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文化意识——中国传统文化
Cinyee Chiu, an artist from Taiwan, is always happy to try something new. Her amazing works won lots of prizes. Among them, “24 Solar Terms” is the most popular.
Ancient Chinese divided a year into 24 parts according to the changes of the weather. It's the 24 solar terms. But not everyone knows them well. Cinyee Chiu put the 24 solar terms in pictures to help people understand them better.
Cinyee turned each solar term into an animal. But these animals are not just animals. You can also find seasonal fruit, vegetables or beautiful flowers on them.
When spring comes, water gets warm and fish start to swim around. So Cinyee chose fish as a symbol of Start of Spring. Also, she drew spring vegetables, Chinese chives on the back of the fish.
White Dew falls on about Sept. 8. It shows the beginning of the cool autumn. There are colorful leaves and cooler nights at this time of year. As the temperature falls, white dew is often seen on the grass and trees at night. For White Dew, Cinyee chose a raccoon—a small animal with thick hair. She drew white spots on the raccoon to show dew. And she used the dragon fruit to show the rich colors in autumn.
The young artist really gave the ancient Chinese culture a new look.
Word Bank
Solar Terms 节气dew露珠 spot小圆点
1.A year is divided into 24 parts based on________.
A.the changes of the weather
B.seasonal fruits and vegetables
C.colourful leaves
D.different kinds of animals
2.How many examples are given to show Cinyee's “24 Solar Terms” in the text?
A.Two. B.Three. C.Four. D.Five.
3.From Paragraph 5, we know that ________.
A.a raccoon likes fish
B.Start of Spring falls on about Dec.8
C.White Dew shows the end of the autumn
D.Cinyee used white spots to show dew
4.According to the text, Picture ________ can't be from Cinyee's “24 Solar Terms”.
A.
B.
C.
D.
5.What does the text mainly tell us?
A.Why Cinyee made herself known.
B.Who divided a year into 24 parts.
C.How Cinyee showed the 24 solar terms.
D.What Start of Spring and White Dew mean.
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配对阅读。左栏是在华工作的外籍专家Mr. Jack Frank家庭成员的信息，右栏是关于中国传统文化线上展览的简介。请为每位家庭成员选择合适的展览，并选择对应的选项。
1.. Mr. Jack Frank (the father) is a scientist. He is doing research on Chinese solar terms (节气).
2.. Mrs. Frank (the mother) is a housewife. She likes cooking and she cooks for the family every day.
3.. Alice (the daughter) is learning painting in a university. She hopes to be an artist in the future.
4.. Adam (the son) is studying in a primary school. He loves Tang poems so much that he learns one every day.
5.. Mr. Kelvin Frank (the grandfather) used to be a sportsman. Now he practises Taiji every morning.
A.Chinese traditional sports and activities are the cultural heritage (文化遗产) of China. Most of them not only are good for health but also have high artistic value.
B.Food and drink has a special meaning to Chinese people. Eating does not just mean filling the stomach. What and how to eat is more important.
C.Traditional festivals play an important part in Chinese cultural heritage. There are a large number of traditional festivals in China. They carry rich information about the life of Chinese people.
D.The art of paper cutting was first developed in China. Chinese paper-cuts have been a traditional form of decoration (装饰) at the Chinese New Year for thousands of years.
E.Chinese painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The artists paint on rice paper or thin silk with brushes.
F.In the past 3,500 years, China has developed its own form of cultural traditions, values and tastes. Tang poems are said to be the finest of Chinese literature (文学).
G.The twenty-four solar terms have a history of thousands of years in China. They are still useful today in people’s life.
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阅读下列短文，然后从A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳答案。
Have you ever wanted to have a doll that could talk to you? In the book The Ventriloquist's Daughter, a girl named Liur gets a doll like this. But it doesn't turn out to be as fun as she thought.
Lin Man-Chiu, an author from Taiwan, wrote the book. British translator Helen Wang translated it into English. The book tells a touching story about Liur and her father.
Liur loses her mother at a young age. Her grandfather sends her father to a medical school in the US. Five years later, he comes back with a doll named Carola, as he once promised he would. This doll is quite unusual-it can talk! However, Carola makes a lot of problems for the family.
After reading this book. I thought Liur and her father were just unlucky. In fact, this story is based on the author's own unhappy childhood. She had six sisters. Still, her grandfather wanted a grandson. Her father was under heavy pressure and didn't live with her and her sisters for a very long time. The author didn't like her father when she was young. But now she has forgiven him. The talking doll Carola stands for her father's burden (负担).
After I learned this，I understood the author's main message. Everyone has demons (心魔) in their lives, but we should do our best to beat them.
1.Who wrote the book The Ventriloquist's Daughter?
A.Lin Man-Chiu. B.Liur. C.Helen Wang. D.Carola.
2.Carola is unusual because .
A.it is a doll B.it looks like a human C.it can read books D.it can talk
3.What is the main message of the book?
A.We should try harder to understand our parents. B.A talking doll can cause many problems.
C.We should try to beat the demons in our hearts. D.Too many children can be a burden on a family.
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Last month, the artist Christo opened his new art sculpture. It is made up of 7,506 colorful barrels (桶) floating on a lake in Hyde Park in London. Christo calls it The London Mastaba. It is his first major outdoor art sculpture in Great Britain. The artwork is in the shape of a mastaba. It looks somewhat like a pyramid with a fat top. The London Mastaba is about 65 feet high, 98 feet wide and 130 feet long, and it weighs about 1.3 million pounds. The metal barrels can be seen from hundreds of feet away.
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Everyone who looks at it will see something different. Many will think the barrels are barrels of oil in the heart of one of London’s oldest parks. They might wonder if Christo was making an announcement against pollution. Others will see a prism or giant pixels or simply a shape. However, everyone must decide for themselves, the 83-year-old artist said. Christo said he had nothing special in mind when he created The London Mastaba. “There are no messages,” Christo said. “There is something in it to discover yourself. I cannot direct you.”
“A Stairway To The Sky”
“It’s created a giant invitation, like a stairway to the sky,” Christo said. The artist was standing on the banks of the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park where his artwork floats. Swans are swimming nearby. Some barrels are red with a white candy stripe on the sides. Others are colored blue, purple and red. Their colors will look different as the light changes, Christo said. Their reflection (倒影) in the lake will be like an abstract painting. Abstraction is an artistic style that does not always show something recognizable or realistic.
“Not Really Sure How I Feel About It”
Many people walking in the park were surprised to see the artwork. “It’s very modern, but this place is nature and historical. I don’t like it here,” said Yasmin KocOzcengel, who is a tourist from Turkey. Another person who took a look at the artwork was Anna Andronova. She called The London Mastaba very brave. If it weren’t as brave, it wouldn’t be as amazing, she said. Sheila Seffenson is an American living in London. “I’m just not really sure how I feel about it,” Steffenson said. “Maybe it’s a message about pollution. Who knows?”
1.What can we learn about the artwork?
A.It is a floating pyramid. B.It is made up of empty oil barrels.
C.It is an abstract painting. D.It is considered as different things.
2.Which of the following would be most suitable for________?
A.An Announcement Against Pollution. B.An Announcement Against Pollution?
C.A New Landmark Of The Oldest Park. D.A New Landmark Of The Oldest Park?
3.Which of the following words can best describe The London Mastaba?
A.Romantic. B.Magical. C.Realistic. D.Mysterious.
4.What can most possibly be the artist’s real purpose?
A.To add some more colours to the old park. B.To bring his art career to a new height.
C.To encourage people to discover and think. D.To remind people to care about nature.
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---Keep working hard, and you’ll surely realize your dream of being an artist ____ you give it up halfway.
---I will, thank you, Miss Liu.
A. unless B. if C. since D. though
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完成句子
1.北京是多种文化的发源地．
Beijing is__________many cultures．
2.一半以上的学生来自中国．
__________the students come from China．
3.他能明白这一点是很重要的．
__________that he can understand it．
4.孩子们应该尊敬自己的父母和老师．
Kids should__________parents and teachers．
5.读英文报纸是学习英语的一种好方法．
Reading English newspapers is__________English．
6.在用餐结束，她给了我一个甜蜜的微笑并说再见．
__________ the meal，she gave me a sweet smile and say goodbye to me．
7.那块饼干对我来说尝起来像粉笔．
The cookie ________________chalk to me．
8.按照中国的好传统，我们应该互相帮助．
__________，we should help each other．
9.我不知道怎样处理这个问题．
I don't know what I'll __________this problem．
10.我能想象出当你看到那条蛇时的反应．
I can __________when you saw the snake．
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Learn to rise again
It is not always easy to discover yourself. From a(/an)_______________age, I had a strong sense of who I would become—but an accident changed everything.
To me, skating was more ______________than anything else in the world. Nothing else filled my heart with so much_______________. I spent 24 hours a week developing my skills. I had no social life or interests other than _________________.But I was rewarded (回报) with first place medals in nearly every competition.
_______________, during one competition, I fell and was badly injured. The doctor told me that I couldn’t skate any more. The pain in my back was _______________to bear(忍受) and even basic daily tasks became difficult.
My passion (激情) had been________________. I lost heart and had no idea what I would become. After eight months of suffering, something had to ________________. Instead of sitting around and wasting my days, I began to work with local community service projects. By volunteering as a swimming teacher and summer reading assistant (助教)for kids, I got an idea of whom I wanted to become. After a few months, I_______________a new interest. Little by little, I stepped out of the shadow and rebuilt my confidence.
Sometimes, challenges in life will get in the way. We can choose to stay behind or try to get past these challenges. My_______________was a challenge that failed to stop me from reaching success. Today, I’m a very confident and optimistic (乐观的) person.
1.A.old B.young C.good D.bad
2.A.amazing B.surprising C.important D.useful
3.A.sadness B.joy C.surprise D.pain
4.A.skating B.reading C.volunteering D.dancing
5.A.Necessarily B.Impossibly C.Hopefully D.Unluckily
6.A.easy B.hard C.fine D.satisfied
7.A.taken away B.take off C.take up D.take in
8.A.remember B.move C.change D.return
9.A.knew B.found C.showed D.thought
10.A.story B.work C.life D.accident
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文化意识——跨文化交际
Job interviews can be very different from country to country. An interviewer's “body language” and questions, and the form of an interview are not the same around the world.
If you're at a job interview in Japan, don't look directly into the eyes of the interviewer. It is considered impolite. But if you're at an interview in the U．S., you should make eye contact with the interviewer. If you don't, the interviewer may think you are not sure about your ability.
In the U．S. and some other countries, interviewers aren't supposed to ask questions about family and personal information. In most countries, however, personal questions are very common during job interviews.
In Germany, your interview might begin with a very short conversation followed by a formal interview. In Mexico and many other countries, the whole interview might not be formal.
Word Bank:
contact 交流 formal正式的
1.In Japan, looking directly into the eyes of the interviewer is________.
A.boring B.impolite C.humorous D.dangerous
2.What is suggested at an interview in the U．S. according to the text?
A. Sitting by the interviewer. B.Making eye contact.
C.Talking about family background. D. Asking personal information.
3.In________, a short talk usually begins before a formal interview.
A.Japan B.the U．S. C.Germany D.Mexico
4.In which part of a magazine can we read the text?
A.Culture. B.Geography. C.Science. D.Sports.
5.What's the best title for the passage?
A.Job Interviews in Japan B.Job Interviews in the U．S.
C.Job Interviews in Germany D.Job Interviews in Different Countries
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To many people, art is a human expression of creativity. But in recent years, you may have read news about artificial intelligence（AI）creating its own art, such as painting or writing poems. Some people worry that AI might someday replace（替代）artists.
But this worry seems to be unnecessary, at least for now. Many artists today are turning AI into a useful tool. Instead of replacing artists, AI is bringing artists more possibilities.
A piece of music created by AI recently attracted attention. AI was used to create the music based on the protein（蛋白质）structure of COVID-19. The music lasted nearly two hours. The project was led by Markus Buehler, an American musician and MIT professor（教授）of engineering. He assigned (指定) a unique note (独特的音符) to each amino acid (氨基酸) is the protein. The AI then translated these notes into music.
Listeners found the project “mind-blowing”. “It allows me to see the virus in a new way,” said one listener. This surprising combination (结合) between science and art could not be achieved without AI. As The Verge wrote, “AI helps artists play around in unpredictable ways, creating things beyond (超过) what they have ever thought was possible before.”
Apart from creating imaginative works, AI can also take care of repetitive (重复乏味的) tasks for artists. For example, in the comic and cartoon industries, there are now AI tools that can automatically (自动) color in black-and-white line drawings. Although the results can be unpredictable and require a little cleanup. it can give artists room to experiment (实验) by cutting down the time it takes to color each picture.
As Peter Ward wrote for The Culture Trip. “Art of every kind has always been influenced by technological developments.” AI can become a useful tool to bring change to the art world if it’s welcomed and not unfairly feared.
1.According to the passage, AI can’t ________ now.
A.write poems B.paint C.replace artists D.create music
2.Which of the following is NOT true according to the third and fourth paragraphs?
A.AI created a piece of music about COVID-19.
B.Many of AI’s art creations are beyond artists’ imagination.
C.Science and art can be combined with the help of AI.
D.Markus Buehler was not a professor of engineering, but a musician.
3.The underlined phrase “Apart from” in the fifth paragraph can be replaced by “________”.
A.Besides B.Instead of C.Because of D.According to
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A.Technological developments have greatly influenced people’s daily life.
B.AI has been widely used in science research.
C.AI is bringing more help to the art world as a useful tool.
D.AI’s creativity has caused more and mare worries.
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--Have you heard of Liu Qian from Taiwan?
--Sure! His magic performance is amazing for people
forget.
A. so, that B. such, that C. too, to D. enough, to