阅读理解

　　When I was sixteen years old, I made my first visit to the United States．It wasn't the first time I had been abroad．Like most English children, I learned French at school．And I had often been to France, so I was used to(习惯于)speaking a foreign language to people who didn't understand French．But when I went to America I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problem．

　　How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport．I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a call and tell her that I had arrived．A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked if he could help me．

　　“Yes”, I said,“I want to give my friend a ring．”

　　“Well, that's nice,”he said,“Are you getting married? But aren't you a bit young?”

　　“Who is talking about marriage?”I replied．“I only want to give my friend a ring to tell her I've arrived．Can you tell me where there is a phone box?”“Oh,”he said,“There is a phone downstairs．”When at last we met, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me．“Don't worry,”he said to me．“I had so many difficulties at first．There are lots of words which American use differently in meaning from British．You'll soon get used to all the funny things they say．Most of the time, British and American people understand each other!”

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　　Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways．The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society．There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs．In addition(此外), there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance(容忍)in mixed societies．All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision．In a society where people are quite similar in many ways, there are fewer occasions for people to see the need or the opportunity(机会)for change because everything seems to be the same．And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and undisputed(明白的)．

　　Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects(方面)of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early, in the less basic and less emotional aspects of society rather than in their opposites; in the simple elements rather than in the complex(复杂的) ones; form rather than in substance(物质); and in elements(元素)that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange elements．

　　Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual．For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale(规模)rather than one with sharp dichotomies(一分成)．This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts．

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