One important variable affecting communication across cultures is destiny (命運(yùn)) and personal responsibility. This refers to the degree to which we feel ourselves the masters of our lives, contrary to the degree to which we see ourselves as subject to things outside our control. Another way to look at this is to ask how much we see ourselves able to change and act, to choose the course of our lives and relationships. Some have drawn a parallel between the personal responsibility in North American settings and the view itself. The North American view is vast, with large spaces of unpopulated land. The frontier attitude of “King” of the wilderness, and the expansiveness(廣闊) of the land reaching huge distances, may relate to generally high levels of confidence in the ability to shape and choose our destinies.

In this expansive land, many children grow up with a heroic sense of life, where ideas are big, and hope springs forever. When they experience temporary failures, they encouraged to redouble their efforts, to “try, try again.” Action, efficiency , and achievement are valued and expected. Free will is respected in laws and enforced by courts.

Now consider places in the world with much smaller land, whose history reflects wars and tough struggles: Northern Ireland, Mexico, Israel, Palestine. In these places, destiny’s role is more important in human life. In Mexico, there is a history of hard life, fighting over land, and loss of homes. Mexicans are more likely to see struggles as part of their life and unavoidable. Their passive attitude is expressed in their way of responding to failure or accident by saying “no mode” (“no way” or “tough lick”), meaning that the failure was destined.

This variable is important to understanding cultural conflict. If someone believing in free will crosses paths with someone more passive, miscommunication is likely. The first person may expect action and responsibility. Failing to see it, he may conclude that the second is lazy, not cooperative, or dishonest. The second person will expect respect for the natural order of things. Failing to see it, he may conclude that the first is forcible, rude, or big headed in his ideas of what can be accomplished or changed.

67. The author thinks that one’s character is partly determined by __________.

   A. physical senses                                     B. general attitude

   C. financial background                                D. geographic characteristics

68. According to the passage, Mexicans would think that Americans are __________.

   A. impractical               B. dishonest               C. ambitious               D. hesitant

69. The underlined word “subject” in Paragraph l probably means __________.

A. a topic of a discussion

B. a branch of knowledge   

C. a person being experimented on

D. a person under the power of others

70. The author would probably agree that __________.

A. vast land may lead to a more controllable desire

B. heroic sense of life roots deeply in a small country

C. living in limited space contributes to an accepting attitude

D. fighting over land may help people gain high levels of confidence

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更換）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."

Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.

At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (處理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (過(guò)濾) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more."

What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?

A. look into   B. take apart   C. get back   D. throw away

What of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A. The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste.

B. Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to make money.

C. The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health.

D. More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of people's bad habits.

What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A. To attract more people's attention to e-waste.

B. To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere.

C. To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well.

D. To warn people to break away from the electronic industry.

The next paragraph probably concerns ___.

A. how to deal with e-waste properly

B. how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste

C. How to slow down the development in the electronic industry

D. how to make full use of e-waste

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：湖南省湘潭外國(guó)語(yǔ)實(shí)驗(yàn)學(xué)校2010屆高三6月份適應(yīng)性模擬考試英語(yǔ)試卷 題型：閱讀理解


SINGAPORE - Singapore on Thursday stuck to its I8-year ban on the import and sale of chewing gum (口香糖), which has become an international symbol of the city-state's image as a strict society.                                     
"The government stands by its decision to ban chewing gum. Chewing gum has not been a significant problem since that ban took effect, there have been concerns that lifting the ban on chewing gum could result in chewing gum litter and weaken ongoing efforts to control littering." Maliki Osman, parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of National Development, told parliament.
Osman said as the reason for the imposition (強(qiáng)迫接受) of the ban is still suitable,  "the government's position is that the ban shall remain." He was responding to a question in parliament from Denise Phua, a fellow member of the ruling People's Action Party who argued that the ban had been used to criticize its tough governance laws.
"I think this ban ... now needs a re-thinking. Surely Singapore will not consider banning sweets because of sweet wrapper litter or ice-cream stick litter," she said.
Singapore, known worldwide for its high-quality clean image, banned the import and sale of chewing gum in 1992 in a bid to cope with the problem of people sticking the gum on chairs, tables, lifts and other public areas.
One of the key reasons for the ban had been the disturbance of services on Singapore's subway train system because of chewing gum being stuck on the doors and causing delays. Singapore partially lifted the ban in 2004 by allowing the sale of chewing gum used for health reasons, such as dental health gum, after the conclusion of a US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
Australian tourist Hazel Lane, 48, said keeping the ban on chewing gum was sure Singaporeans wouldn't want to spoil their "ridiculous" and she told AFP that she's own environment and their own image. Angel Wong, 34, a tourist from Hong Kong, however, welcomed the news. She said,  "I come from a country that doesn't have the ban and there's always chewing gum all over the floor, To me the ban doesn't change my image of Singapore so it’s a good thing because it keeps the environment clean."
1. The ban on the import and sale of chewing gum was started in 1992 ______.
A. when people began to buy the gum everywhere
B. to bid to stop people sticking the gum in the public
C. because the gum delayed the subway
D. when the country was in a bid to show its city-state's clean image
2. What can we learn about the ban according to Maliki Osman?
A. The government will keep it ongoing forever.
B. It will lead to littering the chewing gum everywhere.
C. More and more concerns about the ban will make chewing gum out of control
D. Banning chewing gum is still one of the important jobs of the government now.
3. According to what Denise Phua said in paragraph 4, we can know that she ______.
A. would say yes to the ban
B. would think more about the ban again
C. would like the government to take the ban on second thought
     D. argued that the ban should be cancelled
4. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. whether the ban needs changing or not has become a problem to be discussed
B. Singapore's subway train system was delayed by chewing gum
C. chewing gum will soon be banned in many countries
D. only the ban has led to the friendly environment in Singapore
5. What's the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. There is such a ban in China and Australia.
B. Different people have their own ideas about the ban.
C. The ban is either welcomed by China or by Australia.
D. The ban does good to keep the environment clean.

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2012-2013學(xué)年四川宜賓高三一診考試英語(yǔ)卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Agricultural experts met in Ethiopia last week to discuss ways to help sub-Saharan Africa become a major producer of wheat. The area traditionally produced little wheat, while North Africa was the grain basket.

Wheat production fell sharply in sub-Saharan countries during the 1980s. In the 1960s, attempts were made to grow wheat in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa and Zimbabwe. But those countries found it was less costly to import wheat from Europe and the United States. Another problem is that Africa's wheat farms were often far from population centers. There also were transportation issues. And some lowlands were not a good place to grow wheat.

Hans Joachim Braun ,one of the experts, says now is a good time to increase wheat production. In the last four years we have seen three major price hikes, where the wheat price and other staple process (主食加工）exploded. And that puts a big, big bill on countries which are depending on wheat imports, and Africa is the biggest wheat importer.

He also says demand for wheat in sub-Saharan Africa is growing faster than for any other crop. With higher income people would like to have more diversified(多樣化）food. But that is possible not the most important one. The most important one is that there is a tremendous migration(移民）of in particular male labor to the cities. And wheat products are convenient food because you can easily buy it. It's easy to process and you also can store it for a few days, which is different from some of the maize and rice products.

There are three possible challenges for growing more wheat in Africa： climate change, disease and pests, like insects. Mr. Braun says rising temperatures should not have a major effect on wheat. In fact, he says, it could help wheat grow in areas with high rainfall totals. As for fighting disease and pests, experts suggest growing more resistant crops. In addition, railroads and roads would have to be improved so large amounts of wheat could be moved to large markets.

1.What does the word "hikes" in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?

A. big changes B. large increases C. long trips D. big bills

2.Wheat price exploding indicates_____.

A.sub-Saharan countries need to increase wheat production badly

B.sub-Saharan countries have to issue more money

C.sub-Saharan countries should grow more Corn

D.importing much wheat is urgent

3.Why is there a higher demand for wheat in sub-Saharan Africa？

A.Because the number of hungry people there is increasing.

B.Because higher income people have the diversified need of food.

C.Because male labor are crowding into the cities.

D.Because the wheat price is lower.

4.According to Mr. Braun the main challenges for growing more wheat in Africa are_____.

A.climate change and disease

B.resistant crops and climate change

C.rising temperatures and disease and pests

D.disease and pests and inconvenient transportation

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2012-2013學(xué)年福建省高三下學(xué)期第一次模擬考試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Back those photos up

The images were striking．Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions．

If that doesn't move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos．

Here is a brochure (手冊(cè)) on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad．

Scanning

The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format (格式)．Most，printers come with scanners these days, so that's an easy but extremely time-consuming step．

Storing the photos

With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up．

You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones．Or you could choose external (外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer．

Online backup

If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite．

Caronite backs up 300 million files daily．Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive．But photo collection on your computer's main hard drive charges for $ 59 a year．

Cloud Storage

For folks who don't need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them．All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive．But if you want more, you need to pay．

Bottom Line

The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest．But drives can fail．Online services are more expensive, but more secure．With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are．

1.What can we know from the passage?

A．Scanning photos takes little time but costs a lot．

B．The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and safest．

C．Google Drive offers unlimited free photo storage on line．

D．Caronite charges for backing up photos from hard drive．

2.Which of the following allows storing files automatically?

A．Caronite．        B．Dropbox．        C．SkyDrive．        D．Flash drive.

3.The main purpose of the passage is to ______．

A．tell real stories about storage services

B．introduce some of the storage services

C．describe the functions of storage services

D．a(chǎn)rgue about the advantage of storage services

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：江西省2009-2010學(xué)年度高二下學(xué)期期中考試英語(yǔ)試題 題型：閱讀理解

Electricity shortage leaves Afghanistan in the dark. Electricity is in short supply in the Middle Eastern Nation of Afghanistan. Only 6 percent of the country’s residents have electric power, according to the Asian Development Bank, an organization that works to reduce poverty.

Some residents in Kabul received only 3 hours of electricity a day last fall. Others received none. Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan. “It’s dark everywhere,” says city resident Gul Hussein. “Some of our neighbours are using candles.”

Experts say water shortage is partly to blame. Water is used to make electricity. In Kabul, power becomes scarce in midsummer, when the region’s hydroelectric(水力發(fā)電的) dams dry up. Hydroelectricity is made by the force of falling water.

Kabul’s growing population is also a cause. Since the late 1990s, the city’s population has jumped from less than 1 million to more than 4 million people. Now even more electricity is needed.

Despite receiving millions of dollars in international aid, the country’s electricity shortages continue. Still, Afghans hope for a solution. One plan is to import, or bring in, power from the nearby country Uzbekistan. Afghan officials also spoke with U.S. president about the nation’s need to make its own electricity.

“ Life takes power,” says Jan Agha, a worker from Kabul. “If you have electricity, life is good; but if there’s no electricity, you go around like a blind man.”

1.One reason for electricity shortage is _________

A. the lack of international aid  

B. the shortage of hydroelectric dams

C. the increase of population   

D. the low temperature in midsummer

2. Which of the following will probably a solution for the problem of electricity shortage?

A. To build more hydroelectric dams.

B. To advise people to use less electricity.

C. To buy electricity from America.

D. To produce electricity on its own.

3. What does the underlined word “scarce” mean in paragraph 3?

A. not normal    B. not little    C. not effective   D. not enough

4. Which one should be the best title for the passage?

A. Water Shortage in Afghanistan       B. Population Lead to Lack of Electricity

C. Electricity Shortage in Afghanistan   D. Help Needed in Afghanistan

 

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