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Little New Year (Chinese: Xiaonian), usually a week before the lunar New Year. It is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God. Here are six things you should know about the Little New Year, another sign of the start of spring.
Offer sacrifices to Kitchen God
One of the traditions of the Little New Year is the burning of a paper image (画像) of the Kitchen God, dispatching (派遣) the god's spirit to Heaven to report on the family's conduct (行为) over the past year. The Kitchen God is then welcomed back to the home by putting up a new paper image of him beside the stove. And people think the Kitchen God will protect the whole family for another year. The sacrifices to the Kitchen God include pig's head, fish, fruit, boiled dumplings, barley sugar, and Guandong candy.
House cleaning
Between Laba Festival, on the eighth day of the last lunar month, and Little New Year, on the twenty-third day, families throughout China undertake a thorough house cleaning, sweeping out the old in preparation for the New Year.
Eat Guandong candy
Guandong candy is a traditional snack that Chinese people eat on the Festival of the Kitchen God.
Paste (粘贴) paper-cuts to windows
In the Little New Year, old couplets (对联) and paper-cuts from the previous Spring Festival are taken down, and new window decorations, New Year's posters, and decorations are pasted up.
Bath and hair-cut
As the old Chinese saying goes, whether they're rich or poor, people often have a haircut before the Spring Festival. The activity of taking a bath and haircut is often taken on the Little New Year.
Preparations for Spring Festival
People start to stock up (贮备) necessary preparations for the Spring Festival since the Little New Year. Everything needed to make offerings to the ancestors (祖先), entertain(招待) guests, and feed the family over the long holiday must be prepared in advance.
1.When is the Little New Year?
A.A week before the New Year B.On the eighth day of the last lunar month
C.A week after the New Year D.On the twenty-third day of the last lunar month
2.What is the Chinese meaning of the underlined word “sacrifices”?
A.食物 B.祭品 C.礼物 D.贡献
3.Why do Chinese people burn the old paper image of the Kitchen God?
A.Because they want to get good luck in the coming year.
B.Because they want to sweep out the old in preparation for the New Year.
C.Because they want Heaven to know the family's behaviors over the past year.
D.Because they want to put up a new paper image of the Kitchen God.
4.Which is not the tradition in the Little New Year?
A.Offer sacrifices to ancestors. B.Do house cleaning.
C.Put up paper-cuts to windows. D.Eat Guandong candy.
5.Which sentence is FALSE according to the passage?
A.The Little New Year is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God.
B.Chinese people put up the paper image of the Kitchen God on the stove.
C.In the Little New Year, New Year's posters and decorations are pasted up.
D.People start to stock up necessary food for the Spring Festival since the Little New Year.
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On January 27, in order to win the Novel coronavirus pneumonia（新型冠状病毒肺炎）, the Ministry of Education issued（公布） a notice on putting off the start time of school in spring, 2020. It was said that school should not start before February 17. The exact start time of school will depend on situations and further notices.
However, many parents are very worried that putting off the start of school may affect children’s studies. If they have such a long winter vacation, children will not learn any knowledge, read books or study at all. They may forget what they have learned before.
Staying at home for a long time will make them keep eating, sleeping and playing, which seriously affect their physical and mental health. In short, the close of school influences learning and develops bad habits, so how should we avoid these problems?
Local education departments have also issued a notice, that is, to organize online teaching and create a network platform（平台）, where necessary courses will be shown every day, and online teaching will be given by excellent teachers of the subject, and students can learn at home through computer or mobile network. It should be said that such a method is very good. It can not only keep students indoors and not worry about the infection（感染) of the disease, but also make them study at home, improve their learning ability, and truly achieve “no suspension of classes”. Both the platform itself and the recorded lesson resources are more useful, and are welcomed by parents and teachers.
Of course, except for learning at home, it is also necessary to teach children about health knowledge, especially how to keep away from touching virus and other knowledge popularization; at the same time, it is also necessary for children to do some physical exercises or some games, which is good for physical health at home.
1._______ because of the Novel coronavirus pneumonia.
A.All the teachers have to teach online
B.School has to put off the start time of the new term
C.Students can keep eating, sleeping and playing at home
D.Children will not learn any knowledge, read books or study at all
2.According to the passage, students should________at home.
A.do some physical exercises outside B.keep playing online games.
C.worry about the infection of the disease D.learn knowledge about health
3.The underlined word “suspension” in Paragraph 4 probably means________.
A.stop B.plan C.growth D.change
4.Which is WRONG according to the passage?
A.Online teaching will help students study. B.The exact start time of school is decided.
C.The government cares for school education. D.Many parents are worried about their children’s studies.
5.What’s the best title for this passage?
A.A Way to Keep Mentally Healthy B.A New War with a New Chance
C.A Special Way to Learn at Home D.A Method to Make Parents Worried
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Which topic drew the most attention from people around the world in 2019? It was climate change, according to three well-known English dictionaries.
The Oxford, Collins and Cambridge dictionaries chose “climate emergency (气候紧急状态)", “climate strike (罢工)” and “upcycling”, respectively (分别地), as their Word of the Year". This tells us that climate change was a widely-discussed issue in 2019.
“Climate emergency” means a situation in which urgent (紧急的) action is needed to reduce climate change. “Climate strike” refers to people leaving work or school to call for more action to protect the environment. “Upcycling” refers to making new items out of old or used items to reduce waste.
Climate change has already affected the world in many ways. Take Venice, for example. Due to climate change, Venice experienced the worst flooding it has seen in the last 50 years in 2019. Many stores, restaurants and hotels were flooded. This caused serious damage totaling hundreds of millions of euros (欧元).
Although we've known about global warming for a long time, our large companies and governments have been slow to respond to it. The year 2019 might have been the turning point that will finally encourage our leaders to take responsibility.
“Decades ago, when the science on the climate issue was first increasing, the impacts (影响) could be seen as an issue for future generations,” Katharine Mach, a Stanford University climate scientist, told The New York Times. “ It's definitely our issue now.”
However, simply realizing that climate change is a threat (威胁) is not enough. We must take real action before it is too late.
1.According to the three well-known English dictionaries, people paid the most attention to_______ in 2019 .
A.Word of the Year B.climate change C.the environment D.global warming
2.________directly requests people to reduce waste.
A.Climate emergency B.Climate strike C.Upcycling D.Climate change
3.The flooding in Venice in Paragraph 4 tells us________.
A.how climate change has affected the world
B.Venice is a dangerous place to live in
C.Venice suffered serious damage in 2019
D.climate changed a lot in the world in 2019
4.What the climate scientist Mach said means________.
A.future generations will suffer the climate issue
B.climate change has increased for many years
C.many scientists are working on the climate issue
D.we must take actions to deal with climate change right now
5.From the passage, we can infer that________.
A.the leaders will take responsibility to protect the environment
B.people will use the three well-known English dictionaries
C.the climate issue will be more and more serious in the future
D.people will leave work or school to protect the environment.
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The winner of the fifth season of the China Central Television's Chinese Poetry Conference (中国诗词大会) was shown on Feb 9. Peng Min, who has fallen at the final hurdle twice before, finally won the crown (王冠) for himself.
The competitors vary in age, from teenagers to adults. Peng, 36, an associate senior editor (副主编) of a poetry magazine, is one of the most familiar (熟悉的) faces of the show. He can recite around 1,000 poems.
With a master's degree in literature, Peng is always the hot favorite to win the prize, but, surprisingly, he's lost two finals in a row－the second season he lost to a 16-year-old high school student, Wu Yishu, and in the third season he was beaten by deliveryman (送货员) Lei Haiwei.
He cried after losing the season three final, “I realized that if I compete and fail again, at least I've tried, but if I don't sign up, that means I'm more of a failure because I'm afraid of trying. Therefore, when season five came around, I decided to give it another go,” Peng recalls.
The season five final came down to Peng and 11-year-old Han Yaxuan－again he was facing a much younger rival. This time, though, there was to be no mistake and victory was finally his.
“I want to tell people who have a similar experience that, even though you go through all kinds of misfortune (不幸的) or difficulties, as long as you are brave enough to look up, there will always be a light in the sky to guide you out of the darkness,” Peng said in his speech. “Thousands of years later, all of our shadows will vanish, only the beauty of poems will last.”
1.How many seasons of the Chinese Poetry Conference does Peng Min take part in?
A.Two B.Three C.Four D.Five
2.Who won the second season of the Chinese Poetry Conference?
A.Wu Yishu B.Peng Min C.Lei Haiwei D.Han Yaxuan
3.What made Peng Ming successful ?
A.His failure B.His misfortune C.His braveness D.His difficulties
4.What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase “vanish”?
A.存在 B.消失 C.出现 D.停止
5.What is the best title of the passage ?
A.No Pain, No Gain. B.It Is Never Too Late to Learn.
C.Failure Is The Mother of Success. D.A Good Beginning Makes A Good Ending.
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