雅思口语备考资料：中国传统之书法艺术

　　I am very pleased to have the opportunity to talk about Chinese calligraphy, a highly-valued cultural heritage, and its contribution to Chinese tourism.

　　An ancient Chinese saying goes that A mountain is famous for the immortal on it, instead of its height. A river is holy for the dragon in it, rather than its depth.Chinese calligraphyis very different from other forms of writing. During their long history of development, Chinese characters have evolvedand been written into many different artistic styles, including the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shellsand on ancient bronze objects), the seal character, official script, regular script, running script,and cursive script.

　　Many Chinese characters are pictographsand often the meaning of a particular character is apparent in the pictorial form of the character. Calligraphy, whether done with a knife or brush, can be renderedin ways that exaggerate the form, consequently yielding effects of artistic beauty. Calligraphy, therefore, has been traditionally a subject of artistic study. Down through the centuries， Chinese calligraphershave devoted substantive attention to studying the forms, laws, and theories pertinent to the art of calligraphy. Moreover, their works have significantly influenced calligraphers of Chinese charactersin Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. People from these countries regularly visit China in search of calligraphic art.

　　Traditional Chinese calligraphy has not been influenced by the outside world. As a result, it constitutes a tourist resource. Most of the Chinese tourists areas have numerousinscribed tablets, including inscriptions on precipices, horizontal inscribed boardsand couplets written on the scrollshung on the pillars of halls. The Seven-star Caveof Guilin, widely known as a sea of stela, contains everywhere inscriptions from various dynasties.