阅读理解
The history of Chinese
characters dates back to ancient times, with the history of at least several
thousand years.
There are many
tales and legends about the origin of hanzi,
Chinese characters: there is Cangjie, the legendary inventor of Chinese
charater; the ancient practice of knot-tying; the eight trigrams (八卦); and
ancient painting legends to name a few. It is generally agreed that
hanzi began as simple pictures, images
that the ancient Chinese people drew, painted or carved to describe nature or
their lives. Other ancient cultures developed picture-based writing systems as well, such as the hieroglyphs (象形文字) of ancient Egypt
or the script of the ancient Mayan civilization. Hanzi, however, is the only one of these
ancient writing systems to survive.
Today, Chinese
characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world.
Researchers generally agree that the oldest symbols recognizable as Chinese
characters are those found on ancient oracle bones (甲骨文). These 3000-year-old
symbols, known as, jiaguwen, were
carved on turtle shells or bones of animals. The jiaguwen can give all of us in the modern era insight into how
ancient Chinese saw the world around them and into their great creativity in
expressing their observations. Take, for example, the modern character jia, meaning home or family. The jiaguwen character looks like a house
with a nice pig inside, originating from the ancient idea that a good family
home has plenty of food. Over thousands of years, this hanzi evolved into a variety of different forms but finally
developed in a more stable manner after the unification of China under Emperor
Qinshihuang,
When you first
look at Chinese characters, you will most likely feel that they are very
complicated. However, if you know just a little about how these characters are
formed, you will find that they are not nearly as difficult as they seem. About 80% of Chinese characters are composed
of smaller parts, known ns radicals (部首), which are combined
in many different ways to form
tens of thousands of hanzi.
Fortunately, you need to know only about two or three thousand characters for
use in daily life!
As China takes
its place in the international community, the Chinese writing system has spread
to other countries. Today, many international students are studying Chinese,
both the spoken and written language, and are coming to appreciate China's
fascinating culture. And, as China's culture and society have continued to
develop, the amazingly versatile (多功能的) Chinese characters (hanzi) have been adapted for use in
digital format on computers and other devices. And so written Chinese lives on,
spreading Chinese culture wherever it goes.
(1)
According to the passage, we can learn that Chinese characters .
A . have a long history with seven thousand years
B . began as simple pictures
C . are the only one ancient writing system
D . are so complicated that nobody can understand
(2)
Why did the writer mention Emperor Qinshihuang in the passage?
A . Because he was the inventor of Chinese characters.
B . Because hanzi evolved into a variety of different forms.
C . Because he helped developed hanzi in a more stable manner.
D . Because he unified China and created hanzi.
(3)
What can we learn from the underlined sentence (划线句子) in Paragraph 4?
A . Radicals are smaller parts which can be combined to form hanzi.
B . Chinese characters are composed of radicals.
C . Chinese characters can be combined.
D . Radicals can be combined into thousands of hanzi only.
(4)
What may the writer probably talk about Chinese characters in the next paragraph?
A . The relation between Chinese characters and Chinese culture.
B . Tips for foreigners on how to learn Chinese well.
C . Another Chinese traditional culture.
D . The origin of Chinese characters.
(5)
What is NOT true about the jiaguwen?
A . The jiagnwen is known as the oldest Chinese character.
B . From the jiaguwen, we can know how ancient Chinese saw the world.
C . The, jiaguwen was invented 3000years ago.
D . We can find the jiaguwen on turtle bones.
答案: B
C
B
A
D