1 . It’s a race against time, as generations of cultural heritage conservators at the Dunhuang Academy make a great effort to protect the artistic charm of the Mogao Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, despite erosion (侵蚀) by sand and wind.
The team is committed to protecting the 45,000 square meters of murals (壁画) and more than 2,400 painted sculptures of the 735 caves of the site, the construction of which lasts about a thousand years, from the 4th century to the 14th century. The cultural relics are the product of the cultural exchanges that took place over centuries on the ancient Silk Road. “Our work, repairing murals and painted sculptures, is to better preserve the caves, which promotes the great Dunhuang spirit of inclusiveness to the world and inspires modern people,” says Su Bomin, director of the Dunhuang Academy.
Commonly seen “diseases” affecting the murals include cracking and chipping, as well as erosion that is caused by changes in temperature and moisture of the caves, and the settlings of salts. To restore a mural requires an all-rounder, restorers should know painting, master the skills of craft and have some knowledge of chemistry and physics, to be able to recognize the problems and their corresponding causes and deliver a solution. They must also select proper materials and tools, and conduct experiments, before formally carrying out the restoration and evaluating the effect afterward.
The restoration should respect the original work and aim to maintain the current situation of the murals rather than repainting them. When the restorers find some parts of murals missing or fading away, they never repaint them to create a “perfect” appearance in restoration. “Cultural relics are witnesses of history,” explains Su. “When you pursue the so-called intact (完好无损) look for artistic reasons, you will lose their key meaning.”
Cave conservation is about continuously solving problems. “It needs a long-term research to better preserve the caves, over a much wider time span that goes beyond our lifetimes,” Su says. But at least, they can keep the current look of the murals for as long as possible.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The popularity of Dunhuang murals. |
| B．The history of the ancient Silk Road. |
| C．The ways of protecting cultural heritage. |
| D．The significance of the restoration work. |
| A．Creative. | B．Rewarding. | C．Interesting. | D．Demanding. |
| A．It is advised to keep its current state. |
| B．It is important to pursue its intact look. |
| C．Its missing parts should be fixed in time. |
| D．Restorers can repaint to perfect its appearance. |
| A．The Significance of Mural Preservation |
| B．The Dunhuang Spirit in Chinese Culture |
| C．The Mural Restoration in the Mogao Caves |
| D．The Successful Experiment on Cave Conservation |
Every year after the rainy season, around the
The Potala Palace is a landmark of Lhasa, capital of Tibet,
Many locals queued up in long lines in the early morning to take part in the painting,
“I have been taking part in the annual paintings of the palace for more than 20 years,” said Dawa, 57, another happy
3 . Imagine looking for your lost dog. You step into a cave. But instead of the dog, you find beautiful cave paintings. You see paintings of horses, deer, and bison that were drawn in black, brown, red and yellow. Your first question would probably be “Who did this?”
This is what happened to four French boys in 1940. They found the Lascaux caves. The paintings the boys discovered in those caves are about 17,000 years old. They were drawn by the ancient people called Cro-Magnons.
Cro-Magnons looked much like people of today. They used tools, such as fishing nets. But their art was extremely good. The main cave at Lascaux is called Great Hall of Bulls, which has a picture of bulls and horses in many colours. The largest animal is 18 feet long. There are smaller animals, such as bison, stags and a bear. There is also a strange spotted two-horned (两只角的) animal.
To the left of the main cave are the most famous paintings that are the drawings of animals in many different colours. One painting is called Little Horses. On the ceiling are horses and cows. The most unusual sight may be in The Shaft of the Dead Man where there is a rhinoceros, a carefully drawn dead man, an injured bison and a bird.
Why did Cro-Magnon artists do these beautiful drawings on cave walls? Did the drawings call upon some magic power? Did the Cro-Magnon people hope that the drawings would bring good luck? There is one thing the paintings seem to tell us. The CroMagnons were interested in the world. They looked at beauty and they understood it.
1. The author uses the word “You” in Paragraph 1 to .| A．attract readers’ attention |
| B．make it clear that this is a true story |
| C．give readers good directions to find the caves |
| D．compare modern people with Cro-Magnon people |
| A．boys | B．tools | C．humans | D．animals |
| A．The cave paintings are beautiful. |
| B．Who found the beautiful cave paintings. |
| C．The Lascaux caves hold colourful ancient paintings. |
| D．Drawings of horses are on the walls of the Lascaux caves. |
| A．a research paper | B．a cultural magazine |
| C．a science newspaper | D．a travel guide |
4 . What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of wheat straw? Most people would probably just see it as a pile of waste in a farmer’s field. However, Wu Cui, an intangible cultural inheritor, can turn the straw left over from harvested wheat into beautiful and eye-catching functional artworks.
The earliest straw-weaving (草编的) products were discovered at Hemudu Cultural Ruins, a Neolithic cultural site located in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. The Book of Rites, one of the classical works of Confucianism, also records that there were already mats made of cattail grass and professional straw-weaving craftsmen during the Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-256 BC).
Straw weaving is a method of manufacturing daily items or artworks. It was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
Wu explains the process of straw weaving: selection of materials is the first step of a complicated, time-consuming and labor-intensive process that can take weeks, or even months, to complete. You need to sketch (素描) the piece on paper, which requires drawing skills. Next comes weaving, shaping and preserving of the work. Even by finishing that process, it does not mean that you will always create a good piece of work, and the hardest part is to make it vivid.
In the past, woven straw items could be found almost in every household in the countryside, such as straw hats and straw shoes, because they were practical in everyday life. But due to the impact of industrialization, manufactured goods have replaced such products, which produce low profits, and there are only about 100 individuals engaging in the work across the country. “The world has changed, and craftsmen need to transcend practicality and seek the beauty and artistry of straw culture to help the craft survive and develop,” Wu says.
As far as she is concerned, straw weaving should respond to people’s needs and preferences, while still drawing inspiration from traditional culture. “Craftspeople should make a great effort to grasp the trends and opportunities of the times to create new and relevant products,” she says. When asked about her plans, Wu says she wants to dig deeper into local traditional culture and create cultural creative products by developing the straw-weaving technique.
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about straw-weaving products?| A．Their major uses. | B．Their cultural value. |
| C．Their historic origins. | D．Their manufacturing process. |
| A．Making the artworks lifelike. | B．Drawing sketches on paper. |
| C．Selecting suitable materials. | D．Preserving finished products. |
| A．Rely on. | B．Turn to. | C．Throw away. | D．Go beyond. |
| A．Straw-weaving products are out of favor with customers. |
| B．Seeking fashion should be the first task for craftspeople. |
| C．Local people benefit a lot from the straw-weaving techniques. |
| D．Craftsmen should create the craft based on traditional culture. |
5 . Invented in the Tang Dynasty and widely adopted after the Song Dynasty in Fujian, the watertight-bulkhead (水密舱壁) technology permits the construction of ocean-going ships with watertight compartments (隔层). If one or two cabins are accidentally damaged at sea, water will not flood the other cabins and the ships will remain afloat.
The experience and working methods of watertight-bulkhead technology are transmitted orally from master to apprentices. However, the need for Chinese junks (中国式帆船) has decreased sharply as wooden ships have been replaced by steel-hulled ships, and today only three masters can claim full command of this technology. Associated building costs have also increased owing to a shortage in raw materials. Therefore, the inheritance (继承) of this heritage is decreasing, and inheritors are forced to seek alternative employment.
Zhang Guohui, a 77-year-old inheritor of the watertight-bulkhead techniques used to make Chinese junks, has been making ships for more than six decades. Coming from a poor family in a fishing town in East China’s Fujian Province, Zhang started to make a living at the age of 16 fishing on the open seas, which is where he developed a keen interest in constructing boats. As a fast learner, Zhang was later sent to shipyards in the cities of Quanzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province, where he received training and became a master of traditional Chinese junks and gained fame because of his extremely skilled craftsmanship in the construction of these junks.
In fear that the traditional skills would die someday, Zhang started to restore old ships and make model junks for the museum with his 20 years of shipbuilding skills. “The restored ancient ships are the historical witnesses of Quanzhou as a maritime center of the East and Southeast Asia trade network,” said Zhang, adding that he finds the work meaningful since younger generations can learn from exhibitions of ancient ships that their ancestors had advanced shipbuilding technology at an early stage of development. “As long as I’m alive, I’ll keep passing on the heritage,” he said.
1. What function is expected of the watertight-bulkhead technology?| A．To prevent ships from sinking. | B．To reduce the weight of ships. |
| C．To allow ships to sail faster. | D．To help ships resist strong winds. |
| A．To prove the significance of steel-hulled ships.” |
| B．To stress the complex process of building wooden ships. |
| C．To present people’s efforts to pass down cultural heritages. |
| D．To show difficulties of inheriting watertight-bulkhead technology. |
| A．He supports his family by fishing. |
| B．He was born with a talent for shipbuilding. |
| C．He has devoted himself to constructing boats. |
| D．He has won many awards for restoring ancient ships. |
| A．Traditional culture should be innovated with the times. |
| B．The ancient ship trade originated from Quanzhou in China. |
| C．It is necessary for modern students to learn shipbuilding skills. |
| D．It is worth passing on traditional skills from generation to generation. |
