江苏省历年中考真题分类汇编：阅读理解 （社会文化类）

Chinese is mainly divided into 13 dialects（方言）and these dialects can be further divided into many kinds of local dialects. Putonghua (or Mandarin) the predominant dialect, is spoken by over 70% of the population and is one ofthe6officillanguages of the United Nations, Within these large dialect groups, there are small groups, many of which are difficult to understand. In Fujian, for example, people living 10 kilometres away from one Another can be speaking different Min dialects.

Putonghua. It is the mother dialect of Chinese living in northern China and Sichuan Province. It is called Guoyu in some parts of China, like Hong Kong, Macao（澳门）and Taiwan, It is known in English as Mandarin Chinese, or Standard Chinese.

Wu. Spoken in Shanghai, most of Zhejiang and the southern parts of Jiangsu and Anhui Wu is made up of hundreds of different of spoken forms.

Hakka/Kejia. Hakka is widely spoken in Fujian. Taiwan, and some countries in Southeast Asia.

Min. It is spoken in Fujian, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Min group is the most diverse（多样的）, with many different spoken forms used in neighbouring countries.

Yue. It is spoken in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, all over Southeast Asia and by many Chinese living abroad.

If you walk through a park in the morning or in the evening, you might see a lot of people doing these slow and beautiful movements— Carry the tiger over the mountain and White crane spreads its wings. In fact, they are doing Taichi.

Taichi is an ancient martial art(武术). It is a common kind of exercise in China. More than 100 million people in over 150 countries practice Taichi at present. Recently UNESCO(联合国教科文组织) has added Taichi to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List(非物质文化遗产名录). Many taichi fans were happy to hear of it. "This will make taichi more popular around the world. Hopefully, more people will become healthier by practicing it." said Chen Bin. He is a Taichi master from the village of Chenjiagou, Henan Province. This village is the birthplace of Chen-style Taichi.

It's true that doing Taichi is good for our health. It can make us walk and move more freely, and it can also make us stronger. During slow movements, we can focus on (专注) our hands and feet. We can control them better. Slow movements also help us to take deep and long breaths.

Taichi also focuses on the harmony(和谐) between yin(阴) and yang(阳). It shows how the ancient Chinese people saw the world. The world is full of yin and yang: dark and light, soft and hard, female and male. But they don't oppose(对立) each other absolutely(绝对地). As we see in the picture, a white spot is in the black area and a black spot is in the white area. After a dark night, the sun will rise. Leaves fall in autumn but grow in spring. Everything keeps changing — that is how we should see the world.

Taichi carries traditional Chinese philosophy(哲学), such as being in harmony with nature and using softness to beat hardness. It has become a symbol of Chinese culture.

Derek Redmond

It was the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992; the semi-final of the 400 metres. The sun was shining and the crowd were ready for a great race. The British athlete Derek Redmond was a top runncr: he had a very good chance of winning a medal.

The race began. At first, Derek was running well. Then, after about 150 metres, he felt a pain in his leg. He fell down on one knee. He had a bad injury and couldn't carry on. The other runners went past him and finished the race.

After about five seconds, Derek got up and started to run again, on one leg only. Some organizers tried to stop him but he kept going. The crowd

stood up and started to clap. Then another man came onto the track—Derek's father, Jim. His father put his arm around him and said," Derek, you don't have to do this." Derek replied," Yes, do. I have to finish." And so together they walked the last 50 metres and crossed the line.

When he finally crossed the line, Derek was crying and 60,000 people were cheering him Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner

In the summer of 2010, mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was almost at the top of a mountain called K2 in Nepal. She was trying to climb the 8,61l-metre mountain for the fifth time and this time she was climbing with her friend Fredrik Ericsson,

It was about 7 o'clock in the morning and it was snowing a little. The two climbers were getting ready to go up the last 400 metres. Fredrik was trying to tie some rope but he slipped and fell past Gerlinde. He fell 1,000 metres and was killed.

___▲   K2 was now a very sad place for her, and she thought perhaps she would never climb the mountain.

But here was something very important that she wanted to do: K2 is one of 14 mountains in the world that are 8,000 metes or higher, and her dream was to climb them all.

So in August 2011 she went back to Nepal and K2, and tried again This time, she got to the top. Her dream was complete