Today, pork is the No. 1 meat product in China, which even
However, before the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), it was
The turning point for pork came in the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) when
2 . To us it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains, but actually the umbrella was not invented as protection against the rain. Its first use was as a shade against the sun! Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese.
We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade. And there was a strange thing connected with its use: it became a symbol of honour. In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by those in high office.
In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. And the umbrella was commonly used in ancient Greece. But it is believed that the first persons in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against the rain were the ancient Romans.
During the Middle Ages, the use of the umbrella practically disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it was considered as a symbol of power. By 1680, the umbrella appeared in France and later in England.
By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used against rain throughout most of Europe. Umbrellas did not change much in style during all this time, though they became much lighter in weight. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that women’s umbrellas began to be made in a whole variety of colours.
1. According to this passage, the umbrella was probably first used in ancient________.| A．China | B．Egypt | C．Greece | D．Rome |
| A．during the Middle Ages |
| B．by the eighteenth century |
| C．in ancient Rome |
| D．in ancient Greece |
| A．when and how the umbrella was invented |
| B．why the umbrella was so popular in Europe |
| C．the development of the umbrella |
| D．the history and use of the umbrella |
Silk is a thin, yet extremely strong, fiber. It is made from protein that silkworms produce when they make their cocoons. Thousands of years ago, ancient Chinese craftsmen began weaving silk fiber into a soft, smooth fabric. A precious textile, silk was at first reserved for exclusive use by the Chinese imperial court. Chinese officials decided that silk-making methods must remain China’s secret.
The Silky Secret Gets Out
However, the existence of silk did not remain a secret. On diplomatic visits to neighboring rulers, Chinese envoys carried gifts of silk. By the first century BC, the Romans had become familiar with this exotic(异国情调的)luxury item.
From Europe to the Far East
Over the centuries, different main routes developed.
The Silk Road played an important role in bringing diverse cultures and peoples into contact. To make successful deals, merchants had to learn the languages and customs of the countries they crossed. As they journeyed along the Silk Road, people shared knowledge about arts, crafts, literature, science, and technologies. Over hundreds of years, cultures, languages, and religions influenced one another. Perhaps Chinese silk influenced history more extensively than any single famous person you can name.
| A．How Silk Changed History |
| B．How Silk Brought People Together |
| C．It soon grew wildly popular in the West. |
| D．In addition, sailors discovered sea routes. |
| E．Rulers ordered that anyone who revealed these methods to foreigners would be put to death. |
| F．Later they came to be known as “The Silk Road”, but the word “Road” should have been plural. |
| G．But, there were many roads, not just one. A German geologist named the trade routes “The Silk Road”. |
Papermaking is one of the four great inventions of ancient China, along with printing, gunpowder and the compass. It is also the crystallization of
The term Xuan paper first appeared in On Famous Paintings through the Ages, a book written by Zhang Yanyuan in Tang Dynasty (618-907),
The traditional craft of making Xuan paper is extremely
The flow of ink, both guided and resisted by water, determines the output of Chinese art, and Xuan paper outshines others with its excellent ability
Xuan paper
5 . That dinosaurs ate the mammals (哺乳动物) that ran beneath their feet is not in doubt. Now an extraordinary fossil newly described in Scientific Reports, unearthed by a team led by Gang Han at Hainan Vocational University of Science and Technology in China, shows that sometimes the tables were turned.
The fossil -dated to about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period-was formed when a flow of boiling volcanic mud swallowed two animals seemingly locked in a life-and-death fight. The one on top is a mammal. This animal is a herbivorous species closely related to the Triceratops (三角恐龙). Animal interactions such as this are exceptionally cam e in the fossil record.
One possibility is that the mammal was eating something already dead, other than hunting live prey. These days it is uncommon for small mammals to attack much larger animals. But it is not unheard of. And Dr. Han and his colleagues point out that those mammals which eat dead bodies typically leave tooth marks all over the bones of the animals. The dinosaur’s remains show no such marks. There is also a chance the fossil could be a fake. More and more convincing fake s have emerged, as this one did -though Dr. Han and his colleagues argue that the complexly connected nature of the skeletons (骨骼) makes that unlikely, too.
Assuming it is genuine, the discovery serves as a reminder that not all dinosaurs were enormous during the Cretaceous and not all mammals were tiny. From nose to tail, the dinosaur is just 1.2 meters long. The mammal is a bit under half a meter in length. Despite being half the size, the mammal has one paw firmly wrapped around one of its prey’s limbs, and another pulling on its jaw. It is biting down on the dinosaur’s chest, and has ripped off two of its ribs. Before they were interrupted, it seems that the mammal was winning.
1. Which idiom is closest in meaning to underlined part “the tables were turned” in paragraph 1?| A．The fittest survives. | B．The hunters become hunted. |
| C．Fortune always favors the brave. | D．The truth will always come to light. |
| A．To prove the fossil was fake. | B．To show the forming of the fossil. |
| C．To illustrate the process of hunting. | D．To suggest the dinosaur was hunted alive. |
| A．The size of the fossil. | B．The absence of fake fossils. |
| C．The complexity of the skeletons. | D．The consistency of the opinions. |
| A．It offers a cause. | B．It highlights a solution. |
| C．It justifies the conclusion. | D．It provides a new discovery. |
In China, the use and cultivation (种植) of green tea goes back thousands of years. While there is no precise way to know
Legend assigns the discovery of tea to mythological emperor Shennong, who is said
The Grand Canal of China was first dug in 486 BC, and well developed through the late 6th to early 10th century. From the late 13th until 19th century, with the highest section built and the overall length
The Grand Canal was
The Grand Canal
As you can see, many Chinese families drink tea after dinner or serve tea when
As for
Today, tea is gaining popularity around the world. In Japan, a tea ceremony is often held while people are drinking tea together. The ceremony, usually hosted in a tea-house,
In May 1886, 400,000 workers in many parts of the USA went on strike, demanding an eight-hour working day. The strike started
This event, known
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Chinese writing, from that people benefit a lot today, began thousands of years ago. According to an ancient story, a man named Cang Jie invented Chinese writing. One winter day while he was hunting, his eyes were attracting by the tracks of animals in the snow. He stopped to observe them, found that the appearance of each ones was different. To his excitement, he got the idea he could use different shapes to represent different objects. So come the first Chinese characters. They were drawings of physical objects. Over time, some characters became simple and the others were made more difficult. As a whole, the characters developed into drawings to standard forms and brought great convenient to people's life.
