单选题 Europe has long prided itself on the notion that, even if its cousin across the At- lantic had surpassed it in matters geopolitical and military, its cultural cachet remained unrivaled. Europe was the capital of great literature, haute couture, the nouvelle vague. American culture may have spread to even the most remote reaches of the globe, but it was lowbrow. Superman and Hollywood blockbusters versus Picasso and Cannes.
But, as it turns out, America is actually winning the culture race for global audiences and leaving Europe in the dust, says French journalist Frtdtric Martel in his book, Mainstream. Martel spent five years traveling to 30 countries to conduct his research, and his conclusions are striking, especially coming from a Frenchman. American businesses are far smarter than their European counterparts at using new digital materials to distribute movies, music, television shows, and books all around the globe. Most of all, they excel in producing a "culture that everyone likes," says Martel. But mainstream doesn't only mean Americanized. The strength of the U.S. is to be able to create universal content that caters to different interests.
Yet the U.S. is now getting some stiff competition from other countries that thrive in exporting their own cultural content. India, Brazil, China, and South Korea are fast becoming regional cultural powers, symbolized by the rising fame of Bollywood, telenovelas, and K-pop. In Latin America, in particular, Brazil is much more of a threat in the regional marketplace than the U.S. And in the Arab world," big multimedia groups are trying to unify a very diverse population by offering an alternative to the Western model.
This developing-world surge means Europe lags behind even more. In part, it's because Europe's default definition of "high culture" finds few fans abroad. European films and literature are increasingly seen as too ob-scure, arrogant, and self-referential to appeal to mass audiences. In part, it's because each nation has its own cultural industry and little, if any, cohesion across EU borders. And Europe could learn a few things from the U.S. For example, American producers have figured out how to go for the margins as well as the middle-- which is to say, to diversify and market to a whole range of tastes and groups.
The result: even though the U.S. may be losing financial and political clout, it's gaining soft power through its cultural, media, and technological exports. Europe can regain this soft-power edge only if it embraces some new notions: that mass culture is not necessarily "bad culture," and that diversity, including contributions from immigrants and new arrivals, could make its films, books, and art more accessible to audiences abroad. That is, if Europe really wants to be part of the mainstream.

单选题 In Paragraph 1, the value of American culture
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。根据题干定位到第1段。该段说欧洲人对其“无可比拟”文化的骄傲，并称美国文化it was lowbrow(是肤浅的)，故C项“美国文化被低估”为答案。A项overestimate(高估)与lowbrow矛盾；B项文中并不仅对美国文化提出怀疑，还对它做出明确判断，即“是肤浅的”，B项过于片面；D项文中美国文化并未成为偏见的牺牲品，相反，它在全球蔓延。
单选题 According to Martel, American culture wins because
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】事实细节题。根据Martel定位到第2段。该段Martel称美国文化最大的优势在于“每个人都喜欢的文化”、“创造的东西是放之四海皆准的，能够满足不同的爱好需求”，故D项“美国文化迎合各种需求”为答案。A项与文中mainstream doesn’t only mean Americanized(主流并不意味着美国化)矛盾；B项曲解文中说美国文化是“每个人都喜欢的文化”，这里的每个人是泛泛而谈，指大多数人，而不是也不可能是真正意义上的每个人；C项“美国生意人非常聪明”也不是美国文化优势的主要原因。
单选题 In Paragraph 3, Latin America and Arab world are mentioned to show
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。根据Latin America and Arab world定位到第3段。本段段首中心句先说“美国……面临着擅长输出自己文化的另一些国家的严峻挑战”，后具体用拉美、阿拉伯世界的情况证明该论点，故C项“美国文化面临来自其它地区挑战”为答案。A项“发展中国家文化产业的崛起”，B项“他们文化输出很兴盛”，D项“他们成为地区文化强国”，均为总结归纳该现象，并非该段举例的目的。
单选题 European culture lags behind because
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】事实细节题。根据lags behind定位到第4段。该段提出欧洲文化输出落后的原因有两点：一是它曲高和寡；二是它与其他地区文化交集太少。A项“欧洲的高端文化太晦涩难懂”为答案。B项“欧洲国家之间很少互相学习”在文中没有此意；C项does not know说的太绝对，文中只说在文化市场推广方面欧洲值得向美国学习，并非他们不知道如何营销文化；D项与C项同理，文中并未说欧洲生产者不使用数码材料。
单选题 According to the text, European and American culture are best characterized by being
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】归纳总结题。考查全文。第4段提到欧洲文化too obscure(太晦涩)，arrogant(太自大)，and self-referential(太自恋)；第4段末提到美国文化“追求多样化以满足各种品味、各种群体的需要”，故D项“自恋和多元性”为答案。A项中说美国的mass culture(大众文化)与第4段末美国文化“既在中间地带下功夫，又善于挖掘边缘地带的潜力”不符；B项说到美国文化的modest(谦逊的)特征在文中没有出处；C项说美国文化是lowculture，而实际匕这只是欧洲对美国文化的偏见。