任务三 阅读并回答问题
Many of us are used to greeting each other by shaking hands or hugging, which comes from Western customs. Do you know any customs of ancient Chinese people?
How to greet
They usually used zuoyi gesture (作揖礼). To make this gesture, one needs to bow at an angle(角度) of 30 to 45 degrees with hands folded in the front. The rules are different for men and women. For men, the left hand is put over the right hand. But for women, the right hand is on the top.
The Duke of Zhou created the gesture during the West Zhou Dynasty. Folding one's hands shows others that you don't have anything dangerous and haven't come to fight.
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When guests come, an old custom is that a host should welcome guests with boiled tea. Boiling tea is one of the oldest ways of brewing Chinese tea. It started in the Tang Dynasty. Later, in the Ming Dynasty, a faster way took its place—steeping(冲泡).
Nowadays, weilu zhucha is getting popular again among Chinese young people. They like to sit around a stove, boil tea on it, eat some snacks and have a talk.
How to say goodbye
In ancient China, when people parted with friends, they always used willow(柳树) branches as a gift. One reason is that willow trees are strong. They can live anywhere, wet or dry, north or south. Because of this, giving a willow branch to say goodbye to loved ones is a way to tell them that you wish them to easily adapt to(适应) their new living environment. Meanwhile, the pronunciation for the willow tree "liu" (柳) is similar to the Chinese character "liu"(留), which means asking someone to stay. So it is like asking them to stay, even though we know that they must leave.
It's said that this custom became popular during the Han Dynasty. At that time, Baqiao, a bridge in Chang'an (today's Xi'an) was a common place to say goodbye.
回答下面5个问题,第1~4小题每题答案不超过6个词。
1. Why are the two pictures used in the passage?
2. What's the best subtitle for the second part?
3. What did giving willow branches mean when ancient people parted with friends? (List one example)
4. Which custom has the longest history?
5. Which custom do you want to follow today? Why?
