2017-2018学年高中英语北师大版必修1文档：Unit 3 课时跟踪练（一） Warm-up amp； Lesson 1 — Pre-reading.docVIP

课时跟踪练(一) Warm-up Lesson 1 — Pre-reading Ⅰ.阅读理解 A The Dragon Boat Festival in China Chinese culture has many, many festivals commemorating (纪念) some unusual events. The Dragon Boat Festival is one such festival. The main thing to do on this day is to eat zongzi, the sticky rice dumpling. In some places, people race boats that are colourfully decorated with dragon designs, but I have never seen such a race. I have, however, eaten lots of zongzi. You can buy them or eat homemade ones. They are commonly eaten as a snack food. The rice may be white, and it may have some red bean paste inside. Sometimes the rice is brown from a sauce and inside is a small chunk (块) of ham. In any case, each one is wrapped in reed leaves and steamed, I suppose, for a long time. At first, I thought they were rather tasteless, but I have developed a taste for them now, and I like to eat them, though once a year is enough. The origin of zongzi is as strange as the food itself. There was a Chinese poet and official (Chinese officials in old times were always poets) named Qu Yuan. He was an official in the Kingdom of Chu. China has a tradition of ministers (大臣) who give advice to the king, and Qu Yuan was such a minister. Qu Yuan advised the king of Chu to prepare for war because the state of Qin was ready to destroy his state. But the king thought he was safe since the emperor of Qin seemed to be more interested in other weaker states. But, finally, Qin did attack Chu, and the Chu Kingdom was defeated. Qu Yuan was so sad about this that he killed himself by jumping into the Miluo River. His countrymen, on learning of this, rushed to the scene in small boats and tried to find his body. They failed to find it, so they made the dumplings wrapped in reed leaves and threw them into the river so the fish would eat the dumplings and not Qu Yuan’s body. That day was the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Later, it became a tradition to eat zongzi and to hold dragon boat races on that day every year