When you travel in China, you can often see some very special puppets (木偶) in many gift shops. They are thin, colorful, made of animal skin (皮) and in all kinds of shapes. They are traditional Chinese shadow puppets.

The Chinese shadow puppet play (皮影戏) is an old art. It's also called "the business of the five", because a shadow puppet play group is usually made up of five people. One moves the puppets, one sings and the other three play instruments.

How did this art start? There is a story behind it. It is said that more than 2 000 years ago, the wife of Emperor Wu of Han died from illness. The emperor was very sad. His minister (大臣), Li Shaoweng, one day saw children playing with dolls and the shadows of the dolls were dancing on the wall. Then Li went back home and made a puppet of emperor's wife. He put sticks (技条) on the puppet's hands and feet to make it easy to move.

When night came, he put up a curtain (帘), lit a candle, and invited the emperor to sit before the curtain. Li moved the puppet from behind the curtain. The emperor felt like he was seeing his wife again and was very happy. After that the shadow puppet play became the emperor's favorite pastime.

Over the past thousands of years, the shadow puppet play has won the hearts of many people in China. And now, more and more people around the world are showing interest in the art.

1.What is NOT the quality of Chinese shadow puppets?

A.Thin and colorful. B.Made of animals. C.Different kinds of shapes.

2.How many people are there in a shadow puppet play group?

A.1. B.3. C.5.

3.How did the wife of Emperor Wu of Han die?

A.Because of the illness. B.Because of the emperor. C.Because of the minister.

4.What is NOT necessary when we play the shadow puppets?

A.Spoons. B.Curtain. C.Sticks.

5.What can we infer (推断) according to the passage?

A.The emperor is a very strict person.

B.The Chinese shadow puppet play is a symbol of China.

C.Chinese shadow puppet play has been popular around the world for 2,000 years.

A woman was at the airport waiting for her flight to start boarding. She still had a lot of time, so she went to a shop and bought a book to read. While she was in the shop, she decided to buy a bag of cookies as well.

She arrived at her gate, sat down and started reading her book. She read her book so carefully that she didn’t notice what was going on around her. But she did see that a man had sat down next to her and taken one of her cookies out of the bag.

She pretended(假装) not to notice, as she didn’t want to make a scene(当众大吵). But then the man took more. He kept eating the cookies until there was just one left. The man took the last cookie and broke it in half. He tapped the woman on the shoulder and held out one half to her.

The woman could not believe how much nerve (勇气) this man had to steal (偷) all of her cookies and then offer half a cookie in return. She angrily grabbed (夺) the half-cookie out of his hand and ate it without any words.

Finally, it was time for her to board. As she went to the gate, she reached into her purse. Suddenly, she realized that her bag of cookies was still in her purse. The man had eaten his own cookies the whole time and simply wanted to share the last one with her. The woman’s face turned red with shame. So she quickly caught up with him and said, “__________.”

When we’re not paying attention to the world around us, it can be easy to misunderstand what’s happening or even become angry with others. It is better to keep our eyes open and think about every possibility when trying to understand a special situation.

1.Did the woman arrive at the airport so early?

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2.Why couldn’t the woman notice what happened around her at all?

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3.What did the man do with the last cookie?

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4.How did the woman feel when she was offered the half-cookie?

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5.When did the woman realize her mistake?

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6.What did the woman probably say to the man?(Please fill in the blank in Paragraph 5 with one sentence.)

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