英语考试题目(可能是)

Case 1The Andersons includes the map and hotel information as a convenience for the out-of-towners. They believe that by doing so they are being considerate. But to the Sandoval family, hospitality meant more. From their point of view, the family of the bride should have welcomed the groom’s family into their home, no matter how crowded they might have been. To the Sandovals, sharing worldly possessions would have expressed family closeness; hotel recommendations represented coldness and distance, translating into rejection. After all, the Sandovals believe they have demonstrated their closeness by taking time off from work to drive five hundred miles to the ceremony.Case 2Different cultures have different ways to show their hospitality. In this case, the Azerbaijani woman shows her hospitality towards the Americans by offering her bread. By rejecting the bread, the doctor rejects the woman and her culture. Azerbaijanis believe that if you share food, you expose your heart and soul to the other person and are forever linked in friendship. So by accepting the bread, the doctor’s companion accepts the villager’s hospitality, thus keeping her pride and dignity and building a bridge between the two cultures. As a matter of fact, in many cultures, rejecting another person’s food is frequently interpreted as an insult. To avoid this, people should learn something about the culture of those with whom they are interacting.Case 3The color of flowers has different meanings for different cultures. Yellow in particular had negative connotations for many people, such as Iranians, Peruvians, and Mexicans. It would be safer not be give yellow flowers as a gift. In Iranian culture, yellow flowers represent the enemy, and giving someone yellow flowers means that you hate the person. It can even mean that you wish the person dead. It is just the color of flowers that makes Mrs. Golestani think that Anahid hates them. However, in American culture, the meaning to the gift of yellow flowers is quite different; it means “I miss you”.Peruvians have the same belief about yellow flowers as the Iranians and they too would never give yellow flowers to anyone. Among Mexicans as well, yellow flowers have a negative connotation, related to funerals. They are always used for Day of the Dead celebrations.In such a case, the proper thing for Anahid to do is first to find the reasons for Mrs. Golestani’s crying and then explain the different meanings of yellow flowers to show her sincerity and good intention so that their relations can be restored.Case 4Just as many Americans believe that thirteen is unlucky, the Chinese have strong beliefs about good luck or bad luck associated with particular numbers. Four is the most negative number, since its sound is the same as the word death. Mr. and Mrs. Lin are obviously Chinese who arefully aware of the negative meaning of four. For the Lins to have death in their address would bode poorly for their future in this new house.Numbers have positive and negative values for the Chinese. Sometimes the sound of the number word is the same as that of a negative concept, like death. Sometimes the number has negative connotations; for example, seven is related to the notion that ghosts return seven days after death. Positive meanings are associated with other numbers: one for guaranteed; two for easy; three for life; six for happiness; eight for prosperity; nine for long life. Furthermore, combinations of certain numbers have significance—by placing a five, which by itself is neutral, in front of an eight, the good effect of the eight is cancelled.Similarly, the Japanese have a death association with the number four as well. The number 666 has ominous connotations for some Christians who associate it with the mark of the devil. Among the Navajos, four is not only their sacred number, but when they are in a court of law, they will not answer a question until it has been asked four times.Case 5Evelyn was unaware that her daughter-in-law was observing common Asian postpartum behavior: the new mom goes to bed for a month while everyone pampers her. Family members, and sometimes neighbors, take over cooking and cleaning; when the baby needs to be fed, they bring a freshly change infant to the mother.In China, this practice is called zuo yuezi (sitting through the month). The woman must stay in bed behind closed windows, cover her head, and take many precautions to insure that she not damage her ability to produce breast milk.Once Evelyn discovered that her daughter-in-law was behaving in a customary postpartum manner, she relaxed her attitude.Sometimes what we perceive as negative behavior has roots in another paradigm. In American culture, the new mothers can do all the things Evelyn thinks Zen should do; while in some other cultures it is quite different. They give more physical support to new mothers, where family and friends assume household obligations so that the new mom can rebuild her strength for at least one month after delivery.Case 6The case illustrates a cross-cultural misunderstanding of a very subtle aspect of culture. How close an individual can get to another while talking is, to a large extent, dictated by one’s culture? It is said that most middle-class North Americans choose a normal conversational distance of no closer than twenty-two inches from each other’s mouth. However, for people of certain South American and Caribbean cultures, the distance is approximately fifteen inches, while still other cultures (in the Middle East) maintain a distance of nine to ten inches.The problem that occurred between the Latin American and the New York policeman wasthat their respective cultures had different ideas about spatial distancing. The Latin American was attempting to establish what for him was a comfortable conversational distance. Unfortunately, the policeman felt threatened because his personal space, as defined by his culture, was being violated. Had either of them understood this cultural behavior difference, the breakdown in communication and the arrest could have been avoided.Translation既然有些跨文化交际的技能是所有文化普遍使用的，我们就可以有效地运用客位的(文化通用的)方法。