1 . 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 body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures.

Some of the 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. If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock your quests 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 didn’t think much of him.

B．The American bank might hire another person.

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

D．It’s easy to understand Americans.

2. The word “highlight” in paragraph 2 probably means

A．encourages	B．helps to narrow
C．increase	D．stress

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

A．Ask the native people for help.	B．Understand and accept them.
C．Do things in our own ways.	D．Do in-depth research.

4. When invited to a party the people who are usually punctual are ________ .

A．Italians	B．Germans
C．Greeks	D．the British

2 . It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers (生产商) follow certain uniform standards for various features (特征) of clothes. What seems strange, however, is that the standard adopted for women is the opposite of the one for men. Take a look at the way your clothes button. Men’s clothes tend to button from the right, and women’s from the left. Considering most of the world’s population—men and women—are right-handed, the men’s standard would appear to make more sense for women. So why do women’s clothes button from the left?

History really seems to matter here. Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th century, when rich women were dressed by servants. For the mostly right-handed servants, having women’s shirts button from the left would be easier. On the other hand, having men’s shirts button from the right made sense, too. Most men dressed themselves, and a sword drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt.

Today women are seldom dressed by servants, but buttoning from the left is still the standard for them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once set, resists change. At a time when all Women’s shirts buttoned from the left, it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women’s shirts that buttoned from the right. After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch. Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right, since anyone who noticed that would believe they were wearing men’s shirts.

1. What is surprising about the standard of the clothing industry?

A．It has been followed by the industry for over 400 years.

B．It is different for men’s clothing and women’s.

C．It works better with men than with women.

D．It fails to consider righthanded people.

2. What do we know about the rich men in the 17th century?

A．They tended to wear clothes without buttons

B．They were interested in historical matters

C．They were mostly dressed by servants.

D．They drew their swords from the left.

3. Women’s clothes still button from the left today because       .

A．adopting men’s style is improper for women

B．manufacturers should follow standards

C．modern women dress themselves

D．customs are hard to change

4. The passage is mainly developed by       .

A．analyzing causes	B．making comparisons
C．examining differences	D．following the time order