Clothing is a language. It tells us about individual people: their personality, their age, their place in society and so on. If we want to know more about society, we can look at traditional clothing.

??? The continent of Africa has a long history and a rich culture, and this is shown in traditional dress. You often find three colours — red, gold and green in the clothing. The first colour stands for the blood of millions of people who suffered as slaves(奴隶); the second is for the rich resources of the African earth; and the third represents the grasslands of home.

The patterns(图案) on the clothing also have a meaning. A common pattern is in the form of a cross “×”, which stands for “unity”. Another pattern is a rectangular box, which represents “strength”.

??? Because clothing has a strong social meaning, people are very careful in choosing what to wear. It would be a serious mistake to wear the wrong clothing, or to wear clothes in the wrong way. For instance, in Ghana, a woman should wear her waistband differently according to the importance of the social event.

Traditional dress also tells us about everyday life. African designs are famous for loose(宽松的) clothing. The climate, with the hot sun and wide temperature ranges(变化), requires that the clothes are comfortable for daily life.

??? Although many people wear western clothes, particularly in the big cities in Africa, traditional dress is very highly valued(评价). This is because it has deep cultural meanings.

1.According to the passage, red ________.

A. represents the setting sun???????

B. stands for African unity

C. is chosen because it is a bright colour??

D. is a reminder(暗示) of the sad history in Africa

2.Traditional dress should also be practical(实用) because ________.

A. it has deep cultural meanings???

B. people wear it in the big cities

C. it needs to protect people from the climate

D. it needs to keep people dry in the rainy season

3.According to the passage, which sentence is NOT RIGHT?

A. African dress has deep cultural meanings. 

B. Africa has a long history and a rich culture.

C. The rectangular box in the pattern represents “strength”.

D. People in the big cities in Africa prefer to wear western clothes.

4.The passage is mainly about ________ in Africa.??

A. the history of clothes  ?????????????

B. modern fashion styles

C. the meanings of traditional dress?????

D. the materials used in traditional dress

In most languages, a greeting is usually followed by “small talk”. Small talk means the little things we talk about at the start of a conversation.

In English-speaking countries people often make small talk about the weather: “Nice day, isn't it?” “Terrible weather, isn't it?” But there is something special about small talk. It must be about something which both people have the same opinion about. The purpose of small talk is to let both people agree on something. This makes meeting people easier and more comfortable. People usually agree about the weather, so it is a safe topic for small talk. But people often disagree about religion or politics so these are not suitable topics for small talk in English. The topics for small talk also depend on where the conversation is taking place. At football matches, people make small talk about the game they are watching: “Great game, isn't it?” At bus stops, people may comment about the transport system: “The bus service is terrible, isn't it?”

Greetings and small talk are an important part of conversation in any language. The way people great each and the things they talk about, however, may be different from one language to another. This shows that there is much more to learn when we learn a language than just the vocabulary and the grammar of the language. We also have to learn the social behavior of the people who speak it.

1.Small talk ___.

2.The best topic of small talk is about ___.

3.The passage suggests that when we learn a language ___.

4.When we say “Great game, isn't it?” we in fact___.

5.What we learn from the passage is that ___.