When our son, Alex, was young, he hated to travel. We endured refusals to visit one more museum, even if it was the Louvre. We coped with a child who resisted even a taste of onion soup in Paris and who insisted he would like nothing more than ordering room service at the hotel and watching TV.
Over the years, we have come up with several hard-earned but realistic strategies to help kids cope on long-distance trips.
First, we recognize that some children have trouble adjusting to new environments, food, time zones and schedules. So, in advance of a trip to England, we gave our son a taste of the new culture by making shepherd’s pie for supper. He loved the mashed potatoes, chopped meat and brown gravy（肉汁）. For Italy, we sampled homemade pesto（香蒜沙司） served over linguine（扁面条）. For Amsterdam, I cooked up a pot of comforting pea soup and baked a delicious apple pancake called pannekoeken. Then, when we traveled to these places, he ate these foods and they seemed like a taste of home.
In addition to food, we always sample the culture beforehand by reading books and renting movies from the countries we will be visiting. For Italy, the book Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino and the films Johnny Stecchino, Cinema Paradiso, and Il Postino gave our son a glimpse of the Italian way of life. For Britain, we rented Mr. Bean and Billy Elliot, and enjoyed stories by J.R.R. Tolkien and E. Nesbit. For Amsterdam, he finished The Diary of Anne Frank.
Before we leave home, we also ask Alex to go through our tour books and pick out activities that appeal to him. He was excited about visiting the London Dungeon and the Imperial War Museum, and taking a ride in the London Eye. They turned out to be big hits. Because Alex’s preferences were given equal attention, he was more tolerant of his parents’ selections, such as visiting Charters Cathedral and the Van Gogh Museum.
We’ve also learned the hard way that dragging our son out of bed early in the morning ,thus making him grumpy all day. Now that he is a teenager, we let him sleep in while we sip coffee at a café, work out at the hotel gym, or take a long walk. This makes our time together much more enjoyable
59．According to the writer, parents are advised to _______.
A. cook children’s favorite food
B. postpone traveling until the kids are in college
C. allow their kids a ride in the London Eye
D. take children’s interest and preferences into account
60．Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino are mentioned as _______.
A. particular desires of children B. an approach to interest the future possible visit
C. highly appreciated films for tourists D. comfortable activities children could pick out
61．The underlined word “grumpy” in the last paragraph is similar in meaning to _______.
A. bad-tempered B. tolerant C. energetic D. nervous
62．Which of the following might serve as a possible title for this passage?
A. Kids and Parents. B. Joys of Traveling.
C. Whether You Go or Not. D. How to motivate Kids to travel
While working in Southeast Asia in the mid 1990’s, I became a branch manager in a factory. At the beginning, I used human relations principles, such as putting myself into the others place to help gain trust. After a few months, I was told that the factory team members liked and trusted me.
Then the owner, seeing how everyone thought well of me, believed that I could become an instrument of change to carry out his several unpopular programs. The factory members resisted and eventually saw me as a puppet controlled by the owner. The more I insisted that they ‘follow orders’ the more they found ways to weaken the new changes.
Finally, I was replaced by a manager who knew enough to please both masters. Even though the owner did not like the fact that his new changes were not immediately applied, the new manager gained his power by the support received from his team together with an intention to find a way. What I learned was that your team must always see you as supportive of their needs, even to the extent that the owner may not be pleased that you are unable to follow their wishes. At the end of the day, if your people do not follow you then you are no longer in charge and will be replaced.
At first I blamed my boss for putting me in such a position. Then in honest reflection, I began to realize that he had probably hoped that I would have found some middle ground. What I could have done was to first obtain their advice about why they did not wish to follow the new policy changes, and then I should have used my influence with both the owner and team members to find a better way.
Though, in fact it is a painful lesson for me, it has served me well along my career path!What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Obeying is the best quality. |
| B．Giving is always a pleasure. |
| C．Appreciating others will benefit a lot. |
| D．Dealing with relationship is important. |
The underlined word “puppet” has the similar meaning to.
| A．instrument | B．assistant |
| C．wretch | D．winner |
Which is the right order according to the passage?
a. He was removed from his position.
b. He got on poorly with the coworkers.
c. He carried out the orders of the owner.
d. He became a branch manager.
f. He was believed in not only by coworkers but leaders.
| A．a, b, d, c, f | B．f, d, c, b, a |
| C．d, f, c, b, a | D．d, c, f, b, a |
From the third paragraph we can infer that .
| A．the new manager carried out the programs at once |
| B．the new manager got on badly with workers |
| C．workers need to be recognized and supported |
| D．you should make full use of your power |
Although I started learning English during my college years, when I entered the States, I only understood two English words “Yes” and “No”. We learned many grammar rules but we could not make the language connections to the real English world. Language frustration worries almost all first generation immigrants. For example, I got a letter from a Chinese-American who has lived in the States for a long time and has a good IT job saying “My 11-year-old girl writes quite well, but as her parents, we could not even read her article.”In addition, my Chinese-American professor friend has difficulty reading a novel. Improving our English skills has become a long journey for all of us. Honestly, if I have a chance, I really want to reach out to everyone in the world who has had a similar experience: learning a second language in adulthood. I wish I could encourage them to speak out about the culture shock, frustration they felt about the differences between West and East.
I have mainly focused on my English writing since 2008 after I found “Literacy Volunteers”, an organization that specially focuses on helping immigrants improve their English. I decided to challenge myself, writing a story like an American. I saw many wonderful Americans there. As soon as I met my teacher Alice, I asked her to be my private language tutor and have taken Tims English class. Every week Alice and I have worked on my English essays sentence by sentence.
To observe the culture differences between West and East, occasionally, I posted a few of my English essays online. I mentioned previously about American culture; when people read the same article or even face the same situation, American and Chinese act very differently. In my viewpoint, these differences make America the strongest country in the world. I know you have the right to express your own opinions, but accusing others without proof is not acceptable.The underlined word “frustration” in the first paragraph means.
| A．failure and setbacks | B．words and problems |
| C．understanding and progress | D．slang and idioms |
In the passage, “Literacy Volunteers” is.
| A．only intended to help the Chinese-Americans |
| B．an organization which is set up to make a profit |
| C．of great use to people like the author |
| D．a school showing how to enjoy literature |
From the last paragraph we can learn that.
| A．Americans and Chinese are of the same idea about something |
| B．culture shock only exists between Chinese and Americans |
| C．accusing others freely can be acceptable in America |
| D．culture differences have great influence on the people |
The purpose of the passage is.
| A．to show how hard a Chinese-American lives in America |
| B．to share her experience of improving her English |
| C．to imply grammar rules are not important |
| D．to warn Chinese-Americans of English |
If the world were a village of 1,000 people it would include:
•584 Asians •124 Africans
•95 Eastern and Western Europeans •84 Latin Americans
•55 former Soviets (including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups)
•52 North Americans •6 Australians and New Zealanders
The people of the village would speak:
•165 Mandarin •86 English
•83 Hindu/Urdu •64 Spanish
•58 Russian •37 Arabic
The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village.
One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65. Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modern equipment.
This year 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from cancer. Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year. With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1,018.
In this village of 1,000 persons, 200 people receive 75 per cent of the income; another 200 receive only 2 per cent of the income.
About one-third have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Of the 670 adults in the village, half cannot read nor write.
The village has a total yearly budget, public and private, of over $3 million—$3,000 per person if it is distributed evenly. Of the total 3 million:
$181,000 goes to weapons and warfare
$159,000 to education
$132,000 to health care
These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together. Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Environment. | B．Marriage. |
| C．Poverty. | D．Education. |
The underlined part “have access to”means.
| A．use | B．buy | C．produce | D．try |
Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?
| A．Nearly one-third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| B．About 8. 25 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| C．About 16. 5 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| D．Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village. |
The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for.
| A．a peaceful world | B．good education |
| C．better health care | D．a life without anxiety |
A small piece of fish each day may keep the heart doctor away. That’s the finding of a study of Dutchmen in which deaths from heart disease were more than 50 percent lower among those who consumed (吃) at least an ounce of salt water fish per day compared to those who never ate fish.
The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long-held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.
Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000 deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But previous research has shown that the level of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption averages more than 3 ounces.
For 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish. At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.
During the next two decades, 78 of the men died from heart disease. The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese or Eskimos. This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol (胆固醇) levels.The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．the effect of fish eating on people’s health |
| B．the high incidence of heart disease in some countries |
| C．the daily fish consumption of people in different culture |
| D．the changes in people’s diet |
We can infer from the passage that there are fewer heart disease deaths ________.
| A．in the countries of the yellow-skin race |
| B．in the countries with good production of fish |
| C．in the countries with high consumption of fish |
| D．in highly-developed countries |
The underlined part “This relationship” may refer to the connection between ________ and the level of heart disease.
| A．the amount of fish eaten |
| B．the kind of fish eaten |
| C．regular fish-eating |
| D．people of different areas |
In which section of a newspaper can we read this passage?
| A．Ads. | B．Movies. |
| C．Briefs. | D．Health and Diet. |
Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture 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 culture, 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 emotions are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.What does the smile usually mean in the U.S?
| A．Joy. | B．Politeness. |
| C．Love. | D．Thankfulness. |
The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that smile can _____.
| A．show friendliness to strangers |
| B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places |
| D．show personal habits |
What should we do before attempting to “read” people?
| A．Learn about their relations with others. |
| B．Figure out what they will do next. |
| C．Find out about their past experience. |
| D．Understand their cultural backgrounds. |
What would be the best title for the test?
| A．Cultural Differences |
| B．Smiles and Relationship |
| C．Facial Expressiveness |
| D．Habits and Emotions |