3 . Labor Day in America began more than 100 years ago to honor low-paid factory workers.

Labor Day also informally marks the end of summer. Many students return to school after Labor Day. The hot days of summer turn cooler. Many Americans celebrate the holiday with an outdoor family picnic.

But Labor Day started with a struggle. On May 1, 1889, workers demonstrated on the streets of Paris, France. International Labor Day was born. Most industrialized countries in the world—except the United States and Canada—celebrate Labor Day on the first of May.

On September 5, 1882, in New York City. About 10,000 workers walked through the streets to show the strength of organized labor. For many years after that, American workers used the first Monday in September to ask for better working conditions and pay. Music was a part of many of those marches.

Labor songs traditionally tell stories of conflict (冲突) and hopes for a better life. Many traditional American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mine owners were bitterly against workers’ unions (工会). In Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They waited outside a worker’s home for several days to stop him from organizing.

The coal miner’s wife, Florence Reece, stayed inside with her children. She wrote this song, “Which Side Are You On?” Another American labor song is called “Bread and Roses.” It is based on a poem by James Oppenheim, published in December of 1911.

The poem speaks about the women’s labor movement. At that time, conditions in factories, where many women worked, were horrible. A fire at a clothing factory in New York killed 146 people.

A month after Oppenheim’s poem was published, textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts went on strike, which won them higher pay and better working conditions. Oppenheim’s poem gained more attention.

1. What does Labor Day mean to students in the United States?

A．It’s a time to eat in the wild.	B．Their summer vacation is over.
C．It teaches them to respect labor.	D．They learn much about history.

2. What does the underlined word “demonstrated” mean in paragraph 3?

A．Fought.

B．United.

C．Marched.

D．Quarreled.

3. Why did the company police wait outside a worker’s home?

A．To force him to stay at home.	B．To prevent his wife writing the song.
C．To try to communicate with him.	D．To stop marches being organized.

4. What do we know about Oppenheim?

A．He cared for working women’s rights.	B．He created the song “Bread and Roses”.
C．He reported the fire at a clothing factory.	D．He led the labor movement in Lawrence.

4 . Every year on April 1, April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. In France, it's called "Poisson d^’Avril" or "Fish of April”. In Scotland, the holiday is often called "Gowkie Day". In Iraq, the holiday is called "Kithbet Neesan” or "April Lie".

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools^’ Day for a long time. Some believe April Fools' Day comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago, which was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564. when King Charles changed the yearly calendar. He moved New Year's Day from April 1 to January I Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems then. Some people continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.

In the United State, April Fools' Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. These kinds of jokes are also called pranks （恶 作 剧）.These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting “April Fools”!

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common. But major companies also get in on April Fools' Day in a much bigger way. A few years ago, on April 1, Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes-plenta and Micra. The very large cups, bigger than a human head, remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee. According to Starbucks, the cups could be used as a rain hat, a pot for plants, or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank. More and more people use media or smartphone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools' Day. One very annoying smartphone app, Cat Facts, sends funny facts about cats to your friends⁵ phones every day.

1. Why did some French people keep the old New Year's Day?

A．They liked the old celebration.

B．They did not know the change.

C．They wanted to be different from others.

D．The king wanted to play plank on the people.

2. Americans celebrated April Fools' Day to ________.

A．escape the stress of their work

B．find a chance to give children gifts

C．improve the friendship between them

D．have fun and play jokes on others

3. What is the   meaning of the underlined words "get in on” in Paragraph 5?

A．Join in	B．give away
C．stick to	D．break away from

4. What is the author's purpose of writing the text?

A．To introduce a new festival.

B．To tell a story on April Fools'   Day.

C．To introduce April Fools' Day.

D．To explain the misunderstanding of April Fools' Day.

5 . I had just arrived in this Asian country for a one-year teaching position. One day, I took a subway to visit some ancient palaces and temples in the downtown. What happened to me next on the subway has taught me much about culture difference.

Since all the seats were taken, I stood. Suddenly, I felt someone pulling on my bag. Assuming I probably was in someone’s way, I moved over slightly. But in one quick motion, I felt my bag removed from my back, and in a flash, it was gone. I turned around to see who the thief was. I looked at the people standing behind me, but didn’t see my bag or anyone suspicious. My heart began to beat wildly and I began to panic.

I looked around, only to find directly across from me was an elderly lady, and sitting on her lap was my bag. I tried to get it back from her lap. But as I began to pull it up, she quickly took it back and held onto it. I looked around at the people standing beside me, and those sitting beside her, but no one took any notice of the situation. Trying not to cause a scene, I tried to negotiate through gestures. I used my hands as much as I could, but she ignored my requests for my bag and pointed to my back. She picked up my bag, showing how heavy it was. I finally began to understand. She was holding my bag to help me.

At the next stop, a middle-aged woman got on the crowded subway. Another elderly woman sitting down took her bag, setting it on her lap. They didn’t talk; yet this older woman was more than pleased to sit with this stranger’s bag on her lap throughout her journey.

As the subway pulled into the main downtown station and I was getting ready to get off, the woman gently handed me back my bag. But before I had a chance to thank her, she had disappeared into the crowd.

1. What happened after the writer got on the subway?

A．The writer’s bag was stolen by an elderly lady.	B．The writer stood in someone’s way.
C．An old lady asked the writer to sit beside her.	D．A stranger offered help to the writer.

2. What does the underlined word in the second paragraph mean?

A．Feel frightened.

B．Feel grateful.

C．Feel relaxed.

D．Feel ashamed.

3. What can we infer from the writer’s experience?

A．The middle-aged woman and the elderly woman were good friends.

B．The passengers on the subway were very unfriendly.

C．Helping standing passengers with heavy bags was common on local subways.

D．There were many thieves on the subway.

4. What is the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To warn us of the potential risks in travelling abroad.	B．To tell us a culture difference.
C．To recommend a travel destination.	D．To give us some tips on taking a subway.

8 . When you go to a foreign country, you often enter a new culture. The differences between cultures may make you feel stressed and you often find it difficult to adjust to the new surroundings, which is usually called “culture shock”.

The psychological and physical symptoms of culture shock may appear depending on the individuals. Some often feel anxious while adjusting to a new culture—even more so when the cultural distances are wide.     1     They remain to homesick and feel so sad about being separated from their friends back home that they long to return, especially within the first year.

    2    People adjusting to a new culture often feel lonely because the language barrier makes it hard to create new relationships. Furthermore, having trouble with the native language often makes them unwilling to interact with other people.

    3     You may do some research on the cultural aspects of the new country such as the history, customs, and religious beliefs, rather than on what to see and where to go, so you may get prepared for a culture that is different from yours. Studying the language is also a great way to help bridge the gap between the cultures.     4    

A local club provides the perfect environment to get to know people who have a similar focus, so join one so that you can meet some locals and develop new friendships.     5     There are other travelers who have the same experiences in a foreign country. Talk with them, sharing feelings, tips and insight.

A．They may lose appetite and have sleep problems.

B．Still, the most important change is communication.

C．They make a lot of effort to get used to the new surroundings.

D．The more of it is understood, the more of the new culture can be understood.

E．Learning about your future destination is a great way to get over culture shock.

F．Plus, remember that you aren’t alone in your struggle to adjust in a new country.

G．Actually, staying in a foreign country helps you to know more of the new culture.

9 . Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture (文化) the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities).Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.

Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to "read" people from another culture as we would "read" someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions.

Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressions permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.

It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural differences in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of "reading" the other person incorrectly.

1. What does the smile usually mean in America?

A．Love.	B．Politeness.
C．Joy.	D．Thankfulness.

2. The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that smile can ___ .

A．show friendliness to strangers

B．be used to hide true feelings

C．be used in the wrong places

D．show personal habits

3. What should we do before attempting(尝试) to "read" people?

A．Learn about their relations with others.

B．Understand their cultural backgrounds.

C．Find out about their past experience.

D．Figure out what they will do next.

4. What would be the best title for the test?

A．Cultural Differences

B．Smiles and Relationship

C．Facial Expressiveness

D．Habits and Emotions

10 . I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles”(风格)of directions every time I ask “ How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often confused(困惑的)in Japan because most streets there don’t have names. In Japan, people use landmarks(地标)in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “ Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat. In many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “ Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map. They measure distance in time, not miles. “ How far away is the post office?” you ask. “ Oh,” they answer, “ it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “ Yes, but how many miles is it?” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn't know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “ Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “ I don't know”. People in Yucatan believe that “I don't know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!
1. When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a certain place, they usually _______ .

A．describe the place carefully

B．show him a map of the place

C．tell him the names of the streets

D．refer to recognizable buildings and places

2. What is the place where people measure distance in time?

A．New York.	B．Los Angles.
C．Kansas                 C. Iowa

3. People inYucatan may give a tourist a wrong answer ________ .

A．in order to save time	B．as a test
C．so as to be polite	D．for fun

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．It’s important for travelers to understand cultural differences.

B．It’s useful for travelers to know how to ask the way properly.

C．People have similar understanding of politeness.

D．New Yorkers are generally friendly to visitors.