学进去

Ink brushes, ink, paper and inkstones (砚台) are the “Four Treasures of Study” in China. They have been must-haves for fans of calligraphy (书法) and Chinese painting. Jiangzhou Chengni inkstone in Shanxi province is one of China’s most famous’ inkstones. It is known for its fine texture (质地). It feels like “a baby’s skin” and can do less harm to the brush. Unlike other inkstones made from natural stone, it is made with mud from the Fenhe River. In 2008, the craft of making Jiangzhou Chengni inkstones was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage (国家非物质文化遗产).

The skill for making Jiangzhou Chengni inkstones can be dated back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC—AD 220). However, it was lost at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644).

In 1986, Lin Yongmao, a craftsman from Xinjiang county, Shanxi, and his son Lin Tao decided to revive(恢复) this ancient skill. To find clues (线索), they visited libraries to read historical papers about the inkstone. Although they learned the basics, bringing it back to life was not an easy task. They walked over the Fenhe riverbed (河床) and collected all kinds of mud to find the best one. To know the best temperature of firing clay, they spent sleepless nights keeping a close watch on the kiln (窑) in smoke.

After many failures, they succeeded in making three Chengni inkstones in 1991. In 1994, their inkstones won a gold prize at the China Expo of Famous Inkstones.

According to them, it takes over a year and more than 10 steps to make a Chengni inkstone. One of the key steps is mud filtering(过滤). “The mud needs to be filtered over and over again till it feels like flour (面粉). This is to make sure the texture of clay is right,” he said.

Lin Xiaolin, Lin Tao’s son, is a third-generation inheritor of the Chengni inkstone craftsmanship. In 2019, after returning from his studies abroad, the 33-year-old man created new ways to make the Chengni inkstone. By controlling the temperature of the kiln, he increased the colors of the Chengni inkstone from three to eight. The young inheritor has also stepped into the online market through e-commerce and livestreaming.

In 2013, Lin Tao built the China Jiangzhou Chengni Inkstone Cultural Park. More than 10,000 people have visited the park to learn the old skill. “Passing on the skill holds the key to keeping it alive,” he said.

Last week we went to the countryside to have a picnic. We bought some sandwiches, fruits and water for lunch. We started out quite early before there was too much traffic. After two hours’ driving, we came to a nice place. It was at the foot of a hill and near a river, with some large trees beside it. As it was a very hot day, we parked the car under a large tree and went for a swim in the river. The water was refreshing. After having a swim we had lunch in the cool shade under the trees.

Then we went for a walk. We saw some beautiful birds and butterflies. After walking for about an hour we returned to the car. However, we couldn’t get the car started. Finally we had to push the car off the road and wait for help. Of course, the car’s breaking down spoilt (破坏) our picnic in the end!

某英语学习论坛发布了一个主题为“My Vacation”的帖子，请网友们谈一谈自己最难忘的一次度假经历。假如你是小华，去年暑假你和父母一起去鼎龙湾(Dinglong Bay)郊游，在那里度过了快乐的时光。请你用英语写一篇回帖，和大家分享这段经历。

How the Grand Canyon was created is one of the geology’s greatest mysteries(奥秘). Some geologists believed that it came into its shape slowly in the long history: the Colorado River went through the canyon and slowly cut deeper and deeper into the ground over millions of years. But some rocks of the volcanoes, which have been discovered in the canyon recently, show that the canyon was down-cut instead.

Down-cutting is when a flood of water rushes(冲) over a place with enough force to cut deeply into the ground and leaves behind a canyon. Such a flood usually comes when a natural or man-made dam(坝) breaks.

Robert Webb, a research geologist, says natural dams seem to have formed and broken across the Colorado River several times during the last million years. The dams were built when lava (火山岩浆) from the nearby volcanoes flowed into the river. The lava hardened into hard rocks and blocked(阻挡) the river, causing it to back up and form a lake. Each time the lake grew so huge that it broke the rock dam, then the flood of water caused the down-cutting and the canyon became deeper. Down-cutting does not only happen on the earth. Satellite photos sent back from Mars show that down-cutting has happened there, too, say many other scientists. The photos, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, indicate(表明) that a huge lake existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. The lake spilled into a large nearby hole. One edge of the hole broke, releasing a flash flood that quickly carved out a huge canyon. The finding of down-cutting on Mars is just one more piece of evidence(证据) that the formation of the Grand Canyon was not a gradual course.

A．

B．

C．

D．