The Chinatown in San Francisco is the 【小题1】 (big) in America, and also the oldest. The climate is mild all year round, 【小题2】 (mean) it is always a good time to visit. Now, the majority of residents in Chinatown 【小题3】 (be) still ethnic Chinese, many of whom do not speak English 【小题4】 (fluent). This allows visitors 【小题5】 (experience) a real taste of China. Visitors can spend hours just 【小题6】 (explore) the interesting sights, smells, and sounds of China. The stores in the Chinatown offer 【小题7】 unique range of souvenirs, goods, and clothing. All kinds of traditional Chinese herbal medicine can be found, too. And there are Chinese tea stores, 【小题8】 visitors can taste and buy varieties of Chinese tea. But perhaps what many tourists and San Franciscans treasure most about Chinatown is 【小题9】 (it) food. There is Chinese food to suit everyone’s taste, with traditional 【小题10】 (dish) from all over China.

“Food is the first necessity of the people,” said historian Sima Qian of the Western Han dynasty. Today, these words still ring true. The Chinese respect and passion for food are 【小题1】 (deep) rooted in the cultural landscape.

In Zhengzhou, the main city of Henan Province, thick noodles are braised(炖)in a rich meat soup 【小题2】 is made mainly with mutton. According to legend, Li Shimin, 【小题3】 second emperor of the Tang dynasty, was ill and tired while 【小题4】 (escape) from his enemies. A poor farmer’s wife cooked him a bowl of noodles 【小题5】 the only meat she had — some elk(麋鹿)meat. 【小题6】 (support) by the hot meal, he recovered quickly, won the battle and established himself as an emperor.

In Shanxi, sliced noodles, or daoxiao mian, is a typical one. In the 13th century, the Mongolians 【小题7】 (establish) the Yuan dynasty. The Han people lived under strict rules, including the rules about the ownership of 【小题8】 (knife). Several families shared only one knife and noodle making became almost 【小题9】 (possible). One day, a smart cook decided to use a small piece of metal to slice the dough directly into the pot, so daoxiao mian 【小题10】 (make).

Purple is one of the most popular colors today. There are purple clothes. purple bicycles, and even purple computers! But in the past, purple 【小题1】(be) a very expensive and unusual color. Let’s take 【小题2】 look at the rich history of the color purple.

Some 【小题3】(scientist) believe that the first organisms(生物) to appear on Earth over 500 million years ago【小题4】 (probable) looked purple, not green. Plants today are green because they use green chlorophyll(叶绿素)to produce energy.

During the time of the Roman Empire, 【小题5】 was very difficult to make purple dye(染料). But 10,000 dead sea snails(海螺) got you just one gram of purple dye as well 【小题6】 a very bad smell! This special purple dye was called Tyrian purple.

In sixteenth-century England, only royalty wore purple. Queen Elizabeth I’s clothes were purple, but ordinary people were not allowed【小题7】 (wear) the color.

In 1856, William Perkin, an 18-year-old science student, noticed something strange while 【小题8】 (conduct) an experiment. The chemicals, 【小题9】he used to clean his equipment, combined with the chemicals he used in his experiment and produced a bright purple color. The dye was much 【小题10】 (cheap) than the sea-snail dye. Thanks to Perkin now anyone can wear purple clothes.