Many Americans look at the eyes of the people they are talking with,______ (认为这是表示尊
Many Americans look at the eyes of the people they are talking with,______ (认为这是表示尊重).
Many Americans look at the eyes of the people they are talking with,______ (认为这是表示尊重).
听力原文: For a long time Americans preferred things which were mass produced in factories.But recently many Americans have taken up crafts of various kinds.They make things out of wood,metal,glass,wax,leather and cloth.They usually design the things they make themselves and often they sell what they make too. The work of these crafts people has become very good and very popular.These people's crafts are sold at craft fairs. These are usually community sponsored events.Some fairs are small,bringing together a dozen or so people. Such fairs are held in shopping centers or churches.At large fairs,several hundred crafts people assemble their works for people to admire and buy.These fairs are held in public parks or on country grounds.Crafts fairs are usually held on weekends when people are free from work and looking for things to do.The fairs are directed toward families.They offer rides and shows for the children to keep them busy while the parents look at the crafts.The crafts people buy include things to decorate their homes,clothes for their children,and gifts for their friends for holidays,weddings or special occasions.People go to craft fairs rather than shopping at stores because they look for things that are different and original.They also look out for bargains.The prices for works of art at craft fairs are usually very reasonable.
What does the speaker tell us about today's Americans?
A.They like mass produced things.
B.They design things themselves and sell them.
C.They make clothes and tools for themselves.
D.They use crafts to decorate their homes.
听力原文: One important thing about art movements is that their popularity can be affected by social conditions, which are themselves often affected by historical events. As an example, look at what happened in the United States early in the 20th century, around the time of the Great Depression, the art movement known as the Regionalism had begun in the United States even before the Depression occurred. But it really flourished in the 1930s, during the depression years. Why? Well, many artists who had been living in big cities were forced by the economic crisis to leave those big cities and move back to their small towns in rural America. Some of these artists came to truly embrace the life in small towns and to reject city life in so-called "sophisticated society". These artists or specifically certain painters really built the regionalist movement. They created things in everyday life in small towns or farming areas. And their style. was not all neutral, really big glorified or romanticized country life, showing it stable, wholesome, and embodying important American traditions. And this style. became very popular, in part because of the economic conditions of the time. You see, the Depression had caused many Americans to begin to doubt their society. But regionalism artists painted scenes that glorified American values, scenes that many Americans could easily identify with. So the movement helped strengthen people's faith in their country, faith that had weakened as the result of the depression. But in the 1940s, before and after the Second World War, American culture began to take on a much more international spirit, and Regionalism, with its focus on small town life, well, it lost a lot of popularity, as American society changed once again.
(33)
A.How historical events affected an art movement.
B.How artists can influence economic conditions.
C.Why a certain art movement failed to become popular.
D.How valuable paintings were lost during wartime.
Among the arguments for uniforms, one of the first is that in the eyes of most people they look more professional than civilian (百姓的) clothes. People have become conditioned to expect superior quality from a man who wears a uniform. The television repairman who wears uniform. tends to inspire more trust than one who appears in civilian clothes. Faith in the skill of a garage mechanic is increased by a uniform. What easier way is there for a nurse, a policeman, a barber, or a waiter to lose professional identity (身份) than to step out of uniform?
Uniforms also have many practical benefits. They save on other clothes. They save on laundry bills. They are tax-deductible (可减税的). They are often more comfortable and more durable than civilian clothes.
Primary among the arguments against uniforms is their lack of variety and the consequent loss of individuality experienced by people who must wear them. Though there are many types of uniforms, the wearer of any particular type is generally stuck with it, without change, until retirement. When people look alike, they tend to think, speak, and act similarly, on the job at least.
Uniforms also give rise to some practical problems. Though they are long-lasting, often their initial expense is greater than the cost of civilian clothes. Some uniforms are also expensive to maintain, requiring professional dry cleaning rather than the home laundering possible with many types of civilian clothes.
第61题:It is surprising that Americans who worship variety and individuality ________.
A) still judge a man by his clothes
B) hold the uniform. in such high regard
C) enjoy having a professional identity
D) will respect an elevator operator as much as a general in uniform
A.People working in a large factory.
B.People walking on crowded city streets.
C.An everyday activity in a small town.
D.A well-known historical event.
The Cultural Patterning of Space
Like time, space is perceived differently in different cultures. Spatial consciousness in many Western cultures is based on a perception of objects in space, rather than of space itself. Westerners perceive shapes and dimensions, in which space is a realm of light, color, sight, and touch. Benjamin L. Whorf, and his classic work Language, Thought and Reality, offers the following explanation as one reason why Westerners perceive space in this manner. Western thought and language mainly developed from the Roman, Latin-speaking culture, which was a practical, experience-based system. Western culture has generally followed Roman thought patterns in viewing objective "reality" as the foundation for subjective or "inner" experience. It was only when the intellectually crude Roman culture became influenced by the abstract thinking of Greek culture that the Latin language developed a significant vocabulary of abstract, nonspatial terms. But the early Roman-Latin element of spatial consciousness, of concreteness, has been maintained in Western thought and language patterns, even though the Greek capacity for abstract thinking and expression was also inherited.
However, some cultural-linguistic systems developed in the opposite direction, that is, from an abstract and subjective vocabulary to a more concrete one. For example, Whorl tells us that in the Hopi language the word heart, a concrete term, can be shown to be a late formation from the abstract terms think or remember. Similarly, although it seems to Westerners, and especially to Americans, that objective, tangible "reality" must precede any subjective or inner experience, in fact many Asian and other non-European cultures view inner experience as the basis for one's perceptions of physical reality. Thus although Americans are taught to perceive and react to the arrangement of objects in space and to think of space as being "wasted" unless it is filled with objects, the Japanese are trained to give meaning to space itself and to value "empty" space. For example, in many of their arts such as painting, garden design, and floral arrangements, the chief quality of composition is that essence of beauty the Japanese call shibumi. A painting that shows everything instead of leaving something unsaid is without shibumi. The Japanese artist will often represent the entire sky with one brush stroke or a distant mountain with one simple contour line—this is shibumi. To the Western eye, however, the large areas of "empty" space in such paintings make them look incomplete.
It is not only the East and the West that are different in their patterning of space. We can also see cross-cultural varieties of spatial perception when we look at arrangements of urban space in different Western cultures. For instance, in the United States, cities are usually laid out along a grid, with the axes generally north/south and east/west. Streets and buildings are numbered sequentially. This arrangement, of course, makes perfect sense to Americans. When Americans walk in a city like Paris, which is laid out with the main streets radiating from centers, they often get lost. Furthermore, streets in Paris are named, not numbered, and the names often change after a few blocks. It is amazing to Americans how anyone gets around, yet Parisians seem to do well. Edward Hall, in The Silent Language, suggests that the layout of space characteristic of French cities is only one aspect of the theme of centralization that characterizes French culture. Thus Paris is the center of France, French government and educational systems are highly centralized, and in French offices the most important person has his or her desk in the middle of the office.
Another aspect of the cultural patterning of space concerns the functions of spaces. In middle-class America, specific spaces are designated for specific activities. Any intrusion of one act
A.Y
B.N
C.NG
We're a nation of laws. Our courts are honest and they are independent. The President -- me -- I can't tell the courts how to rule, and neither can any other member of the government. Under our law, everyone stands equal. No one is above the law, and no one is beneath it.
All political power in America is limited and only given by the free vote of the people. We have a Constitution, now two centuries old, which limits and balances the power of the three branches of our government, the judicial(法庭的)branch, the legislative(立法的)branch, and the executive branch, of which I'm a part.
Many of the values that guide our life in America are first shaped in our families, just as they are in your country.American moms and dads love their children and work hard and sacrifice for them, because we believe life can always be better for the next generation. In our families, we find love and learn responsibility and character.
America is a nation guided by faith. Someone once called us "a nation with the soul of a church." This may interest you -- 95 percent of Americans say they believe in God, and I'm one of them.
1、How many objects are held in the hands of the Statue of Liberty?()
A、One
B、Two
C、Three
D、Four
2、According the passage, all people are _____ under the law of the United States.
A、the same
B、different
C、sometimes different
D、sometimes equal
3、The Constitution mentioned in this passage is round _____ years old.
A、100
B、200
C、300
D、400
4、According to the author many of the values of life are first developed _____.
A、in school
B、in the family
C、in work
D、in college
5、From the passage we can easily see that _____.
A、the majority of Americans often go to church
B、the government plays a very important role in a law court
C、light music is popular with old people
D、parents have little influence over their children
But on average, Americans sleep only about seven and a half hours per night, a marked drop from the nine hours day averaged in 1910. What's worse, nearly one third of all Americans get less than six hours of sleep on a typical work night. For most people, that's not nearly enough.
Finding ways to get more and better sleep can be a challenge. Scientists have identified more than 80 different sleep disorders. Some sleeping disorders are generic. But many problems are caused by staying up late and sleeping in, by traveling frequently between time zones or by working nights. Dr. James. F. Jones at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver says that sleep disorders are often diagnosed as other discomforts. About one third of the patients who referred to him with possible chronic fatigue syndrome actually have treatable sleep disorders. "Before we do anything else, we look at their sleep," Jones says.
Sleep experts say that most people would benefit from a good look at their sleep patterns, "My motto (座右铭) is 'sleep defensively'," says Mary Carskadon of Brown University. She says people need to carve out sufficient time to sleep, even if it means giving up other things. Sleep routines—like going to bed and getting up at the same time every day—are important. Pre-bedtime activities also make a difference. As with Elsneer, who used to suffer from sleeplessness, a few lifestyle. changes—avoiding stimulants and late meals, no exercising before bedtime, but relaxing with a hot bath—yield better sleep.
What is TRUE of human sleep?
A.Most people need less sleep when grown older.
B.Most people need seven and a half hours of sleep every night.
C.On average, people in the US today sleep less per night than they used to.
D.Most people need more sleep when they are under pressure.
A.Y
B.N
C.NG
A.Their economy is plunging.
B.Their currency has slumped.
C.They cant afford trips to Europe.
D.They have lost half of their assets.