The Yellow Crane Tower is one of the Four Great Towers of China.
Hanfu is the
According to legend, it
The ancient Hanfu culture is an important part of the ancient traditional culture,
Nowadays, Hanfu is
3 . Levi Strauss did not invent jeans, but he is considered the first person to make and sell great numbers of them. He was born in Bavaria, an area that is part of Germany. In 1847 he and his family moved to the United States.
Levi Strauss opened a small dry goods store, first in New York, then in San Francisco, California. Among the products he sold were jeans. These pants were especially useful for miners in California. They needed clothing made from a strong material. Jeans are usually made from a heavy cotton cloth called denim.
Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis. Davis had invented a process for making rivets (铆钉) for jeans. These little metal connectors helped hold the pieces of cloth together to make the jeans stronger.
In 1875, the government gave Strauss and Davis a patent (专利) for their invention. That meant no one else could legally copy it without their permission. In 1928 the Levi Strauss company registered (注册) the word “Levi’s” as a trademark for their product.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington has one of the oldest known pairs of Levi’s. Writer James Sullivan published a book called “Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon.” In the book, he says jeans show two American values, creativity and rebellion.
Cowboys wore jeans in the old Wild West. In the 1950s, people saw famous Hollywood actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando wearing jeans in movies.
Today jeans come in blue but also lots of other colors and in many styles and at all prices.
1. Which of the following about Levi Strauss is TRUE?| A．He invented jeans. | B．He was born in the west of America. |
| C．He used to run a dry goods store in New York. | D．He started the Levi Strauss company by himself. |
| A．hang little things. | B．make the clothes stronger. |
| C．decorate the clothes. | D．protect miners from attacks. |
| A．was registered in 1928. | B．was given a patent. |
| C．was the oldest trademark of jeans. | D．has ever appeared in movies. |
| A．the meaning of jeans. | B．the history of jeans. |
| C．how jeans are invented. | D．why jeans become popular. |
The Sanxingdui Ruins, in the city of Guanghan, is one of the
The Sanxingdui Ruins is best known for
According to
5 . You may think you couldn’t live through summer without air conditioning. But in ancient China, hand fans were almost the only way to drive the heat away.
Chinese people started to use hand fans over 2, 000 years ago. The fans came in different shapes and were made from all kinds of materials. Palm leaf fans were cheap and easy to make. Feather fans marked the owner’s high status. Sandalwood fans could send out a sweet smell. Later, hand fans became far more than just something that could cool you down. They developed into works of art, in which Tuanshan-round fans, and Zheshan-folded fans, were the most common. In the shape of a fullmoon, Tuanshan were usually made of silk. They had beautiful embroidery (刺绣) featuring birds and flowers on them. Women, especially those in the royal palace, liked to use them. Poets in ancient China often compared an abandoned (被抛弃的) woman to Tuanshan. A poet in the Qing Dynasty, Nalan Xingde was a typical example. He wrote, “If only life were as beautiful as when we first met, why should the autumn wind bother to pity deserted painted fans?”
Meanwhile, men, especially the literati (文人), used Zheshan. The literati liked them because Zheshan were usually made of paper and they could paint and write poems on them. It was a way for them to show off their skills in literature, painting and calligraphy (书法). Many things were painted on Zheshan, but the most popular choice was usually beautiful scenery.
Today, Chinese people still use these fans, though not many people write or paint on them any more. This summer, why not paint one of your own?
1. Which fans could show a person’s social position?| A．Hand fans. | B．Palm leaf fans. | C．Feather fans. | D．Sandalwood fans. |
| A．An abandoned woman. | B．A woman with a Tuanshan. |
| C．A woman with a Zheshan. | D．A woman in the royal palace. |
| A．They were folded fans. | B．They came in different shapes. |
| C．They had birds and flowers on them. | D．They gave them chances to show the talent. |
| A．A diary. | B．A dictionary. | C．A fairy tale. | D．A magazine. |
Originally known as the Imperial University of Peking, Peking University was established in 1898. The
Today, Peking University
Peking University’s library is one of the largest libraries in the world,
7 . The Grand Canal (京杭大运河) is a man-made waterway that runs north and south in eastern China. It is the longest man-made waterway in the world. Below is some historical and factual information about the Grand Canal.
How Long Is It?
The canal stretches over 1,100 miles from the city of Beijing to the city of Hangzhou. It is sometimes called the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. In addition to connecting these two big cities, the canal also connects China’s two most important rivers: the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.
Why Was the Grand Canal Built?
It was not until 603 AD that Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty issued an order to connect the existing canals and expand them to reach all the way from Beijing to Hangzhou, in order to meet the political, economic (经济的) and military (军事的) needs of the time, particularly to ship food from the rich farmland in southern China to the capital city, Beijing, and to help feed the soldiers guarding the northern borders. The canal was also used as a passage way to transport important government messages.
Building the Grand Canal
Building the canal was a huge project. It took over six years of hard work by millions of labourers. When the canal was finally completed in 610 AD, China had a new waterway that would enrich the country for hundreds of years to come.
Later Improvements
The Ming Dynasty rebuilt much of the canal in the early 1400s. They made the canal deeper, built new canal locks, and constructed reservoirs to control the water in the canal. It is estimated that it took over 45,000 full-time laborers to maintain the canal during the Ming Dynasty.
1. What is NOT the purpose of building the Grand Canal?| A．Emperor Yang wanted an effective way of transporting food to Beijing. |
| B．Emperor Yang wanted to build the longest waterway in the world. |
| C．Emperor Yang needed to provide food to his armies guarding the border. |
| D．Emperor Yang needed a way to carry government messages. |
| A．A totally new canal going through from Beijing to Hangzhou was built. |
| B．It was built with the efforts of millions of people in more than six years. |
| C．Its canal locks were built by the Ming Dynasty in the early 1400s. |
| D．It was built by over 45,000 people working all day long in the Ming Dynasty. |
| A．The World’s Longest Waterway |
| B．Emperor Yang Guang’s Ambition |
| C．About the Grand Canal |
| D．Improving the Grand Canal |
8 . People may wonder why different words are used to describe these four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You can clarify this question if you study British history.
First there was England. Wales was linked to it in the thirteenth century. Now when people refer to England you find Wales included as well. Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to “Great Britain”. Happily this was accomplished without conflict when King James of Scotland became King of England and Wales as well. Finally the English government tried in the early twentieth century to form the United Kingdom by getting Ireland connected in the same peaceful way. However, the southern part of Ireland was unwilling and broke away to form its own government. So only Northern Ireland joined with England, Wales and Scotland to become the United Kingdom and this was shown to the world in a new flag called the Union Jack.
To their credit the four countries do work together in some areas (eg, the currency and international relations), but they still have very different institutions. For example, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland have different educational and legal systems as well as different football teams for competitions like the World Cup!
England is the largest of the four countries, and for convenience it is divided roughly into three zones. The zone nearest France is called the South of England, the middle zone is called the Midlands and the one nearest to Scotland is known as the North. You find most of the population settled in the south, but most of the industrial cities in the Midlands and the North of England. Although, nationwide, these cities are not as large as those in China, they have world-famous football teams and some of them even have two! It is a pity that the industrial cities built in the nineteenth century do not attract visitors. For historical architecture you have to go to older but smaller towns built by the Romans. There you will find out more about British history and culture.
1. What’s the part of Ireland that separated from England called?| A．Wales. | B．Scotland. |
| C．Republic of Southern Ireland. | D．Northern Ireland. |
| A．The history of England. | B．How was the UK formed. |
| C．How is England divided. | D．The differences in the four countries. |
| A．Educational system. | B．Legal system. | C．Football team. | D．The currency. |
| A．The South of England. | B．The Midlands. |
| C．The North of England. | D．The West of England. |
The Amber Room was
So it served as a small reception hall for
It was completed in 1770 and was considered one of the wonders of the world. But after September 1941, when the two countries were
10 . Along with silk and paper,gunpowder is another invention by Chinese and the Silk Road helped it spread to the West. The dating of gunpowder is as early as 850 AD. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and for signal flares. Gunpowder was also thought to have been used in medicine and in alchemy(炼金术). This invention seems to have been discovered in China by accident —by alchemists when doing experiments.
The gunpowder used for military purpose was first recorded in 919 AD. By the 11th century,explosive bombs filled with gunpowder were introduced and used in China. The words “fire cannon” “rocket” and “fireball” appeared time and again in the official Song history as well as two other books written during the same period.
The first detailed description of using the “fire cannon” in warfare was in connection with a battle fought in 1126 when the Song army used it against the invading enemy. The so-called “ fire cannon” was a tube made of bamboo filled with gunpowder which, when fired, threw a flaming missile towards the enemy. According to a description of a battle scene in 1132, it took two persons to carry a “fire cannon”, and the cannons were fired from a moving platform. And this platform had to be moved close to the wall of the besieged(被围攻的) city.
Gunpowder reached Japan, the Islamic countries and then Europe in the 13th century, and the Arabs improved gunpowder for military use. The early account of gunpowder in Europe was recorded by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. One century later the Arabs used it to attack the Spanish town Baza and the next year in 1326 Florence ordered the manufacturing of cannon and cannon balls. From Italy the making of gunpowder soon spread to other European countries, and by the 1350s it had become an effective weapon on the battlefield.
1. Gunpowder was discovered _________.| A．by alchemists when they had an accident |
| B．by alchemists after studying it for a long time |
| C．accidentally by alchemists |
| D．experimentally by alchemists |
| A．Convenient. | B．Heavy. |
| C．Useless. | D．Simple. |
| A．“fire cannons” at early times would be less helpful if they were far away from the object |
| B．alchemists devoted themselves to the study of gunpowder |
| C．the Silk Road spread to the West because of the invention of gunpowder |
| D．the first detailed description of using “fire cannons” in warfare was in 1132 |
| A．Powerful Fire Cannons | B．Four Inventions of Ancient China |
| C．The Discovery of the Alchemy | D．Gunpowder |
