1 . Culture shock is the experience that often accompanies moving to an unfamiliar place. It could be marked by feeling lost, anxious or hesitant.
When deciding to visit an entirely new place, don’t expect the traditions and cultures followed by your current home to be followed by the new land.
Even though it is an unfamiliar environment hosting different cultures and traditions from the one you’re used to, it’s vital to broaden your mind and be willing to try new things. Don’t be quick to form discriminatory judgments just because it is “odd”. Have a go at something different, like a food or clothing — different isn’t necessarily bad.
Social psychologists claim that lack of information is the biggest contributor to prejudices. Talk to the local population and ask them about how their culture works instead of assuming the worst.
Keep yourself open-minded, await new experiences and familiarize yourself with the conduct of the people.
| A．Integrity breaks down barriers. |
| B．You can gain insight into your surroundings. |
| C．Culture shock will eventually disappear, though. |
| D．Every city or country has its own values and beliefs. |
| E．Never do you know where you might find an interest. |
| F．Consequently, such memories are what you should treasure. |
| G．As long as you stick to that, you’ll soon adjust to the new culture. |
2 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). Start of Autumn, the 13th solar term of the year, begins this year on Aug 8 and ends on Aug. 22. Start of Autumn means the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
Gathering crops
Eating peaches
In Hangzhou, people eat peaches and pray health on the Start of Autumn day. The peach stones are kept until New Year’s Eve and thrown into the stove, burned into ash. People believed that in this way,
Eating dumplings
In Shandong province, people make dumplings during the Start of Autumn, and they call it “Eating the Autumn”. On the day of Start of Autumn, senior members of the family will stand in the middle of the hall, they worship (敬奉；信奉) a bowl of cereal, and
Eating gourds (瓜)
Although Start of Autumn indicates the beginning of autumn, hot weather will not come to an end. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), people would put gourds outside for a day before the Start of Autumn, and
| A．they pray for the harvest in autumn |
| B．The fruitful season is coming |
| C．they eat them on Start of Autumn day to drive off the summer heat |
| D．Start of Autumn is a big solar term for farmers |
| E．they sincerely pray for god |
| F．plagues (瘟疫) could be prevented for the whole year |
| G．they will get away from ghosts |
3 . How to Celebrate Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is about spending time with family and friends, and being thankful for the people and things in their life.
Invite family and friends a month ahead of time. Make a list of family and friends that you would like to celebrate Thanksgiving with. Let them know that you will be celebrating Thanksgiving and that you would like them to come. Letting them know ahead of time will allow them to make plans if they need to travel.
Choose a potluck (自带餐) for the Thanksgiving meal. A potluck meal will make it easier for you to cook. If you choose this type of meal, ask your guests what they would like to bring. Make a list of the dishes they will be bringing.
Make a shopping list. Make a list of all the things you will need to prepare the meal. Buy dry ingredient (食材) one or two weeks ahead.
| A．Buy the turkey two or three weeks ahead. |
| B．Then the host provides the rest of the food. |
| C．You know that some people may refuse you. |
| D．Buy fresh ingredients five to seven days in advance. |
| E．It is celebrated by having a big meal with a turkey. |
| F．If you don’t feel like making a turkey, order pizza or takeout. |
| G．Make other dishes to help you feel the Thanksgiving spirit. |
4 . In ancient times, people tracked the seasons by following the lunar months. Many times, the names of the moons were related with what features the seasons had.
Regardless of where the name Wolf Moon comes from, wolves howl (嚎叫) to communicate over long distances both in North America and in Europe. It is a way of saying “here I am” to the rest of the pack or “stay away” to enemies.
Science has not shown that the Moon phase (月相) plays any particular part in the calls of wolves, but wolves are animals that are in general more active at night.
| A．They are energetic in January. |
| B．Wolves howl in the direction of the Moon. |
| C．In spring and early summer, wolves howl to seek mates. |
| D．An average howl from a single wolf lasts from 3 to 7 seconds. |
| E．That is probably why people related January with howling wolves. |
| F．It doesn’t quite fit in with the traditional Full Moon naming system. |
| G．January’s Full Moon in North America is known as the Wolf Moon. |
5 . The Sister Rice Festival is held every year in Guizhou’s Taijiang County, where 97 percent of the 168,000 people are from the Miao ethnic (民族的) group. It is an ancient tradition, which brings men and women together through food, gifts and music.
In the days before the festival, young women gather leaves and wild flowers, which they use to dye (给……染色) sticky rice with bright colors. This brightly colored rice, known as Sister Rice, gives the festival its name. During the festival, the young women dress in beautiful traditional clothes with large amounts of silver jewelry (首饰).
The festival includes parades, horse races and musical performances. But the real focus is the interaction between the young women and the young men who visit from surrounding villages and sing songs. In one traditional type of song, a man and a woman take turns to sing to each other, and the first one to make a mistake loses the game. The loser must give the winner a gift, but the winner is expected to give a gift in return, too.
After meeting the men, the women send them home with a bamboo basket containing dyed rice and hidden objects with special meanings. For example, a pair of chopsticks indicates that she wants to marry the man, while garlic shows that she is not interested.
One of several stories about the festival’s origin is about a girl and a boy who fell in love. The girl’s parents wanted her to marry her uncle’s son. She refused, and the boy likewise refused to marry anyone else. For a time, they could only meet in a field and pass hidden messages to each other through rice in a bamboo basket. Finally, the pair overcame their parents’ opposition and were allowed to marry.
The Sister Rice Festival is perhaps the oldest festival in Asia that encourages love.
1. What is the purpose of young women collecting leaves and wild flowers?| A．To decorate their rooms. |
| B．To sell them and make money. |
| C．To give sticky rice different colors. |
| D．To cover some objects in a basket. |
| A．Water skiing. |
| B．Kicking balls. |
| C．Making food. |
| D．Singing songs. |
| A．A woman often loses the game. |
| B．A hidden pair of chopsticks suggests good things. |
| C．The winner need not send a gift. |
| D．Often a man needs to sing songs to a young woman. |
| A．The boy’s parents didn’t like the girl. |
| B．They were not married in the end. |
| C．The boy refused to marry the girl at first. |
| D．The rice in the bamboo basket carried their love. |
6 . The Torch Festival (火把节) is a traditional festival which is celebrated among some ethnic groups in southwestern China, such as the Yi, Bai, Hani, Lisu, and Lahu, etc. It usually falls on the 24th or 25th of June, with three days of celebrations. The festival came from worship (崇拜) of fire by ancestors ( 祖 先 ). For some ethnic groups, it’s a tradition in the festival for elders to share farming experience with young people and educate them about taking care of crops.
During the festival, big torches are made to stand in all villages, with small torches placed in front of the door of each house. When night falls, the torches are lit and the villages are bright. At the same time, people walk around the fields and houses, holding small torches and placing the torches in the field corners. Inside the villages, young people are singing and dancing around the big torches that keep burning throughout the night. Other activities like horse races are also held during the festival.
In a horse race of the Yi people in Yunnan, torches are used to form hurdles for riders to get through. The Hani people in Yunnan traditionally tie fruits to torches with strings. When the strings are broken after the torches are lit, people struggle for the fruits for good luck.
For the Lisu people in Sichuan, the festival is an occasion for holding torch parades. Big torches are carried by teams of people, which is like a fire dragon. If different teams meet, it’s a tradition to exchange the big torches with one another.
1. What can we know about the Torch Festival from the first paragraph?| A．It is a festival to show worship of fire. | B．Its celebrations usually last two days. |
| C．It is a traditional festival of all China. | D．It has nothing to do with farming. |
| A．Why the festival is enjoyed. | B．How the festival is celebrated. |
| C．What torches are used for the festival. | D．Where the festival is celebrated. |
| A．Small torches are put in front of the door. |
| B．Big torches are burnt all day and all night. |
| C．Yi people use torches to form hurdles to get through. |
| D．Young people like singing and dancing around the big torches. |
| A．Struggling for fruits for good luck. | B．Tying fruits to torches with strings. |
| C．Holding torch parades. | D．Using torches as hurdles for a horse race. |
7 . Minor Snow, or “Xiaoxue” in Chinese, is the 20th of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms, and will last from November 22 to December 6 this year. It is the second solar term of winter, and indicates that snow is about to arrive. From this solar term onwards, people in South China will begin to feel the coming of winter.
Pickling vegetables.
In Nanjing, it’s customary to make pickle during the Minor Snow period, and then salted meat during Major Snow. During Minor Snow,
Eating glutinous (黏的) rice cakes
In many areas of Southern China, people eat glutinous rice cakes during Minor Snow. In these places, there’s a saying: “十月朝，糍粑碌碌烧.” In this saying, “碌 (lu)” means that people use their chopsticks to pick up a glutinous rice cake and roll it like a wheel in a bowl full of sesame and peanut sugar, and “烧 (shao)” indicates that the glutinous rice cakes are steaming hot.
Cooking meat dishes
During Minor Snow, people in many regions of China will kill pigs, while during Major Snow, they will kill sheep. No matter which household kills the animal, neighbors and friends will all come to help. After the animal has been slaughtered (屠宰),
Eating more porridge and soup
Eating more porridge and soup in winter is good for your health. For instance, wheat porridge can nourish the heart, while radish porridge can improve digestion and reduce phlegm that often arrives with the changing weather. Soups also help keep people healthy and can improve the immune system.
Drinking more water
We already know that drinking more water is beneficial for metabolism. During the winter months, it is highly recommended to drink a cup of warm water on an empty stomach in the early morning. In this way, blood viscosity can be reduced, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can be prevented. During Minor Snow, honey water, white radish water and pear water are excellent choices, as honey water can moisten dryness and help detoxify, white radish water can clear heat, while pear can moisten the lungs and relieve stubborn coughs.
Staying warm
The weather is cold, but not yet too cold. Therefore, many people forget to put on their hats and scarves,
| A．With the weather becoming increasingly cold, people wait expectantly for the first snow. |
| B．We suggest you prepare several sets of winter clothes. |
| C．which leaves them more likely to catch a cold. |
| D．For instance, fish soup is said to invigorate the spleen, stimulate appetite, and relieve coughs and colds. |
| E．every household will begin to make pickled and dried vegetables. |
| F．From this solar term onwards, the northeast wind will blow more frequently. |
| G．the host will prepare dishes and hold a party, which symbolizes unity, harmony, peace and prosperity. |
8 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulties than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion. Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1. What does the discovery show about Westerners?| A．They pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth. |
| B．They consider facial expressions universally reliable. |
| C．They observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways. |
| D．They have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions. |
| A．To get their faces impressive. | B．To make a face at each other. |
| C．To classify some face pictures. | D．To observe the researchers’ faces. |
| A．They do translation more successfully. | B．They study the mouth more frequently. |
| C．They examine the eyes more attentively. | D．They read facial expressions more correctly. |
| A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul | B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
| C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills | D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
9 . The meaning of silence can be different among cultural groups. Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show uneasiness or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore, attempts may be made to fill every gap (间隙) with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person’s needs.
Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied (暗示) is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for reflection.
Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with conflicts (冲突) among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions are given by a person in authority (权威) rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.
Nurses and other care-givers need to understand the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient’s silence is not interrupted too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing (治愈) value of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.
1. What does the author say about silence in conversations?| A．It implies anger. | B．It promotes friendship. |
| C．It depends on culture. | D．It is based on context. |
| A．The Chinese. | B．The French. | C．The Mexicans. | D．The Russians. |
| A．Let it continue as the patient wants. | B．Break it while treating patients. |
| C．Evaluate (评估) its harm to patients. | D．Make use of its healing effects. |
| A．Sound and Silence | B．What It Means to Be Silent |
| C．Silence to Native Americans | D．Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Gold |
10 . Chinese mooncake is the representative food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a kind of round cookie with various fillings and different artistic patterns on the surface.
In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness. The mooncake is not just a food. It’s a cultural tradition deep in Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing a spiritual feeling. At Mid-Autumn Festival, people eat mooncakes together with family, and present mooncakes to relatives or friends to express love and best wishes.
As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties in what today are Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in east China, there was a kind of “Taishi cake” thick at the center and thin at the edge, which was the origin of the mooncake. In the Han Dynasty, sesame (芝麻) and walnuts were introduced into China, and round cookies filled with these foods appeared. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the name “mooncake” was used for the first time. In the Northern Song Dynasty, mooncakes got popular in the royal palace. In the Ming Dynasty, the custom of eating these cookies during the Mid-Autumn Festival became popular.
Mooncakes vary according to different regional styles and tastes. Cantonese-style mooncakes are known for their sweetness. Suzhou-style mooncakes have existed for more than a thousand years. They have soft layers of dough (面团) and lots of sugar and lard, making them available in sweet or salty tastes. Beijing-style mooncakes use sweetness delicately and are decorated well. Chaoshan-style mooncakes are usually larger than other mooncakes with common fillings of red bean paste and potato paste.
Most mooncakes contain high amounts of sugar and oil, which are not healthy. To decrease the harmfulness that high fat and calories bring to our body, some foods are recommended to eat together with mooncakes, including tea, sour fruit like grapes, and wine. They help digest and take away fat in our body. Also, do not eat too much at one time.
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．The features of moon cakes. | B．The history of the moon cakes. |
| C．The customs of the moon cakes. | D．The meaning behind moon cakes. |
| A．In the Han Dynasty. | B．In the Tang Dynasty. |
| C．In the Ming Dynasty. | D．In the Northern Song Dynasty. |
| A．They contain less sugar. | B．They are generally larger in size. |
| C．They have a much longer history. | D．They feature fine decorative patterns. |
| A．To stress the importance of a healthy diet. | B．To call on people to value traditional culture. |
| C．To tell people how to eat mooncakes healthily. | D．To recommend some new flavors of mooncakes. |
