- I’ve just had my hair cut, and I’m wearing new glasses.
8 . Forks trace their origins back to the ancient Greeks. Forks at that time were fairly large with two tines that aided in the carving of meat in the kitchen. The tines prevented meat from twisting or moving during carving and allowed food to slide off more easily than it would with a knife.
By the 7th century A.D., royal courts of the Middle East began to use forks at the table for dining. From the 10th through the 13th centuries, forks were fairly common among the wealthy in Byzantium. In the 11th century, a Byzantine wife brought forks to Italy; however, they were not widely adopted there until the 16th century. Then in 1533, forks were brought from Italy to France. The French were also slow to accept forks, for using them was thought to be awkward.
In 1608, forks were brought to England by Thomas Coryate, who saw them during his travels in Italy. The English first ridiculed forks as being unnecessary. “Why should a person need a fork when God had given him hands?” they asked. Slowly, however, forks came to be adopted by the wealthy as a symbol of their social status. They were prized possessions made of expensive materials intended to impress guests. By the mid-1600s, eating with forks was considered fashionable among the wealthy British.
Early table forks were modeled after kitchen forks, but small pieces of food often fell through the two tines or slipped off easily. In late 17th century France, larger forks with four curved tines were developed. The additional tines made diners less likely to drop food, and the curved tines served as a scoop so people did not have to constantly switch to a spoon while eating. By the early 19th century, four-tined forks had also been developed in Germany and England and slowly began to spread to America.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．The different designs of forks. |
| B．The spread of fork-aided cooking. |
| C．The history of using forks for dining. |
| D．The development of fork-related table manners. |
| A．Middle EastGreeceEnglandItalyFrance |
| B．GreeceMiddle EastItalyFranceEngland |
| C．GreeceMiddle EastFranceItalyGermany |
| D．Middle EastFranceEnglandItalyGermany |
| A．Wealthy British were impressed by the design of forks. |
| B．Wealthy British thought it awkward to use their hands to eat. |
| C．Wealthy British gave special forks to the nobles as luxurious gifts. |
| D．Wealthy British considered dining with forks a sign of social status. |
| A．They could be used to scoop food as well. |
| B．They looked more fashionable in this way. |
| C．They were designed in this way for export to the US. |
| D．They ensured the meat would not twist while being cut. |
| A.led B.forcing C.having D.planned E.performing F.limited G.monitoring H.announcing |
New Year’s Eve celebrations will still be on in Times Square, but with smaller crowds
NEW YORK — Revelers(狂欢者)will still ring in the new year in New York’s Times Square next week, there just won’t be as many of them as usual under new restrictions announced Thursday as the city struggles with a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Viewing areas that normally accommodate about 58,000 people will be
“There is a lot to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we ring in the New Year,” de Blasio said, noting the city’s success in getting residents vaccinated while also keeping businesses open.
The added precautions for New Year’s Eve in Times Square were spurred by the rapid spread of the omicron variant in the Big Apple, where lines for testing have snaked around blocks in recent days.
On Wednesday, the city set yet another one-day testing record with 22,808 new cases, though a true comparison to the number of cases during the initial COVID-19 surge in spring 2020 is impossible because tests were very limited at the time.
Because of vaccinations, hospitalizations and deaths from the current surge are far fewer than at the pandemic’s height.
The new wave of cases has
Little more than a month ago, de Blasio gladly announced that a fully vaccinated crowd of hundreds of thousands of people would be back at the iconic celebration — dressing goofy 2022-themed glasses and watching a crystal-clad ball drop at midnight — after it was limited last year to small groups of essential workers.
But that was before omicron caught fire,
On Tuesday, the Fox network gave its decision, pulling the plug on a planned live broadcast from the New Year’s Eve event.Other networks plan to air the festivities, including Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC, the loyal program now hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
De Blasio said along with Thursday’s announcement that the city is
On New Year’s Eve last year, Times Square was mostly empty, with Jennifer Lopez and other artists
“New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will be one of the safest against COVID as well,” Mayor-elect Eric Adams said in a written statement supporting the new precautions.
“New Yorkers and visitors alike can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city as we ring in 2022.”
| A. attach B. provoke C. renovate D. wander E. switch F. decline G. initiate H. symbolize I. capture |
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to push oil prices as high as $100 per barrel.
2. In all of 2020, global large-scale companies had the capacity to
3. Along the way, passengers have the chance to
4. The two things he is sure to
5. The survey predicted that the quality of the educational provision and standards pupils achieve might
6. The report proposed that the authority
7. The options, one to build an entirely new facility and a second to
new part, both come with price tags of several hundred million dollars.
8. Temperatures will remain mild until winds
