Successful people in international business understand the cultures of other countries and learn to change their practices in different cultures. They understand the importance of avoiding business decisions based on misconceptions—mistaken ideas. 

One cause of misconceptions is ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own culture’s way of doing things is better than the way of other cultures. It’s ethnocentrism that leads to failure in international business. To avoid ethnocentrism, it’s necessary to study the different elements（组成部分）of culture: language, values and attitudes, and customs and manners. 

Language

A knowledge of the local language can help international business people in four ways. First, people can communicate directly. Second, people are usually more open in their communication with someone who speaks their language. Third, an understanding of the language allows people to infer meanings that are not said directly. Finally, knowing the language helps people to understand the culture better. 

Values are people’s basic beliefs about the difference between right and wrong, good and bad . An attitude is a way of thinking or acting. Values and attitudes influence international business. For example, many people in the United States believe that chocolate from Switzerland is better than chocolate from other countries, and they buy a lot of it. 

Customs and manners

Customs are common social practices. Manners are ways of acting that the society believes are polite. For example, in the United States, it is the custom to have salad （色拉） before the main course at dinner, not after. It’s not acceptable to talk with food in mouth at table. Failure to understand the customs and manners of other countries will bring difficulty selling their products. Orange juice as a breakfast drink of an American company in France doesn’t sell well because the French don’t usually drink juice with breakfast.   

1. A knowledge of the local language allows international business people _________. 

A. to communicate without outside help

B. to be more open with their customers

C. to express their thoughts indirectly

D. to have a better idea of their own culture

2. The act of many people buying chocolate of Switzerland shows the role of ________. 

A. attitudes        B. values           C. manners          D. customs

3. What would be the best title for the text?                    

A. Misconceptions in Business               B. Basic Beliefs in Business

C. International Business Culture             D. Successful International Business

4. The author’s purpose of writing this article is to tell people ___________.       

A. how to take a right attitude in business

B. how to act politely and properly in business

C. how to use a local language in business

D. how to avoid misunderstandings in business

Women who own cats are more likely to have mental health problems and kill themselves because they can be infected by a common parasite that can be caught from cat litter, a study has found.

Researchers found women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite(刚地弓形虫), which is spread through contact with cat waste or eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide.

The study involved more than 45,000 women in Denmark. About a third of the world’s population is infected with the parasite, which hides in cells in the brain and muscles, often without producing symptoms.

The infection, which is called toxoplasmosis(弓形虫病), has been linked to mental illness, such as schizophrenia(精神分裂症), and changes in behavior.

The study’s senior author Doctor Teodor Postolache, an associate professor of psychiatry(精神病学) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the United States, said, “We can’t say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that deserves additional studies.”

Doctor Albert Reece, vice president of medical affairs at the University of Maryland, said, “T. gondii infection is a major public health problem around the world, and many people don’t realize they’re infected.

“Dr Postolache is a leading expert on suicide neuroimmunology(神经免疫学). Suicide is a critically important mental health issue. About one million people commit suicide and another 10 million attempt suicide worldwide each year. We hope that this type of research will one day help us find ways to save many lives that now end too early in suicide.”

Dr. Postolache’s research team at the University of Maryland was the first to report a connection between T. gondii and suicidal behavior in 2009. He is cooperating with researchers in Denmark, Germany and Sweden to confirm and investigate the way leading to this association.

The T. gondii parasite thrives in the intestines of cats, and it is spread through their waste. All warm-blooded animals can become infected through contact with it. Humans can become infected by changing their infected cats’ litter boxes, eating unwashed vegetables, drinking water from a polluted source, or by eating undercooked or raw meat.

Not washing kitchen knives after preparing raw meat before handling another food item also can lead to infection. Pregnant women can pass the parasite directly to their unborn babies and are advised not to change cat litter boxes to avoid possible infection.

Babies don’t produce antibodies to T. gondii for three months after they are born, so the antibodies present in their blood represented infection in the mothers. The scientists studied Danish health patients to determine if any of these women later attempted suicide, including cases of violent suicide attempts which may have involved guns, sharp instruments and jumping from high places.

The study found that women infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide compared to those who were not infected, and the risk seemed to rise with increasing levels of the T. gondii antibodies.

Dr Postolache noted limitations to the study, such as the inability to determine the cause of the suicidal behavior.

The findings were published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

1.The objects of the research are women from _____.

A. Demark                                      B. the USA                            C. Germany                          D. Sweden

2.The common way which is more likely to be infected with the disease is _____.

A. to eat unwashed vegetables or undercooked meat

B. to clean a place where a cat once lived for a time

C. to pass the infection to her unborn baby during a woman’s pregnancy

D. to reuse kitchen tools which have been used to cut raw meat

3.What is the consequence if a woman is infected with the parasite in the passage?

A. Having a high fever.                                                      B. Doing deliberate self-harm.

C. Keeping a depressed mood.                                       D. Becoming bad tempered.

53.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Women have a higher risk to be infected by the parasite than men.

B. The result of the research may help the scientists to find ways to stop suicide in advance.

C. The scientists will continue their research into the possible connection.

D. The risk of being infected seems to rise with the decreasing levels of the antibodies.

5.Which of the following statements would probably be the best title of the passage?

A. Why are women more likely to commit suicide?

B. Women should keep away from cats.

C. Ways found to deal with women’s mental problems.

D. Are women who own cats at a suicide risk?

Everybody hates it, but everybody does it. A recent report said that 40％of Americans hate tipping. In America alone, tipping is a $16 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting politely ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The common opinion in the past was that tips both rewarded the efforts of good service and reduced uncomfortable feelings of inequality. And also, tipping makes for closer relations. It went without saying that the better the service, the bigger the tip.

But according to a new research from Cornell University, tips no longer serve any useful function. The paper analyzes numbers they got from 2,547 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The connection between larger tips and better service was very weak. Only a tiny part of the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service.

Tipping is better explained, by culture than by the money people spend. In America, the custom came into being a long time ago. It is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service. In New York restaurants, failing to tip at least l5% could well mean dissatisfaction from the customers. Hairdressers can expect to get l5%-20%, and the man who delivers your fast food $2. In Europe, tipping is less common. In many restaurants the amount of tip is decided by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on at all. Only a few have really taken to tipping.

According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell papers’ author, countries in which people are more social or outgoing tend to tip more. Tipping may reduce anxiety about being served by strangers. And Mr. Lynn says, “In America, where people are expressive and eager to mix up with others, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off.”

1. This passage is mainly about ________.

2.Which of the following best explains the underlined phrase “caught on” ?

3. Among the following situations, in your opinion, who is likely to tip most?

4. We can infer from this passage that ________.

阅读下列材料，从所给的A、B、C、D、E中选出符合各小题要求的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余选项。

The following people are trying to choose which TV programme to watch. Read the descriptions and decide which programme would be the most suitable.

58. _______

 Although Rob leads a quiet life in a small village, that doesn’t stop him from wanting to find out about the latest scientific development.

59. _______

 Bella enjoys eating out but can’t afford to spend very much at the moment as she is saving for holiday. She has never learnt how to cook, so now it might be quite a good time to find out!

60. _______

 Dan is interested in taking wildlife photographs and enjoys the kind of programme which gives him a chance to see a professional photographer at work.

61. _______

 Gina is a music teacher. Although she prefers classical music, she likes to follow the kind of music that interests the teenagers she teaches.

A. TV1 7:20 p.m. Find out more about Australia’s animal life. This film was made last year by one of Australia’s best-known cameramen, Dougie Bond. He spent over 200 hours filming the birds, animals and fish that inhabit this beautiful continent and for the first time brings some of these unusual animals to our TV screens.

B. TV3 9:00 p.m. The popular science programme is back with the latest in technology and medicine. This week, cars that run on sunlight and the story of one baby’s fight live.

C. TV2 8:10 p.m. Do you think what goes into the food most of us eat every day of the week? Tonight’s programme takes a serious scientific look at the bread industry. Whether you bake your own bread or just enjoy buying it, this programme will give you an interesting insight into something most of us eat every day of the week.

D. TV3 8:45 p.m. If you’ve always wanted to cook, now it’s your chance to learn. In the studio are two chefs who will take you through some simple recipes (菜谱) step by step. This is a repeat of the popular series shown last year, and available from most good bookshops.

E. TV3 7:40 p. m. The latest new music. Pete Hogg looks at the best of the current rap, rage and new jack swing plus new video releases. This is programme that tells you all about what’s happening on the music scene and brings you interviews with tomorrow’s young artists.

阅读表达（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

阅读下面短文，并根据短文后的要求回答问题。（注意字数要求）。（答案写在答题卷的横线上）

Being healthy means taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Here are some of my best tips on how to do both:

Break a bad habit. You don’t really “break” habits. You replace the unwanted behavior with something that prevents you from doing it and that doesn’t have unhealthy side effects. So if your problem is that you eat too much when you get home from work, find something new to do that is incompatible（不能共存的）with what you usually do. You can’t walk around the track at the school and pig out in your kitchen at the same time.

Grow your marriage. Relationships are negotiated, and the negotiation never stops. It’s always a give-and-take, always requires work. It’s like if you planted a garden and came back six months later----you wouldn’t even be able to find it. You have to tend it, feed it, weed it, deal with the problems.

Beat stress.  My dog, Maggie, is the best anti – stress tool I have. A few minutes petting, scratching or playing with her, and                            . Exercise also helps. Just about every day, I’m on the tennis court. It’s a great workout, and if I don’t have that, I don’t cope as well, sleep as well or think as well.

Refocus your anger. Expressing your anger is just not that good an idea. You say things you don’t mean. Instead, recognize that anger is usually a symptom of hurt, fear or frustration（挫折）, and deal with the causes rather than blow up. When you do that, you’re a problem solver.

Don’t medicate with food.

It never, ever works. You’re denying your issue by eating your way through it, instead of saying, Hey, I’ve got a problem.

1．What’s the best title? （Answer within 10 words.）

_____________________________________________________________

2．Fill in the blank in the passage in your own words.（Answer within 10 words.）

_____________________________________________________________

3．Complete the following statement with proper words.(no more than 4words).

Marriages are much like gardens. You need to _______________ your marriage as you do to your garden. It takes much effort to maintain your marriage. If there is a problem, you should deal with it immediately

4.What does the word “it” (paragraph 2) probably refer to? (no more than 3 words)

_____________________________________________________________

5．How to refocus your anger according to the whriter? （ Answer within 30 words.）

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________