American 'Uncle Hanzi' dedicated to research of Chinese characters
   Xinhua | Updated：2020-04-22 09：00
   In 1972，Richard Sears，a young American from the state of Tennessee，began learning Chinese because of his fascination with traditional Chinese culture."Chinese characters are the only ancient script now still in use in the world and it's a miracle of human history，" said Sears in fluent Chinese.
   As a primitive form of Chinese characters and the oldest fully developed characters in China，Jiaguwen，or oracle bone inscriptions，were first discovered in 1899 and named for their inscriptions on tortoise shells and animal bones.Drawn to the ancient language，Sears often went back and forth between China and the US.As a computer engineer in his country，he continued to learn Chinese until the 1990s.
   In 1994，after stricken by a severe heart attack，he made a decision."At that time，I almost died.Later on，I was thinking that if I had only one day left to live，I would call my friends and say 'goodbye' and if one year left，I would make the ancient Chinese characters available online，" Sears recalled.
   In the following days，Sears started programming and building a database of oracle bone inscriptions.It took him seven years just to scan the characters in Chinese ancient books.In 2002，the Jiaguwen enthusiast's website was launched，though with only a few page views per day in the beginning.However，it surged to 600，000 per day in 2011 after a blogger recommended the site on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
   "I became a web celebrity overnight and was given a nickname 'Uncle Hanzi，'" Sears said with a smile.Hanzi means Chinese characters.During the past 26 years，he has accumulated a great deal of information on his website -- more than 96，000 ancient Chinese character forms from archeological sources.
   "Every character fascinates me.I hope to take people back to the origin of Chinese characters and see how each of them evolved into what it is today，" he said.Up till now，the website has been continuously updated，giving lovers of the ancient language from all over the world free access to browse at their leisure.
   "When I analyze each character，I wonder what did the ancient Chinese think，" said Sears.In order to reveal the mystery behind the ancient characters，he spent a great deal of money and time buying and going through dozens of books， living on a shoestring.

（1）Why did Richard Sears begin to study Chinese？

B

B

A．Hobby.
B．Fascination.
C．Coincidence.
D．Instruction.
（2）What is the advantage of Sears in setting up a database of oracle bone inscriptions？

A

A

A．As a computer engineer.
B．As a language researcher.
C．As a university professor.
D．As a financial casher.
（3）How did the Jiaguwen enthusiast's website become prevalent？

A

A

A．a(chǎn) blogger recommended
B．a(chǎn) Weibo host recommended
C．a(chǎn) netizen boosted
D．a(chǎn)n engineer used
（4）What does the underlined part "living on a shoestring" mean？

A

A

A．living hand to mouth
B．living happily
C．living positively
D．living purposefully