Sending gifts varies greatly from country to country. In Australia, Canada, the United States
In America, expensive gifts are
Australia is known for
2 . A group of foreign residents married to Japanese talked about their children’s names.
Nicole Despres
Students services manager, 40 (American)
We have no intention to live outside Japan so it made sense for the kids to take my Japanese husband’s family name. However, we did want to have a Western name too, so all three of them now have both a Western and Japanese name. We agreed there would be no strange names, spelling or unusual kanji (Chinese characters in the Japanese language). All names had to be easy to say and familiar in both Japanese and English.
John McCracken
Company general manager, 27(American)
My son’s name is Aiden. In part because my wife and I met in university and as she was studying Irish history and I have some links to Scotland and Ireland, I wanted a unique Gaelic (盖尔族的) name. We settled for Aiden as we found kanji that can be used in Japan that means “legendary hero”
Paula Murakami
College women’s Association of Japan, 53(American) My husband was very excited about choosing names, so I decided to let him choose. He wanted their first names to be Japanese and camp up with names that included the kanji character in his own name. Our boys, Hiroki and Kenta, never had any problems while living on the U. S. West Coast with Japanese names, and I think both as children and as adults, they love their names.
Jeff Ruiz
Recording engineer, 42 (Mexican)
My son’s name is Lenny. My wife chose it together with me as we were looking for a name that works in both worlds—mine in Mexico, and hers in Japan—and the name Lenny is common everywhere. In Japanese we write the name in katakana as that is easy for Japanese people who seem to like names in two or three characters.
1. What do we know about the people mentioned in the passage?| A．Nicole and her husband had an agreement on how to name the children. |
| B．Jeff will remain in Japan as his wife is not used to Mexican life. |
| C．The four couples have decided to live with the children in Japan forever. |
| D．Paula and her family would love to live on the U. S. West Coast. |
| A．Nicole and her Japanese husband have a daughter and two sons. |
| B．Paula has little say in making a decision at home. |
| C．John’s wife is Irish and the couple have only one child. |
| D．Lenny is a name familiar to Japanese when written the Japanese way. |
| A．Is a western name better than a Japanese name? |
| B．Why does your child have two names? |
| C．How do you choose your child’s name? |
| D．Do you settle differences in naming your child? |
| A．The Spring Festival. | B．A delivery man. | C．An order. |
4 . The Winter Olympics are also called the White Olympics. At this time, many colourful stamps are published to mark the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out on January 25, 1932 in the United States for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, publishing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule.
During the 4th Winter Olympic Games, a group of stamps were published in Germany in November, 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of the sportswear. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics.
In the 1950’s, the stamps of this kind became more colourful. When the White Olympics came, the host countries as well as the non-host countries published stamps to mark those Games. China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sportsmen began to take part in the White Olympics. Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14,500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meet.
Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.
1. The White Olympics is _______________.| A．the Games whose color is white. |
| B．the Olympic Games that is held in winter. |
| C．the winter when the stamps are published. |
| D．the Games held in turn by each country. |
| A．In 1932 | B．In 1950 | C．In 1936 | D．In 1980 |
| A．Stamps are published only to mark the Winter Olympics during the Games. |
| B．Only host countries publish stamps. |
| C．Japan is the only one of the countries in Asia published stamps to mark the Games. |
| D．China hasn’t hosted the White Olympics so far. |
| A．the Winter Olympic Games | B．Stamps for the White Olympics |
| C．Olympic Countries | D．the History of the Stamps |
For example, Koreans have the custom of throwing the fallen tooth onto the roof of a house so that a magpie (喜鹊) can take the tooth away and bring a new tooth for the child. This custom is also followed by some other Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam.
Other countries, though, have tooth customs about other animals. In Mexico and Spain, for example, it is thought that a mouse takes a fallen tooth away and leaves some money. But in Mongolia, it is dogs that take children’s teeth away. Dogs are highly respected in Mongolian culture. It is believed that the new tooth will grow strong if the baby tooth is fed to a dog, so parents in Mongolia will put their children’s fallen teeth in a piece of meat and feed it to a dog.
In France and the USA, a child will put a fallen tooth under his or her pillow before going to bed. It is thought that in the early morning, when the child is still sleeping, the Tooth Fairy will take the tooth away and leave something else under the pillow. What she will leave is hard to know. It is said that in France the Tooth Fairy may leave some candies; however, in the United States, she may leave money.
1. Koreans throw a tooth onto the roof of a house in order to __________.
| A．get money | B．feed magpies |
| C．get candies | D．get a new tooth |
| A．throw it onto the roof of a house |
| B．feed it to a mouse |
| C．put it in a piece of meat and feed the meat to a dog |
| D．leave it to the Tooth Fairy |
| A．a child will put his or her fallen tooth beside the pillow |
| B．the Tooth Fairy takes the fallen teeth away at midnight |
| C．the Tooth Fairy will leave some candies to the children after taking the fallen teeth away |
| D．no one knows for sure what the Tooth Fairy will leave to the children after taking the fallen teeth away |
| A．customs about fallen teeth in western countries |
| B．customs about fallen teeth in different countries |
| C．stories about human teeth |
| D．stories about some animals |
Job-hopping does good to workers, because every chance to change a job gives them a chance to move up to a higher position and to get better pay. And job-hopping also gives employers, bosses, managers the chance to benefit from the new ideas and skills that different people bring to their factories.
1. The meaning of the underlined words is close to “_____”.
| A．looking for jobs everywhere | B．always feeling excited in movement |
| C．enjoying themselves while moving | D．keeping moving from place to place |
| A．most people stay | B．about one fifth of the people live |
| C．the owner of one house stays | D．the owners of five houses stay |
| A．is a practice worth trying | B．only does good to workers |
| C．may cause troubles | D．make many people lose their jobs |
