3 . If you travel to nearly any Chinese city in the summertime, you will see people, mostly men wearing T-shirts, sitting out on the sidewalks on low chairs in the shade, playing a game with large round disks of wood.     1     Xiangqi dates back as early as the Warring States period. While experts have different opinions as to who created Xiangqi and how it is linked to Western chess, there is no doubt that by the Tang Dynasty Xiangqi was a popular game in China.     2     And in the 20th century both Sun Yat-sen and Zhou Enlai were big fans of the game.

And, though it may look quite a bit different than Western chess, Xiangqi is actually quite similar in what the pieces can do and how the game is played. Like Western chess, the object of the game is to capture the other player’s “king”.     3    

Unlike Western chess, instead of placing the pieces in squares, the pieces are placed on the intersections of lines. Another big difference between Western chess and Xiangqi is that there is a large empty space in the middle of the board, which the elephants cannot cross.     4     This space refers to an area in China where Liu Bang and Xiang Yu had a life-or-death war. The war was so influential that “the Chu River and the Han Boundary” has become a metaphor(隐喻)referring to any boundary between two opposing armies. When the Chinese people today see this name on the board, the battle scenes come to their mind, as though they are surrounded by thick smoke, able to hear the beating of war drums.     5    

4 . Music is universal. Take a moment to think about what music you like as you read our beginner’s guide to the history of music.

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, which ranges from the 6th century to the 16th century, featured medieval (中世纪的) music. During this time, there were two general types of music styles­-the monophonic and the polyphonic. The main forms of music included Gregorian chanting and plainchant.

Classical Period

The music forms and styles of the Classical period, which ranges from 1750 to 1820, are characterized by simpler melodies (旋律) and forms like the sonatas. During this time, the middle class had more access to music. So composers began to create music that was easier to understand. Most especially, Mozart wrote his first symphony and Beethoven was born during this period.

Romantic Period

Historiographers define the Romantic music period to be from 1800 to 1900. Music forms of the Romantic period used music to tell a story or express an idea. Various instruments including wind instruments were used. Instruments that were invented or improved during this time included the flute and the saxophone.

The 20th Century

Music during the 20th century brought about many innovations on how music was performed and appreciated. Artists were more willing to experiment with new music forms and used technology to improve their compositions. The 20th century music has various styles.

In the middle of the 19th century, the British were busy     1     (explore) the four corners of the world. Explorers would return in their sailing ships with stories of     2     (attract) places and people. They would also bring back samples(样本) of newly discovered animals and plants     3     had never been seen in the western world before. In 1840, gardens at Kew Park in southwest London were developed so these newly discovered plants could grow.     4     (make) them flourish (茁壮成长) in England’s cold and frosty weather, special buildings     5     (design) at that time, and they could maintain the correct heat and humidity(湿度). One was called the Temperate House.

Opened in 1863, the Temperate House was one of the very first     6     (glasshouse) to be built. It has been home to some of the rarest, most exotic(奇异的) and threatened plant species in the world. The Temperate House, whose walls are made from squares of glass,     7     (cover) 4,880 square metres. This allows the sunlight and     8     (warm) to flood in whenever the sun is shining. It was closed to the public in 2013 and 500 plants were taken out of the building and rehoused.     9     has taken over five years to replace much of the original iron and woodwork. The Temperate House has reopened now. The 500 plants that were taken out have been put back,     10     9,500 plants being added.

6 . Skiing has been around since early civilization, evidenced by a 5,000-year-old rock carving representing men on skis hunting deer in Norway, and the discovery of a ski dating back to 6000 B.C. found in Vis, Russia. Historians debate where skiing first got its start, though; some argue that it was in Altay, China, in 8000 B.C.

Modern skiing, however, can date back to the Scandinavians, who mainly used skis as a means of travel or for other practical purposes, particularly the Indigenous Sámi people in Norway, Finland, and Sweden, writes Raymond Flower in The History of Skiing and Other Winter Sports. Norse myths (挪威神话) even described Ull, a winter god, on skis with curved tips and included other stories of heroes and goddesses skiing down mountains.

Some of the first official competitions began around 1850 in Norway, with the first recorded race in Sweden held outside Stockholm in 1879. Skiing became a household word with the publication of the popular book offering a thrilling account of Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen’s difficult and historic journey on skis across Greenland in 1888.

The sport spread to the Swiss Alps, where it was enjoyed largely by British vacationers, before clubs popped up around the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Variations of the sport developed over the years, such as the slalom race (障碍滑雪), downhill jumping, and mountaineering. The British are largely credited with transforming skiing from its Scandinavian roots into the highly competitive sport it is now. In 1921, they developed rules that became widely accepted and adjusted the slalom race to include flag gates to test the skill of skiers’ turns.

Skiing then exploded in popularity after World War II, when ski resorts (胜地) gradually developed to receive single-day skiers as well as those taking longer vacations.

With a fascinating past and more than four hundred years of history, St. Augustine is one of the nation’s oldest cities and a     1     (nation) treasure. Located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, it is home to many fine examples of European architecture and wild scenic views.

In 1513, an explorer found this land,     2     he called La Florida. Then, in 1565, a Spanish conqueror(征服者) built a settlement there, and named it St. Augustine.

Apart     3     a 20-year period of English rule, Florida remained ruled by Spanish     4       (govern) until the United States took control in 1821. In the years after     5     (it) founding, St. Augustine was attacked by     6     range of people, the French, the English and the natives. They are said to     7     (shoot) flaming arrows at the city’s defensive building,     8     (set) it on fire. More recently, nature has stricken the city with two hurricanes. Still, St. Augustine     9     (exist)   now.

After the city recovers, visitors shouldn't overlook it. It has suffered much in history. Hopefully, visitors will come and perhaps support the coast recovery while discovering Florida’s     10     (century) of history and miles of coastal beauty.

8 . Like many of the arts, music flourished during the Zhou dynasty. From this period we have instruments, models of performers, descriptions of musicians and dancers, and the Shijing, or The Book of Poetry, which contains poems and songs of court and common people during the Zhou dynasty. It is likely that music played an extremely important role in the Zhou dynasty for all social classes.

One of the most important sources of information the researchers have regarding Zhou-dynasty music is from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng (433 B.C.E.). This tomb was uncovered in 1977 in Hubei Province and contained the most extensive and well-preserved set of musical instruments ever found in an ancient Chinese tomb. This four-chamber (室) tomb was designed in imitation of a palace with a central courtyard, reflecting the belief that the Marquis Yi would require the same comforts in the afterlife that he had enjoyed during his lifetime. The central chamber of the tomb, which mirrored a palace courtyard, contained most of the musical instruments found, including a complete set of sixty-five graduated bells fixed on wooden shelves. In addition, twenty-one young women were buried with the Marquis Yi, some of whom were likely his favorite musicians and dancers.

The Marquis Yi’s set of sixty-five bells is remarkable for a variety of reasons. First, they are clearly dated—an inscription (碑文) indicates that the bells were a gift given to him in 433 B.C.E.. Second, the bells were very expensive to produce and to purchase, particularly a set of this size, so they are further evidence of the Marquis Yi’s status. Finally, the bells, along with the other instruments in the room, illustrate what an instrumental band might have consisted of during this period. Scholars predict that it would have required twenty-four musicians to play all instruments at once.

There are still many gaps in our knowledge of ancient Chinese music, partly because there was no system for recording music in a written form.

10 . Legend(传说) says that soap was first discovered on Sappo Hill in Rome. According to legend, a group of Roman women were washing their clothes in the River Tiber at the base of a hill. Then some fat from the dead animals ran down into the river.     1     The women soon found that using that thing made the clothes easier to wash.

    2     The evidence for this is Babylonian boxes dated at around 2800 B. C. Words on the boxes present the earliest known written soap recipe, which show how the product was made. They show the product was made from fat combined with wood ash(灰) and water.

    3     The Ebers Papyrus shows that ancient Egyptians combined both animal and vegetable oils with salts to produce a soap—like thing. According to Pliny the Elder, the Phoenicians made soap from goats’ fat and wood ash in 600 B. C.

Pompeii was one of the cities destroyed by the volcanic eruption (火山爆发)of Mt. Vesuvius in its ruins. The discovery suggests that the industry was started.     4     This is a big discovery for us to study the history of soap.

During the early century of the Common Era, although the Romans were well known for their public baths, generally soap was not used for personal cleaning; it was used for the treatment of disease.     5