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Passage One

　

    The vast influence of identical pronunciation: For example, in Cantonese the pronunciation of "eight" and "success" are very close, which makes the number significant for Cantonese. But for Fukienese it has no function.

    Taiwanese have many taboos around the similarity of the sounds for "four" and "death," but Hakkanese couldn't seem to care less.

    The study of names and the nine-boxed-paper, a very widespread belief among ordinary people, involves surmising a person's personality and fate according to the number of strokes of the pen in the three characters of the name. In the West and Japan, a type of fortune-telling has been developed based on adding together the numbers of the year, month, and day of one's birth, and using it to assess the person's fate. Others are able to roughly guess a person's personality from their favorite numbers.

    The popularity of auspicious or lucky numbers is related to the idea of the pursuit of harmony in names by, for instance, using the radical or character for "metal" to compensate for apparent lack of "metal" in the person, or using the "water" radical to make up for a deficiency of the same. Li Heng-li points out that numbers can be divided into sheng and cheng types, the former being one through five and the latter being six through ten. In this scheme, one and six are for water; two and seven are for fire; three and eight belong to wood; four and nine signify metal; and five and ten are for earth. If you divide them up by yin and yang, the negative and positive forces, one, three, five, seven, and nine are all yang, and two, four, six, eight, and ten are yin.

    (284 words)

　

1. The number "eight" is significant for Cantonese because ________.( )

(a) it also means "success"

(b) it is close to "success" in written form

(c) it is close to "success" when pronounced

(d) it functions as "success"

2. Taiwanese pay attention to the sounds of "four" and "death" ________.( )

(a) and Hakkanese pay more attention to them

(b) and Hakkanese pay as much attention to them

(c) but Hakkanese pay less attention to them

(d) but Hakkanese pay little attention to them

3. Paragraph three discusses ________.( )

(a) the relationship between numbers and a person's character and fate

(b) people's belief about the numbers as well as a person's character and fate

(c) fortune-telling and how it works in the West and Japan

(d) different implications of numbers

4. According to paragraph four, people who believed in the theory of sheng and cheng would ________.( )

(a) use as many numbers in their names as possible

(b) use auspicious numbers in their names

(c) use either numbers of the sheng type or the cheng type

(d) use certain characters in their names to seek harmony

5. The above passage discusses ________.( )

(a) history

(b) culture

(c) fortune-telling

(d) names                                                            TOP 

 

Passage Two

    The 12th lunar month in Chinese is called layue (the month to worship all the deities). The eighth day of the 12th lunar month is the Laba Festival. It is treated as the beginning of the Chinese holiday season. After the Laba Festival, people enter into the busy preparation for the Lunar New Year. The main activity of the Laba Festival is cooking and sharing the special laba gruel (laba-zhou).

    Most people believe it has a close relation to Sakyamuni, the Buddha. He left his comfortable home and set off in search of the final enlightenment. After days of traveling without rest, he collapsed near a river in northern India. He was revived by a wandering shepherdess, who offered him her lunch of family leftovers consisting of sticky cereal, glutinous rice, dates, chestnuts and wild fruit. After consuming this repast, Sakyamuni took a batch and sat under a tree for meditation, where he finally attained enlightenment. The very day was the 8th day of the last lunar month. The meal was the original laba gruel.

    (177 words)

　

   6. At the Laba Festival, people ________.( )

(a) worship all the deities

(b) begin preparations for the Lunar New Year

(c) cook a variety of food to mark the occasion

(d) eat a special gruel together

7. The Laba Festival is believed by many to be related to ________.( )

(a) Confucianism

(b) Buddhism

(c) Taoism

(d) Christianity

8. Sakyamuni left his home and searched for ________.( )

(a) wealth for life

(b) wisdom of life

(c) comforts of life

(d) remedies for life

9. Sakyamuni ate a meal which was made of all the following except ________.( )

(a) wild fruit

(b) rice

(c) cereal

(d) meat

10. The 8th day of the last lunar month was remarkable because that day Sakyamuni ________.( )

(a) ate a meal given by a shepherdess

(b) found the meal very delicious

(c) made a deep meditation

(d) obtained the final enlightenment                                 TOP

 

Passage Three

    In the countryside, many big families with several generations live under one roof. Usually in such a family, the family members share one kitchen. Thus the kitchen holds quite an important position.

    The center of the kitchen is the brick stove, above which there hangs a portrait of the kitchen god. In most prints, he appears like a kind old man with a long beard. Wearing the robes and hat of a noble magistrate, the kitchen god is attended by several immortal lads. Such prints often show the wife of the kitchen god seated next to him.

    His duty is to watch over every household through the whole year, seeing and hearing everything. The kitchen god is supposed to start his journey to report to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, and many households have a ceremony on that day. Nobody wants the Jade Emperor to hear a bad report on their house!

    During the ceremony, people put incense and some candy before his portrait, or smear honey or sugar on his mouth. It is the most popular way to "bribe" the kitchen god. When his mouth is stuffed with sugar, the kitchen god can say only sweet things.

    After that, people burn his portrait in the stove, releasing the god to heaven. On Lunar New Year's Eve, they hang a new print of the kitchen god, receiving him back to his dwelling on earth.

    As Spring Festival approaches, prints of the kitchen god can be found in countryside markets. As they purchase the portrait of the kitchen god, people, especially the old folks, never use the word "buy". They say, "I invite the kitchen god home."

    Even so, they have to pay for it.

    (292 words)

　

11. In most prints of the kitchen god, there is/are also ________.( )

(a) serving maids

(b) a noble magistrate

(c) old kind men with a long beard

(d) the wife of the god

12. On the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the kitchen god is supposed to ________.( )

(a) start watching over every household

(b) have a grand holiday

(c) depart and give a report to the Jade Emperor

(d) hear reports from the household

13. People put sugar on the mouth of the kitchen god in order to ________.( )

(a) make him unable to speak

(b) start his journey without an empty stomach

(c) give a favorable report

(d) make him confused about good things and bad things

14. People burn the portrait of the kitchen god in the stove because ________.( )

(a) they don't want to see him again

(b) they mean to allow him to start his journey

(c) they want a new kitchen god

(d) they just hate him

15. Many people never use the word "buy" while purchasing the portrait of the kitchen god since they ________.( )

(a) need not pay for it

(b) don't know it is only a print they are buying

(c) are superstitious

(d) are showing piety                                               TOP

　

                            

　

　
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