Dragons can be friendly or fierce (凶狠), they can bring good luck or cause death, but one  thing is sure——people  talk about  them almost everywhere in the world.

In Chinese culture, dragons are generous and wise, although  they can be unpredictable. The dragon was closely connected  to  the royal  family: the emperor's robes (礼袍) have a symbol of a gold dragon with five claws. According  to popular belief,  if you were born  in  the year of the dragon, you are intelligent, brave, and a natural leader.

But in the west, dragons had a different reputation (名声). The very first text in English, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, tells the story of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, who fights and kills a dangerous dragon but is himself killed in the fight. However, across the border in Wales, the red dragon which appears on the Welsh flag is a positive symbol, indicating strength and a sense of national identity.

Why should  the dragon have a different character  in different parts of  the world? Some experts believe it is due to the animals that the myths grew out of.  In the west, the  idea of  the dragon probably came  from  the snake—an animal which people hated and were afraid of.

But in China, the idea of the dragon may have come from  the alligator--a shy animal which lives in rivers, but which  is usually only seen when  there  is plenty of water--a good sign for agriculture(农业). So the Chinese dragon was a bringer of good fortune.

小题1:将划线句子翻译成中文。

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小题2: 阅读填词，每空一词。

In China, people think the dragon may have come from the ____ which is a shy animal. However, in the west, they think the dragon may come from the _____ that they hated and scared.

小题3:What  are  the  differences  between Chinese dragons and western dragons? (从文中找

出相关描述的英语单词或短语，每空至少一个。)

Chinese dragons：_____________        Western dragons：___________.