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. |
| A．encourages | B．helps to narrow |
| C．increase | D．stress |
| A．Ask the native people for help. | B．Understand and accept them. |
| C．Do things in our own ways. | D．Do in-depth research. |
| A．Italians | B．Germans |
| C．Greeks | D．the British |
2 . There are some Christmas traditions between the United Kingdom and the United States.
Letters to Santa Claus
In the United States, kids usually write letters to Santa and put them in the mailbox. However, in England we throw them directly into the fire. We don't plan to make kids cry because burning the letters can send them to the North Pole where Santa can read your Christmas wishes in the smoke. It may seem strange but it does save on postage.
Hanging stocking
Traditionally, American kids hang stockings around the fireplace for Santa to fill with presents. But in the UK. we hang stockings around the bed; being surrounded by presents is a fantastic way to wake up on Christmas morning.
Christmas pudding
Americans prefer to have pumpkin and pecan pies for the Christmas dessert; while we British are fond of Christmas pudding. which is a cake flavored with dried fruits and spices.
Dealing with Christmas tree
We British chose to take down the Christmas trees and the decorations within 12 days of Christmas, because we hold the belief that keeping then beyond that time can bring bad luck. This is probably a tradition that Americans should consider adopting. I have seen people keep their old, brown, dry and withered Christmas trees until almost July 4.
1. How do the British people deal with "Letters to Father Christmas"?| A．Emailing them to Santa. | B．Hiding them in the mailbox. |
| C．Putting them in the stockings. | D．Throwing them straight into the fire. |
| A．To stop it from drying | B．To expect good luck. |
| C．To save money. | D．To reuse it for the next year. |
| A．Writing letters to Santa. | B．Making pumpkin pudding. |
| C．Hanging stockings around the bed. | D．Keeping Christmas trees for months. |
3 . How affordable is high culture? One great myth of our time is that tickets for opera, theatre, ballet and orchestral (管弦乐) concerts are too expensive, especially for the young. This is infuriating as, in Britain, at least, the claim is ridiculous and offensive. The cheap tickets to hear London's orchestras range from ￡7 to ￡9 — same as a cinema ticket, and lower than the entry price to many pop music and comedy clubs. For comparison, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra performs with top soloists and conductors the cheapest seat is ￡30; and at the Berlin Philharmonic, it's an expensive ￡46.
Finding cheap tickets to the opera and ballet isn't so easy. True. British companies don't charge the ridiculous high prices found on the Continent (￡2,000 for a good seat at a premiere of La Scala's Carmen last December), but the tickets are still pretty steep. Large fees paid to star performers mostly account for that. Luckily, however, one spectacular technological innovation has transformed the scene. It's live (or slightly delayed) cinema transmissions. The New York Metropolitan Opera now beams its shows to 800 cinemas round the world, and British companies aren't far behind. Cinematic opera is excellent value. For the cost of a good bottle of wine (￡10 or ￡15 for the Royal Opera House's shows) you can sit in your local movie-house and see a high-definition relay of what's occurring on the world's grandest stages. No, it's not the same as being there, but it's almost as good. The sound is incredible. The images, particularly of dancers, are fantastic. And you can react to the show as part of a live audience, rather than sitting on your own at home.
To me, this mountain of evidence, together with free museum admissions, indicates that the arts world should stop worrying that its audiences are still mostly middle-class. Anyone who can afford to visit a pub can also afford to see top-quality drama, music and dance. The real battle now should be ensuring that school children are given enough tastes of high culture to make them want to buy all those cheap tickets when they grow up.
1. What does the underlined word "infuriating" in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Quite interesting. | B．Very annoying. | C．Not certain. | D．Extremely obvious. |
| A．The amount of money charged by top performers. |
| B．The costly technology required for broadcast. |
| C．The demand of companies for big profits. |
| D．The high cost of renting the stages. |
| A．People can decide where to watch the opera. |
| B．Audiences are discouraged from responding to The performances. |
| C．It provides an inexpensive way of enjoying a live opera performance. |
| D．The sound and visual quality are superior to the live performance. |
| A．The quality of opera performances is improving. |
| B．High culture is becoming more affordable in Europe. |
| C．The cost of access to high culture activities should be lowered. |
| D．Children should be encouraged to participate in high culture events. |
4 . The old Chinese saying "as happy as spending the New Year" might be outdated now in the busy modern world. The Spring Festival is regarded as the most important festival for Chinese people and an occasion for all family members to get together, like Christmas in the West. But many traditional customs accompanying the Spring Festival, however, have weakened in practice.
Setting off fireworks was once the most typical custom of the Spring Festival. People thought the sputtering(爆裂) sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, the activity has been completely or partially forbidden in big cities for years as the government has taken security, noise and pollution factors into consideration.
"In recent years, some cities have begun to allow people to light fireworks during limited hours at the Spring Festival, surrendering to(屈从于) public demand. Respecting folk traditions is a gesture of respect toward public opinion," said Zhou Xing, a folklore researcher.
"As people gain more income and it becomes easier to buy daily goods, the New Year holiday is just like any other. After long workdays, many people use the New Year holiday to take a rest, rather than visiting friends and neighbors. The process of making and enjoying the family dinner on Spring Festival Eve is the most important thing. However, many families would like to eat out to save time and energy," said Li Shunzhi, a resident of Harbin, Heilongjiang.
"I enjoy the holidays very much in the countryside. My family has been preparing for the Spring Festival more than two weeks before the holiday, cleaning the house, buying holiday goods and decorating the house with paper cuttings. On New Year’s Eve, the whole family stays up to see the New Year in, and in the days to follow, a series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held. Without the ancient traditions, the holiday is nothing to us," said Zhang Hui, from Hebei.
1. Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?| A．Setting off fireworks has been forbidden in some big cities for years. |
| B．Nowadays, people can light fireworks in some cities at the Spring Festival. |
| C．People believe that the sound of fireworks can drive away evil spirits. |
| D．In the past, setting off fireworks couldn’t be seen almost anywhere. |
| A．what people do during the festival now is different from the past |
| B．people would like to have the family dinner on Spring Festival Eve |
| C．people prefer to visit friends and neighbors rather than take a rest |
| D．the New Year holiday is just like any other day |
| A．Zhang Hui often spends two weeks preparing for the Spring Festival. |
| B．Zhang Hui is used to spending the Spring Festival with his family. |
| C．Zhang Hui always takes part in a series of activities after the Spring Festival. |
| D．Zhang Hui lives in the urban area. |
| A．The Spring Festival is as lively as before. |
| B．The Spring Festival is outdated now. |
| C．The Spring Festival is losing its qualities. |
| D．The Spring Festival in China is more important than Christmas in the West. |
Different cultures emphasize(强调)the importance of relationship building to a greater or lesser degree.For example,business in some countries is not possible until there is a relationship of trust.Even with people at work,it is necessary to spend a lot of time in “small talk”,usually over a glass of tea,before they do any job.In many European countries—like the UK or France—people find it easier to build up a lasting working relationship at restaurants or cafés rather than at the office.
Talk and silence may also be different in some cultures.I once made a speech in Thailand.I had expected my speech to be a success and start a lively discussion;instead there was an uncomfortable silence.The people present just stared at me and smiled.After getting to know their ways better,I realized that they thought I was talking too much.In my own culture,we express meaning mainly through words,but people there sometimes feel too many words are unnecessary.
Even within Northern Europe,cultural differences can cause serious problems. Certainly, English and German cultures share similar values;however,Germans prefer to get down to business more quickly.We think that they are rude.In fact,this is just because one culture starts discussions and makes decisions more quickly.
People from different parts of the world have different values,and sometimes these values are quite against each other.However,if we can understand them better,a multicultural environment(多元文化环境)will offer a wonderful chance for us to learn from each other.
1. In some countries,eating together at restaurants may make it easier for people to .
| A．develop closer relations | B．share the same culture |
| C．get to know each other | D．keep each other company |
| A．the English prefer to make long speeches |
| B．too many words are of no use |
| C．people from Thailand are quiet and shy by nature |
| D．even talk and silence can be culturally different |
| A．By sharing different ways of life. |
| B．By accepting different habits. |
| C．By recognizing different values. |
| D．By speaking each other’s languages. |
| A．Multicultural Environment |
| B．Cross-Cultural Differences |
| C．How to Understand Each Other |
| D．How to Build Up a Relationship |
6 . Time flies, but the tracks of time remain in books and museums. This is what made a recent tragedy in Brazil even more terrible.
On Sept.2, a big fire ripped through the National Museum of Brazil. “ Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge were lost, ” Brazilian President Michel Temer wrote on Twitter after the fire. “It's a sad day for all Brazilians.”
Most of the 20 million pieces of history are believed to have been destroyed. Only as little as 10 percent of the collection may have survived, Time reported. Among all the items, there were Egyptian mummies, the bones of uniquely Brazilian creatures such as the long－necked dinosaur Maxakalisaurus, and an 11,500－year－old skull called Luzia, which was considered one of South America's oldest human fossils.
Besides these, Brazil's indigenous(本土的，土著的) knowledge also suffered. The museum housed world－famous collections of indigenous objects, as well as many audio recordings of local languages from all over Brazil. Some of these recordings, now lost, were of languages that are no longer spoken.
“The tragedy this Sunday is a sort of national suicide, a crime against our past and future generations,” Bernard Mello Franco, one of Brazil's best－known columnists, wrote on the O Globo newspaper site.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, as BBC News reported on Sept. 3. After the fire burned out, crowds protested outside the museum to show their anger at the loss of the irreplaceable items of historical value.
According to Emilio Bruna, an ecologist at the University of Florida, museums are living, breathing stores of who we are and where we've come from, and the world around us.
Just as underwater grass floats on the surface if it loses its roots, a nation is lost without its memories. The fire at the National Museum of Brazil teaches the world an important lesson: We should never neglect history.
1. What can be summarized as the main idea of the 3rd and 4th paragraphs?| A．Long history of South America. | B．Remains from the fire. |
| C．Mysteries to be solved. | D．History and knowledge burned up. |
| A．The government is to blame for the tragedy. |
| B．The museum should be rebuilt |
| C．The loss can't be made up for. |
| D．The criminal should be sentenced to death. |
| A．Living stores of our past. | B．Underwater grass. |
| C．The oldest fossils. | D．National suicide. |
| A．Death of a civilization | B．Functions of museums |
| C．Gone with the fire | D．Brazilians' memories |
7 . As the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, mooncakes are turning up all over China, from traditional teashops to Starbucks counters. The holiday is one of China’s four most important festivals, and in the weeks before the date arrives, top hotels get into the spirit with lavish(奢华) treats in lovely packaging. Traditionally, the cookie-sized round pastry(馅饼) has a rich thick filling usually made from red-bean or lotus-seed paste and covered by a thin crust. It may also contain yolks from salted duck eggs, integrating a beautiful savory tinge into the sugary taste. Fillings and crusts have become more diverse over time, especially in the hands of skilled pastry chefs. The mooncakes in Chinese culture represent homesickness, and the top crust of each moon-shaped pastry is generally imprinted with the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony.
This year, the fancy gift boxes that have long driven the mooncake trade are particularly striking and rich with tradition.
For example, the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, built in 1929 and a magnet for Hollywood celebrities in the 1930s, has prepared a selection of mooncake gift boxes with designs inspired by the beauty and elegance of the hotel’s famous art deco style. The simplest box of four pieces (red-bean paste, creamy custard, plain cheese, green-bean paste) is 198 yuan($29.64), while more lavish selections of five or six pieces, including mooncakes with egg yolk, run up to 338 yuan for a box.
Beijing’s Nuo Hotel, meanwhile, has created Ming Dynasty (1368－1644) inspired mooncake gift packs based on the design of porcelain vases in the hotel lobby, with the essence of landscape painting using Zhang Dai’s poetic passages to show the peaceful harmony of man and nature. The box of six is 158 yuan, and includes mooncakes ranging from cheese mango to charcoal burning fragrant Pu'er tea and white lotus with egg yolk. A box of eight cakes of different flavors is 228 yuan.
1. What feeling does the mooncake stand for in our country?| A．Separation. | B．Harmony. | C．Homesick. | D．Happiness. |
| A．Stations | B．Teashops. | C．Starbucks. | D．Hotels.. |
| A．The high price. | B．The various shapes. |
| C．The rich fillings. | D．The fancy boxes. |
| A．Green-bean paste. | B．Cheese mango. |
| C．White lotus with egg yolk. | D．Charcoal burning fragrant Pu’er tea. |
8 . Here’s a selection of festivals for tourists to the United States in summer.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Films at this odd cinematic event have a variety of musical accompaniments, including piano and violin. It includes some classic silent movies. If you want to see them all, you can buy a festival pass.
May 29 to June 1; www.silent film.org
Union Street Festival
This popular street fair stretches out over six blocks of the city, in the fashionable shopping area of Union Street. This year, there’s beer, wine, biscuits tasting and more separate themes-fashion, cuisine, tech, local, craft, and health and fitness.
June 7 to 10; www.unionstreetfestival.com
North Beach Festival
This is San Francisco’s oldest street party, with live entertainment, delicious food and arts and crafts. Situated in the Little Italy district, known for its associations with the “Beat Generation”, festival goers are guaranteed plenty of good Italian food. There is also as the “blessing of the animals”, a San Francisco tradition which takes place at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi (610 Vallejo Street) at 2 pm on both days of the festival.
June 14 to 16; www.sfnorthbeach.org
Stern Grove Festival
This is the oldest free summer arts festival of its kind in the United States. It includes a wide variety of acts, from the local symphony orchestra to well known artists such as Smokey Robinson.
Sundays from June 22 to Aug 24; www.stemgrove.org
1. Which of the following festivals contains the most themes?| A．Union Street Festival. | B．San Francisco Silent Film Festival. |
| C．North Beach Festival. | D．Stem Grove Festival. |
| A．Festival goers can enjoy food in it. | B．It lasts the shortest time. |
| C．It has the longest history of food. | D．Some foreign culture is presented in it. |
| A．Saturdays in July. | B．Saturdays in May. |
| C．Sundays in May. | D．Sundays in July. |
9 . Wearing a red nose for a day may seem like a strange way to raise money for charity. However, it seems to work in Britain. Red Nose Day (RND) is a well-known event in the UK. The aim of the day is to raise money for a charity called Comic Relief which helps people in need in Africa and in the UK.
Comic Relief was started in 1985 by Richard Curtis. He wrote the series “Blackadder” as well as the famous films “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill’’. Richard’s idea to start Comic Relief was as a response to the severe lack of food in Ethiopia. It’s called Red Nose Day as on this day many people buy a plastic red nose to wear! The money made from selling red noses goes to the charity.
Red Nose Day takes place every two years in the spring and is now so well developed that many people consider it to be an unofficial national holiday. For example, many schools have non-uniform days.
The slogan for the last RND was “Do Something Funny for Money” and the money collected was used to help fund projects in the following areas: treating malaria, education, maternal health and mental health. The BBC Red Nose Day telethon raised £ 74.3 million! Money-raising events take place all over the country and many schools join in. People also donate money by post, in banks, by phone using a credit card and online.
Getting sponsored to do something is a common way to raise money on RND. If someone sponsors you it means that they agree to give you a certain amount of money for your actions. Here are some ways that people raise money: wear their pyjamas (睡衣) all day at work or in school, or grow a moustache or beard for a month.
So, if you are ever in the UK on Red Nose Day, now you know why you may find normal people wearing red noses and doing silly things! It is all for a good cause!
1. The purpose of Comic Relief is .| A．to celebrate Red Nose Day |
| B．to help those in need in Africa and Britain |
| C．to warn people against some diseases |
| D．to raise money for Mr. Curtis’s films |
| A．creator | B．birthplace |
| C．aid receivers | D．products for sale |
| A．It is celebrated in the spring every other year. |
| B．People celebrate this day to bring happiness to others. |
| C．Richard Curtis, the famous writer, started Red Nose Day. |
| D．Some people raise money by growing a beard for a week. |
| A．is considered an official holiday | B．lasts for a long time |
| C．is popular with people | D．is well designed for TV |
10 . The “Chong Yang Festival” is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, which is also known as the Double Ninth Festival.
Climbing Mountains
People like to climb mountains on this festival, so Double Ninth Festival is also called “Mountain-climbing Festival”.
The 9th lunar month, with clear autumn sky and bracing air, is a good time for sightseeing.
Climbing mounting also indicates “climbing to a higher position”. Another reason why climbing mountains are valued by people, especially by the elderly is that it has a meaning of “climbing to ligneous life”. Climbing mountains on Double Ninth Festival was already popular in the Tang Dynasty.
Drinking Chrysanthemum Flower(菊花) Wine
The chrysanthemum flower wine is unique in brewing. In ancient times, people usually picked fresh chrysanthemum flowers and leaves on the 9th of the 9th lunar month, and brewed the mixture of them and grains into the wine.
The Double Ninth cake is also known as “flower cake”. It dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. It is said that the cake was originally prepared after autumn harvests for farmers to have a taste of what was just in season, and it gradually grew into the present cake for people to eat on the Double Ninth Day.
| A．Eating Double Ninth Cake |
| B．Making “flower cake” with friends |
| C．A lot of poems were devoted to this custom |
| D．So people love to go sightseeing this month |
| E．It would not be drunk until the same day next year |
| F．Here are some traditional customs of the Double Ninth Festival |
| G．But few Chinese people are aware of the importance of the festival |
