阅读理解

    The kindly “Chinese Fortune Grandpa” wearing Han Chinese clothing and holding a fortune bag debuted(亮相) at the Imperial Ancestral Shrine in Beijing on the day after Christmas. The final image of the Chinese gift-giver was selected through a global design competition that cost millions of yuan. Its debut seems to be a sign of competition against “Santa Claus”, according to a report by Guangming Daily.

    Many Chinese cities have been filled with Christmas neon lights, Christmas songs, Christmas trees, and the images of “Santa Claus” in recent days. As a matter of fact, foreign festivals are becoming more popular than certain traditional Chinese festivals among the Chinese people, particularly the youth. “Certain traditional festivals have died out because people have forgotten their spiritual meanings,” said noted writer Feng Jicai. More and more Chinese people are beginning to exchange gifts on Valentine's Day and Christmas. However, many of them know nothing about Chinese New Year pictures or sugarcoated figurines(小糖人), and have never heard suona music. Certain folk customs on the Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, and other traditional festivals have gradually disappeared. Under such circumstances, even the “Chinese Fortune Grandpa” is unlikely to defeat “Santa Claus”.

    However, it is not a bad thing to some extent. It constantly reminds people to restore the “true face” of traditional festivals. China has listed traditional Tomb Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival as legal holidays, which brings more paid leaves to the public, and helps to awaken the public awareness of traditional festivals.

    In modern society, festival is a carrier of culture and its meaning largely depends on their understandings and usages by people. Compared with foreign festivals, traditional Chinese festivals are not inferior(次于) in cultural meanings, but lack of fashion sought by modern people. If people do not appreciate the historical culture contained by traditional festivals, and only take pleasure-seeking as the most important, the significance of traditional festivals will fade away and the inheritance(继承) of fine traditional culture will be cut off.

    Is there anything more important than health？I don't think so. You can't be good at your studies or work when you are ill. If you have a headache，or a bad cough，if you run a high temperature and have a bad cold，I think you should go to the doctor. The doctor will examine your throat，feel your pulse，take your temperature，sound your heart and lungs. After that he will advise some treatment，or some medicine. The only thing you have to do is to follow his advice.

    Speaking of doctor's advice, I can't help telling you a funny story. An old man came to see the doctor. The man was very ill. He told the doctor about his weakness，memory loss and serious problems with his heart and lungs. The doctor examined him and said there was no medicine for his disease. He told his patient to go to a quiet place for a month and have a good rest .He also advised him to eat a lot of meat，drink two glasses of red wine every day and take long walks. In other words，the doctor advised him to follow the rule：“Eat at pleasure，drink with measure and enjoy life as it is.”The doctor also said that if the man wanted to be well again，he shouldn't smoke more than one cigarette a day.

    A month later the gentleman came into the doctor's office. He looked cheerful and happy. He thanked the doctor and said that he had never felt a healthier man.“But you know，doctor，”he said，“it's not easy to begin smoking at my age.”

    A good teacher is many things to many people. In my own experience, the people I respect the most and think about the most are the teachers who demanded the most discipline (纪律) from their students.

    I miss one teacher in particular that I had in high school. I think she was a good teacher because she was a very strict person. I remember very clearly a sign on her classroom door. It was a simple sign that said,    "Laboratory: in this room the first five letters of the word was stressed not the last seven." In other words, labor for her was more important than oratory, which means making speeches.

    She prepared her work very carefully and told us to do the same. We got lots of homework from her. Once she had broken her arm, and everybody in the class thought that maybe the homework load would be reduced, but it continued just the same. She checked our work by stamping her name at the bottom of the papers to show that she had read them.

    I think sometimes teachers who demand the most are liked the least. But as time goes by, this discipline really seems to benefit the students.

    Every time your fingers touch your cell phone, they leave behind trace of amounts of chemicals. And each chemical offers clues to you and your activities. By studying them, scientists might be able to piece together a story about your recent life, a new study finds.

    A molecule (分子) is a group of atoms. It is the smallest amounts of some chemicals. Your skin is covered in molecules picked up by everything you touched. With each new thing your skin contacts, you leave behind some small share of what it'd touched earlier.

    Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) recently studied such chemical leftovers on the phones of 39 volunteers. The study was led by biochemist Amina Bouslimani. To explore those residues (剩余物), the UCSD team wiped the surface of each volunteer's phone with a cotton swab (药签). The scientists also swabbed each person's right hand. Then the researchers compared the chemicals found on each cell phone.

    The scientists discovered as many of the molecules as they could. They then compared those to a database of chemicals. Pieter Dorrestein, a UCSD pharmaceutical chemist, had helped set up that database a few years earlier, which contains various substances, including spices, caffeine and medicines.

    Traces of everything from hundreds to thousands of different molecules turned up on each phone. The molecules suggested what had been in the body, and what each person had handled before touching the phone. From all these molecules, Bouslimani says, “We could tell if a person is likely female, uses high-end cosmetics (化妆品), colors her hair, drinks coffee, prefers beer over wine or likes spicy food.”

    Police already use molecular analyses to look for traces of explosives or illegal drugs. To date, Dorrestein says, he's never heard of police using phone residues to narrow down behaviour clues to search for a suspect. But detectives might one day use such data to track down someone who left a phone behind at a crime scene.

    Kendrick Lamar hasn't had much luck when it comes to winning a Grammy. But that's OK： The US rapper(说唱歌手) has just won a Pulitzer Prize for his music.

    In 2014, in 2016, and again this year. Lamar was nominated (提名)for an album of the year Grammy. Each time, he was beaten out, first by Taylor Swift, next by Daft Punk, and most recently by Bruno Mars.

    But the Pulitzer Prize committee was inspired enough by Lamar's 2017 album, Damn, to award the 30-year-old its Pulitzer Prize in music on April 16. It's an amazing album that documents the real life of modem African-Americans in South Los Angeles with wildly accomplished beats and rhythms.

    Lamar's win is considered to be historical. 'The Pulitzers have long displayed their preference toward high art rather than the pop culture of the masses. So it's not just that no rapper has ever won a Pulitzer: no pop music maker has ever won one in the award's 75-year history.

    But Lamar is not just a singer—he's clever at using language. Like the best writers, his music describes small moments that illustrate (阐明) larger points. His songs are about his experience as a black man who grew up in California, struggled, got into trouble, and found his way out by working hard and making sense of the history and reality of racial problems in the US.

    “He's an artist who challenges idea,” said Ryan Coogler, director of the blockbuster(大片) hit Black Panther, for which Lamar created music. "One big theme in our film of,' What does it mean to be African?' Kendrick in his music is very exactly and directly challenging that question."

    Good artists entertain us, great artists make us think, and exceptional artists help us empathize (感同身受) .

    There are a lot of good, great, even exceptional artists in rock, pop, country, and hip-hop. But only Lamar has a Pulitzer Prize.

    It is made from grapes grown without pesticides (杀虫剂) and chemicals, is kind to the environment and rarely causes hangovers (宿醉). Sales of organic(有机的) wine are booming in the UK.

    According to the organic food and farming group Soil Association, sales of organic beers, wines and spirits rose by 14.3% last year to reach nearly ￡6 million, driven by the demand from consumers who are increasingly seeking “natural” food.

    “It seems that people are rediscovering their link with the environment through organic food. Organic wines also taste better, perhaps due to less use of man-made chemicals.” said Finn Cottle of Soil Association. As well as the benefits of producing grapes without using pesticides, organic wine also contains less sulphur dioxide (二氧化硫), which can contribute towards hangovers.

    Supermarkets are increasing supplies on their shelves to meet consumer demand, while the switch to online shopping has also helped, as people are more easily able to find what they are looking for. Vintage Roots is now one of the UK's biggest online shops of organic wine, while Ocado provides more than 100 different organic wines and Daylesford, best-known for its organic vegetable boxes, has branched out into organic wine and spirits.

    The discount supermarket Aldi is set to start its first collection of so-called “green” wines this week, offering eight wines with organic certificates. Aldi expects the wines to appeal to the young shoppers who are increasingly concerned about the environmental influence of the produce that they are buying and consuming.

    English organic wine producer Oxney Estate's Noir Rosé recently won the Waitrose prize for the most outstanding rosé wine at the competition. A spokeswoman for Waitrose said:“Organic wine is a growing trend globally and we have seen sales increase by 16% in the last year”.