When my family moved to America in 2010 from a small village in Guangdong, China
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When my family moved to America in 2010 from a small village in Guangdong, China, we brought not only our luggage, but also our village rules, customs and culture. One of the rules is that young people should always respect(尊敬) elders. Unluckily, this rule led to my very first embarrassment in the United States.
I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One time, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure. My manager, who happened to hear what I said, took me aside and gave me a long lecture about how sensitive(敏感) Americans are and how they dislike the description “old”. I then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.
In my village in China, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.
However, in the United States, people think “growing old” is a problem since “old” shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well. Here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young. I had told them something they didn’t want to hear.
After that, I changed the way I had been with older people. It is not that I don’t respect them any more; I still respect them, but now I don’t show my feelings through words.
By Jack
小题1:Jack brought the couple their food very fast because _______.| A．the manager asked him to do so | | B．he respected the elderly | | C．the couple wanted him to do so | | D．he wanted more pay |
小题2:When Jack called the couple “elderly”, they became _______.| A．nervous | B．satisfied | C．unhappy | D．excited |
小题3: In Jack’s hometown, _______.| A．people dislike being called “old” | | B．people are proud of being old | | C．many people reach the age of seventy or eighty | | D．the elderly are the first to get food in restaurants |
小题4: Which of the following is TRUE?| A．The more Jack explained, the angrier the couple got. | | B．Jack wanted to show his feelings through words after his experience. | | C．The manager went back to the table and apologized to the couple. | | D．From this experience, Jack learned more about American culture. |
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答案
小题1:B
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:D |
解析
试题分析：每个国家都有各自的文化习惯，而这种文化上的差异往往会引起一定的误会，不过只要熟悉对方的风俗习惯做到入乡随俗，一切就OK啦
小题1:细节题：根据第2段中的I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly可知答案。选 B
小题2:猜词题：根据第2段中的As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure可知他们听到Jack称他们为老者时，一点也不高兴。 选C
小题3:细节题：根据第3段中的In my village in China, people are proud of being old可知答案。选B。
小题4:排除题：根据第2段最后一句After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry可知A选项不对；根据文章最后一句but now I don‟t show my feelings through words可知B选项不对；根据第2段中的I then waked back to the table and apologized to the wife 可知C 选项也不对，故正确答案为D。
点评：文章篇幅较长，要快速阅读，结合题目到文中找有用的信息，阅读中要注意要点之间的关系。然后带着问题，再读全文，找出答题所需要的依据，完成阅读。 |
举一反三
Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is spoken by many people around the world every day. English speakers are always creating new words, and we should be able to know where most words come from.
Sometimes, however, no one may know really where a word comes from. Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, especially when they are not made with ham( 火腿 )? About a hundred years ago, some men went to America from Europe. They came from a big city in Germany called Hamburger. They didn’t speak good English, but they ate good food. When some Americans saw them eating round pieces of beef, they asked the Germans what it was. The Germans did not understand the question and answered. “We came from Hamburger.” One of these Americans owned a restaurant, and had an idea. He cooked some round pieces of beef like what the men from Hamburger ate. Then he put them between two pieces of bread and started selling them. Today “ hamburgers” are sold in many countries around the world.
Whether this story is true or not, it certainly is interesting. Knowing why any word has a certain meaning is interesting, too. The reason may be found in any large English dictionary.
小题1:According to the writer, English ______.| A．is as old as Chinese | B．is not so old as Chinese | | C．is older than German | D．is very difficult to learn |
小题2:According to the story,_______.| A．few Americans like hamburgers | | B．hamburgers are made with beef | | C．hamburgers are made with ham | | D．hamburgers were sold all over the world about a century ago |
小题3:According to the writer, which of the following can be found in any large English dictionary?| A．Where all the new words come from | | B．Where those Germans came from | | C．The reason why any word has a certain meaning. | | D．The reason why English is spoken around the world |
小题4:According to the story, the word “hamburger” comes from ________.| A．China because it has a long history | | B．England because Germans don’t speak good English | | C．the round pieces of beef those people from Hamburger brought to America | | D．English speakers because they always create new words |
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When someone says “well, I guess I’ll have to face the music”, it doesn’t mean that he is planning to go to hear a singer. It is something far less happy, as you are called in by your leader to explain why you did this and did that or why you did not do this or that.
At some time or another, every one of us has to “face the music”, especially as children. We can all remember father’s angry word “I wasn’t to talk to you” and only because we did not listen to him. What a bad thing it was !
In the middle or at the end of every term, we students have to “face the music”. The result of the exam will decide whether we will face the music or not. If …that means parents’ cold faces and the contempt of the teachers and classmates.
“To face the music” is well known to every American, younger or old. It is at least 100 years old. It really means that you have to do something, no matter how terrible the whole thing might be, because you know you have no choice.
小题1:“To face the music” means “to ____________”| A．do something we don’t like to | B．go to the theater | | C．go to the music show | D．do something that we want to |
小题2:If you didn’t listen to your father’s words, you would “face the music” ，or ____________.| A．do something to please him | B．do something to make him angry | | C．be punished by him | D．be pleased with him |
小题3:Before the exam, we’ll have to “face the music”. That’s why ____________.| A．we like to take the exam | B．we are afraid of taking the exam | | C．the exam is very important | D．we are afraid to pass the exam |
小题4:In the third paragraph. “If...” really means “If _______________”.| A．we got a “D” in the exam | | B．we got an “A” in the exam | | C．the exam is easy | | D．the exam is difficult |
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What is the difference between a college and a university? This is a good question for students who want to attend a college or a university in the United States.
Colleges and universities have many things in common. Both provide a greater understanding of the world and its past. Both provide education in the arts and sciences. And both can help prepare young people to earn a living.
Students who complete their undergraduate studies either at a four-year college or a university receive a bachelor’s degree. One difference is that many colleges do not offer graduate studies.
Universities are generally bigger, offer more programs and do more research. Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages in Europe. The word “university” comes from the Latin “universitas”. This described a group of people organized for a common purpose. The word “college” comes from a Latin word with a similar meaning, “collegium”. In England, colleges were formed to provide students with places to live in. Usually each group of students was studying the same thing. So college came to mean an area of study. But a college can also be a part of a university. The first American universities divided their studies into a number of areas and called each one a college. This is still true.
Programs in higher learning may also be called schools. The University of Arizona in Tucson, for example, has 18 colleges and 10 schools. They include the colleges of pharmacy (制药学), education, engineering and law. They also include the schools of architecture, dance and public administration.
College is also used as a general term for higher education. A news report might talk about “college students” even if they include students at universities. Or someone might ask, “Where do you go to college?”
Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. These are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They include language, philosophy and mathematics. The purpose is to train a person’s mind instead of teaching job skills.
小题1:The passage is probably written to _________. | A．persuade students to go to college instead of schools | | B．tell students the differences between colleges and universities | | C．help students make a better choice of what kind of colleges they should go to | | D．inform students about how much they are going to spend in going to college |
小题2:When the term “college students” appears in a newspaper, it may refer to ________.| A．only students studying in colleges | | B．students studying in colleges in the USA | | C．only students studying in universities | | D．students receiving higher education |
小题3:What can we learn from the passage?| A．Both universities and colleges include different schools. | | B．The purpose of liberal arts is to train a person’s job skill. | | C．Both universities and colleges can help prepare students to make a living. | | D．Most American universities have 18 colleges and 10 schools. |
小题4:The area of study called liberal arts is designed to _______.| A．get students ready to earn a living | | B．teach students subjects from engineering to philosophy | | C．help students achieve a stronger and clearer mind | | D．encourage more students to begin the study of arts |
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Homeownership has let us down. For generations, Americans believed that owning a home was undoubtedly good. Our political leaders hammered home the point. Franklin Roosevelt held that a country of homeowners was “unconquerable.” Homeownership could even save babies, save children, save families and save America. A house with a lawn and a fence wasn’t just a nice place to live in or a risk-free investment; it was a way to shape a nation. No wonder leaders of all political types wanted to spend more than $100 billion a year on subsidies（补助）and tax breaks to encourage people to buy.
But the dark side of homeownership is now all too apparent: Indeed, easy lending stimulated（刺激）by the cult of homeownership may have triggered（引起）the financial crisis. Housing remains a drag on the economy. Existing-home sales in April dropped 27% from the previous month, worsening fears of a double-dip. And all that is just the obvious tale of a housing bubble and what happened when it popped. The real story is deeper and darker still.
For the better part of a century, politics, industry and culture lined up to create a fetish of the idea of buying a house. Homeownership has done plenty of good over the decades; it has provided stability to tens of millions of families. Yet by idealizing the act of buying a home, we have ignored the downsides. In the bubble years, lending standards slipped dramatically, allowing many Americans to put far too much of their income into paying for their housing. And we ignored longer-term phenomena too. Homeownership contributed to the hollowing out of cities and kept renters out of the best neighborhoods. It fed America’s overuse of energy and oil. It made it more difficult for those who had lost a job to find another. Perhaps worst of all, it helped us become casually self-deceiving: By telling ourselves that homeownership was a pathway to wealth and stable communities and better test scores, we avoided dealing with these frightening issues head-on.
Now, as the U.S. recovers from the biggest housing bust（***）since the Great Depression, it is time to rethink how realistic our expectations of homeownership are—and how much money we want to spend chasing them. Many argue that homeownership should not be a goal pursued at all costs.
小题1:Political leaders wanted to spend money encouraging people to buy houses because______.| A．owning a home was undoubtedly good | | B．homeownership could shape a country | | C．houses could save families and America | | D．homeownership was unconquerable |
小题2:The underlined sentence in Para. 2 means ______.| A．homeownership has quite a lot of bad effects | | B．there might be another housing breakdown in the U.S. | | C．the existing-home sales will keep decreasing in the U.S. | | D．the result of homeownership is much worse than it appears |
小题3:It can be inferred from Para. 3 that ______.| A．Americans choose to live out of urban areas | | B．it is the way to wealth to have one’s own house | | C．it is hard for Americans to get a home loan | | D．homeownership has made many people out of work |
小题4:What is the author’s attitude towards homeownership?| A．Cautious. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Favorable. | D．Optimistic. |
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Few people realize that there is a big difference between formal English and informal English. Formal English is used for most writing, and often in public speaking and formal meetings. It pays close attention to grammar rules, because if we use proper grammar, our meaning is often more precise. Also, on important occasions, we do not want to appear uneducated or to offend (冒犯) others, so we are very careful about how we speak. Informal English is used in speaking or writing to our friends and family. It often does not pay such close attention to grammar rules, because when we speak or write to them, we want our words to flow quickly. Also, with our friends and family, we are usually not so worried about appearing uneducated or about offending them by how we write or speak.
A big difference between formal and informal English is the use of contractions. A contraction is where we make a word shorter or where we put two words together and take away some of the letters. For example, instead of saying “do not”, many people say “don’t”. Using contractions in our speech is fine because it sounds natural, especially when we speak to our friends. In formal writing, however, contractions are usually avoided because people might think that you have made a mistake, or that you do not know proper grammar.
In the same way we might make words shorter, in informal English we often make sentences shorter as well. For example, if someone asks you your name, you will likely answer with one word: your first name. However, in formal English we usually use complete sentences. For example, we might write “My name is John”. In most speaking, we may not need to use every word in a sentence because the person we are speaking to will probably still understand us. In most writing, however, every word in a sentence must be written out in order to make sure that we can be understood.
小题1:When we use formal English, _______.| A．we will offend others | | B．we will appear educated on important occasions | | C．we needn’t pay more attention to grammar rules | | D．we can express ourselves more directly and more quickly |
小题2:What’s the meaning of the underlined word “precise”?| A．clear | B．direct | C．puzzling | D．simple |
小题3:Contractions are best used when we are _______.| A．speaking at a formal meeting | B．speaking in public | | C．speaking to our friends | D．writing an application (申请) letter |
小题4:In speaking, we do not always use complete sentences because ______.| A．we do not care about grammar | B．we do not want to sound stupid | | C．we can still be understood | D．we don’t want to waste time |
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