12．When the driver gets
sleepy while driving, Driver Alert _____.
A．moves more regularly B．stops working properly
C．opens the window for the
driver D．sounds more frequently and
loudly
4
I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” (风格) of directions every time
1 ask “How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often confused (困惑) in Japan because most
streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks (地标) in their directions
instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go
straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit
market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are
not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat;
in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of
landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa,
for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go
another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of
distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is
the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from
here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to
your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might
say, ‘Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t
know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite, They usually
give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in
Yucatan!
