单选题
In the United States it is not customary to
telephone someone very early in the morning. If you telephone him early in the
day, while he is shaving or having breakfast, the time of call shows that the
matter is very important and requires immediate attention. The same meaning is
attached to telephone calls made after 11:00 p.m. If someone receives a call
during sleeping hours, he assumes it is a matter of life or death. The time
chosen for the call communicates its importance. In
social life, time plays a very important part. In the United States, guests tend
to feel they are not highly regarded if the invitation to a dinner party is
extended only three or four days before the party date. But this is not true in
all countries. In other areas of the world, it may be considered foolish to make
an appointment too far in advance because plans which are made for a date more
than a week away tend to be forgotten. The meanings of time
differ in different parts of the world. Thus, misunderstandings arise between
people from cultures that treat time differently. Promptness is valued highly in
American life, for example. If people are not prompt, they may be regarded as
impolite or not fully responsible. In the U.S. no one would think of keeping a
business associate waiting for an hour, it would be too impolite. When equals
meet, a person who is five minutes late is expected to make a short apology. If
he is less than five minutes late, he will say a few words of explanation,
though perhaps he will not complete the sentence. To Americans, forty minutes of
waiting is the beginning of the "insult period". No matter what is said in
apology, there is little that can remove the damage done by an hour's wait. Yet
in some other countries, a forty minutes waiting period was not unusual. Instead
of being the very end of the allowable waiting scale, it was just the beginning.
Americans look ahead and are concerned almost entirely
with the future. The American idea of the future is limited, however. It is the
foreseeable future and not the future of the South Asian, which may involve
centuries. Someone has said of the South Asian idea of time: "Time is like a
museum with endless halls and rooms. You, the viewer, are walking through the
museum in the dark, holding a light to each scene as you pass it. God is in
charge of the museum, and only he knows all that is. One lifetime represents one
room. Since time has different meanings in different
cultures, communication is often difficult. We will understand each other a
little better if we can keep this fact in mind.
单选题
In terms of promptness Americans______.
A. wait longer than in other countries
B. apologize for being late for 40 minutes
C. are more polite than people in other countries
D. give an explanation for being a little .bit late
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查细节。A，B两项明显与原意不符，C项过于宽泛，只有D项符合题意。
单选题
For South Asians, time______.
A. is endless
B. is limited
C. is controlled by man
D. is a road
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查细节。从文中第四段关于南亚人对时问的认识可知，A项是正确答案。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that in some countries______.
A. it is common to wait for an hour an appointment
B. explanations for being late are cut short
C. apologies are never made for being late
D. people are irresponsible
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 从文中第三段倒数第一、二句可知，“四十分钟”只是开始，故A项是正确答案。
单选题
When Americans send an invitation they often send it______.
A. 3 or 4 days in advance
B. a week in advance
C. 1 day in advance
D. more than 10 days in advance
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 从文中第二段可知，最佳的时间是一个星期。故选B项。
单选题
The sentence "Time is like a museum with endless halls and rooms"
refers to______.
A. Time contains different kinds of items on display.
B. Time is long.
C. We cannot understand time at all.
D. While going ahead, we are experiencing the different things, feeling the
meaning of our life.