1 . Imagine two applicants are in a job interview: one expresses a great passion for the work, while the other points to family encouragement to pursue that field. Which applicant has a better chance of succeeding? Conventional wisdom suggests it would be the one who has a strong personal passion.
Passion is not a universally powerful basis of achievement, but the culture a person grew up in matters a lot. That means universities and companies that frequently rely on passion in candidates are pretermitting talented students and employees.
It seems that passion is a much stronger predictor of achievement in certain societies than others. “This leads to a blind spot among interviewers and is unfair to people from diverse backgrounds,” said Xingyu Li, the lead author of a new study. As a person coming from a collectivist (集体主义的) society, he knows exactly how people feel when they are rejected just because they are seemingly not as passionate as others. This research is novel for its using big data to compare a wider range of culturally diverse societies.
The researchers collected the data including scores from 1.2 million high school students across 59 countries. They found those who felt passionate about science, reading, or other subjects were more likely to be given better scores. This is quite true in individualist societies such as the United States and Australia, compared with collectivist countries such as China, Thailand, and Colombia, where the students felt that having family support for their interest was important.
Individualist countries regard the self as the source of motivation. For example, in the United States, doing well because of what others expect might seem to be evidence of a lack of potential. In collectivist societies, the self is inter-dependent, part of a web of relations, roles, and responsibilities. For instance, in the movie The Grandmaster, the legendary martial arts teacher Ip Man never said that he had a personal passion for kung fu. Rather, his drive to attain mastery came from the desire to live up to what his belt symbolized to his teacher and society.
The findings open up the possibility of designing educational interventions that don’t rely only on the western idea of cultivating (培育) passion. That helps better unlock the potential of our students and workforce.
1. Who is more likely to succeed in a job interview according to most employers?| A．Those who have a web of relations. | B．Those who are familiar with the company. |
| C．Those who gain much family encouragement. | D．Those who have great enthusiasm for the position. |
| A．Neglecting. | B．Harvesting. | C．Exploring. | D．Defending. |
| A．To clarify the link between students’ passion and academic performance. |
| B．To encourage people to learn the cultures of different countries. |
| C．To win people from different cultural contexts more chances of admission |
| D．To show the importance of big data in culture-related studies at particular. |
| A．An American. | B．A Colombian. | C．An Australian. | D．A Canadian. |
| A．The model of motivation varies from culture to culture. |
| B．The negative effects of societal expectations on individuals. |
| C．The role of self-realization matters in a person’s success and well-being. |
| D．The typical personality types in individualist countries and collectivist ones. |
1.对Peter的到来表示欢迎；
2.京剧的简单介绍（历史、特点、经典曲目等）；
3.给Peter一些来京旅行建议，并表达祝愿。
注意：
(1)词数不少于100；
(2)可适当加入相关细节，使内容充实、行文连贯。
Dear Peter,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
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Looking forward to your early arrival.
Yours,
Li Jin
（1）对Jason来中国表示欢迎。
（2）推荐的活动及理由。
注意：（1）词数不少于100字；
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯。
参考词汇：唐诗（Tangpoems）剪纸（Paper-cutting）___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(1). 阐明写信事由；
(2). 向其简单介绍两种传统文化并征求建议；
(3). 表达感谢。
注意：(1). 词数 100 左右； (2). 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：书法 calligraphy 茶文化 tea culture 京剧 Peking Opera
中华武术 Chinese martial arts
Dear Chris,
How is it going?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________（1）简要介绍推荐作品（如《劝学》、《师说》、《出师表》等……）；
（2）说明推荐理由；
（3）鼓励继续学习。
注意：
（1）词数不少于100；
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯；
（3）开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：
《劝学》 Encouraging Learning
《师说》 On teachers
《出师表》 Memorial to the King before Setting off
Dear Chris,
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Yours,
Li Jin
内容要点：
1. 表示欢迎：
2. 介绍元宵节（至少包括两点）；
3. 邀请他们参加元宵节活动。
注意：
1. 词数不少于100；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：
元宵节The Lantern Festival
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7 . If a business wants to sell its products internationally, it had better do some market research first. This is a lesson that some large American corporations have learned the hard way.
What’s in the name?
Sometimes the problem is the name. When General Motors introduced its Chevy Nova into Latin America, it overlooked the fact that Nova in Spanish means “It doesn’t go”. Sure enough the Chevy Nova never went anywhere in Latin America.
Translation problems
Sometimes it is the slogan that doesn’t work. No company knows this better than Pepsi-Cola with its “Come alive with Pepsi!” campaign. The campaign was so successful in the United States that Pepsi translated its slogan literally for its international campaign. As it turned out, the translations weren’t quite right. Pepsi was begging Germans to “Come out of the grave (坟墓)” and telling the Chinese that “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
A picture’s worth a thousand words
Other times, the problem involves packaging. A picture of a smiling baby has helped sell countless jars of Gerber baby food. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in African countries, the picture on the jar shows what the jar has in it for many people there can’t read.
Twist of fate
Even the culture and religious factors and pure coincidence can be involved. Thorn McAn shoes have a Thorn McAn “signature” inside. To people in Bangladesh, which is a Muslim country, this signature looked like Arabic script for the word Allah. In that country feet are considered unclean and Muslims felt the company was offending God’s name by having people walk on it.
1. From the text we learned that _________.| A．Chevy Nova was a hit in Latin America |
| B．General Motors did the best market research of all companies |
| C．Pepsi still sold well in China owing to the translation problems |
| D．the “Come alive with Pepsi” campaign worked well in the US |
| A．The picture on the jar | B．A translation problem |
| C．Cultural factor | D．Religious factor |
| A．They are not designed attractively |
| B．Their advertisements are not persuasive |
| C．A signature looking like the word Allah was in the shoes |
| D．Problem for Thorn McAn was the company’s name |
| A．Lessons from some large corporations. | B．How to make use of advertisements |
| C．The importance of market research | D．The importance of packaging |
| A．product advertisers | B．market researchers |
| C．managers of Sales Department | D．businesses to promote products abroad |
注意：
1.词数100词左右，开头结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
2.可适当增加细节，使行文连贯。
参考词汇：中国书画展Chinese painting and calligraphy exhibition
Dear Chris,
How is it going these days?
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Looking forward to your coming.
Yours,
Li Jin
(1)端午节的时间及起源；
(2)端午节的习俗；
(3)邀请他端午节那天和你一起过节。
注意：
(1)词数不少于100；
(2)可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
(3)开头已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：端午节 Dragon Boat Festival 粽子 sticky rice dumpling
农历五月初五 the 5th day of the 5th lunar month
Dear Smith,
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Yours,
Li Hua
(1)说明发邮件的目的；
(2)介绍中国春节以及春节的具体活动(除夕家宴、吃饺子等)；
(3)介绍中国人对春节的态度。
注意：
(1)词数不少于100；开头及结尾已给出, 不计入总词数;
(2)可以适当增加细节, 使行文连贯。
参考词汇：
红包 red envelopes 春晚 the Spring Festival Gala
除夕 New Year’s eve 拜年 New Year’s greetings
Dear Jack,
I hope this email finds you well.
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Looking forward to your response and your company during the Spring Festival.
Best,
Li Hua
