寻乡中国——从“老外”到“老乡”

湖南 何高伦

林登说：“我希望100 年以后，还有人记得曾经有一个奇怪的老外，他拿着锤子、刷子修补一栋跟他毫不相关的老宅，这就足够了。我还会在这里待40年，甚至更久。我一直觉得自己是个孤儿，是中国领养了我……”

主题语境：跨文化交流 篇幅：342词 建议用时：7分钟

1Arriving in China 39 years ago with only the barest knowledge of the country, Brian Linden, a Stanford PhD candidate who was once trapped in a carpet cleaning job, never imagined that one day he would say,“China has made my American dream come true.”

2Now the American, who lives in Xizhou township in southwest China's Yunnan Province, has published a book in Chinese about the cultural stories he has seen in rural China—One Village at a Time.This is a memoir documenting his time living in the rural region of Yunnan.

3Although he came to China for university life in 1984,he received an unexpected acting offer that same year.Linden said that the experience of shooting a film, which he starred in alongside Dutch and Tanzanian actors, gave him his first taste of China's openness to international cultures.

4Linden left for a while to pursue higher education at the US's Stanford University in the late 1980s.Yet during his absence, he never forgot his mission to introduce traditional Chinese culture to people in the US.

5In his book,he noted that he was fascinated by China's Jingdezhen porcelain culture,which led him to open up a small gallery near Chicago in 1996 to show off his porcelain collection as well as other works of art,such as wood-carved Buddha statues and traditional paintings.“In places like the United States,there are so many people who are actually very impressed by Asian craftsmanship,”Linden said.

6Linden's journey to bridge China and the US through culture was never a one-way street.The Linden Center in Xizhou township is an inn run by Linden that hosts tourists as well as cultural programs.The inn was built in a repaired building that shows the perfect example of the Bai ethnic group's architecture style.Since it first opened in 2007, Linden has welcomed numerous foreign visitors.Along with providing them a place to stay,he acts as tour guide,taking them around to introduce local village culture.

Reading Check

Gist1.What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?

A.Linden's knowledge of China.

B.Linden's American dream.

C.Linden's experience in Yunnan Province.

D.Linden's book about cultural stories of rural China.

Detail2.Why did Linden come to China?

A.For an acting offer.

B.For his university life.

C.For his stories book.

D.For a cleaning job.

Detail3.What's Linden's purpose of opening up a small gallery?

A.To pursue higher education.

B.To show off his book collection.

C.To spread traditional Chinese culture.

D.To tell people how to make porcelain.

Vocabulary 4.What does the underlined word“it”in paragraph 6 refer to?

A.The journey.

B.The village.

C.The architecture style.

D.The inn.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

Along with providing them a place to stay, he acts as tour guide, taking them around to introduce local village culture.除了为他们提供住宿的地方，他还担任导游，带他们四处参观，向他们介绍当地的乡村文化。

【点石成金】该句中，taking them around 为现在分词短语作伴随状语，现在分词短语表示与主句的主语在逻辑上有主谓关系，即表示主动意义。例如：

1.The dog entered the room,following his master.那只狗跟着他的主人进了房间。

2.He sat there in silence, looking sad and doing nothing.他默默坐在那里，看起来悲伤落寞，无事可做。