American is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

   Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

   Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes , we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine (常规). They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

   For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

1.The writer of this passage must be ____.

A. an American   B.  a Chinese  C. a professor  D. a student

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their family.

B. Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C. Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D. Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3. From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friends, we will probably be ___.

A. warmly welcomed at the airport    B. offered a ride to his home

C. treated hospitably at his home      D. treated to dinner in a restaurant

4.From the underlined sentence, we can know the Chinese people  ____.

A. are strict with time           B. don’t take time seriously

C. don’t know how to use time   D. are willing to spend time for friends

5.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “____”

   A. Friendships between Chinese   B. Friendships between Americans

   C. Americans’ hospitality    D. Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendship

The big earthquake is still on ________ clothing is needed ________ in the mountain village

—Why don’t you go to medical college and be a doctor?

— Oh. It calls for a great deal of _____with long training, which I am afraid I don’t have.

A. strength         B. energy           C. wisdom        D. patience

America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

1.The writer of this passage must be ______.

A. an American          B. a Chinese    C. a professor      D. a student

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B. Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C. Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D. Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.

A. warmly welcomed at the airport     

B. offered a ride to his home

C. treated hospitably at his home       

D. treated to dinner in a restaurant

4. The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.

A. strict with time    B. willing to spend time

C. careful with time    D. serious with time

5.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.

A. Friendships between Chinese   

B. Friendships between Americans

C. Americans’ hospitality        

D. Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendship

In the modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad, that it sets one person against another, that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is really forgotten.

However, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often notice that they have a desire to fail. They seem to choose failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” They don’t believe that if they had really tried and lost, such a loss would prove their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison(比较) with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1.What does this passage mainly talk about?

2.Why do some people value competition according to the passage?

3.The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 refers to_______.

4.What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”?

5.Which point of view may the author agree to?