Grant Wood’s American Gothic caused a stir(轰动)in 1930 when it was exhibited for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago and awarded a prize of 300 dollars. Newspapers across the country carried the story, and the painting of a farmer and a younger woman posed before a white house brought the artist instant fame.

In 1930, Grant Wood, an American painter with European training, noticed a small white house built in the small southern Iowa town of Eldon. Wood was so fascinated by it that he decided to paint the house along with the kind of people he thought should live in that house. In the painting, the farmer is modeled on his dentist. Dr. Byron McKeeby. His younger sister Nan served as a model for the woman (imagined to be the farmer’s wife or daughter). Wood wanted to give a description of the traditional roles of men and women as the man is holding a pitchfork symbolizing hard labor. Each element was painted separately; the models sat separately and never stood in front of the house. The Gothic style of the house inspired the painting’s title.

American Gothic remains one of the most famous paintings in the history of American art. The painting has become part of American popular culture. Some believe that Wood used it to satirize(讽刺) the narrow-mindedness that has been said to characterize Midwestern culture. The painting may also be read as a praise of the moral virtue or rural America or even as a mixture of praise and satire. American Gothic is one of the few images to reach the status of cultural symbol, along with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

1.Which of the following is true about American Gothic?

A.It won a prize of 300 pounds.

B.The two characters in it posed before the White House.

C.It was the first painting by Grant Wood.

D.It was on show at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930.

2.From the passage we can infer Iowa is in __________.

A.the southern town of Eldon

B.the Midwest of the United States

C.a European country

D.the city of Chicago

3.Grant Wood chose the two models __________.

A.to describe traditional roles of men and women

B.to praise the moral virtue of rural America

C.to make his dentist and his sister famous

D.to carry the story across the country

4. The title of the painting is based on __________.

A.the name of a small town

B.the man and the woman

C.the style of the house

D.the pitchfork symbolizing hard labor

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 (思维定势). 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 cause 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.

2.According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?

A. Americans. B. Israelis.

C. The British. D. The Finns.

3.We can learn from the passage that ________.

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

4.The underlined word “assertiveness” in the last paragraph probably means ________.

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

You may have heard of the American Dream, an ideal that has powered the hopes of Americans for generations.

It began as a belief that the US was a land of opportunity, and that anyone could achieve success through hard work. At times, the dream has referred to home ownership, a good job, retirement security or each generation doing better than the last.

Yet today, this concept seems to have greatly changed. As Time magazine pointed out, quite different from the older generation, many Millennials (the generation born after 1980) redefine(重新定义) the American Dream as “day-to-day control of your life”. They “prize job mobility, flexible schedules, any work that is more interesting than typing, and the ability to travel”, said the magazine.

Home ownership, once the cornerstone of the American Dream, is becoming a smaller priority for this generation. Meanwhile, nearly 40% of them choose travel as part of their dream. And entrepreneurship(创业) is a rising favorite, as nearly 26% of Millennials consider self-employment as part of their dream.

So what has led to this huge change?

Many point fingers at the poor economy. “Modern young Americans seem bound to face a world stamped by ever narrowing opportunity and social stagnation(停滞),”noted The Daily Beast.

“The rate of 16-to 24-year-olds out of school and out of work is unusually high at 15%. Many college graduates have taken jobs that don’t require a degree,” Time reported.

The magazine worries that these difficulties may lead to a lost generation who are “unable to ever truly find their feet on the corporation’s ladder”.

Dan Kadlec, a reporter of Time, sees Millennials as resetting their expectations. “This situation is different for young adults today,” he wrote. “A true American dream has to feel attainable, and many Millennias are feeling they can only attain a day-today lifestyle that suits them.”

1.What’s the passage mainly about?

A. Meaning of American Dream

B. Redefinition of American Dream

C. Value of Achieving American Dream

D. History of Changing American Dream

2.The underlined word “cornerstone” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to “ ”.

A. growth B. balance C. purpose D. basis

3.According to the passage, what has changed Millennials’ view of the American Dream?

A. A lack of confidence in themselves

B. Fierce competition in the job market

C. The discouraging economy and unemployment

D. Their dissatisfaction with the government

4.Dan Kadlec thinks Millennials’ new definition of the American Dream is ______.

A. understandable B. beautiful

C. worrying D. Positive

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