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】

试题分析：这篇文章介绍了文化的误解有时候会闹笑话，有时候在种族间会造成不开心和紧张的气氛。

1.根据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.”故选D。

2.根据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”意思是坚决的，故选B。

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

4.根据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.因此选C。

考点：政治经济文化类短文阅读理解

点评：要想答好题目，重在理解全文意思。这篇文章比较难，先看问题，再带着问题读短文，找出各段落的主旨句，理解全文内容，总结全文中心，然后再回到问题上来，很容易选出正确答案。多了解一些常识性知识有利于阅读理解。如果对文章的相关背景有所了解，读起文章一定既省时又省力。因此，在学习过程中，了解各方面的背景知识是十分重要的。