【推荐1】The way we do things round here

Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that started, “Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us.” That “quite” saddened me. I thought he was saying “we’re kind of pleased you decided to join us although I wish we had hired someone else.” Then I discovered that in American English “quite” sometimes means “very”, while in British English it means “fairly”.

So the first lesson about working in other countries is to learn the language and by that I don’t just mean the words people speak. It is the body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures.

Some of these differences may be only on the surface—dress, food and hours of work—while others may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them, like the climate, while getting on with business.

Some of the differences may be an improvement. People are more polite; the service is better; you ask for something to be done and it happens without having to ask again. However, other differences can be troubling, like punctuality(准时). If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock, your guests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to   an hour afterwards in Italy and some time in the evening in Greece. I prefer not to use the word “late” because there is nothing wrong with the times people arrive. It is simply the accepted thing to do in their own country.

1. The author was unhappy as mentioned in Paragraph 1 because he thought_______.

A．the American bank might hire another person

B．the American bank didn’t think much of him

C．it’s difficult to get used to American culture

D．it’s easy to misunderstand Americans

2. According to the author, what should we do with most cultural differences?

A．Ask the native people for help.

B．Do things in your own way.

C．Understand and accept them.

D．Do in-depth research.

3. When invited to a party the people who are usually punctual are_______.

A．Germans

B．Italians

C．Greeks

D．The British

【推荐2】Look to many of history’s cultural symbols, and there you’ll find an ancestor of Frosty, the snowman in the movie Frozen. It appeared on some of the first postcards, starred in some of the earliest silent movies, and was the subject of a couple of the earliest photos, dating all the way back to the 1800s. I discovered even more about one of humanity’s earliest forms of life art during several years of research around the world.
For example, snowmen were a phenomenon in the Middle Ages, built with great skill and thought. At a time of limited means of expression, snow was like free art supplies dropped from the sky. It was a popular activity for couples to leisurely walk through town to view the temporary works of chilly art. Some were created by famous artists, including a 19-year-old Michelangelo, who in 1494 was appointed by the ruler of Florence, Italy, to build a snowman in his mansion’s courtyard.
The Miracle of 1511 took place during six freezing works called the Winter of Death. The city of Brussels was covered in snowmen—an impressive scene that told stories on every street corner. Some were political in nature, criticizing the church and government. Some were a reflection of people’s imagination. For the people of Brussels, this was a defining moment of defining freedom. At least until spring arrived, by which time they were dealing with damaging floods.
If you fear the heyday of the snowman has passed, don’t worry: I’ve learned that some explosive snowman history is still being made today. Every year since 1818, the people of Zurich, Switzerland, celebrate the beginning of spring by blowing up a snowman. On the third Monday of April, the holiday Sechselauten is kicked off when a cotton snowman called the Boogg is stuffed with explosive and paraded through town by bakers and other tradesmen who throw bread to the crowds. The parade ends with the Boogg being placed on a 40-foot pile of firewood. After the bells of the Church of St. Peter have rung six times, representing the passing of winter, the pile is lit. When the snowman explodes, winter is considered officially over—the quicker it is burnt down, the longer summer is said to be.
1. According to the passage, why did snowmen become a phenomenon in the Middle Ages?

A．People thought of snow as holy art supplies.

B．People longed to see masterpieces of snow.

C．Building snowmen was a way for people to express themselves.

D．Building snowmen helped people develop their skill and thought.

2. “The heyday of the snowman” （paragraph 4） means the time when___________.

A．snowmen were made mainly by artists

B．snowmen enjoyed great popularity

C．snowmen were politically criticized

D．snowmen caused damaging floods

3. In Zurich, the blowing up of the Boogg symbolizes__________________.

A．the start of the parade

B．the coming of a longer summer

C．the passing of the winter

D．the success of tradesmen

4. What can be concluded about snowmen from the passage?

A．They were appreciated in history

B．They have lost their value

C．They were related to movies

D．They vary in shape and size

【推荐3】Shan Tianfang, died at 83 on Sept. 11,2018 in Beijing because of multiple organ failure. His energetic oral interpretations of classical Chinese novels and historical events pushed the ancient pingshu tradition forward into the modern age for generations of Chinese.

Mr. Shan tried for many years to avoid becoming a performer of pingshu, the Song dynasty-era storytelling tradition. Growing up in the1950s in a family of folk art performers, he had seen struggle firsthand. It was a life of constant financial troubles and low social status. So it was with great unwillingness when, out of financial necessity, he became an apprentice（徒弟） to a family friend who was a master of pingshu. He made his first public appearance in 1956.

In the pingshu tradition, the performer wears a traditional gown and sits behind a desk equipped with a folding fan and a wooden block. The storyteller tells a legend — typically a classical Chinese epic — from memory, using different voices and exaggerated gestures as well as adding occasional background detail and commentary.

Mr. Shan grew to love the storytelling form, which is popular across northern China. It is a demanding profession that combines acting, oration, writing, historical research and literary criticism and requires countless hours of memorization. In teahouses around the northeastern region, he became famous for his fresh takes on the classics.

In 1976, many Chinese were hungry for some new forms of entertainment, and it was against this background that he grasped the opportunity to record a pingshu radio broadcast. He soon discovered that performing on radio was vastly different from doing so in teahouses. There were no props（道具）, no reactions from the audience to guide him — just Mr. Shan and the microphone in a recording studio. So for his first radio performance, a shortened version of the historical novel ―The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties,‖ Mr. Shan used the studio’s three recording technicians as his audience and adjusted his performance based on their reactions.

The performance had its first appearance in 1980 on Chinese New Year, and more than 100 million Chinese were estimated to have tuned in during the 56 hours over which it was broadcast. It was the beginning of a dramatic second act both for Mr. Shan and for pingshu in the People’s Republic of China. He was soon a household name across the country.

Over six decades, Mr. Shan recorded more than 110 stories for radio and television totaling about 12,000 episodes and lasting 6,000 hours. His best-known works include his interpretations of Chinese classics like ―White-Eyebrow Hero‖ and ―Sanxia Wuyi‖ and his dramatizations of historical figures like Zhuge Liang and Lin Zexu.

Even today, hop into a Beijing taxi and the driver may be listening to one of Mr. Shan’s recordings. ―For my generation, Shan Tianfang was a master,‖ said Zhao Fuwei, 48, a Beijing taxi driver. ―If back then there was such thing as a viral star, then Shan Tianfang was definitely the hottest viral star.

―Listening to his stories has made it easier to kill time in bad traffic,‖ Mr. Zhao added. ―He was so good at making complicated historical stories simple and interesting. You feel like you could empathize with the characters in his stories, even though they lived a long time ago.

But in recent years many of the great pingshu performers have died, and the tradition is fading. By the time Mr. Shan retired in 2007, interest in pingshu among Chinese had all but been replaced by mobile phones and gaming.Nevertheless, even after retiring, Mr. Shan worked tirelessly to promote pingshu among young Chinese, instructing apprentices and starting a school dedicated to the folk arts.

Ever willing to adapt to new technologies, he posted a message to his Sina Weibo microblog account on Sept. 6, five days before his death. It was an announcement about a new live-streamed（直播） lecture series about pingshu.

1. In the 1950s, Chinese folk art performers .

A．got no pay for their performance.

B．were looked down on by the public.

C．were always from an artistic family.

D．won popularity with common people.

2. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The origin of pingshu.	B．The types of pingshu.
C．The performance of pingshu.	D．The performers of pingshu.

3. Why did Mr. Shan start his radio performance?

A．To expand his pingshu career.

B．To cater to the audience's needs.

C．To challenge himself in performance.

D．To make pingshu the main focus of attention.

4. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 9 probably imply?

A．The audience get a chance to communicate with the characters.

B．The audience can remember the different characters easily.

C．The audience hope to experience things happening to the characters.

D．The audience can understand the characters feelings and experiences.

5. Which words can best describe Mr. Shan?

A．flexible and devoted	B．adaptable and generous.
C．grateful and open-minded	D．sympathetic and strong-willed.

6. What's the authors' purpose of writing the text?

A．To promote the Chinese folk art— pingshu.

B．To stress the achievement of Shan Tianfang.

C．To give a brief introduction of Shan Tianfang.

D．To show ShanTianfang's effort to develop pingshu.