雅思基础阅读
Reading Passage 1
Birthday traditions in different countries Birthdays are celebrated all over the world. Some traditions are fairly similar from country to country: candles, cakes and birthday wishes, birthday games and pinches for good luck. Other customs are quite different. Here are a few.
Argentina –In Argentina, as in many Latin American countries, one of the most important birthday parties is a girl’s fifteenth. When girls turn 15, they have a huge party and dance the waltz first with their father, and then the boys at the party.
China –The birthday child pays respect to the parents and receives a gift of money. Friends and relatives are invited to lunch, and noodles are served to wish the birthday child a long life. Denmark – A flag is flown outside a window to show that someone who lives in that house is having a birthday. Presents are placed around the child’s bed while they are sleeping so they
will see them immediately when they wake up. The Netherlands –Special year birthdays such as 5, 10, 15, 20, 21 are called “crown” years and the birthday child receives an especially large gift. The family also decorates the birthday child’s chair with flowers or paper streamers, paper flowers and balloons.
India –Usually Indian children wear white to school. However, on their birthday children wear coloured clothes to school and give out chocolates to everyone in the class. Their best friend helps them to do this.
Japan – The birthday child wears new clothes to mark the occasion. Certain birthdays are more important than others and these are celebrated with a visit to the local shrine. These are the third and seventh birthdays for girls and the fifth for boys.
Questions 1-5
Match the countries in the box with their descriptions.
1 A country where longevity is celebrated by a special dish ________
2 A country where candies are distributed among peers ________
3 A country where the birthday is made known to the community ________
4 A country where the household is full of birthday ornaments ________
5 A country where religious worship is sometimes involved ________
Reading Passage 2
The American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of a radical or total change. It was not a sudden and violent
overturning of the political and social framework, such as later occurred in France and Russia, when both were already independent nations. Significant changes were ushered in, but they were not breathtaking. What happened was accelerate evolution rather than outright revolution. During the conflict itself people went on working and praying, marrying and playing. Most of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual fighting, and many of the more isolated communities scarcely knew that a war was on.
America’s War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern nations. One was Canada, which received its first large influx of English-speaking population from the thousands of loyalists who fled there from the United States. Another was Australia, which became a penal colony now that America was no longer available for prisoners and debtors. The third newcomer –the United States –based itself squarely on republican principles.。