Chinese mooncake is the representative food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a kind of round cookie with various fillings and different artistic patterns on the surface.
In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness. The mooncake is not just a food. It’s a cultural tradition deep in Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing a spiritual feeling. At Mid-Autumn Festival, people eat mooncakes together with family, and present mooncakes to relatives or friends to express love and best wishes.
As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties in what today are Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in east China, there was a kind of “Taishi cake” thick at the center and thin at the edge, which was the origin of the mooncake. In the Han Dynasty, sesame (芝麻) and walnuts were introduced into China, and round cookies filled with these foods appeared. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the name “mooncake” was used for the first time. In the Northern Song Dynasty, mooncakes got popular in the royal palace. In the Ming Dynasty, the custom of eating these cookies during the Mid-Autumn Festival became popular.
Mooncakes vary according to different regional styles and tastes. Cantonese-style mooncakes are known for their sweetness. Suzhou-style mooncakes have existed for more than a thousand years. They have soft layers of dough (面团) and lots of sugar and lard, making them available in sweet or salty tastes. Beijing-style mooncakes use sweetness delicately and are decorated well. Chaoshan-style mooncakes are usually larger than other mooncakes with common fillings of red bean paste and potato paste.
Most mooncakes contain high amounts of sugar and oil, which are not healthy. To decrease the harmfulness that high fat and calories bring to our body, some foods are recommended to eat together with mooncakes, including tea, sour fruit like grapes, and wine. They help digest and take away fat in our body. Also, do not eat too much at one time.
【小题1】What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．The features of moon cakes. | B．The history of the moon cakes. |
| C．The customs of the moon cakes. | D．The meaning behind moon cakes. |
| A．In the Han Dynasty. | B．In the Tang Dynasty. |
| C．In the Ming Dynasty. | D．In the Northern Song Dynasty. |
| A．They contain less sugar. | B．They are generally larger in size. |
| C．They have a much longer history. | D．They feature fine decorative patterns. |
| A．To stress the importance of a healthy diet. | B．To call on people to value traditional culture. |
| C．To tell people how to eat mooncakes healthily. | D．To recommend some new flavors of mooncakes. |
