Translation

TranslationCixi was utterly fearful of foreigners just as she was extremely arrogant toward her own countrymen. She stopped for a long time in Henan and halted in Baoding for quite a few days before finally arriving in Beijing. It was said that an amusing episode took place during this long and drawn-out journey. When a local official offered a monkey to her as a gift, she was so pleased that she ordered a yellow mandarin jacket to the monkey. Later, she was told that some officials were complaining that people were considered less worthy than a monkey, then she realized that her order had been indeed a litter too whimsical. So she gave another order granting each of the escorting officials a yellow mandarin jacket. Upon the receipt of such an unusual favor, the officials did not know whether they should thank Cixi or rather the monkey for it.慈禧对外国人万分惧怕，正像她对国人无比傲慢一样。

她在河南停留了很长一段时间，到了保定又逗留多日，好不容易才回到北京。

据说，在这漫长的旅途中还发生了一件趣事。

一位官员送给慈禧一只猴子，她颇为高兴，竟让人给那只猴子穿黄马褂。

后来得知有的官员发出了“人不如猴”的感慨，慈禧才发现自己的决定有些荒唐，于是又命令给随行官员每人一件黄马褂。

得知如此殊荣之后，大家真不知道该感谢慈禧还是感谢那只猴子。

Mandarin, the official language of China, is suddenly hot in American schools. As China becomes the world’s leading economy in this century, both public and pr ivate schools are scrambling to add Mandarin to their roster of foreign languages or expand Chinese language programs already in place. By some estimates, as many as 50,000 children nationwide are taking Mandarin in school. The device to develop Chinese-language programs has met some difficulties. A shortage of trained, credentialed teachers has made it difficult for some schools to join the race. When schools need to employ teachers, they often recruit them from China, which is hidden trouble for a culture clash.中国的官方语言普通话在美国的学校中突然热起来。

由于中国经济在本世纪的领先地位，美国的公立和私立学校纷纷在外语教学中加入汉语这一科，或将已有的汉语教学项目进行扩展。

据统计，在美国的学校中，有5万名孩子在学习汉语。

推动汉语项目的发展不是没有遇到困难。

由于缺乏受过专业训练、持有证书的教师，一些学校很难加入汉语教学的竞争。

当学校聘用教师时，它们通常直接从中国将他们招来，这种方式为文化冲突埋下了隐患。

The word-famous Silk Road is a series of routes that connect the East and the West. The Silk Road extends more than 6,000 kilometers and gets its name from ancient China’s silk trade. The trade on the Silk Road has played a very important role in the development of civilizations in China, South Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It was through the Silk Road that the four great inventions of ancient China—papermaking, gunpowder, compass and printing—had been introduced to other parts of the world. Similarly, China’s silk, tea and porcelain had also been spread all over the world through it. The exchange of material culture is bilateral. Europe, in return, had exported various commodities and plants through the Silk Road, meeting the need of Chinese market.闻名于世的丝绸之路是一系列连接东西方的路线。

丝绸之路延伸6000多公里，得名于古代中国的丝绸贸易。

丝绸之路上的贸易在中国、南亚、欧洲和中东文明发展中发挥了重要作用。

正是通过丝绸之路，中国的造纸、火药、指南针、印刷术等四大发明才被引荐到世界各地。

同样，中国的丝绸、茶叶和瓷器也传遍全球。

物质文化的交流是双向的，欧洲也通过丝绸之路出口各种商品和植物，满足中国市场的需求。

The Silk Road dates back to the second century B.C. when a Chinese envoy Zhang Qian embarked on his business trip to western countries following this trade access linking Asia and Europe. Originating from the present-day Xi’an, the 7,000-kilometer route traversed the Hexi Corridor, the Tarim Basin, the port countries of West Asia, ending at the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. China brought its silk cloth, gunpowder, and papermaking and printing techniques to the West via this road. It, in return, introduced into China Buddhism and Islam as well as grapes, glass, and perfume from the outside world. Because the famous Chin a’s silk reached the West along this road, European scholars came to call it the “Silk Road”.丝绸之路可以追溯到公元前二世纪，中国使者张骞沿着这条连接亚欧两大洲得到贸易通道出使西域。

这条通道源于今日西安，一路穿越河西走廊、塔里木盆地以及西亚的港口城市，醉后抵达地中海的东岸，全程7千公里。

中国通过这条通道给西域各国带去了丝绸织物、火药、造纸术和印刷术。

同时，也从国外给我们引进了佛教、伊斯兰教，以及葡萄、玻璃、香水等产品。

因为著名的中国丝绸是沿着这条通道进入西方国家的，所以欧洲学者将此通道称作“丝绸之路”。

The Chinese garden has become a landscape of unique style after an evolvement for more than 3,000 years. It includes not only the large gardens built as entertainment venues for royal family, but also the private gardens built as secluded retreats for schools, merchants and retired government officials. These gardens have constituted a miniature designed to express the harmonious relationship between man and nature. A typical Chinese garden is surrounded by walls, and in the garden there are ponds, rockwork, trees, flowers and all kinds of buildings linked by winding trails and corridors. Wandering in the gardens, people may feel that a series of well-designed scenery spreads out before us like a landscape scroll.中国园林是经过三千多年演变而成的独具一格的园林景观。