2 . I have learnt a lot about Chinese life and culture while teaching in

First, family life quite ____ in China from that in the USA. In the USA, many young people ____ home after they finish their education and start working. However, in China, it is ____ for people to live with their parents until they get married. ____, many of my Chinese friends told me that their ____ lived with them and helped take care of them when they were children. It seems that Americans think independence is more important ____ the Chinese think family relationships are more important.

Bargaining is another ____ that I have tried to learn. In the USA, prices are ____ and you can’t ask for a lower price. However in some small Chinese stores and tourist places, you are ____ to bargain. My Chinese friends taught me to ask for 40 percent or 50 percent ____ the original price. If the salesperson doesn’t agree to my price, I should ____ to leave and he might let me come back and sell me the item. It is a skill that you have to ____ if you live in China.

Tipping hasn’t been easier to ____. In the USA, many people in the service ____ want to get ____ money for serving customers. Tipping is not a part of Chinese culture. ____ I tried to tip a taxi driver. He looked a little ____ and refused to take the money. In dinners, perhaps what surprises an American visitor most is that some of the Chinese hosts like to put food into the plates of their ____. Actually, this is a ____ of true friendship and politeness. My Chinese friend told me if I didn’t want to eat it, I should just ____ the food in the plate.

3 . Our family moved to America ten years ago. One day I came home after school, _______. I asked my mom to no longer put Middle Eastern food in my _______. She and my father became quiet. Through questioning, my mother made me tell the _______ that the other students had given me a very _______       time because my _______was different. So I       _______. “From now on, could we do peanut butter on Wonder Bread and an apple?” My brother and sister said they’d like the same because they had also _______ it.

There were no African Americans or Asians in our school. I thought there was _______ from India or Latin America, either. It was _______ a community based on their ________ religion and culture. Among them, our family seemed ________. My father’s family was from Syria; my mom’s from Palestine. Our food was different; we had holiday customs like nobody else. All these ________us from others.

A week later the teacher announced that we should not bring lunches the following day. To my ________, the next day at lunch, in came my mother with boxes of Middle Eastern food. The teacher ________ her, “ This is Mrs. Nimen, Tom’s mom.” She took out the food and started ________ the kids Kibble—a baked dish. She had ________ baked bread for the class to take home. She made the kids very excited, who were ________ everything I was eating a week earlier. ________ here they were ________ my mother’s food!

My mother did the same thing afterwards in my brother’s and sister’s classes. Though this didn’t end the racial problem, it made a (an) ________. She was a pioneer of diversity, using Middle Eastern friendliness in an artful way.