As archaeologists explored ancient tombs in Turfan in western China, they discovered some surprisingly well-preserved and hardened dumplings.
Exactly
Dumplings continued to take off and diversify in China over the next thousand years. Instead of the
Turkic (突厥) tribes spread and
Some scholars believe that the Mongol Empire also helped dumplings go farther, perhaps
Later, after Chinese dumpling
2 . Chinese society, basically agricultural, has always laid great stress on understanding the pattern of nature and living in harmony with it. The world of nature was seen as the visible expression of the workings of a higher power through the interaction of the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. As Chinese art developed, its purpose turned to the expression of human understanding of these forces, in the form of painting of landscapes, bamboo, birds, and flowers.
Particularly in early times, art also had social and moral functions. The earliest wall paintings referred to in ancient texts often described merciful emperors, officials, and their evil opposites as examples and warnings to the living. Human relationships have always been of great importance in China, and a common theme of figure painting is that of gentlemen enjoying staying together or of the depressing partings and infrequent reunions. Among the typical themes of traditional Chinese art, there is no place for war, violence or death. No theme would be accepted in traditional Chinese art that was not inspiring, noble, or refreshing to the spirit.
In the broadest sense, therefore, all traditional Chinese art is symbolic, for everything that is painted reflects some aspect of what the painter is aware of. Bamboo suggests the spirit of the person, which can be bent by circumstance but never broken. The dragon is the wholly kind-hearted symbol of the emperor; the crane (鹤) symbolizes long life; and paired mandarin ducks symbolize wedded loyalty. Popular among the many symbols drawn from the plant world are the orchid (兰花), a symbol of purity; the plum blossom (梅花), which comes out even in the snow and stands for uncontrollable purity, in either a revolutionary political or a spiritual sense; and the pine tree, which may represent either survival in a fierce political environment or the unconquerable spirit of old age.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The art. | B．The painting. |
| C．The theme. | D．The relationship. |
| A．Violent and alarming. | B．Material and instructive. |
| C．True-to-life and educative. | D．Positive and inspiring. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By analyzing causes. | D．By following time order. |
| A．The Role of Traditional Chinese Art |
| B．Agriculture and Traditional Chinese Art |
| C．Significance and Value of Traditional Chinese Art |
| D．Characteristic Themes and Symbols of Traditional Chinese Art |
3 . Once Popular Sports in Ancient Capital Xi'an
The ancient capital Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province is holding the National Games. As the capital of 13 dynasties throughout Chinese history, the ancient city has never been far from sports. Starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the city has held many sports events.
Cuju: Origin of modern soccer
Cuju was an ancient Chinese competitive game involving kicking a ball through an opening into a net. As the ancestor of soccer, it first appeared in the renowned ancient Chinese historical work Zhan Guo Ce（“Strategies of the Warring States”）, which describedCuju as a form of entertainment among the general public. Later, cuju was commonly played in the army for military training purposes, during the Han Dynasty.
Jiaodi: Chinese-style wrestling
Sumo, known as Japan's “national sport”, actually started in ancient China. Sumo was called jiaodi or jiaoli in ancient times. Ancient jiaodi,a Chinese-style wrestling, was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other imitating wild oxen. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, jiaodi was highly favored by emperors. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaodi was part of military training and a kind of entrainment and athletic sports.
Jiju: Ancient polo
Jiju is a sport which uses a stick to hit balls while riding on a horse, pretty similar to modern polo. It was popular in the royal court and among common people in the Tang Dynasty. There were many fields for playing polo in the court and it was also a major military training program in the army. In the Tang Dynasty capital, there were formal polo courts, such as the stadium pavilion in Chang' an palace.
Archery
During ancient times, the origin of archery was closely related with hunting and defense. Ancient archery was not only an athletic event,a military training program, and an entertainment activity, but also part of education. As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the archery was listed as one of the six practical disciplines, also called the Six Arts, becoming an important and competitive form.
1. Which was popular in the army during the Han Dynasty?| A．Cuju. | B．Jiaodi. |
| C．Jiju. | D．Archery. |
| A．Only by riding a horse. |
| B．By hitting balls wearing ox horns. |
| C．By kicking a ball through an opening into a net. |
| D．By hitting balls while riding on a horse with a stick. |
| A．They were only for entertainment. |
| B．They all disappeared late gradually. |
| C．They were military training programs. |
| D．They all originated from Han Dynasty. |
4 . Sometimes it’s hard to let go. For many British people, that can apply to institutions and objects that represent their country’s past-age-old castles, splendid homes… and red phone boxes.
Beaten first by the march of technology and lately by the terrible weather in junkyards (废品场), the phone boxes representative of an age are now making something of a comeback. Adapted in imaginative ways, many have reappeared on city streets and village greens housing tiny cafes, cellphone repair shops or even defibrillator machines (除颤器).
The original iron boxes with the round roofs first appeared in 1926. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Battersea Power Station in London. After becoming an important part of many British streets, the phone boxes began disappearing in the 1980s, with the rise of the mobile phone sending most of them away to the junkyards.
About that time, Tony Inglis’ engineering and transport company got the job to remove phone boxes from the streets and sell them out. But Inglis ended up buying hundreds of them himself, with the idea of repairing and selling them. He said that he had heard the calls to preserve the boxes and had seen how some of them were listed as historic buildings.
As Inglis and, later other businessmen, got to work, repurposed phone boxes began reappearing in cities and villages as people found new uses for them. Today, they are once again a familiar sight, playing roles that are often just as important for the community as their original purpose.
In rural areas, where ambulances can take a relatively long time to arrive, the phone boxes have taken on a lifesaving role. Local organizations can adopt them for l pound, and install defibrillators to help in emergencies.
Others also looked at the phone boxes and saw business opportunities. LoveFone, a company that advocates repairing cellphones rather than abandoning them, opened a mini workshop in a London phone box in 2016.
The tiny shops made economic sense, according to Robert Kerr, a founder of LoveFone. He said that one of the boxes generated around $13,500 in revenue a month and cost only about $400 to rent.
Inglis said phone boxes called to mind an age when things were built to last. “I like what they are to people, and I enjoy bringing things back,” he said.
1. The phone boxes are making a comeback ______.| A．to form a beautiful sight of the city |
| B．to improve telecommunications services |
| C．to remind people of a historical period |
| D．to meet the requirement of green economy |
| A．They were not well-designed. | B．They provided bad services. |
| C．They had too short a history. | D．They lost to new technologies. |
| A．their new appearance and lower prices | B．the push of the local organizations |
| C．their changed roles and functions | D．the big funding of the businessmen |
Longjing tea,
Thanks
