

Up to now,     7     28­-year-old has been engaged in making Ningxi pottery for five years, and the most impressive thing for Tang is the happiness he     8     (achieve)．

He said that     9     was worthwhile starting a business based on his own interest that could support himself as well as gain public     10     (recognize).

6 . Some people describe American society as a salad bowl while others think of it as a melting pot. In a bowl of salad, all the ingredients are mixed together.    1     Together, however, the ingredients make up a unity. All the ingredients of a salad contribute to the finished product. They may be covered with the same dressing (调味酱), but the green vegetables, tomatoes and cooked corn can all be seen for what they are.

From this point of view, America is very much like a salad bowl where individual ethnic groups mix together, yet maintain their cultural uniqueness. People may work together during the day at similar jobs and in the same companies, but at night they may return to their ethnic groups where their own individual culture directs their way of life.    2     Each ethnic group has its own special customs, language, food and traditions to protect and defend. This idea of the salad bowl is referred to as cultural diversity; that is, American society is a collection of various cultures living together in harmony within one country.

    3     Here, society is like one large pot of soup. All cultural aspects are mixed together, sacrificing their original identity and keeping a bit of what they were to become a new reality. The longer the soup is cooked, the better the taste and the more likely it will be for the mixture to dissolve. In this sense, America can surely be seen as a melting pot where people from all over the world come to live and work together forming one nation. There are dozens of shared symbols.     4     In such a culture, symbols like the flag and the nation’s official song serve to break down the walls which separate ethnic groups.

Whether a salad bowl or a melting pot, America can be best described as a mixture of both.    5    

A．Both are correct depending on one’s point of view.

B．They never lose their shapes, colours or tastes.

C．This is why there is so much diversity within America.

D．In other words, America is a nation where there is unity in diversity.

E．Thus, one needs to abandon one’s culture to be considered “American”.

F．They serve to develop the various ethnic groups to create a new American culture.

G．The other theory, which is also used to describe American society, is the melting pot.

8 . 假定你是李华，你看到敦煌莫高窟 (Mogao Caves) 的石像 (stone statue) 由于游客不文明行为而受损的新闻报道后，想为全班做一个关于保护文物古迹的课前演讲，内容包括：
1. 你看到这则新闻时的感受；
2. 文物古迹保护的建议；
3. 号召保护文物古迹。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

10 . 语法填空

There comes a time when the old must give way to the new.     1     (keep) the right balance between progress and the protection of cultural sites can be     2     big challenge.

In the 1950s, the Egyptian government wanted to build a new dam across the Nile     3     (benefit) more farmers,     4     led to protests. The government turned     5     the United Nations for help. Then a committee     6     (establish) to limit damage to the Egyptian buildings.     7     (final) a document was signed, and the work began in 1960.

When the project ended in 1980, it was considered a great     8     (succeed). The spirit of the Aswan Dam project     9     (be) still alive today. If a problem seems too difficult for a single nation, the     10     (globe) community can sometimes provide a solution.