Passage 15

　　几千年来我们中国人一直视筷子为一种可以将饭从碗中逐口送入口中的最简单同时也是最有效的工具。早在周朝时期，筷子便被人们用来夹取荤、蔬菜，而米饭在那时则用手来取食。//全国各地的筷子大小基本一样，而所用的材料的种类则各有不同，所选材料有竹子、木材、漆器、玉石、象牙、塑料、铝、银、金等。特长的竹筷通常用于厨房中。//中国人使用筷子的方法很有艺术性，各人有各人的方法，就好像签名一样，不尽一致。中国人一般都能随心所欲的用筷子夹起一粒米饭，一粒豌豆，一只滑溜溜的蘑菇或海参。// 使用筷子时，要把一双筷子夹在大拇指和食指之间。要点是让其中的一根筷子保持不动，活动另一根筷子，以便能像钳子一样夹取食物。//

　　For thousands of years we Chinese have always regarded chopsticks the simplest possible and the most efficient tool for transporting bite-sized morsels of food form a bowl to the mouth. As early as in the Zhou Dynasty， chopsticks were used for picking up meat and vegetables， while hands were used for rice.// Chopsticks， which are roughly uniform in size throughout China， can be made of a variety of materials， including bamboo， wood， lacquer， jade， ivory， plastic， aluminum， silver and gold. Special long bamboo chopsticks are generally used in the kitchen.// The way we Chinese handle our chopsticks is quite artistic and varied from person to person like one's signature. An average Chinese can very easily pick up a single tiny grain of rice， or a tiny piece of peas， or a slippery button mushroom or sea cucumber.// When using chopsticks， one should place both sticks between the thumb and forefinger. The point is to keep one stick still and move the other so as to make them work like pincers.//