Passage 4
A few months before, as I was visiting Texas, I heard the taped voice used to guide passengers to their connections at the Dallas Airport announcing items in both Spanish and English. This trend is likely to continue; after all, for some southwestern states like Texas, where the largest minority is now Mexican-American, Spanish was the first written language and the Spanish style lives on in the western way of life.
Shortly after my Texas trip, I sat in a campus auditorium at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee as a Yale professor―whose original work on the influence of African cultures upon those of the Americas has led to his ostracism from some intellectual circles—walked up and down the aisle like an old-time Southern evangelist,dancing and drumming the top of the lectern, illustrating his points before some Afro-American intellectuals and artists who cheered and applauded his performance. The professor was “white.” After his lecture, he conversed with a group of Milwaukeeans―all of whom spoke Yoruban, though only the professor had ever traveled to Africa.
Such blurring of cultural styles occurs in everyday life in the United States to a greater extent than anyone can imagine. Yet members of the nation’s present educational and cultural elite still cling to the notion that the United States belongs to some vaguely defined entity they refer to as “Western civilization,” by which they mean, presumably, a civilization created by people of Europe, as if Europe can even be viewed as completely uninfluenced by the rest of the world. Is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which includes Turkish marches, a part of Western civilization? Or the late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century French paintings, whose creators were influenced by Japanese art? And what of the cubists, through whom the influence of African art changed modem painting? Or the surrealists, who were so impressed with the art of the Pacific Northwest Indians that, in their map of North America, Alaska dwarfs the lower forty-eight states in size?
Are the Russians, who are often criticized for their adoption of “Western” ways by Tsarist dissidents in exile, members of Western civilization? And what of the millions of Europeans who have black African and Asian ancestry, black Africans having occupied several European countries for hundreds of years? Are these “Europeans” a part of Western civilization? Or the Hungarians, who originated across the Urals in a place called Greater Hungary? Or the Irish, who came from the Iberian Peninsula?
Even the notion that North America is part of Western civilization because our “system of government” is derived from Europe is being challenged by Native American historians who say that the founding fathers Benjamin Franklin especially, were actually influenced by the system of government that had been adopted by Iroquois hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Why did the Dallas airport announcement speak both Spanish and English?
文章第一段最后一句提到“...for some southwestern states like Texas, where the largest minority is now Mexican-American, Spanish was the first written language and the Spanish style lives on in the western way of life.”。由此可知，在美国得克萨斯州英语和西班牙语都是官方语言。故选C。
We can learn from the second paragraph that.
文章第二段第一句提到“...a Yale professor―whose original work on the influence of African cultures upon those of the Americas”，由此可知，那位耶鲁教授讲的是非洲文化对美国文化的影响。故选C。
What does “Western civilization” mean according to some American educational and cultural elite?
文章第三段第二句提到“Yet members of the nation's present educational and cultural elite still…refer to as ‘Western civilization,’ by which they mean, presumably, a civilization created by people of Europe, as if Europe can even be viewed as completely uninfluenced by the rest of the world.”。由此可知，在一些美国教育和 文化精英们看来，西方文明指的就是不受外界影响的欧洲文明。故选A。
According to the passage, which of the following is pure without other cultural influence?
文章第三段最后一句提到“Or the surrealists, who were so impressed with the art of the Pacific Northwest Indians that, in their map of North America, Alaska dwarfs the lower forty-eight states in size?”。由此 可知，太平洋西北部的印第安艺术深深打动了超现实主义艺术家，从而能得出太平洋西北部的印第安艺术 应当是没有受到外界影响的。故选D。
According to the author, which of the following has an Indian contribution?
文章第三段最后一句提到“Or the surrealists, who were so impressed with the art of the Pacific Northwest Indians that, in their map of North America, Alaska dwarfs the lower forty-eight states in size?”。由此 可知，那些超现实主义艺术家为太平洋西北部的印第安艺术所深深打动，于是在他们所绘的北美地图上， 阿拉斯加使得其他48州都显得很小。故选C。