Specialists say it is not easy to get used to life in a new culture. “Culture shock” is the term these specialists use when talking about the feelings that people have in a new environment. There are three stages of culture shock, say the specialists. In the first stage, the newcomers like their new environment. Then, when the fresh experience dies, they begin to hate the city, the country, the people, and everything else. In the last stage, the newcomers begin to adjust to their surroundings and, as a result, enjoy their life more.

There are some obvious factors in culture shock. The weather may be unpleasant. The customs may be different. The public service systems—the telephones, post office, or transportation—may be difficult to work out. The simplest things seem to be big problems. The language may be difficult.

       Who feels culture shock? Everyone does in this way or that. But culture shock surprises most people. Very often the people having the worst culture shock are those who never had any difficulties in their own community. Coming to a new country, these people find they do not have the same established positions. They find themselves without any identity. They have to build a new self-image.

       Culture shock gives rise to a feeling of disorientation （迷失方向）. This feeling may be homesickness. When homesick, people feel like staying inside all the time. They want to protect themselves from the strange environment, and create an escape inside their room for a sense of security. This escape does solve the problem of culture shock for the short term, but it does nothing to make the person familiar with the culture. Getting to know the new environment and gaining experience — these are the long-term solutions to the problem of culture shock.

41. When people move to a new country, they _______.

       A. will get used to their new surroundings with difficulty

       B. have well prepared for the new surroundings

       C. will get used to the culture of the country quickly

       D. will never be familiar with the culture of the country

42. According to the passage, factors that give rise to culture shock include all of the following except __________.

       A. language communication                           B. weather conditions and customs

       C. public service systems                                   D. homesickness

43. According to the passage, the more successful you are at home, _______.

A. the fewer difficulties you may have abroad      

B. the more difficulties you may have abroad

C. the more money you will earn abroad

D. the less homesick you may feel abroad

44. When people are homesick, they tend to ______.

A. find some people to talk to                                   B. go outside to have a walk

C. visit their friends far away                                   D. stay indoors all the time

45. The writer tells us that the best way to overcome culture shock is to ______.

A. protect ourselves from unfamiliar environment   

B. develop a strange sense of self-protection

C. get familiar with new culture                             

D. return to our own country

A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.

       This attitude toward manual(体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward, furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily assembled from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education. 

1. From paragraph 1, we can know that in America _________.

A. people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man

B. people can always rise to the top through their won efforts

C. college professors win great respect from common workers

C. people feel painful to mention their fathers as labors.

2. According to the passage, the hostess cooks dinner herself mainly because _________.

A. servants in American are hard to get

B. she takes pride in what she can do herself

C. she can hardly afford servants

D. It is easy to prepare a meal with canned food

3. The expression “ wait on table” in the second paragraph means “_________”.

A. work in a furniture shop                 B. keep accounts for a bar

C. wait to lay the table                        D. serve customers in a restaurant

4. Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage?

A. A Respectable Self-made Family             B. American Attitude toward Manual Labor

C. Characteristics of American Culture        D. The Development of Manual Labor

Weather changes when the temperature and the amount of water in the atmosphere change. We can see and feel water coming from the atmosphere when we have rain. But the water must somehow get back to the atmosphere. Meteorologists call this the water cycle.

   There are many stages in the water cycle. Rain falls when water vapor in clouds condenses(凝结). Drops of water form and fall to the ground. The water soaks into the ground and feeds streams and rivers. A lot of rain falls into the sea. The heat of the sun evaporates some of the water in the ground and in the rivers, lakes, and the sea. It changes the liquid water into water vapour. The vapour rises onto the air. Water vapour is normally invisible. On a very damp or humid day, however, you can sometimes see water vapour rising from a puddle(水坑) or pond in a mist(薄雾) above the water. Water vapour also gets into the air from living things. Trees and other plants take in water through their roots and give off water vapour from their leaves. People and land animals drink water and breathe out water vapour. In all these ways the water returns to the air. There it gathers to form clouds and condenses to form rain. The rain falls to earth, and the cycle starts again. It continues even if snow or hail(冰雹) fall instead because both eventually melt to form water. The amount of water vapour in the air depends on the temperature. The air is more moist(潮湿) in the tropics(热带) than in the cold polar regions.

What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Water cycle.                                  

B. Water vapour.

C. How rain forms.                  

D. Water, vapour, rain.

How many ways of the water returning to the air are discussed in the text?

A. Two.                   B. Three.        C. Four.       D. Five.

Whether water vapour can be seen or not depends on _______.

A. how much water is evaporated          

B. how good your eyes are

C. in which way water is evaporated        

D. climate or weather

From the passage we get to know _______.

A. there is more water vapour in the air in the tropics than in cold polar regions

B. there is more water vapour in the air in cold polar region than in the tropics

C. it gets more rain in the tropics than in cold polar regions because there is less vapour

D. the amount of water vapour in the air depends on how often it rains

Statistically, air travel is by far the safest way to travel, and you can make flying even safer, just by following these simple rules. As your chances of being involved in an air accident are practically nil（零）, many of these tips concern what you should and shouldn't do to make your journey safer when you are airborne（升空的）.

● Fly on non-stop routes

Most accidents occur during the takeoff, climb, descent and landing phases of a flight, so flying non-stop reduces your exposure to these complex procedures.

● Choose larger aircraft.

Although small aircraft have very good safety records, those with more than 30 passenger seats are designed to comply（遵守）with much stricter regulations and are tested more regularly to make sure they still comply. Also, in the unlikely event of a serious accident, larger aircraft provide a better opportunity for passenger survival.

● Pay attention to the pre-flight safety briefing

The information may seem repetitious（重复的）, but it's worth listening to the flight attendants. And even if you’ve flown before, it doesn’t mean you know everything about the aircraft you're on, such as the location of the closest emergency exit.

● Store things safely

Never put very heavy articles in the overhead storage bins. They may fall out when someone opens the bin and cause injury. Also, the bin may not be able to hold heavier objects during turbulence（气流）.

● Keep our seat belt fastened while you are seated

Cabin crew always tell you this, but it’s important. You would be seriously injured if the plane hits unexpected turbulence. Always fasten your seat belt if you are told to. The general rule of flying is this: If you are told to do something, do it first and ask questions later.

● Let the flight attendant pour your hot drinks

Flight attendants are trained to handle hot drinks like coffee or tea in a crowded aisle on a moving aircraft, so allow them to pour the drink and hand it to you. Never ask to take a coffee pot from one of them.

What is the overall reason for these air safety tips?

A. What to do in the event of a crash.

B. How to avoid turbulence.

C. How to improve safety while you are flying.

D. How to avoid injury.

The underlined word “those” in the second tip refers to ____

A. smaller planes         B. passengers

C. larger aircraft  D. safety records

The underlined phrase “The general rule” in the fifth tip refers to ____.

A. anything the flight staff tell you to do  B. general safety advice

C. walking around the plane              D. pouring hot drinks

Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Larger planes have more safety checks and are safer in an accident.

B. Take-offs are safer on non-stop flights than landings.

C. Every aircraft is different, so the safety procedures may be different.

D. Seat belts should be worn to protect against turbulence.

The best title of the passage should be____.

A. The Safest Way to Travel       B. Air Safety Tips

C. Non-stop Routes              D. How to Fly a Plane

Soaring divorce rates around the globe are taking a toll on the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released on a Monday.

Michigan State University researcher Jianguo “Jack” Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy. They said housing units require space, construction materials and fuel to heat and cool, regardless of the number of inhabitants.

For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households.

That costs $6.9 billion in extra utility costs per year, Liu said, plus an added $ 3.6 billion for water, in addition to other costs such as land use.

“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household,” Liu said. He said that in cohabitating(同居) household, people will watch the same television, share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator. All things use energy at a regularly stable rate, regardless of the number of users.

 Liu said he was not condemning divorce, “Some people really need to get divorced.” He said cohabitation—whether by a family or friends—was simply a more environmentally friendly option. Additonally, the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures, such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer.

“People’s first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple.” Liu said in a press release. “But a lot of things become simple after research is done. Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify(量化) their relationships. People have been talking about how to protect the environment and fight against climate change, but divorce is a factor that people don’t notice and it needs to be considered”.

He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.

The research was published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This passage is mainly meant to _______ .

  A. inform the readers of the increasing rates of divorce in America

  B. emphasize the importance of protecting the environment

  C. appeal to married people to maintain their marriage longer

  D. tell people the impact divorce has on the environment

According to the passage, what’s the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?

  A. Critical   .             B. Indifferent.               C. Objective.                D. Negative.

We are told that ______ .

  A. divorced households will use fewer resources than married households

  B. married households are more willing to protect the environment

  C. divorced households contribute more to rapid economic development

  D. divorce is rarely considered when people think about protecting the environment.

The underlined phrase “taking a toll on” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____ .

  A. taking efforts to improve                         B. having a bad effect on 

  C. preventing the pollution of                        D. benefiting from

How is the passage organized?

  A. Main idea →Comparison → Supporting details

  B. Comparison→Argument→Explanation

  C. Main idea→Supporting details→Conclusion

  D. Example → Explanation → Conclusion