1 . 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. |
2 . 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 |
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
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. |
During the 4th Winter Olympic Games a group of stamps were published in Germany in November 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of the sportswear（运动服）. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics.
In the 1950’s, the stamps of this kind became more colorful. When the White Olympics came, the host countries as well as the non-host countries published stamps to mark those Games. China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sports men began to take part in the White Olympics.
Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14,500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meet.
Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.
1. The White Olympics and the Winter Olympics _______.
| A．are not held in winter |
| B．are different games |
| C．are the same thing |
| D．are held in summer |
| A．after the year 1936 |
| B．after the 3rd White Olympics |
| C．before the 3rd White Olympics |
| D．before the year 1932 |
| A．every two years | B．every three years |
| C．every five years | D．every the fourth year |
| A．Japan can’t publish stamps to mark those Games |
| B．Only the non-host countries can publish stamps to mark those Games. |
| C．All the countries can publish stamps to mark those Games. |
| D．Only the host countries can publish stamps to mark those Games. |
The western desert can be very dangerous. There is little water and there are few trees. But the desert also has scenery of great beauty. Tall towers of red and yellow stone rise sharply from the flat, sandy valley floor. The scene has been photographed many times and appears in movies and on TV.
In Arizona, man-made dams across the Colorado River have made two large lakes in the middle of the dry desert country. At Lake Powell, the red stone arch of Rainbow Bridge rises high above the blue lake.
There are few roads. Many areas of Lake Powell’s shore can only be reached by boat or on foot. But hikers in this empty desert land sometimes find very old native American pictures, painted on the rocks.
In Death Valley, California, the summer temperature rises to 130°F—165°F. There is less than inches of rain each year. Death Valley is the lowest place in America---925 metres below sea level. In the 1800s, many travelers died when they tried to cross this waterless valley in the terrible heat.
Although the desert is dry and seems empty, there is plenty of life if you look closely. Snakes and rats have learned how to live in the desert heat. They live underground and come out at night, when it is cool. Plants such as cacti need very little water. When it does rain in the desert (sometimes only once or twice a year), plants grow quickly, and flowers open in a single day. For a short time, the desert is covered with brilliant (very bright) colours.
1. In the 19th century, Americans moved from east to west because they .
| A．enjoyed the trip | B．wanted to make their home there |
| C．wanted to find new grassland there | D．had no water to drink |
| A．the western desert is a good place for people to live in |
| B．there is little water but there are many trees in the desert |
| C．the desert is dangerous but it is full of beauty |
| D．till now, people know little about the desert |
| A．illness | B．high temperature |
| C．cold weather | D．poisonous water |
| A．if they move about | B．if they can’t make holes underground |
| C．if they come out at night | D．if they drink much water |
