America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.
Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.
Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness (礼貌) to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite (相反) of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily activities. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!
1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
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A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families. |
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B．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break. |
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C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy. |
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D．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives. |
2.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
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A．treated hospitably at his home |
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B．offered a ride to his home |
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C．warmly welcomed at the airport |
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D．treated to dinner in a restaurant |
3.The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.
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A．strict with time |
B．serious with time |
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C．willing to spend time |
D．careful with time |
4.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
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A．Friendships between Chinese |
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B．Friendships between Americans |
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C．Americans’ hospitality |
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D．Americans’ and Chinese’s opinions of friendships |
A few months ago I was at a bus stop in town in the evening. The bus came on time and I took the window seat. The bus was travelling by the seashore and I was enjoying the soft wind while watching the sea waves (海浪). After a few minutes the bus made its next stop. A young boy and a girl got on. They were standing on my left when the bus pulled off. I looked at them in surprise and realized that all the window seats were taken up. They could sit but not together. Suddenly a different wave passed through my body and my inner mind gave me the advice to get up. I got up and offered them my seat. The young lady smiled kindly and said thanks. I took another seat and we parted our ways. I don’t remember whether I got off the bus before them or not.
Months passed by. Suddenly one day while I was standing at the same bus stop waiting some time for the bus to arrive I heard a voice.
“Excuse me, Uncle.” I looked in the direction of the voice. It was a beautiful young lady.
Puzzled, I said, “I do not recognize you.”
She said, “Do you remember you gave us your window seat?”
Puzzled, I said, “Maybe, but what is so great in that?”
She said, “If you had not given your seat that day, perhaps I would have not sat with my
friend. By sitting together it helped us bridge a misunderstanding that had been between us forever. Do you know we are getting married next month?”
“Good! God bless both of you,” I replied.
The young lady again said thank you and went on her journey. I realized the importance of giving that day.
1.Why were the young boy and the girl standing on the bus?
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A．Because they couldn’t sit together. |
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B．Because they wanted to enjoy the sea weaves. |
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C．Because there were no empty seats. |
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D．Because they preferred to stand. |
2.The underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably means that the author had a feeling that ______.
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A．the sea wave made him upset |
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B．he wanted to do something special |
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C．a wave from the sea passed by him |
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D．he wanted to make a sea wave in his heart |
3.The author’s act of kindness helped the young boy and the girl ______.
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A．begin to talk to each other again after a time of silence |
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B．sit together and become friends very soon |
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C．know each other and get married |
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D．clear up a misunderstanding between them |
4. From the story, we can know that ______.
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A．small things can create great happenings in life |
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B．giving is more important than receiving |
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C．offering one’s seat to others will lead to a marriage |
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D．we sometimes forget what happened in the past |
Recently I was invited to attend a party that helps children seriously injured in the big earthquake that happened this May. I went because I 31 .
At the party, all the children were given paints in bright, beautiful colors. After a short time, as I 32 , I saw blue clouds, orange sunrises and purple flowers. The 33 were all bright.
The boy sitting next to me was painting a heart, but it was 34 and lifeless. It lacked (缺乏) the bright colors that his fellow (同伴) “_35_” had used.
I thought maybe he took the only paint that was 36 and it just happened to be dark. But when I asked him about it, he said his 37 was that color. I asked him why and he told me that he was very 38 . He looked straight into my eyes and said, “There is 39 anyone can do that will help.”
I certainly 40 why he was sad. I said, “It isn’t 41 that there is nothing anyone can do to help. Other people may not be 42 to make you recover better…but we can do things 43 giving bear hugs (拥抱), which will 44 when you are feeling sad.” I also told him that I’d be happy to give him one 45 he could see what I meant. He immediately gave me a huge hug and I thought my own heart would burst with the 46 I felt for this sweet boy.
As the day was coming to an end, I was getting ready to 47 home. I turned around and found that standing there with 48 on his face was the little boy. He said, “My heart is 49 colors. It is getting brighter. Those 50 really do work.” On my way home I felt my own heart had changed to a brighter color, too.
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The 12 million people in Mexico City woke up on September 19th, 1985, to find their city ______ after the terrible quake.
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A．in trouble |
B．in ruins |
C．out of work |
D．at midnight |
I sometimes think that all his supposed mistakes are made ______ just to make me angry.
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A．at dusk |
B．on purpose |
C．right away |
D．as usual |
The train stopped ______ at lonely little stations, which resulted in a sleepless night.
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A．peacefully |
B．sincerely |
C．finally |
D．frequently |
