1 . Scientists at the Sanxingdui Ruins in southwest China’s Sichuan Province continue to unearth over 500 relics from an ancient Chinese civilization that dates back over 3,000 years.
The findings unearthed in June include a fully preserved gold mask, which stands at 37. 2cm wide and16. 5cm tall. The new gold mask reminded people of the one found in March, which was far more damaged. Scientists said the gold mask is the largest, and most well preserved, of similar golden relics discovered at the Sanxingdui Ruins, and it is consistent with the idea that gold was important to people of the area called the Shu state.
The gold mask has similar facial features to bronze statues discovered in the area. It has large eyes covering much of the face, a big nose, huge ears and a flat, wide mouth. The strange facial features led some people to suggest they were aliens. However, Wang Wei, the director of the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explained, “There is no chance that Sanxingdui belongs to an alien civilization. These wide-eyed masks look strange because the makers wanted to copy the look of deities (神灵). They shouldn’t be considered as the look of everyday people.”
Besides the mask, other discoveries included bronze statues, a knife made out of jade and a series of relics made of ivory, among many others. Many of the bronze relics are brand new discoveries and unique to anything found before in China. Chinese scientists said they are highly detailed, with statues showing facial features that fit well with the gold mask, which make them as valuable resources for the research of ancient Shu and give better perceptiveness about the ancient Shu state, home to a mysterious civilization until the recent discoveries proved its existence. Chinese scientists believe they are entering a “key stage” and expect to find a series of relics that will change how people think about ancient China.
1. What do we know about the gold mask from paragraph 2?| A．It was discovered in March. |
| B．It was the first to be dug at the site. |
| C．It is the most complete relic ever discovered. |
| D．It is the largest size of its kind unearthed at the site. |
| A．The significance of the gold mask. |
| B．The characteristics of the gold mask. |
| C．The findings in the Sanxingdui Ruins. |
| D．The digging process of the Sanxingdui Ruins. |
| A．Insight. | B．Civilization. |
| C．Development. | D．Introduction. |
| A．An Ancient Shu State Was Newly Discovered |
| B．Mysterious Sanxingdui Ruins Reveal More Relics |
| C．Sichuan Province Is the Birthplace of a New Civilization |
| D．New Sanxingdui Ruins Catch the Attention of Chinese scientists |
2 . Chinese ancient poetry was the heart and soul of Chinese ancient literature. Poems and songs have been the means of entertainment of men from the earliest times. Chinese ancient poetry was primarily written to be chanted or sung.
The poetic persona (表面形象) is a feature of classical Chinese poetry. The persona appears when the poem is written from the viewpoint of some other person. Some poems are comments on the contemporary society and life. Chinese ancient poems, although apparently simple in the first reading, have deeper and greater meanings when read intensively.
The earliest Chinese ancient poetry begins with The Book of Songs which is a collection of 305 poems. It was the first comprehensive compilation(辑)of Chinese ancient poems. Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. Folk songs made up the most part of the book! Confucius, the great ancient philosopher, was fond of this book. It was also the accepted textbook of the Confucian school.
Chinese poetic history is extremely long and colorful. The Tang dynasty, the golden age of Chinese ancient poetry, produced many famous poems. Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, was compiled by Heng Tang Tui Shi(蘅塘退士) of the Qing dynasty. This was used for very many years to teach primary students.
Almost everything is the subject of Chinese ancient poetry including marriage, agriculture, courtship(求爱), sorrow and joys, romance, heroic deeds and so on. Generally, each poem is usually composed of lines of four, five or seven syllables. Translations of Chinese ancient poems are available in books and also online. Now these beautiful poems have attracted readers all over the world.
1. What’s the earliest Chinese poetry intended to do?| A．To record history. | B．To spread knowledge. |
| C．To entertain people. | D．To state people’s thoughts. |
| A．Modern and symbolic. | B．Simple but meaningful. |
| C．Difficult and figurative. | D．Imaginative but unreal. |
| A．It is compiled by Heng Tang Tui Shi. |
| B．It includes more folk songs than other kinds of poems. |
| C．It was the textbook for kids during Confucius’s childhood. |
| D．It was produced during the golden age of Chinese ancient poetry. |
| A．Chinese ancient poetry has limited subjects. |
| B．Chinese ancient poems win popularity overseas. |
| C．Every Chinese ancient poem is made up of four lines. |
| D．Something in Chinese ancient poems is lost in translation. |
2017 witnessed the 45th anniversary of the
In the very center is the famous BrandenBurg Gate, the construction of
After World WarII, the Berlin Wall stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate, and remained a symbol of separation for as
4 . Writing goes back to the earliest humans. It is a way of communicating using markings or signs that we can see to read.
Counting sticks is probably the oldest way of making markings to record something. Shepherds(牧羊人) would count their sheep and then make a mark on a stick for each sheep. Some cultures tied knots(结) in strings for the same reason. Some even made the strings different colours so that they could remember what each piece was for.
Rock drawings are also a very old way of communication. Pictures were drawn on rocks showing animals, hunting scenes and feasting scenes. Some of the drawings are quite colorful. The ancient people had found a way of mixing colours from the soil, leaves and berries(浆果) of their surroundings. The earliest known rock paintings in Southern Africa date back to 27,000 years ago. We have been able to learn a lot about early man from these rock paintings.
Old Indian drawings are called ideographs(表意文字). This is also known as picture writing. It was one of the most important steps in the development of writing. Each drawing communicated an idea rather than a word. The drawings did not only have meanings for people who spoke the Indian languages. Any person from any language group could understand them. This way of communicating ideas rather than words is called ideography.
After this, man learned that he could communicate ideas using certain signs that stood for his words in his language. This type of writing is called logography. Sumerian writing and Egyptian hieroglyphics are both a form of this. A simple example is that the written word ‘eye’ would be a drawing of an eye.
It was Chinese who first developed word writing. Each character in writing Chinese communicates a complete idea. There may be as many as 50,000 word signs in Chinese. Slowly, the way of writing became simpler. The signs for words became fewer and fewer. People began using signs for a letter instead of an idea or word. The Japanese worked out the first type of letter system, borrowing many of the word symbols from the Chinese. The alphabet was the next step. The Greeks were the first people to use an alphabet to write with.
1. Why did some ancient people tie knots in the strings?| A．To make marks for their sheep. | B．To remember the numbers of their sheep. |
| C．To make strings colourful. | D．To make markings to record something. |
| A．the way to raise animals | B．the way to hunt animals |
| C．the way to mix colours | D．the way early man lived |
| A．drawings | B．ideographs | C．hieroglyphics | D．alphabets |
| A．The Egyptians | B．The Chinese | C．The Japanese | D．The Greeks |
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Today，many historic
Happy Birthday to You is a happy song,
Thirty-one years later, a gentleman by the name of Robert H. Coleman published the song without the sisters
Mr. Coleman's addition of the second verse
After Mildred died in 1916, Patty took Mr. Coleman to court. In court, she proved that she and her sister owned the melody. Because the family
You may not know the name John Smith Pemberton, but you must know the name of his
1. How did the servants deal with their earnings in Victorian times?
| A．They paid for the housing. |
| B．They bought food and clothes. |
| C．They sent them to their families. |
| A．Cooking meals. | B．Looking after children. | C．Educating children. |
| A．Cruelly. | B．Kindly. | C．Strictly. |
| A．Lower class families. |
| B．Upper class children’s situation. |
| C．Comparisons between upper and lower classes. |
Longjing tea,
Thanks
10 . Mother’s Day is a time of memory and celebration for Mom. The earliest Mother’s Day celebrations date back to ancient Greece in honour of Rhea, the Mother of Gods. During the 1600s, England celebrated a day called “mothering Sunday”. Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent(四旬斋)，“mothering Sunday” honoured the mothers England.
During the time many of the England’s poor worked as servants for the wealthy.AS most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday, the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along.
As Christianity(基督教) spread throughout Europe, the celebration changed to honour the “Mother Church”---the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival combined with mothering Sunday celebration. People began honouring their mothers as well as the church.
In the United States Mother’s Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day devoted to peace. Then in 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign(运动) to establish a national Mother’s Day. Ms Jarvis persuaded her mother’s church in Grafton, Virginia to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, the 2nd day Sunday of May. By the next year Mother’s Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.
Ms Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessmen, and politicians demanding to establish a national Mother’s Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement that Mother’s Day was a national holiday and it was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother’s Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday of May.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?| A．To raise questions. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To interest readers. | D．To solve problems. |
| A．mark the birth of Greece | B．prepare for the autumn harvest |
| C．honour the Mother of Gods | D．honour the mothers of England |
| A．the feast of Mother’s Day in the U.S. |
| B．the origin of Mother’s Day in the U.S. |
| C．the development of Mother’s Day in the U.S. |
| D．the celebration of Mother’s Day in the U.S. |
| A．give readers some information | B．persuade readers |
| C．report a story | D．amuse readers |
