President Clinton arrived in Korea directly after leaving Japan and had not changed his culture gears.His failure to follow Korean customs gave the impression that Korea was not as important to him as Japan.
In addition to Koreans,some Asian husbands and wives do not share the same family names.This practice often puzzles(使困惑) English-speaking teachers when talking with a pupil’s parents.They become puzzled about the student’s correct last name.Placing the family name first is common among a number of Asian cultures.
Mexican naming customs are different as well.When a woman marries,she keeps her family name and adds her husband’s name after the word de(of).This affects(影响) how they fill in forms in the United States.When requested to fill in a middle name,they generally write the father’s family name.But Mexicans are addressed by the family name of the mother.This often causes puzzlement.
Here are a few ways to deal with such difficult situations:don’t always think that a married woman uses her husband’s last name.Remember that in many Asian cultures,the order of first and last names is reversed(颠倒).Ask which name a person would prefer to use.If the name is difficult to pronounce,admit it,and ask the person to help you say it correctly.
1. The story of Bill Clinton is used to______.
| A．improve US-Korean relations |
| B．introduce the topic of the text |
| C．describe his visit to Korea |
| D．tell us how to address a person |
| A．action plans | B．naming customs |
| C．travel maps | D．thinking patterns |
| A．continues to use her family name |
| B．uses her husband’s given name |
| C．shares her husband’s family name |
| D．adds her husband’s given name to hers |
| A．use her middle name |
| B．use her husband’s first name |
| C．ask her which name she likes |
| D．change the order of her names |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Britain has a population of over 66 million.
Most people in Wales and Scotland are descendants of the Celtic people who were the earliest known inhabitants of Britain.
Besides the early groups from Europe, Britain has a considerable number of Italians, Greeks, Australians and New Zealanders who have settled in the country as permanent residents. In addition, there is a large number of immigrants from Africa and Asia. Most of them come from the former colonies of the British Empire, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (孟加拉国), the Caribbean Islands and a number of African countries. All these immigrants have made Britain one of the most culturally diverse countries in Europe. In London, for instance it is estimated that more than 300 languages and dialects are spoken.
English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages (印欧语系). This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today.
| A．The Anglos, the Saxons and the Jutes began populating the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries. |
| B．English is in the Germanic group of this family. |
| C．The Irish people are also of Celtic origin. |
| D．William the conqueror, the-Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. |
| E．The majority of the population is descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people from Europe who went to England between the 5th and 6th centuries. |
| F．Its overall population density is among the highest in the world. |
【推荐2】I passed one of my US colleagues and gave her a friendly greeting. Her reply was anything but friendly.
“What?"
“Er. You all right? ", I tried again.
She looked at me blankly. Then suddenly the cloud seemed to lift from her mind.
"Oh", she said, "You mean, how am I doing?" I thought you meant I had something on my face!”
As a British person coming to Beijing, I knew there would be cultural and language barriers between Chinese people and myself.
What I wasn't expecting were the cultural and language barriers between other English-speaking foreigners and myself.
Before the 2012 London Olympic Games, the Daily Mail newspaper published a guide to British English for Americans. Some of their examples were: Those are 'chips that go with your burger, instead of fries. You'd like some potato chips? Those are crisps. And: The best way to travel around the city during the Olympics will be by the underground, the rail network commonly known as the tube. It is not the subway ---that is a pedestrian(行人的) underpass.”
Any conversation I have with an American is proof of why a guide like this is necessary. British people usually know the American versions of words from TV or films (sorry-movies), but Americans never seem to have enough knowledge about British English.
The trouble is, it's not just Americans. When I speak English to non-English speakers I never know whether they have learned British or American English. When they say “chips”, for example, do they mean “French fries” or “potato chips”?
I can't help thinking back to the Daily Mail article: When you talk about pant in Britain， that means underwear. Trousers is the more appropriate term.
However, even though British English may have come first, around the world, the American way of spelling is getting more popular
Last month a survey released by US social media platform Steemit showed that English publications now largely use the American spelling, swapping words like “centre” for “center”. So it comes as no surprise that everyone I know just says “pants”.
1. The author mentioned her conversation with an American co-worker at the beginning to ________.| A．show how she gets along with American colleagues in the office |
| B．explain how to clear up misunderstandings between colleagues |
| C．introduce the differences between British and American English |
| D．describe what her life looked like after she came to Beijing |
| A．she became confident of herself |
| B．she was not sure what to do next |
| C．she felt excited for what she heard |
| D．she came to understand the situation |
| A．British people don't care much about American English |
| B．Non-English speakers can't tell British English from American English |
| C．Non-native speakers seem to prefer American English to British English |
| D．A knowledge of differences between American and British English is very important in communication |
| A．pleased at | B．troubled by | C．careless about | D．fascinated with |
Your Own Best Friend
Talking to yourself may seem a little shameful. If you’ve ever been overheard criticizing yourself for a foolish mistake or practicing a tricky speech ahead of time, you’ll have felt the social restriction against communicating with yourself in words. According to the well-known saying, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.
Take a trip to any preschool and watch a small child playing with her toys. You are very likely to hear her talking to herself: offering herself directions and giving voice to her frustrations.
As children, according to the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, we use private speech to regulate our actions in the same way that we use public speech to control the behavior of others.
Psychological experiments have shown that the distancing effect of our words can give us a valuable perspective on our actions. One recent study suggested that self-talk is most effective when we address ourselves in the second person: as “you” rather than “I”.
We internalize the private speech we use as children — but we never entirely put away the out-loud version.
Both kinds of self-talk seem to bring a range of benefits to our thinking. Those words to the self, spoken silently or aloud, are so much more than lazy talk.
| A．But there’s no need for embarrassment. |
| B．If you want proof, turn on the sports channel. |
| C．As we grow older, we don’t abandon this system – we internalize it. |
| D．This so-called inner speech can improve our performance on various tasks. |
| E．Conducting a dialogue with ourselves might turn out to be one of the keys to human creativity. |
| F．Psychologists refer to this as private speech — language that is spoken out loud but directed at the self. |
“It is completely environmentally friendly; we have new models with an engine to help the driver up the hills but they use renewable energy.” said a spokesman for VELOTAXI, the leading rickshaw company which has carried a quarter of a million people this year.
While the city still has 7,000 motor-taxis, rickshaw company officials say their taxis’ green ideas, speed and safety make them more than just a tourist attraction. While now increasingly out of fashion in Delhi, Berlin people have eagerly accepted the new fleet since their launch in 1997.
“It’s better than a taxi, better than a bus, better than the train,” said ULF Lehman, 36, as he leapt out of a rickshaw near the world famous Brandenburg gate. “ It feels so free.”“This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in Bangkok instead of Berlin” said another traveler.
In Amsterdam, driver Peter Jancso said people like to be driven around in his bright yellow rickshaw and pretend to be a queen in a golden carriage. "I like my passengers to feel important," he said as he dropped off another passenger. Another visitor noted how cheap it was compared with a normal taxi.
Although increasingly popular in Europe, it is the opposite in India, where hand-pulled rickshaws are considered inhuman and a symbol of India’s backward past.
Nearly 500 bike-rickshaws are running in London and are not required to pay the city’s road tax but things may change as other taxi drivers complain of unfair treatment.
1. Where are rickshaws becoming more popular?
| A．Delhi, Berlin, Paris. | B．Amsterdam, Bangkok, Delhi. |
| C．Athens, London, Berlin. | D．Berlin, Amsterdam, London. |
| A．They are a reminder of a bad period in India’s history. |
| B．They have been banned because they are inefficient. |
| C．The streets of India are too crowded for them to move through easily. |
| D．Indians now prefer to travel by car because they are richer. |
| A．The passenger didn’t like taking a rickshaw as it reminded him of Bangkok. |
| B．The passenger enjoyed being on holiday in Berlin more than in Bangkok. |
| C．The passenger was impressed when taking a rickshaw and considered it unusual. |
| D．The passenger disapproved of rickshaws because they were not original to Berlin. |
| A．He gives no personal opinion. |
| B．He believes they will be of no use. |
| C．He thinks they will reduce pollution. |
| D．He thinks they are old-fashioned. |
【推荐2】There are some differences between American English and British English. Some differences are quite interesting.
When my friend Lily from London used the word “larder”, I didn’t know what it meant. Realizing I didn’t follow her, she used another word. I finally knew she wanted to find something to keep some food. The next word came up when we were planning a lunch date. She jotted down the date and time in her diary, while I marked my calendar. If she called me on the phone, she would ring me up. But if the line was busy, she would say the line was engaged. Most times, I can know what Lily means. Last week, she regretted sending her boys to watch an early morning tennis game without their fleeces. I thought that she meant without their jackets or something like that. Other times, we have to ask each other. She recently told me a funny tale about a pissed woman. I wondered what had made the lady angry. It turns out that pissed means drunk.
Here is one more example. My British friend Jane was filling out a ticket at the grocery store recently. She asked the young man to help her if he had a rubber. When she noticed he didn’t follow her, she quickly asked for an eraser, which, in England, is often called a rubber. In order to communicate well with British people, we Americans should learn some words that the British use differently. And I think people who learn English as a second language should also realize that there are differences between American English and British English.
1. According to the passage, in British English ________.| A．the word “pissed” means angry | B．the word “jacket” is often used |
| C．the word “engaged” means tired | D．the word “rubber” means eraser |
| A．Wrote down. | B．Cared about. | C．Looked for. | D．Settled down. |
| A．The British way of using words. |
| B．Some new words the writer’s British friends taught her. |
| C．The reasons why Americans can’t followed the British at times. |
| D．Some words used differently in British English and American English. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Negative. | C．Positive. | D．Mutual. |
【推荐3】Memory
What is your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember learning to walk? Or talk? The first time you watched a television programme? Adults seldom call back events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four seldom remember any specific, personal experiences.
A variety of explanations have been suggested by psychologists (心理学家) for this “childhood amnesia”. Now Annette Simms, a psychologist of Riverdale University, offers a new explanation for childhood amnesia. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else’s spoken description of their personal experiences in order to turn their own short-term, fast forgotten impressions of them into long-term memories. In other words, children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about them. Without this verbal reinforcement (语言强化), children cannot form permanent memories of what they have experienced.
So why should personal memories depend so heavily on hearing them described? Dr. Simms presents evidence that the human mind organizes memories in that way. Children whose mothers talk with them about the day’s activities before bedtime tend to remember more of the day’s special event than those whose mothers don’t. Talking about an event in this way helps a child to remember it. And learning to organize memories as a continuous story is the key to a permanent mental “autobiography (自传)” of important life events. Dr. Simms suggests that we humans may be biologically programmed to turn our life experiences into a novel.
The key to creating this mental life story is language, says Dr. Simms. “Children learn to talk about the past,” she says. “Talking to others about their short-term memories of the past leads to the establishment (建立) of long-term memories.” One way it does this is by helping a child to recognize that the retelling of an experience is just the experience itself, recreated in the form of words. The child learns that this “word-description” of an experience can then be stored in the memory and called back at any time. But a child’s language skills are usually not ready for this until the age of three or four, so they have no way to remember the earliest of their experiences.
1. Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?| A．Children need to discuss experiences with their parents. |
| B．Why can’t we remember the events of early childhood? |
| C．Adults can’t remember things as well as children. |
| D．What are memories of early childhood like? |
| A．A mental life story. | B．A childhood memory. | C．Inability to remember. | D．Researches on memory. |
| A．talk about them with others | B．grow older than three or four |
| C．write a story in their own language | D．have a good relationship with their parents |
| A．can’t call back their experiences | B．have nowhere to store the memories |
| C．haven’t developed enough language skills | D．confuse the memory with the experience itself |
【推荐1】Nasr Majid started hunting this fall at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (保护区) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in USA. He’s one of the relatively few new hunters who officials hope will help stop a nearly four-decade decline nationally in what has become a hobby for fewer than 5 percent of Americans.
Natural resources and wildlife officials in Maryland are encouraging hunting of deer, turkeys and some other wild animals, which is believed to be good for the environment. Without hunting, they say, sika deer will overpopulate the wildlife refuge and they’ll overeat the bushes and other plants that provide important habitat for birds. On the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, hunting is also important to prevent the spread of diseases such as Lyme.
In many families, the hunting tradition has been handed down for generations. But as longtime sportsmen age and children lose interest, the number of hunters in the United States fell by 2 million, from 2011 to 2018, to about 11 million.
“Everything is changing. Kids are growing up in front of video games and computers instead of going hunting.” said Chris Markin, a hunting specialist for the state natural resources department. “Adults usually focus on working and providing for their families. Those pressures are preventing many other potential hunters from going out, and from raising the next generation of hunters.”
To avoid such a decline, a new approach is needed. Government agencies and nonprofit groups are now launching mentoring (指导) programs to train more hunters, which not only helps preserve an industry and a culture but also means more protection for wildlife and their habitats through deer population control and investment.
Luckily, there are those still eager to learn, like Majid. He was just looking for an outdoor hobby he could share with his children when he came across the mentorship program. Now, he feels capable of hunting on his own, but also has someone he can text with questions that pop up. His new pastime has already paid off for him—on his second hunt with his mentor, in the last minutes of daylight, he bagged his first deer.
1. In this passage,Nasr Majid is considered as a symbol of________.| A．devotion | B．bravery | C．enthusiasm | D．hope |
| A．No one is interested in hunting any more. |
| B．The hunting tradition is facing challenges. |
| C．Parents fail to spend enough time with kids. |
| D．Hunting adds to many adults life pressures. |
| A．Raising questions. | B．Looking for hunters. |
| C．Learning to hunt. | D．Sharing a new hobby. |
| A．Teach hunters new skills | B．Make Hunting More Popular |
| C．Reduce the pressure of life | D．Train more skilled hunters |
【推荐2】The Tokyo Summer Olympics is going green. The 5,000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.
One novel focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be“sustainable”—to avoid using too many natural resources, so that the games are easy on the environment. As part of this goal, the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.
Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of "precious metals", like gold and silver. But collecting enough of these metals to make 5,000 medals was a huge challenge. That's because the amount of metal in each device is tiny. It would take about 20,000 cell phones to get just 1 kilogram of gold.
Beginning in April 2017, the organizers placed collection boxes around the country, and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices. Soon people began to respond to the initiative, turning in smartphones, digital cameras, hand-held games, and laptops. At first, collection went slowly, but soon more and more areas began to take part. By the end, 1,621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.
Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces. After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted (熔炼) to get all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill. It's also dangerous, because some of the metals and other things aren't safe for people to touch or breathe.
By the end of March, 2019, the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around3xkilograms of gold, 4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of bronze. And now all the 5,000 medals are available for the would-be winners.
1. What can we know about the Tokyo Olympics medals?| A．They are hugely valuable. |
| B．They are of high quality. |
| C．They are designed uniquely. |
| D．They are made from e-waste. |
| A．The difficulty of making the medals. |
| B．The process of collecting old electronics. |
| C．The initiative to recycle used smartphones. |
| D．The classification of the collected devices. |
| A．creative | B．well-paid |
| C．demanding | D．time-consuming |
| A．To advocate sustainable use of resources. |
| B．To promote the spirit of Olympic Games. |
| C．To introduce a new technique to make medals. |
| D．To call people's attention to environmental damage. |
【推荐3】Persuasion is to convince someone to agree with you, just like art which also calls for special techniques to accomplish. According to the ancient Greeks, there are three basic tools of persuasion: ethos, pathos and logos.
Ethos is a speaker’s way of convincing the audience that he is trustworthy, honest and reliable. One common way a speaker can develop ethos is by explaining how much experience or education he has in the field. After all, you’re more likely to listen to advice about how to take care of your teeth from a dentist than a fireman.
Pathos is a speaker’s way of connecting with an audience’s emotions. For example, a politician who is trying to convince an audience to vote for him might say that he alone can save the country from a terrible war. These words are intended to fill the audience with fear, thus making them want to vote for him. Similarly, an animal charity might show an audience pictures of injured dogs and cats to make the viewers feel pity, so they will be more likely to donate money.
Logos is the use of facts, statistics or other evidence to support your argument. An audience will believe you if you have convincing data to back up your claims. Presenting this evidence is much more persuasive than simply saying “believe me”.
Although ethos, pathos and logos all have their strengths, they are often most effective when used together. So, the next time you listen to a speech, watch a commercial or listen to a friend try to convince you to lend him some money, be on the lookout for these ancient Greek tools of persuasion.
1. What is the purpose of persuasion?| A．To advise somebody to support you. |
| B．To help someone have special skills. |
| C．To convince somebody to realize his aim. |
| D．To talk someone into being honest. |
| A．Pathos. | B．Ethos. |
| C．Logos. | D．Education. |
| A．Both prevent themselves from being hurt. |
| B．Both save people from terrible wars. |
| C．Both make the audience support them. |
| D．Both persuade people to donate money. |
| A．Convince the Audience. | B．Three Basic Tools of Persuasion |
| C．Believe Me. | D．Strength of Persuasion |
【推荐1】I must have always known reading was very important because the first memories I have as a child deal with books. There was not one night that I don't remember mom reading me a storybook by my bedside. I was extremely inspired by the elegant way the words sounded.
I always wanted to know what my mom was reading. Hearing mom say," I can't believe what's printed in the newspaper this morning," made me want to grab it out of her hands and read it myself. I wanted to be like my mom and know all of the things she knew. So I carried around a book, and each night, just to be like her, I would pretend to be reading.
This is how everyone learned to read. We would start off with sentences, then paragraphs, and then stories. It seemed an unending journey, but even as a six-year-old girl I realized that knowing how to read could open many doors. When mom said," The C-A-N-D-Y is hidden on the top shelf," I knew where the candy was. My progress in reading raised my curiosity, and I wanted to know everything. I often found myself telling my mom to drive more slowly, so that I could read all of the road signs we passed.
Most of my reading through primary, middle and high school was factual reading. I read for knowledge, and to make A's on my tests. Occasionally, I would read a novel that was assigned, but I didn't enjoy this type of reading. I liked facts, things that are concrete. I thought anything abstract left too much room for argument.
Yet, now that I'm growing and the world I once knew as being so simple is becoming more complex, I find myself needing a way to escape. By opening a novel, I can leave behind my burdens and enter into a wonderful and mysterious world where I am now a new character. In these worlds I can become anyone. I don't have to write down what happened or what technique the author was using when he or she wrote this. I just read to relax.
We're taught to read because it's necessary for much of human understanding. Reading is a vital part of my life. Reading satisfies my desire to keep learning. And I've found that the possibilities that lie within books are limitless.
1. According to Paragraph 3, the author's reading of road signs indicates___________| A．her unique way to locate herself | B．her eagerness to develop her reading ability |
| C．her effort to remind mom to obey traffic rules | D．her growing desire to know the world around her. |
| A．It would help her update test-taking skills. |
| B．It would allow much room for free thinking. |
| C．It would provide true and objective information. |
| D．It would help shape a realistic and serious attitude to life. |
| A．explore a fantasy land | B．develop a passion for leaning |
| C．learn about the adult community | D．get away from a confusing world |
| A．The Magic of Reading | B．The Pleasure of Reading |
| C．Growing Up with Reading | D．Reading Makes a Full Man |
【推荐2】Andrea Yoch loves her adult sons, but would also love to not live with them. This is especially true in the 2, 200-square-foot rental in St. Paul, where she and her husband moved after the boys left their childhood home (a 5,000-square-foot property with a pool). But now Ben, 20, and Ryan, 23 are crammed with their parents in a house where a movie playing in one room can be heard in almost any other.
After her sons showed up due to the lockdown after the Coronavirus crisis struck- Ben from Boston, where he is a college student, and Ryan from New York, where he was starting out as an assistant advertising account executive- Ms. Yoch rushed to set up temporary offices in a bedroom and a basement that now also functions as a super crowded gym. "I would give anything for them to restart their lives, "she said.
As the pandemic （流 行 病） continues, Wall Street bankers, Uber drivers, academics, artists and many other adults have given up their independent lives and migrated home. Some fled heavily populated cities for the rural suburban houses where they grew up and the promise of home-cooked meals and free laundry. Others ended up in downsized spaces designed for empty nesters or in apartments already shared with other family members, such as grandparents or teenage siblings.
Parents caught by the increase of layoffs and canceled contracts found themselves feeding grown children who were in the same position. Mothers who had grown accustomed to freedom were suddenly expected to go back to cooking and cleaning.
“Some parents see this as a welcome surprise, but it can also add a lot of financial stress," said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at the investment bank Stifel. You can't assume that parents are necessarily in a better-off position than their adult children: a lot of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have enough savings to accommodate extra people living in their households.”
1. Which word best describes Ms. Yoch's life with her two sons?| A．Exciting | B．Inconvenient |
| C．Satisfying | D．Disappointing |
| A．People without jobs. |
| B．Children staying abroad. |
| C．Grown-ups with no houses. |
| D．Parents with no children around. |
| A．Because they want their kids to be independent. |
| B．Because they don’t like to do all the laundry. |
| C．Because they are in no better financial situation. |
| D．Because they have sold or rented out their houses |
| A．The generation gap between parents and their children. |
| B．The life young people used to live before going to college. |
| C．The parents' life being affected by children in the lockdown |
| D．The economic crisis brought about by the deadly coronavirus. |
【推荐3】Protected areas around the world are protected from invasive species(入侵物种). However, most of them are still vulnerable(易受伤害的) to invasion, according to research conducted by scientists from China and the UK.
The study, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in the journal Nature Communications. It showed how the majority of protected areas are no more than 10 kilometers away from an area with the presence of invasive species. Tim Blackburn, a co-author of the study and a professor from University College London, said that introducing invasive species is among the worst damage that humans can inflict to the natural environment.
Invasive alien species or IAS can harm an ecosystem by competing with or killing native species and destroying habitats, among many impacts. Aliens are species that are not naturally occurring in particular area and are introduced through humans. Invasion by such species is considered as among the five worst direct drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. Aliens establish populations at more new areas at an ever-increasing pace.
The researchers discovered that lower than ten percent of protected areas have the 894 surveyed invasive species within them, which suggests that, in general, protected areas are effectively shielded against invasion. However, all of them are still at risk from IAS, because at least one alien species was found within 100 kilometers of 99% of the surveyed protected areas' boundaries.
The research team also discovered that protected regions that contain more invasive animal species experience a more significant influence or presence of humans, otherwise known as the human footprint index. This is caused by factors like large human populations and transport links.
In addition, protected areas that have been established more recently and are more extensive have a more significant number of IAS. The older protected areas are usually in more remote locations, which provide them with better protection from human impacts.
Dr. Li who is a famous biologist said that for now, the majority of protected areas are free from IAS. Still, it may not be true for long. He adds that those areas which are easily accessible to many people count as the most highly vulnerable.
1. Which word is closest to the underlined word “inflict” in meaning in paragraph 2?| A．Imagine. | B．Cause. | C．Practise. | D．Challenge. |
| A．Alien species have a much stronger appetite than native species. |
| B．Native species are not strong enough to compete with aliens. |
| C．Alien species are dangerous to native species and their habitats. |
| D．The number of native species increases more slowly than that of alien species. |
| A．The local weather. | B．Human activity. |
| C．Regional locations. | D．Practical measures. |
| A．Positive. | B．Subjective | C．Uncaring | D．Worried |
