Americans are very direct people. When you want something you say “Yes” and when you don’t, you say “No”. If you want something different from what is offered, you ask for it. Westerners will not ask you again and again or try to press something on you after you have said you don’t want it. In fact, if you say “No” when you really want something to drink or to eat, you may find yourself very thirsty or hungry.
But there are a few Western customs which are very important and you should try at all times to observe.A Westerner doesn’t leave his paper or cloth on the table. He puts it on his lap where it’s supposed to protect his clothes from spilled food or uses it to wipe his hand or mouth when necessary.
A Westerner doesn’t put his own fork, knife or spoon into a serving bowl. He uses it in the bowl to put some of the food on his own plate, and then returns the serving fork(knife or spoon) to the bowl.
A Westerner doesn’t spit food anywhere. If he has bones in his mouth, he takes them out with his fingers and places them on the edge of his plate, never on the table or floor.
A Westerner doesn’t belch(打嗝) out loud. If he does, he says “Excuse me” quietly and goes on with the conversation.
1. People in America __________.
| A．come from different countries in the world |
| B．mainly come from Europe |
| C．mainly come from Asia |
| D．come from China |
| A．a Westerner will ask you again and again |
| B．you will be forced to eat |
| C．you will feel glad and happy |
| D．you will surely find yourself hungry still |
| A．care what they wear very much |
| B．care who offers the first toast at dinner |
| C．do the same things as Chinese do |
| D．don’t care what you wear, who sits next to whom |
注意：1．词数不少于60；
2．短文的开头已给出，不计入总词数。
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3 . The Enigma (谜) of Beauty
The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4,000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发) of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.
There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive: beauty is power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are regarded as friendlier.
But what exactly is beauty? It’s difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we see it. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.
The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes, fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits — the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders — equal health and genetic well-being.
Not everyone thinks the same way, however. “Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts of expectations — mostly cultural,” says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at most Western fashion magazines: the women on the pages are thin. But is this “perfect” body type for women worldwide? Scientists’ answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded overweight in Western cultures.
For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describe exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always keep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.
1. People’s ideas about beauty ________.| A．have existed since ancient times |
| B．can be easily described |
| C．have little influence on a person’s success |
| D．are based upon strict criteria |
| A．were rated for their appearance |
| B．were entered in a beauty contest |
| C．were shown photos of a group of college students |
| D．were able to tell attractive faces from unattractive ones |
| A．qualities | B．measurements |
| C．judgments | D．standards |
| A．the ideas of beauty vary as people grow up |
| B．the search for beauty is rooted in lack of confidence |
| C．the standards for beauty are based on scientific researches |
| D．the understanding of beauty depends on cultural backgrounds |
假如你是红星中学学生李华。根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，介绍在“传统文化进校园“活动中，面向人艺术家学习捏面人的过程。并以”A Day with a Craftsman”为题，给校刊”英语角“写一篇英文稿件。
注意：词数不少于60.
提示词：一个面团a piece of dough 面人dough figurine
| People | Comments |
| Yingtian Hu Guangzhou, China | This is the first time that I participate in CRI. And I like it very much. I hope its website will become the most excellent one with the foreign languages. And I choose the important news which I think has a great influence on our society and our lives. In the end, I hope that more and more persons join in CRI and make it perfect! |
| SujanParajuli, Select city, Nepal | I am both a regular listener of CRI and visitor of its wonderful Website. First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to CRI for its great efforts to keep the listeners up-to-date during the year 2008. We, the listeners, are greatly grateful to CRI for its praise-worthy efforts to quench the thirst of its dear listeners. During the Year 2008, I found all of your programs quite interesting, informative and educational. Once again, thanks a lot for offering lots of information, news, entertainment and many items which have indeed broaden the horizons of our knowledge and understanding as well. |
| Ibrahim Rustamov, Tajikistan | With CRI, I was impressed by China’s rapid development in all spheres. But I felt so sorry to get to know about the snowstorms in China and Wenchuan earthquake. CRI and CCTV play a great role in introducing China to the world! Kudos! My friends and I wish CRI all the best! |
| Mike Thatcher, London | My family and I are all keen on Chinese Culture, especially the beautiful Chinese folk music. Various interesting programs by CRI just open a window for us foreigners, through which we can know more about China and have a better understanding of the Chinese culture. Best wishes to CRI! Best wishes to China! |
1. Which of the following benefits of CRI is NOT mentioned above?
| A．CRI helps to keep its listeners up-to-date. |
| B．CRI helps its listeners to better understand China. |
| C．CRI helps its listeners to practice and improve foreign languages. |
| D．CRI helps its listeners broaden their knowledge with its rich contents. |
| A．satisfy one’s need |
| B．supply drinks |
| C．take care of |
| D．keep in touch with |
| A．CRI has a great influence on our society and lives. |
| B．Wonderful though CRI is, there are still many weaknesses. |
| C．CRI plays an important role in introducing the world to China. |
| D．CRI has made great efforts to make itself better and gained popularity. |
6 . Are you single or married? Are you a cat or a dog owner? Do you exercise, or are you a “couch potato” (a person who sits on the sofa all day watching TV, eating and basically doing nothing)? These questions and many others are about your lifestyle.
People in the United States feel that they can choose their lifestyles and even shape their own identities. The great variety of lifestyles leads to constant national discussion of choices that people make. This freedom of choice is fun and exciting, but it also creates stress and uncertainty. In newspapers, lifestyle issues are discussed in the features or style section. In The Chicago Tribune this section is called “Tempo”. People turn to this section for lively discussion on lifestyle choices they face with regard to their personal identities, their families, and their social lives.
Many American people believe that they can make their lives happy and satisfying despite their problems. If they lack confidence or tend to feel anxious, shy, angry, or depressed, they believe that they can change themselves. Self-help books, magazines, and feature articles are filled with advice from experts about steps to take to become a happier or more satisfied person and to improve one’s self-respect. Part of this research for self-improvement is a belief that even one’s own appearance can be controlled. This is why there are so many articles in the newspaper about looking young, wearing the latest fashions, and becoming physically fit.
Lifestyle choices also involve moral and social issues. How should children be raised? How should people behave on a date? How should elderly people be treated? How can people stay happily married? All these kinds of issues are constantly discussed and are constantly changing. Not only are experts such as psychologists consulted, but stars from the political and entertainment worlds are held up as lifestyle leaders as well. In the newspaper, feature articles called profiles discuss in detail the personal lives or public work of movie stars, authors, artists, and exceptional individuals who are not stars. The lifestyle choices these people make contribute to the public discussion of all the issues that people think about.
A well-known advertising slogan is “Just do it. ” In the culture of the United States, people believe that they can take action and become the kind of people they want to be and live the way they want to live.
1. The section “Tempo” in The Chicago Tribune mainly discusses ______.| A．lifestyle choices |
| B．current affairs |
| C．experts’ opinions on life |
| D．how to improve one’s self-respect |
| A．control their own appearance |
| B．solve all the problems in their life |
| C．live a happy life in spite of their problems |
| D．improve their life by following the elders’ advice |
| A．their superiors |
| B．family members |
| C．friends and colleagues |
| D．experts and famous people |
| A．Just Do It |
| B．Make Our Lives Happy |
| C．Lifestyles in the United States |
| D．Choosing the Way We Live |
King Tutankhamen Artifacts
A traveling exhibition of artifacts from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, popularly known as “King Tut”, toured the United States from November 1976 to April 1979. The 55 objects were shown in six cities and were seen by around eight million museum-goers. The second touring exhibit was started in 2007, this time with 130 artifacts and stops in London and three different American cities. However some objects, like the king’s golden face mask, are too valuable or too delicate to be transported long distances, so “replicas” (exact copies of something) are on show.
Japanese Color Woodblock Prints
The Art Museum at University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, has an extraordinary collection of Japanese color woodblock prints (木刻版画). These prints document the period from about 1850 to 1900, a time when Japan was opening itself to Western influences. Before this point, Japan was a closed society that had little communication with the world outside of its borders. These works of art beautifully show the feeling of change and the trend toward modernization. The museum has put together a traveling exhibition of 60 of these prints, which can be borrowed and exhibited worldwide for periods of eight weeks or more.
Face-to-face with “Lucy”
One of the world’s most famous archaeological (考古学的) finds in history are the 3.2 million-year-old bones of a 106-centimeter-tall female found in the Ethiopian desert in 1974. Lucy, a name given to her by the discovery team, is a “hominid”, or a creature that scientists believe is the earliest ancestor of modern human beings. Rarely is an artifact this valuable allowed to travel widely, but Lucy has been taken to several museums in the U.S. while a detailed replica remains at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum.
1. What do we learn about King Tutankhamen’s artifacts?
| A．The artifacts were shown in London first. |
| B．The artifacts were on show in the United States once. |
| C．The second touring exhibit showed more artifacts than the first one. |
| D．The king’s golden face mask was also shown in the traveling exhibitions. |
| A．Japan had little communication with other countries. |
| B．The whole country refused changes in the society. |
| C．Japan was opening itself up to Western ideas. |
| D．Japan achieved modernization. |
| A．An archaeologist. |
| B．The ancestor of modern human beings. |
| C．A 106-centimeter-tall female who died in 1974. |
| D．The first woman who visited the Ethiopian desert. |
Have you ever wondered about people’s names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?
People’s first names, or given names, are chosen by their parents. Sometimes the name of a grandparent or other member of the family is used. Some parents choose the name of a well-known person. A boy could be named George Washington Smith; a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones.
Some people give their children names that mean good things. Clara means “bright”; Beatrice means “one who gives happiness”; Donald means “world ruler”; Leonard means “as brave as a lion”.
The earliest last names, or surnames, were taken from place names. A family with the name Brook or Brooks probably lived near a brook (小溪); someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long, paved road. The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest.
Other early surnames came from people’s occupations. The most common occupational name is Smith, which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals. In the past, smiths were very important workers in every town and village. Some other occupational names are: Carter—a person who owned or drove a cart; Potter—a person who made pots and pans.
The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village. The Carpenter’s great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture.
Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin, or their size, or their special abilities. When there were two men who were named John in the same village, the John with gray hair probably became John Gray. Or the John who was very tall could call himself John Tallman. John Fish was probably an excellent swimmer and John Lightfoot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer.
Some family names were made by adding something to the father’s name. English-speaking people added –s or –son. The Johnsons are descendants of John; the Roberts family’s ancestor was Robert. Irish and Scottish people added Mac or Mc or O. Perhaps all of the MacDonnells and the O’Donnells are descendants of the same Donnell.
1. Which of the following aspects do the surnames in the passage NOT cover?
| A．Places where people lived. | B．People’s characters. |
| C．Talents that people possessed. | D．People’s occupations. |
| A．owned or drove a cart | B．made things with metals |
| C．made kitchen tools or containers. | D．built houses and furniture. |
| A．Beatrice Smith | B．Leonard Carter |
| C．George Longstreet | D．Donald Greenwood |
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. |
| A．show friendliness to strangers |
| B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places |
| D．show personal habits |
| 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. |
| A．Cultural Differences |
| B．Smiles and Relationship |
| C．Facial Expressiveness |
| D．Habits and Emotions |
10 . Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve’s new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn’t hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there’s no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I’m finished or fail to take your turn when I’m finished. That’s what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in—and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That’s why slight differences in conversational style—tiny little things like microseconds of pause-can have a great effect on one’s life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems—even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.
1. What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?| A．Betty was talkative. | B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. | D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one’s inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one’s confidence |
| A．being willing to speak one’s mind | B．being able to increase one’s power |
| C．being ready to make one’s own judgment | D．being quick to express one’s ideas confidently |
