Ideas about polite behavior are different from one culture to another. Some societies, such as America and Australia, for example, are mobile and very open. People here change jobs and move houses quite often. As a result, they have a lot of relationships that often last only a short time, and they need to get to know people quickly. So it’s normal to have friendly conversations with people that they have just met, and you can talk about things that other cultures would regard as personal.
On the other hand, there are more crowded and less mobile societies where long–term relationships are more important. A Malaysian or Mexican business person, for example, will want to get to know you very well before he or she feels happy to start business. But when you do get to know each other, the relationship becomes much deeper than it would in a mobile society.
To Americans, both Europeans and Asians seem cool and formal at first. On the other hand, as a passenger from a less mobile society puts it, it’s no fun spending several hours next to a stranger who wants to tell you all about his or her life and asks you all sorts of questions that you don’t want to answer.
Cross-cultural differences aren’t just a problem for travelers, but also for the flights that carry them. All flights want to provide the best service, but ideas about good service are different from place to place. This can be seen most clearly in the way that problems are dealt with.
Some societies have “universalist” cultures. These societies strongly respect rules, and they treat every person and situation in basically the same way. “Particularist” societies, on the other hand, also have rules, but they are less important than the society’s unwritten ideas about what is right or wrong for a particular situation or a particular person. So the normal rules are changed to fit the needs of the situation or the importance of the person.
This difference can cause problems. A traveler from a particularist society, India, is checking in for a flight in Germany, a country which has a universalist culture. The Indian traveler has too much luggage, but he explains that he has been away from home for a long time and the suitcases are full of presents for his family. He expects that the check–in official will understand his problem and will change the rules for him. The check–in official explains that if he was allowed to have too much luggage, it wouldn’t be fair to the other passengers. But the traveler thinks this is unfair, because the other passengers don’t have his problem.
1.Often moving from one place to another makes people like Americans and Australians ______.
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A.like traveling better |
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B.easy to communicate with |
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C.difficult to make real friends |
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D.have a long–term relationship with their neighbors |
2. People like Malaysians prefer to associate with those ______.
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A.who will tell them everything of their own |
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B.who want to do business with them |
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C.they know quite well |
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D.who are good at talking |
3.Which of the following is true about “particularist societies”?
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A.There is no rule for people to obey. |
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B.People obey the society’s rules completely. |
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C.No one obeys the society’s rules though they have. |
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D.The society’s rules can be changed with different persons or situations. |
4. The writer of the passage thinks that the Indian and the German have different ideas about rules because of different ______.
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A.interests |
B.habits and customs |
C.cultures |
D.ways of life |
根据对话内容,从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项,选项中有两项多余选项。(共五小题;每小题5分,满分10分)
—How often do you use the Internet?
— 1 But I usually use it o check my email. I don’t often surf the Internet. You use the Internet a lot, don’t you?
— 2
—So, you’re working online eight hours a day. It can be awful when the connection is poor.
— 3 Sometimes I also help others in the office if they’re having trouble online.
—How useful do you think the Internet is as a source of information?
—I think it’s useful. 4 The information online may be false. You don’t see what you buy online until you actually get it.
— 5
—We usually find the website of shops, then visit the shop and buy when we’ve seen the products.
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A.But there are two big problems. |
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B.Yes. I usually surf the Internet to look through the news. |
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C.Why do you want to buy something online? |
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D.Yes. I use it to find products at the lowest price for my company. |
E. Yes. I like the job though.
F. How do you solve the problems when shopping online?
G. I use it almost every day.