The "point" is the idea or piece of information that Americans suppose is, or should be, at the center of people's thinking, writings, and spoken comments. Speakers and writers are supposed to "make their points clear", meaning that they are supposed to say or write clearly the idea or piece of information they wish to express.
People from many other cultures have different ideas about the point. Africans traditionally tell stories that express the thoughts they have in mind, rather than stating the point clearly. Japanese traditionally speak indirectly, leaving the listener to figure out what the point is. Thus, while an American might say to a friend, "I don't think that coat goes very well with the rest of your outfit," a Japanese might say, "Maybe another coat would look even better than the one you have on." Americans value a person who "gets right to the point". Japanese are likely to consider such a person insensitive if not rude.
The Chinese and Japanese languages are characterized by vagueness and ambiguity. The precision and directness Americans associate with "the point" cannot be achieved, at least not with any grace, in Chinese and Japanese. Speakers of those languages thus have to learn a new way of reasoning and expressing their ideas if they are going to communicate satisfactorily with Americans.
1. According to the passage, Americans expect speakers and writers to _____.
| A．express their personal views |
| B．be clear about their main ideas |
| C．be honest about their true feelings |
| D．give as much information as possible |
| A．Americans. | B．Chinese. | C．Japanese. | D．Africans. |
| A．appearance | B．behavior | C．speech | D．clothes |
| A．mind their manners |
| B．explain their reasons clearly |
| C．change their ways of expressing ideas |
| D．be careful about their choices of words |
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【推荐1】Many language learners think that the best way to learn a language is to spend time in a country where the language is spoken.In the past studying abroad was a distant dream for most people.Nowadays,however,it has become easier to find both opportunities and means.Many schools offer exchange programmes at various academic levels at a reasonable cost.There are programmes for junior and senior middle schools as well as colleges.Some programmes offer a“homestay” service,and visiting students will live with a host family.This is perhaps the best option for younger students,since it means that the students don’t have to worry about meals and housing.Living with a host family is also a wonderful way to learn about the culture in that country.Most exchange students say that they feel as if they were truly part of their host families and that they will always stay in touch.
A year in a foreign country is not just about learning a language.It is true that exchange students usually become fluent in the new language,but most of them would probably tell you that they also learn many other things that are even more important.Being an exchange student helps you make friends with people from different backgrounds and understand another culture.One year is not enough to learn all about a country or a culture,of course,but it is enough to broaden your horizons and improve your understanding of the world.What is perhaps the most valuable is what you learn about yourself and your own culture.When you are at home,you seldom stop to think what kind of person you are and what your culture is really like.As an exchange student,you have to learn to depend on yourself and you will often be asked to explain your country and culture to others.It may seem strange,but many returned exchange students say that their years abroad made them understand their own country and culture for the first time.
1. According to many language learners,which is the best way to learn French?| A．Going to France to study. |
| B．Practising speaking following tapes and videos. |
| C．Learning more about the French culture. |
| D．Making friends with the French. |
| A．It means that you’ll invite foreigners to stay home. |
| B．It means that you’ll learn foreign languages at home. |
| C．It means that you select a native family to live with when studying abroad. |
| D．It means that wherever you go,your hometown is still your hometown. |
| A．living with host families |
| B．learning about the new country’s culture |
| C．speaking the new language fluently |
| D．learning more about your own culture |
There are over 500 dialects in China because of the big distance between villages and towns from the capital cities such as Beijing. In spite of great popularity that the English language has around the globe, Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the entire world because of the fact that China is the most populated country on Earth, having more than 1.3 billion citizens. This is the main reason for which most students want to study Chinese in China.
On the other hand, China has the fastest growing and expanding economies in the world and this might give you the chance to take part in future projects in different areas of China. These are well—trained specialists around the world that decide to study Mandarin in China where they can become leaders in their specific field of operation. People who study Chinese in Beijing will have a lot of opportunities after mastering the Chinese alphabet and a lot of doors will open for them, giving them a lot of chances to succeed in their career.
To sum up, if you decide to study Chinese in Beijing, the best place to start your research and gather information is the Internet. Here you have various opportunities to study in China at affordable prices.
1. Why do large numbers of foreign students decide to come to China to study every year?
| A．To experience the life here and learn Chinese. |
| B．To learn different dialects in China. |
| C．To earn money by teaching English in China. |
| D．To taste Chinese food and enjoy beautiful scenery. |
| A．China has paid much attention to development |
| B．More people will come to China to learn Chinese |
| C．it is fairly easy to find a favorite job in China |
| D．people can make more money in China in the future |
| A．The reasons of learning Chinese in Beijing |
| B．Chinese is easy for the foreigners to learn |
| C．Most people speak Chinese in the world |
| D．Chinese can help to find a good job in Beijing |
【推荐3】When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所).I suggested that they should stay at ''bed and breakfast'' houses, because this kind of accommodation gives foreign visitors a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
''We didn't stay at 'bed and breakfast' houses, '' they said, ''because we found that most families were away on holiday. ''
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ''VACANCIES'' meant ''holidays'', because the Spanish word for ''holidays'' is ''vacations''. So they did not go to houses where the sign outside said ''VACANCIES'', which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to houses where the sign said ''NO VACANCIES'', because they thought this meant the people who owned the houses were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed at this and about the mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ''DIVERSION'' means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ''DIVERSION'' on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.
English people also have problems when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said ''Thank you'' in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise, the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ''Thank you'' in French means ''No, thank you. ''.
1. Why did the author suggest his friends staying at bed and breakfast houses?| A．It would be much cheaper than staying in hotels. |
| B．It would be convenient for them to have dinner together. |
| C．They would be able to practise their English. |
| D．There would be no problem about finding accommodation there. |
| A．fall into a large hole |
| B．find the road blocked by people |
| C．have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself |
| D．have to take a different road |
| A．He would finish drinking his coffee. |
| B．He was expecting another cup of coffee. |
| C．He meant that he didn't want any more. |
| D．He has already had enough coffee. |
【推荐1】The foldable smartphone was shown for the first time on Wednesday during a Samsung developer’s conference in San Francisco, California. The company first announced plans to build a fully foldable phone five years ago.
The phone is designed to fold open to make the device the size of a small tablet. It can also perform some operations of a tablet. When folded closed, the device looks and works like a normal smartphone. The device will permit users to keep up to three apps open at one time. With normal size smartphones, users have to keep changing between apps.
Justin Dension is Samsung’s senior vice president. He introduced the device to people at the conference. He said it marked a major breakthrough in future smartphone technology. Denison said the design of the foldable device was very complex. One of the biggest difficulties was finding a material that was not only flexible but also strong enough to support repeated folding and unfolding of the device. Denison said Samsung would be ready to start mass production in the coming months.
Technology experts see the new foldable design as a way to get users to buy a new device seen as revolutionary. More people are deciding to hold onto smartphones longer because newly launched models do not offer major improvements and can be very costly. This behavior is one reason for a steady decrease in worldwide smartphone sales over the past year.
It remains to be seen whether foldable phones will become popular quickly. The device is expected to cost more than $1,000. The company has not yet announced when its FlexPai device will be available in America. But it is planning to launch the product in China starting next month, at a price of about $1,300.
1. What did Samsung company do on Wednesday in San Francisco?| A．It announced plans to build a foldable phone. |
| B．It introduced its foldable phone to the public. |
| C．It started to sell its foldable phone in America. |
| D．It held a conference to deal with new challenges. |
| A．It can run only one app at a time. |
| B．The material for it was hard to find. |
| C．It is popular worldwide now. |
| D．It will take the place of the tablet. |
| A．Recycling their old smartphones. |
| B．Repairing their old smartphones. |
| C．Keeping their old smartphones. |
| D．Replacing their old smartphones. |
| A．A brochure. | B．A newspaper. |
| C．A research paper. | D．A shopping guidebook. |
【推荐2】For several months, Cara has been working up the courage to approach her mom about what she saw on Instagram. Not long ago, the 11-year-old girl discovered that her mom had been posting her photos for much of her life. “I’ve wanted to bring it up. It’s strange to see myself up there, and sometimes there are pictures I don’t like of myself,” she said.
Like most other modern kids, Cara grew up under the influence of social media. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were all founded before she was born. Instagram has been around since she was a toddler. While many kids may not yet have accounts themselves, their parents, schools, sports teams have been organizing an online presence for them since birth. It is a shock to know that details about their lives have been shared online without their permission or knowledge. And this has become a common、experience for many teenagers.
Recently a parenting blogger said that despite her 14-year-old daughter’s horror at discovering that her mother had shared years of highly personal stories and information about her online, she simply could not stop doing it.
But it’s not just crazy mommy bloggers who share their children’s information on social media. Plenty of average parents do the same. There’s even a special word for it: sharenting (晒娃).Almost a quarter of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram scans (产前超声波扫描) to the Internet to a study conducted by the Internet-security firm AVG. The study also found that 92 percent of kids under the age of 2 already have their own unique digital identity.
1. What does the underlined word “toddler” in the second paragraph probably mean?| A．Teenage girl. | B．School student. |
| C．Daughter. | D．Very young child. |
| A．AVG is the name of an Internet company. |
| B．25% of children begin their digital lives before they are born. |
| C．Fathers don’t like to share their kids’ information on social media. |
| D．The word “sharenting” has been appearing on the Internet recently. |
| A．Growing up on the Internet | B．A New Term Born |
| C．Parents Addicted to Blogging | D．The Children’s Horror |
【推荐3】In 2014, Mahoney was asked to choose a person who regularly gave back to the Halifax community (社区) to perform an act of kindness as part of a Facebook challenge. Mahoney chose a 79-year-old senior named Eleanor, who not only gave goods for the people at the pub where Mahoney worked but also volunteered at the local homeless shelter.
Mahoney wanted to get to know Eleanor better, so she asked that they spent a day together—picking up fruits, getting their nails done, that kind of thing. “It was the first time in years that someone had made a day about her,” says the 30-year-old. “That focus made her shine.”
Their shared experience got Mahoney thinking. How many other seniors might benefit from that kind of attention? And had some of those seniors delayed their dreams because they’d been busy caring for others? Chisholm, now 31, was equally interested in these questions, and together the pair set up their new charity: We Are Young, or WAY for short.
WAY has since delivered on (履行) 38 dreams—from a helicopter trip over a childhood blueberry-picking place to travelling to Toronto to watch a Blue Jays game. These dreams are to work out problems caused by the health and loneliness of seniors. 78-year-old Victor wanted to go to the beach—a dream he’d given up when it became too physically difficult to reach the sea. The team at WAY offered a boat for him and his son in the fall of 2021 so they could reach the sea and spend the day enjoying themselves on the beach.
“If you lose the sense of purpose that having a passion (激情) can give you, your self-confidence goes down,” says Mahoney. “Now, Victor has got some of his self-confidence again—and his sense of humour. We want to show that anything is possible with the support of others.” “We want to create a movement that changes our whole society’s opinion and support for seniors,” says Mahoney. “That is the influence we’re trying to create.”
1. How did Eleanor feel after spending a day with Mahoney?| A．she as panicked. | B．She was in a good mood. |
| C．She was confused. | D．She was tired. |
| A．To help seniors get answers to the questions. |
| B．To make themselves become better. |
| C．To make seniors’ delayed dreams a reality. |
| D．To realize their own delayed dreams. |
| A．It was a home for him. | B．It would gain popularity. |
| C．It’s much better than before. | D．It might be owned by his son. |
| A．Seniors Deserve More Care. | B．“WAY” for Seniors’ Delayed Dreams. |
| C．An Act of Kindness. | D．Seniors’ Dream Come True. |
