2018-2019学年度北师大版必修二Unit 6DesignPeriod OneWarming up and reading学案(17页)
2018-2019学年度北师大版必修二Unit 6DesignPeriod OneWarming up and reading学案(17页)第1页



Chinese Paper-cutting

  Paper-cutting is a very special visual art of Chinese handicrafts.One saying is that it originated from the religious ceremony of offerings.The ancient people cut papers into animals or people.They either buried them with the dead or burned them on the funerals,wishing that things that paper stood for could be with the dead.After hundreds of years' development,now they have become a very popular means of decoration among country folk,especially women.

  It is easy to learn about cutting a piece of paper but very difficult to master it with perfection.Beginners need only a knife and paper.For craftsmen,they need knives and gravers of various types to make complicated(复杂的) patterns.For complicated patterns,people first paste the pattern on the paper and then use various kinds of knives to make it.No mistake can be made during the process otherwise the work would fail.

  Paper-cutting covers nearly all topics,from flowers,birds,animals,legendary people,figures in classic novels,to types of facial make-up in Beijing Opera.Paper-cutting has various styles in different parts of China.

  In the past,women living in the countryside gathered in their free time to make paper-cutting,which was a way to judge their skillfulness.As society develops,fewer and fewer women still regard it as a profession.At present,there are factories and associations for paper-cutting in China.Exhibitions and exchanges are held regularly and books of this kind are published.Paper-cutting has changed from decoration to a kind of art.At the same time,paper-cutting also appears in cartoons,on stage,in magazines or in TV series.

根据上文回答下列问题

1.Why did ancient people burn paper animals or people on the funerals?