2024年江苏中考英语专题突破：04阅读理解

2024年江苏中考英语专题突破：04阅读理解 Shaking hands seems like a gesture(手势) that has been used forever. A throne from the ancient Assyria Shalmaneser I in the 9th century BC clearly shows two persons shaking hands. The Homeric epic(荷马史诗) Iliad, dated back to the 8th century BC, also mentions that two persons “shook each other’s hands”. Centuries later, Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It that two persons “shook hands”. It might seem like shaking hands is an old custom, the roots(根) of which are lost to the sands of time. Historians have noticed that shaking hands in the modern time doesn’t appear until the mid-19th century, when it was considered a little improper gesture that should only be used between friends. The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to find. One of the earliest evidences(证据) is a 16th-century German translation of a French book which mentions shaking hands. There’s another evidence for a handshaking tradition at that time: In 1607, the writer James Cleland said that he’d rather shake the two right hands together instead of bowing(弯曲) down to everyone’s shoes and kissing hands. As the centuries passed, handshaking was replaced(替代) by another greeting way like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in remote areas, where they’d use the gesture to reconcile after a fight. Then, the handshake appeared again as a standard greeting way that remains today. Not everyone fell in love with the handshake, however. According to an article from December 1884, in France, for example, a society has been recently formed to stop using shake-hands. Why was shaking hands considered as a good way of greeting? The most popular explanation is that it uses the right hand, making it useless for weapon(武器) holding. In the 19th century, shaking hands without taking gloves away was quite rude and required to say sorry immediately. Sadly, in a world where unknown translations provide only some evidence, the true reason may remain forever unknown. 1．What can