单选题
Every culture attempts to create a "universe of discourse" for its members, a way in which people can interpret their experience and convey it to one another. Without a common system of codifying sensations, life would be absurd and all efforts to share meanings doomed to failure. This universe of discourse—one of the most precious of all cultural legacies—is transmitted to each generation in part consciously and in part unconsciously. Parents and teachers give explicit instruction in it by praising or criticizing certain ways of dressing, of thinking, of gesturing, of responding to the acts of others. But the most significant aspects of any cultural code may be conveyed implicitly, not by rule or lesson but through modeling behavior. A child is surrounded by others who, through the mere consistency of their actions as males and females, mothers and fathers, salesclerks and policemen, display what is appropriate behavior. Thus the grammar of any culture is sent and received largely unconsciously, making one's own cultural assumptions and biases difficult to recognize. They seem so obviously right that they require no explanation. In The Open and Closed Mind, Milton Rokeach poses the problem of cultural understanding in its simplest form, but one that can readily demonstrate the complication of communication between cultures. It is called the "Denny Doodlebug Problem. "Readers are given all the rules that govern this culture: Denny is an animal that always faces North, and can move only by jumping; he can jump large distances or small distances, but can change direction only after jumping four times in any direction; he can jump North, South, East or West, but not diagonally. Upon concluding a jump his master places some food three feet directly West of him. Surveying the situation, Denny concludes he must jump four times to reach the food. No more or less. And he is right. All the reader has to do is to explain the circumstances that make his conclusion correct. The large majority of people who attempt this problem fail to solve it, despite the fact that they are given all the rules that control behavior in this culture. If there is difficulty in getting inside the simplistic world of Denny Doodlebug—where the cultural code has already been broken and handed to us—imagine the complexity of comprehending behavior in societies whose codes have not yet been deciphered, and where even those who obey these codes are only vaguely aware and can rarely describe the underlying sources of their own actions.
单选题
We acquire the greater part of our cultural codes by ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节题。从第一段得知the universe of discourse(即cultural code)是代代相传,从“But the most significant aspects of any cultural code...”一句可知人们可由modeling behavior获得cultural code,所以选B。
单选题
What does "the grammar of any culture" refer to in the first paragraph?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】句意判断题。从第一段中“thus the grammar of any culture...”得知the grammar of any culture形成了人们的cultural assumptions and biases,而cultural code起到同样的作用。
单选题
By reading The Open and Closed Mind, we may ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节题。在提及The Open and Closed Mind一书时,作者说“... but one can readily demonstrate the complications of communication between cultures”,因此答案是D。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推理判断题。最后一段“... imagine the complexity of comprehending behavior in societies whose codes have not yet been deciphered”即指仍有这种社会的存在。
单选题
Which one of the following statements about cultural code is discussed in The Open and Closed Mind?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】正误判断题。“The Open and Closed Mind...”一句中反映的“the complications of communication between cultures”正说明不同文化中的文化代码不同。