A
♦Yuanxiao, Chinese Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival ends the New Year’s celebration. It is a fun festival. People carry lanterns and go into the streets at night to watch lion or dragon dances, play games and light firecrackers. Yuanxiao, a sweet dumpling made of rice flour, is the traditional food eaten during the festival. In Chinese, the festival is named after this food, which is said to represent family unity and happiness because it is sticky, round and sweet.
♦The Dai WaterSplashing Festival
The Dai minority in Yunnan celebrate the WaterSplashing Festival in the middle of April. The festival celebrates the Dai Lunar New Year and lasts for three days. There are dragon races and fireworks displays on the first day and a fair on the second day. At the fair, young lovers throw love pouches to each other. The third day is the actual watersplashing day. People splash water on each other to wash away illnesses and bad luck and bring good luck for the coming year.
♦Losar
Losar is a Tibetan word for New Year.“Lo”means“year” and “sar” means “new”. As the most popular festival among Tibetans, it is celebrated from the first day in the first month to the fifteenth day based on the traditional Tibetan calendar.
On the last day of the year, people clean their houses and prepare for the festival. On the first day of the New Year, Tibetan women usually wake up early at about 5 o’clock, and prepare for a special kind of barley wine for the family which have tsamba, brown sugar, and milk dregs. The whole family have to drink the wine in their beds and then continue to sleep, while the housewives sit in front of their windows, waiting for the sunrise. As soon as they see the sun rays in the east, they go to the well for the first bucket of water in the New Year. It is said that water in the well is the freshest and sweetest at this time and the family who get the lucky water earliest will be the most fortunate.
【解题导语】 本文是一篇说明文。文中介绍了元宵节、泼水节和藏族的藏历新年的庆祝时间、庆祝活动以及它们的意义。
21．People eat yuanxiao during the Lantern Festival because________．
A．it is the traditional food and has its symbolic meaning
B．it is delicious and easy to make
C．it is sticky, round and sweet
D．it is made of rice flour
A 解析：细节理解题。由第一段的最后两句可知，元宵是在元宵节吃的传统食物，它具有幸福、团圆的象征意义。所以A项正确。
22．What can we know from Paragraph 2 about the word“fair”？
A．Young people splash water on each other at the fair.
B．It is the time when young people have meetings.
C．Young people find their lovers there.
D．Young people sing and dance there to celebrate the festival.
C 解析：细节理解题。由第二段中的“At the fair, young lovers throw love pouches to each other.”可知年轻人在此时扔示爱的小袋子给喜欢的人。所以C项正确。
23．The passage is mainly about ________．
A．the culture and custom in China
B．the reason why people celebrate festivals
C．several festivals in China
D．the history of three festivals in China
C 解析：主旨大意题。本文分别介绍了元宵节、傣族的泼水节和藏族的藏历新年。所以C项最合适。
