尋鄉中國
——從“老外”到“老鄉”

湖南 何高倫

林登說：“我希望100 年以后，還有人記得曾經有一個奇怪的老外，他拿著錘子、刷子修補一棟跟他毫不相關的老宅，這就足夠了。我還會在這里待40年，甚至更久。我一直覺得自己是個孤兒，是中國領養了我……”

主題語境：跨文化交流 篇幅：342詞 建議用時：7分鐘

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.除了為他們提供住宿的地方，他還擔任導游，帶他們四處參觀，向他們介紹當地的鄉村文化。

【點石成金】該句中，taking them around 為現在分詞短語作伴隨狀語，現在分詞短語表示與主句的主語在邏輯上有主謂關系，即表示主動意義。例如：

1.The dog entered the room,following his master.那只狗跟著他的主人進了房間。

2.He sat there in silence, looking sad and doing nothing.他默默坐在那里，看起來悲傷落寞，無事可做。