1 . You may have seen them standing alone in a farmer’s field. With thin arms and a strange smile, they stand guard over the crops day and night.
Scarecrows have been around since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. Back then, farmers covered wooden frames with nets to protect wheat fields.
Centuries after the Romans marched through Europe, people around the world were creating their own scarecrows. In Japan, scarecrows were shaped like people in raincoats and straw hats. In Germany, scarecrows were made to look like witches.
Then there is the most famous scarecrow. His name is simply “Scarecrow,” and he appears in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the children’s novel, Scarecrow joins Dorothy, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion on an adventure to meet the wizard of the magical land of Oz.
Aside from these examples, scarecrows have featured in rock songs and as characters in comic books. On Halloween, they are brought out as scary decorations. Both practical and creepy, scarecrows continue to capture our imagination.
A.Scarecrows appear everywhere in the world. |
B.We can never ignore the influence of stories about scarecrow. |
C.They are scarecrows, whose job has gone unchanged for thousands of years. |
D.They would hide in the wheat, and then jump out to scare birds into their nets. |
E.This was thought to be scary enough to keep birds away from their precious fields. |
F.Throughout the years, scarecrows have made many appearances in popular culture. |
G.Scarecrow has appeared in films and plays around the world since the release of the book. |
Pizza is certainly one of the world’s favourite
In fact, people have been making pizza for a very long time. People
In the course of culture development throughout history, kite, as an art, has presented a spectacular display in
Kite
4 . The discovery of the ruined palace in the Mosul Dam reservoir on the banks of the Tigris River inspired an archeological dig that would improve understanding of the Mittani Empire, one of the least-researched empires of the ancient Near East, a team of German researchers said. “The find is one of the most important archeological discoveries in the region in recent decades,” Kurdish archeologist(考古学家) Hasan Qasim said.
The palace would have originally stood just 65 feet from the river on a terrace(梯田). A terrace wall of mud bricks was later added to make the building stable. Ivana Puljiz, an archeologist from the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies, describes the palace, known as Kemune, as a carefully designed building with mud-brick walls up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) thick.
The team also found wall paintings in shades of red and blue, which were probably a common feature of palaces at the time but have rarely been found preserved. “Discovering wall paintings in Kemune is an archeological sensation,” Puljiz said in a press release, “Kemune is only the second site in the region where wall paintings of the Mittani period have been discovered.”
Ten clay tablets covered in cuneiform, an ancient system of writing, were also discovered and have been sent to Germany for translation. “From the texts we hope to gain information on the inner structure of the Mitani Empire, its economic organization, and the relationship of the Mittani capital with the administrative centers in the neighboring regions,” Puljiz added.
Archeologists first became aware of the site in 2010 when water levels in the reservoir were low, but this is the first time they have been able to dig. However, the site was submerged(淹没) shortly after the dig, Puljiz said, adding“It is unclear when it will come out of water again”.
1. The function of the archeological dig is to ________.A.attract people to travel to the Tigris River |
B.help people know the Mittani Empire better |
C.show ways of rebuilding the Mosul Dam reservoir |
D.provide some clues about research on the Near East |
A.To make the palace firmly built. | B.To offer tourists a place for rest. |
C.To give tourists a good view. | D.To make the building better designed |
A.Kemune is different from any other palace. |
B.Wall paintings were an important discovery. |
C.Kemune is famous for its special wall paintings |
D.Wall paintings were first discovered in the Mittani Empire. |
A.Translating the cuneiform into English | B.Knowing relationships between regions. |
C.Waiting for the water level to drop. | D.Understanding the structure of the empire. |
5 . “How do they walk in these things?” complains Jack Lemmon, walking with difficulty in his heels, newly dressed as his another identity Josephine, in the film “Some Like It Hot”.
High heels were, in fact, originally designed for men — and had an extremely practical purpose. Soldiers on horseback wore them in 10th-century Persia, according to Elizabeth Semmel hack of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. The heel helped keep them stable as they stood up in their stirrups ( 马镫) and took aim at enemies with bows and arrows (cowboy boots still use heels in this way). Over time, heels appeared on the shoes of male nobles across Europe. Yet from the mid-17th century, heels became associated with supposedly “feminine” qualities, and so became women’s wear. Until the mid-20th century heels were heavy, heavy things. After the Second World War, techniques and materials used in aircraft engineering were applied to shoes, creating the stiletto ( 细高跟). The high, narrow heel requires a thin metal pole, strong enough to bear the wearer’s weight yet flexible enough to allow the shoe to move.
Shoemakers have searched actively for a right heel. They aim to reduce the angle created by a high heel, which forces the few square centimeteres of the ball of your foot to bear the entire weight of your body. Joan Oloff, a podiatrist-turned-shoe-designer, makes footwear lined with memory foam ( 泡沫) to absorb the shock of each painful step. The bottom part of the shoe is crafted to support the arch of the foot and distribute the wearer’s weight more equally. Antonia Saint Dunbar, an entrepreneur, makes shoes with a heel cup and strips inside to stop the foot slipping around and getting blisters ( 水泡). And growing numbers of companies make shoes with adjustable heels: two inches for the boardroom, four for the nightclub, none for home.
However, the wisest are stepping down altogether: in 2016, for the first time, more British women bought trainers than heels.
1. Why is a scene in “Some Like It Hot” mentioned in Paragraph 1?A.To recommend this film. |
B.To explain Jack’s double identity. |
C.To introduce the topic of high heels. |
D.To stress the difficulty of walking in heels. |
A.By presenting research findings. |
B.By analyzing cause and effect. |
C.By following the order of time. |
D.By following the order of importance. |
A.To keep soldiers fighting on horseback steady. |
B.To keep cowboys standing up in stirrups safe. |
C.To show off the beauty of women. |
D.To show the nobility of Europeans. |
A.Popularize shoes with adjustable heels. |
B.Help women find the right high heels. |
C.Encourage women to wear trainers. |
D.Make high heels comfortable. |
In 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. In the first few months, before any actual fighting began, there was a lot of
China is now fighting
The Chinese people should be praised because they have been doing the same. The government’s response has also been calm and
This terrible virus hasn’t been defeated and the fight against it may continue. However, it will