All it took was a slice of Xinjiang cake to spark heated debates online over China's policy on ethnic minorities (少数民族) .
Since Monday, qiegao (cut cake) has been a trending topic on Sina Weibo, China’s main Twitter-like microblogging service.
The cake was a reference to Xinjiang’s famed nut cake, sometimes known by its old Turkic name baklava, a popular pastry across Central Asia and the Middle East. In Xinjiang, they are sold by Uygur vendors on tricycles who are known to charge dubious prices depending on the time and season.
The ethnic flare-up started after the Yueyang police from Hunan province posted a message on their official Weibo account. It reported a dispute in Pingjiang county over an overpriced piece of nut cake between a Xinjiang Uygur vendor and a villager named "Ling".
Villager Ling got into a fight with a Uygur due to a misunderstanding. The verbal dispute eventually escalated into a fight and then a mass fight. As a result, two people were injured and Xinjiang nut cakes worth about 160,000 yuan (US$25,000) were destroyed. The total damage was worth 200,000 yuan which included a broken motorcycle and injuries to people. Local police have detained Ling. The 16 Uygur sellers were dully compensated and sent back to Xinjiang.
"Yueyang police incident" quickly became one of the most popular topics on Weibo. Yueyang police removed the post shortly after. As of Tuesday night, the topic was still amassing more than 66,000 hits.
The incident is just one of many similar cases of ethnic tensions across China, notably in Xinjiang province, where deeply entrenched social and racial frictions between the dominant ethnic Han Chinese and minority Uygur Muslims occasionally spark violence. Many Uygurs living in major Chinese cities are viewed by locals as thieves, crooks and even terrorists.Which of the following is true?
A.The dispute is between a Xinjiang Uygur vendor and a policeman. |
B.Nut cake is a popular pastry across East Asia and the Middle East. |
C.The prices of Baklava will change according to the time and season. |
D.The demand of the 16 Uygur sellers were refused and they were sent back to Xinjiang. |
How much did the broken motorcycle cost?
A.160,000 yuan | B.200,000 yuan | C.40,000yuan | D.We don’t know |
What’s the best title of the passage?
A.World's most expensive baklava |
B.Ethnic tensions across China |
C.Pay attention to the Uygurs |
D.Misunderstanding caused a fight |
What can we infer from the passage?
A.Yueyang police are afraid of the Xinjiang Uygur vendor |
B.It’s not the only ethnic tension across China, |
C.Many Uygurs living in major Chinese cities are viewed by locals as thieves, crooks and even terrorists. |
D.Villager Ling got into a fight with a Uygur due to a misunderstanding. |
Tui Na and Your Emotional Health
In Traditional Chinese Medicine the body, mind and spirit cannot be divided and so the unique whole-body treatment in Tui Na can also be a useful treatment correcting any imbalances in the body's energy before symptoms and disease can develop. It also works to restore emotional harmony as well as physical health. This is why after a Tui Na treatment many people "feel good". Many people in China use Tui Na regularly to keep healthy and to deal with some specific illnesses.
Tui Na is performed on the clothed body and the patient is either lying on a couch or sitting on a chair. Therapists using a variety of strokes or movements will control the intensity and direction of pressure in an exact way. The unique rolling movement in Tui Na is one of the most difficult strokes to learn and students have to practice sometimes for many months on a rice bag before they are allowed to practice on the human body.
Stress
Tui Na is of course very useful for treating stress.
It distributes the energy around the whole body. It is believed that Tui Na moves the strong energy in the tense muscles to the weaker areas, thus making a more balanced body. When your Qi (energy in the body) flow is balanced you feel relaxed and comfortable.Tui Na is especially useful for stiff shoulders and tense neck muscles.
Emotions
In Traditional Chinese Medicine each major organ is linked to an emotion. By balancing the energy in the organ, the relevant emotion will be calmed. When your emotions are out of control, you would usually turn to your doctor or perhaps a psychotherapist. But perhaps some people would not like to be seeing a psychotherapist or feel nervous about discussing their problems with others. With Tui Na one does not need to tell the therapist anything one does not want to. The treatment of Tui Na can deal with the problem itself — although if one does need to talk, then the safe space is there to do so. An active dialogue between the therapist and the patient will help to get a better effect.
How the major organs rule your emotions
Each major organ — the heart, the stomach, the spleen, the liver, the bladder, the kidneys, the lungs, etc. — is linked to a relevant emotion.
The heart is linked to joy, excitement and sadness. If the heart is out of balance, the patient may dream a lot at night and often forget something important in the day.
The stomach and spleen are connected with too much thinking or worrying — over anxiety. When the stomach is out of balance there is often a lack of energy. The patient often feels very tired and has no interest in doing anything at all.
The liver and gall bladder are linked to anger. In Chinese Medicine the eyes are connected with the liver, and many people who suffer from anger often suffer from eye problems. The gall bladder rules decision-making and too much energy here can lead to rashness, while if there is too little it can bring about indecision. Where there is a history of depression, the therapist would look to the liver.
The bladder and kidneys are linked to fear of all kinds, from simple anxieties and phobias to vague fears and worries.
The lungs are connected with feelings of grief and sadness. When there is a history of grief, the therapist would look to the lungs.
Tui Na is used in almost all the hospitals in China and very popular among Chinese people. It is a useful and valuable method of restoring Qi balance, when emotional and physical health is out of balance. Tui Na is one of the remaining secrets of Chinese Medicine. According to the passage, which statement is TRUE about Tui Na?
A.Tui Na is a whole-body treatment and can't be divided into different parts. |
B.Tui Na can be used to balance the diseases before they can develop in the body. |
C.Tui Na can bring back not only physical health but also emotional health. |
D.Tui Na only makes people "feel good" but do not actually cure disease. |
How can the emotion be calmed?
A.By linking the organ to an emotion. |
B.By telling the therapist anything one does not want to. |
C.By discussing their problems with others. |
D.By balancing the energy in the relevant organ. |
When the stomach is out of balance, .
A.the patient will have a stomachache |
B.the patient will have a lot to worry about |
C.the patient will have nothing to do |
D.the patient will not feel like doing anything |
How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You?
Mothers who feel their children don' t appreciate them can add another grievance to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel better than total strangers, who are told lies an astonishing 77 % of the time.
Bella Depaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as "when you intentionally try to mislead someone", so she would catch the smallest of lies.
The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. "They are everyday lies," says DePaulo.
DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell "kind-hearted" lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies.
Romantic(浪漫的)partners lie somewhere between close friends and acquaintances. Students lied to romantic partners about a third of the time. DePaulo thinks that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance.
Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them. What is the meaning of the underlined word "grievance" in Paragraph 1?
A.opinion. | B.complaint. | C.belief. | D.difficulty. |
According to the passage, college students felt closest to ______ .
A.mothers | B.best friends | C.acquaintances | D.romantic partners |
Female students lied to their roommates to.
A.get money from them | B.offer them the services |
C.gain more security | D.make them happy |
What is the purpose of this article?
A.To present a fact. | B.To argue an idea. |
C.To tell a story. | D.To explain a theory. |
Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a small pool of water ahead on the path. I angled my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn't covered by water or mud. As I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked! Yet I did nothing for the attack. It was so unpredictable and from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt though I had been struck four or five times. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't have found it amusing. And I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped, laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He charged towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but in vain. For a second time, I took a step backwards while my attacker paused. I wasn't sure what to do. After all, it's just not everyday that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That's when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it up on himself to attack me for his mate's sake (缘故), even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life, should I have been careless enough to step on her. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate's safety seemed admirable. I couldn't do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
Since then, I've always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge barriers facing me.Why did the writer change his direction while walking down a path?
A.To get close to a butterfly. | B.To look over the bad situation. |
C.To escape a sudden attack. | D.To avoid getting his shoes dirty. |
What made the man feel funny?
A.Making the attacker pause. | B.Being attacked by a butterfly. |
C.Being stepped on by his mate. | D.Discovering the energetic butterfly. |
From this experience the man learned.
A.what he should do when faced with trouble |
B.people should show sympathy to the weak |
C.how he should deal with attacks |
D.people should protect butterflies |
Which of the following words can best describe the butterfly?
A.Careless. | B.Amusing. | C.Courageous. | D.Aggressive. |
No one can avoid being influenced by advertisements. Much as we may pride ourselves on our good taste, we are no longer free to choose the things we want, for advertising exerts a subtle influence on us. In their efforts to persuade us to buy this or that product, advertisers have made a close study of human nature and have classified all our little weaknesses.
Advertisers discovered years ago that all of us love to get something for nothing. An advertisement which begins with the magic word FREE can rarely go wrong. These days, advertisers not only offer free samples, but free cars, free houses, and free trips round the world as well. They devise hundreds of competitions which will enable us to win huge sums of money. Radio and television have made it possible for advertisers to capture the attention of millions of people in this way.
During a radio programme, a company of biscuit manufacturers once asked listeners to bake biscuits and send them to their factory. They offered to pay $10 a pound for the biggest biscuit baked by a listener. The response to this competition was tremendous. Before long, biscuits of all shapes and sizes began arriving at the factory. One lady brought in a biscuit on a wheelbarrow. It weighed nearly 500 pounds. A little later, a man came along with a biscuit which occupied the whole of his car. All the biscuits that were sent were carefully weighed. The largest was 713 pounds. It seemed certain that this would win the prize. But just before the competition closed, a lorry arrived at the factory with a truly colossal biscuit which weighed 2,400 pounds. It had been baked by a college student who had used over 1,000 pounds of flour, 800 pounds of sugar, 200 pounds of fat, and 400 pounds of various other ingredients. It was so heavy that a crane had to be used to remove it from the lorry. The manufacturers had to pay more money than they had anticipated, for they bought th
e biscuit from the student for $24,000.
.
. Why have advertisers made a close study of human weakness?
A.They thought it was very interesting to do so. |
B.They wanted to persuade the customers to buy their products. |
C.They thought it was their duty. |
D.They wanted to research how much people spend buying their products. |
.
. Why do advertisers offer free samples and other things to people?
A.They use them to attract people’s attention. |
B.Their advertisements have little effect on customers. |
C.Different means are being used to cheat people. |
D.They produce too many products that can’t be sold out. |
.
From the last paragraph, we know that the factory failed to expect _______.
A.how many people would take an interest in the competition |
B.how many ingredients are needed to bake a large biscuit |
C.it was possible to bake a biscuit as large as the student’s |
D.the payment wouldn’t be as high as $ 24,000 |
When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek friends whose qualities illuminate me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and "too serious" about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say, " Let's start with a train whistle today." We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changing into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.
When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend, he was in despair and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.
For almost four years I have had remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other's dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think, " Yes, I must tell.." We have never met.
It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist, who will only fill up the healing silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.
.
. In the eighth grade, what the author did before developing proper social behavior was to ______.
A.become serious about her study |
B.go to her friend's house regularly |
C.learn from her classmates at school |
D.share poems and stories with her friend |
.
. In Paragraph 3, "We gave London to each other" probably means ______.
A.our exploration of London was a memorable gift to![]() |
B.we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London |
C.our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared |
D.we parted with each other in London |
.
. According to Paragraph 4, the author and her friend _______.
A.call each other regularly |
B.have similar personalities |
C.enjoy writing to each other |
D.dream of meeting each other |
.
. In the darkest moments, the author would prefer to ______.
A.seek professional help |
B.be left alone |
C.stay with her best friend |
D.break the silence |
.
. What is the best title for the passage?
A.Unforgettable Experiences |
B.Remarkable Imagination |
C.Lifelong Friendship |
D.Noble Companions |