The kite is a symbol of Chinese handicraft(手工艺).放风筝是中国最受欢迎的活动之一。And kite﹣flying is now believed to be good for health. In spring,a large number of people gather in the squares or parks to fly beautiful kites.
风筝在中国已经有2,000多年了。 Mo Zi spent three years building a wooden kite but it failed after flying for one day. Then people made the kite with thin wood and bamboo. And it had the bird's name of "Yuan". After the Han dynasty,paper was introduced into the kite﹣making. So the kite got the name "Zhiyuan",as "Zhi" in Chinese means paper. When the wind cameThat was why we named it "Fengzheng".
From then on,making and playing the kite became very popular in Weifang,Shandong Province. Every year in spring,almost every family goes out to fly the kite and has a picnic. It is also very good to show beautiful kites on sunny and windy days. The tradition has been well kept until today and has become the world﹣famous Weifang International Kite Festival. It is from 20th to 25th in April every year. Weifang is also known as the capital of kites. Have you ever been there? Watching the kites flying is just as enjoyable as flying the kites itself.
If you are interested in flying a kite,choose a sunny and windy day to enjoy the open air with your family.
Did you know that "OK" has a b It's on March 23. And this year, the word "OK" will be 183 y old.
"OK" is widely s all over the world, New York Daily News reported.
It was first introduced to the world in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839. It read "o. k. —oll korrect (all correct)". It was only a joke at that time. But later "OK" became widely u in documents and telegraphs. People used it to say that all was w .
Today,we use it almost every day. "How about 2 o'clock? OK?""OK. " The word "OK" is easy to say and write. It is also clear e for people to understand.
It also has neutrality(中性)that other words don't have. You may say something is great, while other people may say it isn't. But with "OK",everyone usually agrees.
There are different w of spelling "OK": okay, ok, and O. K. But they all sound the same. However,"OK" is the most widely used in spelling and is often used in w People sometimes use "okay" when writing because it looks more like a real word.
"OK" is so useful t it's known around the world. You may not know the language of someone who's talking to you, but saying "OK" with gestures helps you to ueach other.
it either be because what else by invent clean popular habit hundred |
There is a small thing we use every day. We usually put in the bathroom. Without it, we might have tooth problems. Can you guess it is? Yes, it's the toothbrush. But do you know anything about its history?
According to some research, before toothbrushes appeared, the ancient Chinese people their teeth with some small tree branches (树枝). About 800 years ago, people made a kind of brushes with pig hair and bamboo. It might the world's earliest form of toothbrushes. As time went , the forms of toothbrushes changed. For example, people chose horse-tail hair instead of pig hair pig hair was too hard. Imagine that you travel back to of years ago and brush your teeth comfortably. It sounds fantastic, doesn't it?
Around the 15th century, the Chinese toothbrush found its way into Europe. It became among local people soon. The of toothbrushes was not as famous as that of paper-making, but it was very useful in daily life. Today we have a good of brushing teeth. We should thank the ancient Chinese for it.
How can you do calculations (计算) quickly? These days, you can easily use a calculator.
But how about people in ancient times? In the very beginning, the cleverest among them thought of using stones and seashells. Then, around the 2nd century B. C. , they invented the abacus. Some researchers consider the invention to be the world's oldest "calculator". In China, people used abacuses to do calculations for thousands of years.
The abacus is usually made of wood. It has many beads(珠子). Each rod(竿) stands for a different digit(数位). The rightmost is ones, the second is tens, the third is hundreds, and so on. Each bead in the central area has a value.
In the past, the use of the abacus was taught in all schools. It was considered to be an important skill that everybody needed to pick up. Wherever there was a need for calculations, an abacus would come into sight.
Today, abacuses are no longer widely used. Perhaps you have never seen one. However, we can still feel the important roles they once played. Abacuses have become a symbol. Because they used to be a must-have for business people, some have come to believe that abacuses can help theirowners gather wealth.
The English language is different from any other language. Yet English words do not stay the same. We need new words for inventions and new ideas. Different words come into use, or older words are used in a new way.
Tomato was borrowed from Mexico. The word coffee came from Turkey, and tea came from China. Now new space and science words are being borrowed from other countries, too.
Strawberry, popcorn, and grandfather are words made up of two parts.
Sometimes new words are shorter forms of older words. The word photo was made from photograph by cutting off the end of the longer word. Smog was made by swing only the first two letters from the words smoke and fog.
The names of people and products can become new words. Our sandwich was named after a man named Sandwich. Scotch Tape, Band-aid, and Jell were names made up by the companies that first made the products.
A. English can change by borrowing words from other languages. B. English is an interesting language. C. Plane was made by cutting off the front part of airplane. D. The language is always changing. E. New words are also made by adding two words together. |
A road is a bridge between two places.1. 你听说过丝绸之路吗? It has been there between East and West for more than 2, 000 years.
But did you know that the Silk Road is not a single route? It is actually a series of trade and cultural transmission(传 送)routes. It started to take shape during the Western Han Dynasty. The trade route started from the city of Xi'an in Shaanxi province and ended in eastern Europe, near today's Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea(地中海). The Silk Road went across one-fourth of the earth and 2. it is about 6, 500 kilometers long.
The Silk Road got its name because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. Besides silk, jade(玉), tea and steel also went west to Rome. From the West came glass, gems(宝石), and foods like carrots and sesame(芝麻).
3. The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world.
Not only trade, but also knowledge about science, arts and literature(文学), as well as craftsmanship(手工)and technology, was shared across the Silk Road. In this way, languages and cultures developed and influenced each other. As a Chinese student, 4. it is necessary to know something about it. Today, many historical sites along the Silk Road are popular travel destinations, such as the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and Mogao Grottoes(莫高屈)in Dunhuang. A new train line, the New Orient Express. is running from Beijing across the Silk Road. 5. 它是世界上最著名的道路之一。
In Chinese celebrations, whether it is an important birthday or a traditional festival, one of the most typical elements (元素) is the lucky and auspicious (吉祥的) symbols.
To most Chinese, when it comes to lucky symbols, the top three are surely fu, lu and shou, which are sometimes called the three gods.
During Chinese New Year, we would put up red squares with the character fu on them. Some people would put their fu character upside down. In Chinese when we say the fu character is upside down, it sounds like good luck has arrived.
lu often has to do with one's job and richness. Lu refers to well pay and ranks (等级) in ancient China. Hulu, gourds (葫芦), sounds like hulu (护禄) which means protecting lu. So traditionally, people use gourds to scare away bad spirits and illnesses and keep rich and successful.
Shou means long-lived life. Even nowadays when someone is having their holiday celebration, we would call this person shouxing, a god. At birthday parties for elder people, we often see peaches. That's because according to the legend (传说), the Queen Mother of the West grows peaches in her own garden, and whoever gets to eat these peaches will live forever.
Besides the three, lucky and auspicious symbols can be easily found in the food we eat. For the Chinese New Year dinner, most families would have fish because the character fish sounds like surplus (有余). In southern China, niangao, a kind of rice cake is a lucky food because niangao sounds like getting higher every year. And for Lantern Festival, we have tangyuan, a kind of sticky rice dumplings. They are round shapes and the pronunciation of the food symbolizes being together.
(Para. 1 =① Para.2 =② Para. 3 =③ Para. 4 =④ Para.5 =⑤ Para. 6 =⑥)
The earliest piece of guqin in China, unearthed in Hubei province in 2016, dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. The body of a guqin is made of painted wood and the strings of twisted silk. A its appearance looks simple, making a guqin is quite challenging. An outstanding piece can take y to create. It is a crystallization of art and time.
The sound of a guqin is quiet, ethereal and distant. Vibrations(振动) are used to p an undulating and lasting music, with rich empty notes in between. As the listener fills in the space in their own minds, a connection is f between music and men.
The guqin was loved by the literati in ancient China. The most famous guqin m was Yu Boya in the Spring and Autumn(770-476 BC) and Warring States(475-221 BC) periods. As he played his guqin in the mountains, a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi heard the music and understood exactly what Yu wanted to e. This deep understanding formed a strong bond between them, and they became c friends. This is the famous tale b the guqin masterpiece, Flowing Water, High Mountains. The piece has been passed down through generations and is considered one of the most famous and important w in Chinese guqin music.
The well-known story about guqin, flowing from brushed fingertips and travelling for thousands of years, is continuing to the p.
When people eat, western people are used to using knives and forks, but Chinese people are used to using chopsticks. More than 3000 years ago, Chinese people ate with chopsticks. Who invented the chopsticks?
Long ago, Chinese people used to eat with their hands. In Shang Dynasty, the last king, Zhou was cruel(残酷的). He always killed people because the food was too hot or too cold. It made people afraid to serve him. His favorite Daji was also afraid.
One day Daji served King Zhou his meal. When she tried the dish for the king, she found that it was too hot. Daji felt very nervous because the king would be angry. Suddenly she had an idea and she used two pieces of her long hairpins(发簪) to put the food to the king's mouth.
The King Zhou found it so interesting to eat with two long sticks that he forgot how hot the food was. After that, Daji thought it was a good way to solve this problem and asked people to make two long-thin gold sticks. People found it better to eat with sticks than with their hands. But they were too poor to afford the gold sticks. Then they found bamboo was good material to make chopsticks. Since then, people have invented chopsticks.