Decision-making can be extremely difficult. Decision-making styles are significa

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Decision-making can be extremely difficult. Decision-making styles are significantly different in different cultures.
In any approach to a problem and in any negotiations, the Western world turns to the“I to you” approach while Japan，the “you to you” approach. The former means both sides present their arguments openly from their own point of view. Naturally, often comes a confrontation(冲突) situation, which Westerners are very skillful in dealing with.The latter is based on each side trying to understand the other person’s point of view. Thus, the direction of the meeting is a mutual(相互的) attempt to reduce confrontation and achieve harmony.
Besides, Western decision-making goes mostly from top management(管理人员) and often does not consult middle management or the worker. However, in Japan great consideration is given to the thoughts and opinions of everyone at all levels. Based on “bottom-up direction”, ideas can be created at the lowest levels, travel upward through an organization and have an effect on the final decision.
Difference in decision-making also comes from different communication styles. The Japanese business person works to achieve harmony, even if the deal fallsthrough, and will spend whatever time is necessary to determine a “you to you” approach, communicating personal views only indirectly. They put a thorough job above the Western deadline approach. So the Japanese are thorough in their meetings. Thus Americans are often annoyed by the many meetings in many Japanese businesses. But where the American is pressingfor a specific decision, the Japanese is trying to think up a rather broad direction.
On the other hand, once a given agreement is made, it is the Japanese who sometimes wonderat the slow pace in which Westerners carry out the decision. The Japanese are eager to move forward and Westerners, perhaps, lag(落后)behind as they take the time for in-depth planning.
小题1: The text mainly tells us that Japan and the Western world .

A．face great difficulty in making decisions

B．are different in decision-making styles

C．have all members contribute to a decision

D．have two approaches: “I to you” and “you to I”

小题2:Which of the following is TRUE of the Westerners?

A．They carry out the decision once it is made.

B．There are many meetings in their businesses.

C．They work to achieve harmony in doing business.

D．They are good at handling confrontation situation.

小题3:The author’s attitude towards Japanese decision-making is .

A．positive

B．critical

C．negative

D．casual(无所谓的）

答案

ADA

解析

略

举一反三

Most people want to be happy, but few know how to find happiness. Money and success alone do not bring lasting（永恒的、永久的） happiness. Aristotle (亚里士多德), a Greek thinker, said, “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” In other words, we make our own happiness. Here are a few suggestions to help you be happier.
The first secret of happiness is to enjoy the simple things in life. Too often, we spend so much time thinking about the future —for example, getting into college or getting a good job —that we fail to enjoy the present. You should enjoy life’s simple pleasures, such as reading a good book, listening to your favorite music, or spending time with close friends. People who have several close friends often live happier and hea

lthier lives.
Another secret to living a happy life is to be active, and have hobbies where you forget your problems and time. Many people experience this dancing, or playing a sport, such as swimming. You can forget about your problems, and only think about the activity. Finally, many people find happiness in helping others. Studies show that people feel good when they spend their time helping others. If you want to feel happier, do good things for someone. You can help a friend with his or her studies, go shopping to buy food for an elderly person, or simply help out around the house by washing the dishes.
小题1: The best title（标题）of the passage is ________.

A．Money Makes You Happy

B．The Secrets of Happiness

C．Ideas for Helping Other People to Be Happy

D．Good Friends Make You Happy

小题2: The second paragraph tells us that ________.

A．the more friends you have, the happier you will be

B．we shouldn’t think about our future

C．happiness is to enjoy the simple things in life.

D．some people fail to live a happy life

小题3: The passage gives us ________ pieces of advice on happiness.

A．one

B．two

C．three

D．four

小题4: Which of the following is not mentioned in the p

assage?

A．Reading a good book.

B．Traveling to a foreign country.

C．Playing a sport.

D．Spending time with close friends.

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The private automobile（私家车）has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobile is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has

been affected（影响）in various ways, The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenage children have the use of the car, their parents can"t keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs, or showing off by speeding or breaking down traffic laws. Mothers of victims（受害者）of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD（Mothers Against Drunk Driving. These women want to prevent further tragedies（悲剧）. They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age, Students have formed a similar organization, SADD（Students Against Drunk Driving）and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.
小题1:.
. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?

A．Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities.

B．Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics.

C．Cars have enabled people to live far from their place of work.

D．Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools.

小题2:.. What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?

A．Patents have paid more attention to their children.

B．Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving.

C．Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol.

D．University students have asked the government to solve the problem.

小题3:. We can infer from the text that ____________ in America.

A．it will be more difficult for peop

le to get new cars

B．parents will not allow their children to have their own cars

C．the government will encourage people to use public transportation

D．cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems

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No one can avoid being influenced by advertisements. Much as we may pride ourselves on our good taste, we are no longer free to choose the things we want, for advertising exerts a subtle influence on us. In their efforts to persuade us to buy this or that product, advertisers have made a close study of human nature and have classified all our little weaknesses.
Advertisers discovered years ago that all of us love to get something for nothing. An advertisement which begins with the magic word FREE can rarely go wrong. These days, advertisers not only offer free samples, but free cars, free houses, and free trips round the world as well. They devise hundreds of competitions

which will enable us to win huge sums of money. Radio and television have made it possible for advertisers to capture the attention of millions of people in this way.
Du

ring a radio programme, a company of biscuit manufacturers once asked listeners to bake biscuits and send them to their factory. They offered to pay $10 a pound for the biggest biscuit baked by a listener. The response to this competition was tremendous. Before long, biscuits of all shapes and sizes began arriving at the factory. One lady brought in a biscuit on a wheelbarrow. It weighed nearly 500 pounds. A little later, a man came along with a biscuit which occupied the whole of his car. All the biscuits that were sent were carefully weighed. The largest was 713 pounds. It seemed certain that this would win the prize. But just before the competition closed, a lorry arrived at the factory with a truly colossal biscuit which weighed 2,400 pounds. It had been baked by a college student who had used over 1,000 pounds of flour, 800 pounds of sugar, 200 pounds of fat, and 400 pounds of various other ingredients. It was so heavy that a crane had to be used to remove it from the lorry. The manufacturers had to pay more money than they had anticipated, for they bought th

e biscuit from the student for $24,000.
小题1:.
. Why have advertisers made a close study of human weakness?

A．They thought it was very interesting to do so.

B．They wanted to persuade the customers to buy their products.

C．They thought it was their duty.

D．They wanted to research how much people spend buying their products.

小题2:.
. Why do advertisers offer free samples and other things to people?

A．They use them to attract people’s attention.

B．Their advertisements have little effect on customers.

C．Different means are being used to cheat people.

D．They produce too many products that can’t be sold out.

小题3:.
From the last paragraph, we know that the factory failed to expect _______.

A．how many people would take an interest in the competition

B．how many ingredients are needed to bake a large biscuit

C．it was possible to bake a biscuit as large as the student’s

D．the payment wouldn’t be as high as $ 24,000

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In most people’s opinion, the tiger is not an animal that we would ordinarily think of as being chicken. However, one tiger, which lives in an English zoo, turned out to be more cowardly( 胆小的) than his keepers could ever have imagined.
Tanvir, a two-year-old Bengal tiger, got stuck at the top of a new 5m-high activity tower in the zoo, after climbing it for the first time.
The wooden tower had been designed to provide mental exercise for Tanvir by testing his ability of dealing with troublesome situations, but after climbing it in just a few seconds, he lost his courage when it came to coming back down. Tanvir went on to spend nearly two days at the top of the tower trying to collect the courage to attempt to get down.
A spokesperson for the zoo said that several days before Tanvir had taken half an hour to get down a lower tower only 1.5m high, and the taller tower had clearly been too much challenging for him.
“Every time he got to the edge, he looked out, put a paw over, and thought, ‘no, I cannot make it!’”laughed Samantha Cordrey, Tanvir’s keeper. In the end Tanvir’s hunger defeated his fear, and after almost 48 hours he made his way down. Burying himself in a big meal just like a hungry pig, Tanvir seemed to forget such a shameful experience for a while.
It appears that his experience would not be the worst in Tanvir’s life if he continued to act like a chicken. It is not known whether he will take courage to go back up his exercise tower again.
The whole episode(插曲) only serves to show the difficulties faced by zoo staff in creating environments that will improve animals’ living ability in enclosed space.
小题1:When speaking of Tanvir’s shameful experience, Samantha Cordrey might feel it was_____.

A．funny

B．surprising

C．exciting

D．unbelievable

小题2:What made Tanvir get down the 5m-high activity tower at last?

A．The coldness of the weather.	B．The direction from his keepers.
C．The sufferings of being hungry	D．The fear of being alone

小题3: Why d

oes the author say “this experience would not be the worst in Tanvir’s life if…”(Paragraph 6)?

A．Because Tanvir’s keepers will design more difficult exercise for him.

B．Because Tanvir is so cowardly that he has little courage to meet greater
challenges.

C．Because Tanvir’s bad health will bring him much trouble in practice.

D．Because Tanvir is always careless and often causes trouble by accident.

小题4: The zoo designed the 5m-high activity tower to______.

A．make Tanvir become brave

B．improve Tanvir’s performance skills

C．let tourists watch Tanvir better

D．improve Tanvir’s living ability

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Americans have taken over from the Indians many things besides their continent! Where did corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and maple sugar come from? The Indians. Who invented moccasins, snowshoes and hammocks? The Indians!
A list of the tools, plants, materials and designs we owe to the Indians would include hundreds of items. But there is something far more familiar, something that is always at hand. It is used daily by every American: a large vocabulary of Indian words.
Potato, tomato, chocolate, moccasin and hammock came into English from Indian languages. So did cocoa, tobacco, maize (an Indian word for corn) and succotash. Some words have changed on the way. Potato, for example, comes from a word that sounds like “batata”. Cocoa began as “cacahuatl”.
Some meanings have also changed. The long Indian word from which succotash comes means “something broken off in bits”. Indian women often varied their dishes by mixing bits of one food with another. White men who ate an Indian di

sh of mixed lima beans (青豆) and corn began using the Indian word to mean this particular mixt

ure.
Put on your moccasins and take a walk in the country. If it is a cold day and you wear a mackinaw, your jacket will be as Indian as your shoes. But mackinaw came from “michilimackinac”, the Indian name of a place where a fort (集市) served as a trading post. Bright-colored blankets or jackets bought at the post soon became known as “mackinaws”.
Early white visitors to the continent found Indian words useful for the things new to them. But some Indian sounds, such as the “tl” at the end of many words, were hard to say. That is why “coyotl” became coyote and “tomatle” became tomato.
Some words simply seemed too long. So, “musickwautash” became succotash and “rockahominy” became hominy.
小题1:The first two paragraphs may serve as a(n) .

A．explanation

B．introduction

C．comment

D．background

小题2: Which of the following has been changed for easier pronunciation?

A．Batata

B．Chocolate

C．Tomatle

D．Rockahominy

小题3: Some words have changed because .

A．they are too long

B．nobody can use them

C．the things they refer to have disappeared

D．they are too difficult for people to write

小题4: What is the pass

age mainly about?

A．How Indian traditions affect us.

B．Why Indian words were changed.

C．Things we owe to the Indians.

D．Indian words all around us.

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