Question

The way we do things round here

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（文化）．

Some of these 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（氣候），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（準時）．If you invite people to a party at 7 o’ clock

your guests 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 misunderstand Americans

2.The word “highlights” in Paragraph 2 probably means_____.

    A. encourages                  B. helps to narrow

    C. increases                    D. draws attention to

3.According to the author, what should we do with most cultural differences?

    A. Ask the native people for help.

    B. Understand and accept them.

    C. Do things in our own way.

    D. Do in-depth research.

4.When invited to a party the people who are usually punctual are______.

    A. Italians 　　　B. Germans　　　 C. Greeks 　　　D. the British

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.A

2.D

3.B

4.B

【解析】【要點綜述】作者以自己在美國的一次找工作的經歷，說明了在國外工作了解外國文化差異的重要性。

1.　細節理解題。根據第一段的第三句話That “quite”saddened me.和第四句話I thought he was saying “we’re kind of pleased you decided to join us although I wish we had hired someone else.”可知是A。結合下面的解釋American English “quite” 的意思，可知B“這家銀行打算雇傭另外一個人”錯誤。C“難以習慣美國文化”和D“容易誤解美國人”與事實不符。

2.詞義猜測題。從第二段的最后一句話畫線部分前面的The way people do things和后面的many of the differences we see between cultures可知這里的highlights是“吸引注意力”的意思。A鼓勵，B幫助縮小，C增加，與語境不符。

3.細節理解題。從第三段的第二句話Mostly，it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them可知是B。

4.細節理解題。根據最后一段的第四句話your guests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany以及后面給出的各個國家的例子，可知是德國人最守時。