Question

【题目】 Asking for help is a sign of strength rather than weakness. In American culture, the independent individual is seen as their ideal. As the University of Missouri at St. Louis states on its website under the heading Key American Values, “Americans have been trained since very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies.” The value also makes them think they can do everything themselves, and makes them feel bad about asking for help when they need it.

And when it comes to work situations, when they think about asking for help there, sometimes they fear that a request for help would make them look inept. While this has always been true for men, many women in the workplace have felt the need to try twice as hard as their male colleagues and do twice as much to get just as far and to prove their worth. Sometimes when we think about asking for help, our inner voices tell us, “See, if you admit you can’t do this on your own, they’ll see you for the imposter (骗子) you really are.”

But the fact is, even though individualism is on the rise, we can’t do everything by ourselves and we shouldn’t try.

Apple founder Steve Jobs once told the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association about the power of asking for help, and how he “never found anybody who didn’t want to help me when I asked them for help”. He said, at the age of 12, he called Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, on the phone after getting his number from the phone book and asking him for spare parts so he could build a frequency counter(计频器). And Hewlett agreed and offered young Jobs a summer job assembling frequency counters.

“If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far,” Jobs said.

【1】What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A.What key American values are.B.Why Americans refuse to ask for help.

C.Asking for help is a sign of strength.D.Americans are responsible for their life.

【2】Which of the following can replace the underlined word “inept” in Paragraph 2?

A.impoliteB.depressedC.incompetentD.sensitive

【3】What can be learned from this US cultural phenomenon?

A.Americans suffer a lot from mutual distrust.

B.Americans see weakness as a sign of strength.

C.Americans should learn to build up confidence.

D.Americans think highly of individual values.

【4】What can we learn from Jobs’ words in the last paragraph?

A.Don’t hesitate to ask for help.B.Be brave to try whatever you want.

C.Never ask for help.D.Learn to cooperate with others.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】C

【3】D

【4】A

【解析】

本文是议论文。在美国，每个人都认为自己是独立的个体，认为可以自己做每件事，

很多人不愿意向别人求助，觉得向别人求助会被认为是没有能力。作者认为寻求帮助是力量而不是软弱的表现，应该敢于向他人求助。

【1】主旨大意题。本段讲到美国人“… to consider themselves as separate individuals” 和“The value also makes them think they can do everything themselves, and makes them feel bad about asking for help when they need it”可知，美国人认为自己是独立的个体。由于这个价值观的影响，美国人认为自己可以自己做每件事，一般不愿求助于人。本段主要解释美国人一般不愿求助于人的原因。故选B项。

【2】词句猜测题。根据第二段“if you admit you can’t do this”可知，如果你请求帮助，就意味着承认自己没有能力胜任某项工作。incompetent意为“没能力的”。故选C项。

【3】推理判断题。根据第一段“Americans have been trained… to consider themselves as separate individuals …The value also makes them think they can do everything themselves” 和第三段“even though individualism is on the rise”可知美国人认为自己是独立的个体，遇事不求人。这反映了美国人崇尚个人价值，个人主义感比较强。故选D项。

【4】推理判断题。根据第4段乔布斯告诉他人“the power of asking for help”和“If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far”可知，乔布斯利举出自己的例子，说明向他人寻求帮助的好处。他告诉我们不要害怕失败，要敢于求助。故选A项。

阅读理解中词义猜测技巧

1.根据下定义、定语从句、同位语或破折号对所修饰的词的解释说明猜测生词的词义

如：（1）Here is The Pines ,whose cook has developed a special way of mixing foreign food such as caribou ,wild boar ,and reindeer with surprising sauces .

通过whose引导的定语从句，可以推测The Pines 是一家餐馆的名字。

（2）This terrible tornado—a wind which went round and round as fast as 500 miles an hour and picked up everything in its path, such as large trees, cars and even houses.

根据破折号后面的句意，可以猜测出tornado意思是“龙卷风”。

2. 根据举例猜测词义 表示举例的词汇和短语主要有：for example , such as , take…for example, for instance 等

如：The course will provide more space to study particular issues such as relationship among countries in the European Union, third world debt, international disagreement.

根据such as 后面列举的例子，可以推断issue 是指“议题”。

3.根据逻辑关系猜测词义

对比关系 表示对比关系的词汇和短语有：unlike, not, but, however, despite, in spite of, in contrast等

并列关系 表示并列关系的词和短语有：and, or , either… or, neither … nor, not only… but also , not.. but, as well as 等

因果关系 表示因果关系的词和短语有：because, since, as, so,so … that与such … that等

表示同义词语境的有or, like , similarly, either, just as , the same… as

表示反义词语境的词有：yet, but, unlike, however, although, while, instead of, rather than ,on the other hand, on the contrary 等。

如:（1）Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender shoots, or young leaves.

根据because原因状语从句的内容可以判断Pruning的意思是：“修剪（树枝等）”。

如本题第2小题，第二段中“if you admit you can’t do this”与选项incompetent同义，从而确定选项。

4.通过构词法 根据前缀、后缀、复合词、词义转化等构词法猜测词义

如：（1）It's a quiet, comfortable hotel overlooking (俯瞰) the bay in an uncommercialized Cornish fishing village on England's most southerly point．

后缀 -ise/ize意思是“使成为…；使…化”，结合词根commercial（商业的），可以推测 uncommercialized 的意思是“未被商业化的”。

（2）We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people that craft (手艺) no longer exists.

根据合成词中的mass （大量的）和produce （生产），可以推测 mass-produce的意思是“大批量生产；规模生产” 。

5.据上下文的指代关系推测词义

如：Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations. It's Jason Moran's job to help change that.

根据语境可知，画线词that指代上一句的内容，即爵士乐听众的数量减少并且趋于老龄化，不受年轻人喜欢的现状。