Xu Xiake was born in 1587.
China has more famous explorers. There was: Zhang Qian,
“On the surface, Xu’s travels can neither be classified as great affairs of state nor great adventures that changed the course of history,” writes cultural historian Cheng Pei-kai. “Xu travelled to satisfy his own
Scholar Julian Ward agrees, describing the lonely Chinese wanderer like the Middle Kingdom’s version of John Muir: “Deep in love with nature and eager to find freedom
“The few coins
China’s tea culture can be traced as far back to before 2000 BC. The Shennong Emperor discovered tea when a leaf fell into boiled water he was drinking, beginning a tradition that still
During the Tang dynasty(618-907) in China, the culture of tea underwent a remarkable development. When Emperor Lu Yu
Throughout the Tang dynasty,
3 . A national park is an area set aside by a government for the preservation of the natural environment. The national parks in the United States and Canada center on the protection of both land and wildlife.
It is widely thought that the idea of a park or nature reserve under state ownership started in the United States in 1870.
Partly following the American example, movements supporting national parks sprang up in many other countries.
But interest in parks came later in Asia and Latin America than it did in the Anglo-American countries and Europe.
A.These movements began in Canada. |
B.George Catlin offered the idea during the 1830s. |
C.Visitors are allowed to enter for different purposes. |
D.Those in the United Kingdom center mainly on the land. |
E.Japan and Mexico established their first national parks in the 1930s. |
F.By the early 21st century the NPS managed more than 400 separate areas. |
G.It is also thought that the world’s first such park was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. |
1. Where is the line painted on ships?
A.At the bottom. | B.At the top. | C.On the side. |
A.Britain. | B.France. | C.Venice. |
A.In the 12th century. | B.In the 19th century. | C.In the 20th century. |
Alice Thompson is a girl from Sydney, Australia. She had her first long
Why is the train
In 2016, the first phase of the Digital Huang resource database went online. People from all over the world could enjoy high-quality
7 . These days, Fred’s huge skeleton (骨架) was exhibited in the Indiana State Museum. His tusks (长牙) were recently the subject of a research study tracing the life 13,000 years ago of mastodons, distant relatives of modern elephants.
By analyzing the chemicals in Fred’s tusks, a team of researchers was able to construct a detailed account of his seasonal migration patterns. Josh Miller, a paleoecologist (古生态学家) at the University of Cincinnati, is one of the researchers studying Fred. “He has beautifully preserved bones and tusks, which provides a great opportunity for our research,” Miller said.
Mastodons’ tusks generally grow in distinct layers, similar to the tree rings. As a result, the nutrients that build the layers of their tusks can tell us a lot about what they experienced. The team particularly focused their analysis on the variations in two elements in the layers: strontium (锶) and oxygen. The former is the key to understanding where Fred spent his life, while the latter tells us the season he was in any particular region. Then, with some statistical modeling, Miller and his team gained insight into the daily record of Fred’s behavior over ten thousand years ago.
The result indicated that when Fred was young, he would have grown a lot. But there’s a year when his growth is reduced — that’s when Miller’s analysis starts. “Probably like the modern male elephant, a male mastodon is just really obnoxious when growing up to be a bother and often arouses family members’ anger. At that point, the mom and aunts will essentially kick him out of the family”, Miller predicted.
After Fred set off to attend to himself, his tusks reflected where he traveled around. Based on analysis, every summer, Fred would return to mate in Northeastern Indiana, because around this time, his tusks started to show signs of injuries. When competing for mates, mastodons got into huge battles with their own natural weapons, sharp tusks. And that was exactly what brought the story of Fred to an untimely end.
1. What does Miller’s study mainly focus on?A.Inner structure of Fred’s skeleton. | B.Possible tracks of Fred’s migration. |
C.Research value of mastodon fossils. | D.Effective ways of tusk preservation. |
A.By modeling data of special chemical elements. | B.By comparing his layers of tusks with rings of trees. |
C.By conducting field researches in various regions. | D.By reviewing statistical records of previous studies. |
A.Mature. | B.Greedy. | C.Ambitious. | D.Annoying. |
A.He failed to live independently. | B.He reunited with his family later. |
C.He got killed by opponents’ tusks. | D.He survived some natural disasters. |
1. What did British scientists find about Stonehenge?
A.Why people built it. |
B.Where some stones were from. |
C.How people moved the stones. |
A.They kept it secret. |
B.They used it to build structures. |
C.They performed chemical testing. |
A.A research on Stonehenge. |
B.The secrets of Stonehenge. |
C.The process of building Stonehenge. |
Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, the attitudes to dirt are always changing.
In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, and washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. The king of England did something similar in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. France’s Henry IV was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.
Though the belief above was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbour ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?
Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist(免疫学家) , encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Located in Guanghan city of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and covering an area of 12 square kilometers. Sanxingdui Site is the remains of the ancient Shu culture, which dates back
In fact, as a cultural site,, Sanxingdui had come into the notice of archaeologists in as early as the 1930s, and
After sleeping for 3,000 years, their awakening has shocked the world. When our eyes