One important variable affecting communication across cultures is destiny (命运) and personal responsibility. This refers to the degree to which we feel ourselves the masters of our lives, contrary to the degree to which we see ourselves as subject to things outside our control. Another way to look at this is to ask how much we see ourselves able to change and act, to choose the course of our lives and relationships. Some have drawn a parallel between the personal responsibility in North American settings and the view itself. The North American view is vast, with large spaces of unpopulated land. The frontier attitude of “King” of the wilderness, and the expansiveness of the land reaching huge distances, may relate to generally high levels of confidence in the ability to shape and choose our destinies.
In this expansive land, many children grow up with a heroic sense of life, where ideas are big, and hope springs forever. When they experience temporary failures, they are encouraged to redouble their efforts, to “Try, try again.” Action, efficiency, and achievement are valued and expected. Free will is respected in laws and enforced by courts.
Now consider places in the world with much smaller land, whose history reflects wars and tough struggles: Northern Ireland, Mexico, Israel, Palestine. In these places, destiny’s role is more important in human life. In Mexico, there is a history of hard life, fighting over land, and loss of homes. Mexicans are more likely to see struggles as part of their life and unavoidable. Their passive attitude is expressed in their way of responding to failure or an accident by saying “ni modo” (“no way” or “tough lick”), meaning that the failure was destined.
This variable is important to understanding cultural conflicts. If someone believing in free will crosses paths with someone more passive, miscommunication is likely. The first person may expect action and responsibility. Failing to see it, he may conclude that the second is lazy, not cooperative, or dishonest. The second person will expect respect for the natural order of things. Failing to see it, he may conclude that the first is forcible, rude, or big headed in his ideas of what can be accomplished or changed.The author thinks that one’s character is partly determined by ________.
| A．physical senses | B．general attitude |
| C．financial background | D．geographic characteristics |
According to the passage, Mexicans would think that Americans are ________.
| A．impractical | B．dishonest | C．ambitious | D．hesitant |
The underlined word “subject” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.
| A．a topic of a discussion | B．a branch of knowledge |
| C．a person being experimented on | D．a person under the power of others |
The author would probably agree that ________.
| A．vast land may lead to a more controllable desire |
| B．heroic sense of life roots deeply in a small country |
| C．living in limited space contributes to an accepting attitude |
| D．fighting over land helps people gain high levels of confidence |
A serious problem for today’s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.
First, employers should take the responsibility for their retried employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.
Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.
In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some institutions should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately , as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.
One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some workplaces especially for the elderly where they are independent.
To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The problem faced by the old in society. |
| B．Why we should take responsibility for the old. |
| C．How we can improve the lives of the old |
| D．Where the old can go to get their pensions. |
According to the passage, how can the government help to improve the lives of retired people?
| A．Set aside some profits to help people with problems after they retire |
| B．Increase saving levels of people during their working years |
| C．Increase the discounts for food and transport for the old |
| D．Make available pensions for those who have retired |
The underlined word “viable” most probably means ____.
| A．impossible | B．practical | C．usefull | D．successful |
What can be concluded from the passage?
| A．Taking care of the old is mainly an issue of money |
| B．Employers should allow their workers to retire at a later age |
| C．Becoming independent should be the goal of most old people |
| D．There is no single solution to the problem of the old |
What is the writer’s main purpose of writing this article?
| A．To point out the need for government supporting for old people |
| B．To make general readers aware of the problems of retired people |
| C．To discuss some possible solutions to an important social problem |
| D．To instruct retired people on how they can have a happier life. |
As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Italian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly----tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us has reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence（青春期）. In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that were really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.The author and his fiends were often out in the woods to _______.
| A．avoid doing their schoolwork |
| B．play gold and other sports |
| C．spend their free time |
| D．keep away from their parents |
What can we infer from Paragraph 2?
| A．The author explored in the woods aimlessly. |
| B．Human history is not the result of exploration. |
| C．Exploration should be a systematic activity. |
| D．The activities in the woods were well planned.The author explored in the woods aimlessly. |
The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．doubtful |
| B．calm |
| C．serious |
| D．optimistic |
How does the author feel about his childhood?
| A．Long and unforgettable. |
| B．Lonely but memorable. |
| C．Boring and meaningless. |
| D．Happy but short. |
We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively（被动地）. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.
We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor(谣言).
Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.
That’s what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping（打上标记）it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.
This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be re-stated as fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______.
| A．visiting an exhibition |
| B．solving a math problem |
| C．doing a medical experiment |
| D．doing scientific reasoning |
The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.
| A．active learning |
| B．passive learning |
| C．communication |
| D．knowledge |
The author mentions the game Rumor to show that _____.
| A．a message should be delivered in different ways |
| B．a message may be changed when being passed on |
| C．people may have problems with their sense of hearing |
| D．people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Active learning is less important. |
| B．Passive learning is not found among scholars. |
| C．Active learning occurs more frequently. |
| D．Passive learning may not be reliable. |
Harriet Tubman lived a life filled with adventure.Tubman worked with the Underground Railroad. She helped many slaves reach freedom in the North. She was a scout(侦察员)in the Civil War. She also worked as a nurse during the war.
Life in the Old South was very hard for slaves. Most slaves lived in small houses.They had large families, and even the children had to work in the fields.Most slaves dreamed of getting to the north.They wanted to be free.
One day Harriet saw a slave trying to run away. Then she saw the keeper running after him with a whip.Harriet stood in the keeper's way.The keeper took a weight and threw it at the slave.He hit Harriet above her eyes.It almost killed her. The scar(伤疤)on Harriet's head was an emblem(向征)of her will to fight for what she believed in.
The Fugitive(逃亡)Slave Law made Harriet's job harder.The law said that slaves could be caught even in the North. Harriet began leading slaves all the way into Canada.There they were safe.The law couldn't hurt them there.
When Harriet came for her mother and father,they were very old.Harriet was afraid they might not be able to make the trip.She got a horse.She and a friend made a wagon.She helped her mother and father ride to freedom.The story mainly tells us about______.
| A．life of the slaves in the Old South |
| B．life of Harriet Tubman |
| C．Harriet Tubman's fight for freedom for the slaves |
| D．the Civil War |
According to the story,which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?______.
| A．Harriet Tubman used to work as a nurse during the Civil War. |
| B．The weight hit Harriet in the head and left a scar on her head. |
| C．Harriet led slaves to Canada where the law couldn't hurt them. |
| D．The Fugitive Slave Law protected running slaves in the North. |
The Fugitive Slave Law______.
| A．protected running slaves |
| B．set slaves free |
| C．offered good jobs for slaves |
| D．made Harriet's job more difficult |
We can infer from the story that the author______.
| A．was in favor of slavery |
| B．was supportive about Harriet's work |
| C．thought the Fugitive Slave Law was good |
| D．thought slaves were treated well in the North |
It is sometimes reported that strange flying objects have been seen high up in the sky. People call these strange objects Unidentified(不明的)Flying Objects(UFOs). These UFOs caused a lot of interest. Some of the reports about them are difficult to believe.Some have been explained in scientific ways. Others have never been explained.
Here is an account of UFOs from a report.
Dennis Bardens,who wrote an article,tells us that he once saw a UFO himself.He was having dinner one night with a friend near Tripoli(的黎波里),Libya(利比亚),and after dinner the two men walked across a yard to his room to look at some papers.Bardens noticed that the moon looked strange that night.
“It wasn't the moon,”was the reply.
They watched the light and saw that it was moving.It seemed to be an object rather like a big plate.In some ways it looked like smoke with a light on it,but it wasn't smoke because it didn't change its shape.It was moving in a regular way.That is to say,it didn't go suddenly faster or more slowly,and it didn't go higher or lower.So the two men decided that there must be men in it.
When it came nearer to Libya,Bardens said that he felt eyes looking at him.He was being watched in the darkness.
When it was nearer,they noticed that the bottom parts were brighter than the top.The bottom was yellow and the top was red.Then the object suddenly turned away and left Libya,moving very fast.
On a later day Bardens talked to other people about it,and he found some who had seen it.They all described(描述)it in the same way.Could they all the mistaken?The UFOs are______.
| A．flying high up in the sky | B．strange flying objects |
| C．difficult to believe | D．very interested |
A UFO was seen one night______.
| A．when they were walking across a yard to Bardens' room |
| B．while they were looking at the light |
| C．when Bardens noticed the moon appearing strange |
| D．while they were having dinner |
The UFO looked like______.
| A．smoke | B．light |
| C．a moving object | D．a large plate |
When the UFO came nearer to Libya,______.
| A．it disappeared all at once |
| B．it suddenly turned away and left |
| C．it was watched in the darkness |
| D．Bardens was looking at it |
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