Why do different people like different colors? The answer depends     1     cultural values. To the Egyptians, green is a color     2     stands for the hope and joy of spring, while for Muslims, it means heaven. Red is a symbol of good luck in many cultures. During the Spring Festival in China, children     3    (give) money in a red envelope to bring good fortune in the New Year. For many nations, blue is a symbol of protection and religious beliefs. Greek people often wear a blue necklace hoping to protect     4    (they) against evils.

People’s     5    (choose) of colors is also influenced by their bodies’ reactions toward them. Green is said to be the most restful color. It has the ability to reduce pain and relax people both mentally     6     physically.     7    (work) in green environment, people have fewer stomachaches. Red can make people     8    (increase) appetite. Many decorators will include different shades of red in the restaurant. And many commercial websites will have a red “Buy Now” button because red is a color that     9    (definite) catches a person’s eye. Unlike red, blue is believed to cause people to lose appetite. Therefore, if you want to eat     10    (little) than before, eating from blue plates can help.

2 . Specialists(专家) say that it is not easy to get used to life in a new culture. “Culture shock(文化冲击)” is the _______ these specialists use when talking about the _______ that people have in a _______ environment. “There are three stages of culture shock”, say the specialists. In the first stage, the new comers like their new environment. Then, when the _______ experience dies, they begin to _______ the city, the country, the people, and everything else. In the last stage, the new comers begin to adapt to their surroundings and, as a result, enjoy their life _______ .

There are some obvious factors in culture shock. The weather may be unpleasant. The _______ may be different. The public service systems—the telephone, the post office, or the transportation—may be difficult to _______. The most simple things seem to be big problems. The language may be _______ .

Who feels culture shock? Everyone does in this way or that. ________ culture shock surprises most people. Very often the people having the worst culture shock are those who ________ had any difficulties in their home countries and were ________ in their community(集体). Coming to a new ________ these people find they do not have the same established positions. They find ________ without a role, almost without an identity(身份). They have to ________ a new self-image.

Culture shock gives rise to a feeling of disorientation(迷失方向). This feeling may be homesickness. When homesick, people feel like staying ________ all the time. They want to ________ themselves from the strange environment, and create an escape inside their room for a(n) ________ of safety. This escape does ________ the problem of culture shock in the short term, but it does nothing to make the person familiar with the culture. Getting to know the new environment and ________ experience—these are the long-term solutions to the problem of culture shock.

4 . I was born and raised in England in a culture where privacy and “keeping yourself to yourself” were valued traditions. Speaking to strangers was not encouraged. People were most hospitable (好客的) and friendly — but only once they had been introduced to new people.

However, I have been lucky enough to spend some time in both Italy and the US, where I found traditions of hospitality and politeness to be very different.

I experienced Italian hospitality first-hand on a crowded railway carriage traveling, one afternoon, from Genoa to Florence. Sinking gratefully into an empty seat, I was berated (斥责) in rapid Italian by a gentleman who was returning to this seat — it had not been “spare” after all. I apologized in English, and got up to allow him back into the seat. The gentleman obviously had no understanding of the English language, but he, too, realized my genuine mistake. He smiled and gestured for me to remain in the seat, and he himself remained standing in the corridor for the rest of the journey. The other passengers of the carriage smiled and nodded at me and made me feel quite welcome amongst them. I feel that if this had been in England, a foreigner who made a mistake would not always be so kindly treated.

Transport was also obvious in the differences I noticed between English and American culture. I flew to New York on a plane with mainly English passengers. We sat together in near silence. Nobody spoke to me nor, as I expected, to anyone else they did not know. They felt it was not polite to disturb someone else’s privacy. However, when I traveled across the United States, whether by plane or Greyhound bus, I was never short of conversation. Conversation was going on all around me and whoever sat next to me was happy to introduce themselves and ask me about myself, which was usually a pleasant way to kill time. They obviously felt it would have been rude not to speak to another person, whether they were strangers or not.

7 . 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.

8 . Culture shock occurs when people have been suddenly thrown into a new culture. Newcomers may be anxious because they don’t speak the language. Neither do they know the customs or understand the people’s behavior in daily life.

Quite often the visitor find that “yes” may not always mean “yes”, that friendliness does not necessarily mean friendship, or that statements that appear to be serious are really intended as jokes. The foreigners may be unsure as when to shake hands, when to start conversations, or how to approach a stranger. The idea of culture shock helps explain feeling of puzzlement and confusion.

Language problems do not lead to all the setbacks that people feel. When one has lost everything that was once familiar, such as understanding a transportation system, knowing how to register for university classes, or knowing how to make friends, difficulties in coping with the new society may arise.

When a person enters a strange culture, he or she feels like a fish out of water. Newcomers feel at times that they do not belong to the culture and feel abandoned by the native members of the culture. When this happens, visitors may want to refuse everything about the new environment and may praise and sing their own praises of the positive aspects of their own culture. On the other side, more visitors may sneeze at their native country by refusing to accept its value and instead choosing to approve of the value of the new country. This may occur as an attempt to accept the new culture in order to be taken in by the people in it.