Question

At a psychology conference in England years ago, a woman said to me: “I’ll knock you up in the morning.” I was taken aback by her strange suggestion, but it occurred to me that I might not have understood what she really meant. As it turned out, what she had meant was, “I’ll knock on your door in the morning so that we can meet for breakfast to discuss the panel we’re on.”

This example of the difference in the meaning of “knock you up” in British and American English shows the complicated situations that can result from cultural misunderstandings. A cultural misunderstanding occurs when something — a word, gesture, object, social context, or almost anything you can think of — has a different meaning in two cultures. Sometimes the misunderstandings get resolved, sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can become the starting point of something much more extreme, from love to war.

Race is one area where cultural misunderstandings are common. We Americans tend to assume that racial categories are biological rather than social, so it may not occur to us that people from other cultures have a different set of racial concepts and classify themselves and us differently. Some African Americans complain that certain immigrants from other countries, such as Haiti or Jamaica, “act as if they aren’t black.” The cultural misunderstanding is that, in the immigrants’ countries of origin, they would never describe themselves as “black”. This doesn’t mean that they think they are white. It just means that their cultures have more categories, like marabou or grimaud in Haiti, or fair or brown in Jamaica, than are used in the United States. Meanwhile, white people in America, unaware of this cultural diversity, sometimes refer to all darker-skinned people as “black” without realizing that an issue exists.

Resolving cultural misunderstandings can clear the air or even lead to laughter. Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust.

1.The main purpose of the first paragraph is to       .

A．show that language misunderstandings would cause big problems

B．show the differences between British and American English

C．explain in general what cultural misunderstandings are

D．introduce the idea of cultural misunderstandings with a story

2.The underlined word “resolved” probably means       .

A．complicated       B．settled            C．accepted          D．noticed

3.We can learn from the passage that cultural misunderstandings      .

A．mostly come from body language

B．are the most serious social problem in the US

C．can cause negative feelings among people

D．can be cleared up with laughter

4.What is the author’s opinion about cultural misunderstandings?

A．There’s no need to notice racial differences.

B．Haitians prefer to be described as fair or brown.

C．Cultural misunderstandings based on racial categories may be difficult to spot.

D．Americans are especially likely to misunderstand people from other cultures.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.D

2.B

3.C

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：這篇文章介紹了文化的誤解有時候會鬧笑話，有時候在種族間會造成不開心和緊張的氣氛。

1.根據As it turned out, what she had meant was, “I’ll knock on your door in the morning so that we can meet for breakfast to discuss the panel we’re on.”故選D。

2.根據sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can become the starting point of something much more extreme, from love to war.可猜出“resolved”意思是堅決的，故選B。

3.根據Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust.所以答案為C。

4.根據Resolving cultural misunderstandings can clear the air or even lead to laughter. Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust.因此選C。

考點：政治經濟文化類短文閱讀理解

點評：要想答好題目，重在理解全文意思。這篇文章比較難，先看問題，再帶著問題讀短文，找出各段落的主旨句，理解全文內容，總結全文中心，然后再回到問題上來，很容易選出正確答案。多了解一些常識性知識有利于閱讀理解。如果對文章的相關背景有所了解，讀起文章一定既省時又省力。因此，在學習過程中，了解各方面的背景知識是十分重要的。