1. No understanding: no 2 of the culture 2. 3 understanding: knowing often 4 of the new culture offensive stereotypes—people of the same culture having the same 5 3. Growing understanding and potential 6 : beginning to perceive more subtle traits still ethnocentric, 7 4. Greater intellectual understanding: obvious 8 of people's actions in the culture not 9 the cultural differences 5. True empathy and 10 : the highest level both intellectual and 11 understanding.
问答题
【正确答案】awareness
【答案解析】[听力原文] Cultural Understanding Today I will focus on the issue of cultural understanding. With the increasing globalization, the world becomes really small nowadays. As a member of this globe, we get more chances to contact foreign cultures. Then if we want to understand a foreign culture very well, what should we do? And what kinds of process will we experience before we achieve that goal? The answer is not very difficult to imagine. Just like learning a language, developing cultural understanding occurs step by step over time. Development of cultural consciousness is a process that starts at the stage of no understanding and moves, in best case, to the stage of true empathy and cultural respect. So, in order to make a clearer explanation about the process, the five stages of cultural understanding are presented here. Stage one: No understanding. This level involves no awareness of the new culture. The point is quite easy to see. For a person who has few chances to get contact with other cultures, a new one sometimes might as well be like something from an unknown planet in outer space. Stage two: Superficial understanding. This level involves awareness of very superficial aspects of the foreign culture—frequently negative aspects. At this stage of cultural awareness, the person knows a few basic facts of the new culture. These facts stand out and often serve as the basis of stereotypes. However, stereotypes are offensive because they imply that all people from a certain culture have the same characteristics. Stage three: Growing understanding and possible conflict. In this stage the learner begins to be aware of more subtle, sometimes less visible, traits in the foreign culture. In this stage, the person is still ethnocentric, home culture-oriented, comparing the culture that is 'new' to his or her 'old' home culture—and usually feeling that his or her own culture is much better. Stage four: Greater intellectual understanding. At this stage, the learner begins to comprehend intellectually the people in the foreign culture, yet there is still little emotional empathy; the person cannot 'feel what it is like' to be a member of that culture. So, you can see now the learner obviously comprehends the beliefs and actions of the people in the culture. The comfort level is higher, and the person does not complain extensively about cultural differences. That makes a big sense in the process of cultural understanding. Stage five: True empathy and cultural respect. This level is the highest one of cultural awareness. To attain this level, the learner must actually live in the foreign culture for some time. As for how long the learner must live in such a culture so that they can reach Stage Five, the amount of time is variable, greatly depending on the individual. True empathy and respect—means one understands the culture both intellectually and emotionally; can feel what the people in the culture feel. Hope the lecture will be helpful in your nurturing of cultural awareness. Thanks for your patience. 本文的主题是文化理解，理应也是英语专业学生在学习过程中常有的疑惑所在。讲话人将文化理解分为五个阶段，第一阶段为无法理解(no understanding)，表示这一人群对新的文化完全没有意识，主要是由于极少能够接触到这种文化所致。