Europe has long prided itself on the notion that, even if its cousin across the At- lantic had surpassed it in matters geopolitical and military, its cultural cachet remained unrivaled. Europe was the capital of great literature, haute couture, the nouvelle vague. American culture may have spread to even the most remote reaches of the globe, but it was lowbrow. Superman and Hollywood blockbusters versus Picasso and Cannes.
But, as it turns out, America is actually winning the culture race for global audiences and leaving Europe in the dust, says French journalist Frtdtric Martel in his book, Mainstream. Martel spent five years traveling to 30 countries to conduct his research, and his conclusions are striking, especially coming from a Frenchman. American businesses are far smarter than their European counterparts at using new digital materials to distribute movies, music, television shows, and books all around the globe. Most of all, they excel in producing a "culture that everyone likes," says Martel. But mainstream doesn’t only mean Americanized. The strength of the U.S. is to be able to create universal content that caters to different interests.
Yet the U.S. is now getting some stiff competition from other countries that thrive in exporting their own cultural content. India, Brazil, China, and South Korea are fast becoming regional cultural powers, symbolized by the rising fame of Bollywood, telenovelas, and K-pop. In Latin America, in particular, Brazil is much more of a threat in the regional marketplace than the U.S. And in the Arab world," big multimedia groups are trying to unify a very diverse population by offering an alternative to the Western model.
This developing-world surge means Europe lags behind even more. In part, it’s because Europe’s default definition of "high culture" finds few fans abroad. European films and literature are increasingly seen as too ob-scure, arrogant, and self-referential to appeal to mass audiences. In part, it’s because each nation has its own cultural industry and little, if any, cohesion across EU borders. And Europe could learn a few things from the U.S. For example, American producers have figured out how to go for the margins as well as the middle-- which is to say, to diversify and market to a whole range of tastes and groups.
The result: even though the U.S. may be losing financial and political clout, it’s gaining soft power through its cultural, media, and technological exports. Europe can regain this soft-power edge only if it embraces some new notions: that mass culture is not necessarily "bad culture," and that diversity, including contributions from immigrants and new arrivals, could make its films, books, and art more accessible to audiences abroad. That is, if Europe really wants to be part of the mainstream.
According to the text, European and American culture are best characterized by being

A:elite culture; mass culture B:arrogant; modest C:high culture; low culture D:self-referential; diversified

It’s never too early or too late for a parent to become a teacher. In this age of teacher accountability, endless school testing, increased pressure and competition, and the proliferation of "educational" toys, too many people forget that success begins at home.
Freeman A. Hrabowski Ⅲ, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and co-author of Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women, says that in the interviews he and his co-authors conducted, the overwhelming factor in their children’s academic achievement was that parents inspired and envisioned their children’s success. They thought and talked about what would be required to have a .successful child.
"It just makes such a difference when there’s someone in that house working to relate to that child and inspire that child," Hrabowski says. "These parents (of the high achievers discussed) are really inspirational in their commitment to their children."
Professor Barbara T. Bowman, one of the faculty founders of Chicago’s Erikson Institute, an independent institution of higher education that prepares child development professionals for leader- ship, says that Black children must learn in two different cultures-the African-American culture in which they live and the mainstream culture on which school and education are based.
Bowman also says the relationship between children and their parents is critical. "It is the early responsive ness of the caregiver to the infant’s behavior that creates a sense of well-being and optimism that affects the child’s interest in learning," says Bowman, who served as president of the institute from 1994 to last year. "Children who like and want to please the adult learn better what the adult wants them to learn."
In this day of highly competitive testing and the stress of getting high SAT or ACT scores, it’s important also to avoid pressuring or overexposing your child. Your son or daughter is probably already facing stress at school and on the playground. Your role is to help him or her relieve and manage that stress. Help them to understand that life does not end or begin with a test. And while academic success is important, it’s also important to keep everything in perspective. Failure is a relative term in the grand scheme of things. If your child did poorly on a test, but answered a particularly tough question correctly, stress the positive. On the other hand, if schoolwork comes too easily to your child, find other ways to challenge him or her so they understand that life won’t always be that way.
It can be inferred from the passage that the African-American culture is ______.

A:an important part of the mainstream culture B:the base of the mainstream culture C:different in many ways from the mainstream culture D:dependant on the mainstream culture

It’s never too early or too late for a parent to become a teacher. In this age of teacher accountability, endless school testing, increased pressure and competition, and the proliferation of "educational" toys, too many people forget that success begins at home.
Freeman A. Hrabowski Ⅲ, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and co-author of Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women, says that in the interviews he and his co-authors conducted, the overwhelming factor in their children’s academic achievement was that parents inspired and envisioned their children’s success. They thought and talked about what would be required to have a .successful child.
"It just makes such a difference when there’s someone in that house working to relate to that child and inspire that child," Hrabowski says. "These parents (of the high achievers discussed) are really inspirational in their commitment to their children."
Professor Barbara T. Bowman, one of the faculty founders of Chicago’s Erikson Institute, an independent institution of higher education that prepares child development professionals for leader- ship, says that Black children must learn in two different cultures-the African-American culture in which they live and the mainstream culture on which school and education are based.
Bowman also says the relationship between children and their parents is critical. "It is the early responsive ness of the caregiver to the infant’s behavior that creates a sense of well-being and optimism that affects the child’s interest in learning," says Bowman, who served as president of the institute from 1994 to last year. "Children who like and want to please the adult learn better what the adult wants them to learn."
In this day of highly competitive testing and the stress of getting high SAT or ACT scores, it’s important also to avoid pressuring or overexposing your child. Your son or daughter is probably already facing stress at school and on the playground. Your role is to help him or her relieve and manage that stress. Help them to understand that life does not end or begin with a test. And while academic success is important, it’s also important to keep everything in perspective. Failure is a relative term in the grand scheme of things. If your child did poorly on a test, but answered a particularly tough question correctly, stress the positive. On the other hand, if schoolwork comes too easily to your child, find other ways to challenge him or her so they understand that life won’t always be that way.

It can be inferred from the passage that the African-American culture is（）

A:an important part of the mainstream culture B:the base of the mainstream culture C:different in many ways from the mainstream culture D:dependant on the mainstream culture

Principally, the objectives for us to teach culture in foreign language classes do NOT include （）.

A:to get the students familiar with cultural differences B:to see how superior one’s own culture is to other cultures C:to help the students transcend their own culture and see things as the members of the target culture will D:to emphasize the inseparability of understanding language and understanding culture through various classroom practices

Passage Three
Cultures tend to favor either a past, or future orientation with regard to time. A future orientation, encompassing a preference for change, is characteristic of American culture. The society encourages people to look to the future rather than to the past. Technological, social, and artistic trends change rapidly and affect people’s life styles and their relationships.
Given the inclination toward change, it is not surprising that tradition plays a limited role in the American culture. Those who try to uphold traditional pattern of living or thought may be seen as rigid or "old-fashioned". In a society where change is so rapid, it is not uncommon for every generation to experience a "generation gap". Sometimes parents struggle to understand the values of their children, even religious institutions have had to adapt to contemporary need of their followers. Folk singers in church services, women religious leaders, slang versions of the Bible, all reflect attempts made by traditional institutions to "keep up with the times".
High rates of change, particularly in urban areas, have contributed to a focus on the future rather than the past or present. Some Americans believe that the benefits of the future orientation are achievement and progress which enable them to have a high standard of living. Others believe that high blood pressure and stomach ulcers are the results of such a life style.
As individuals in a culture, we all have an intuitive understanding about how time is regulated, usually we do not think about the concept of time until we interact with others who have a different time orientation. Although individuals from any now cultures may view time similarly, we often sense that in another culture, life seems to proceed at either a slower or faster pace. Knowing how time is regulated, divided, and perceived can provide valuable insights into individuals and their culture.

Which could be the best title for this passage（）

A:American Culture. B:Benefits of Future Orientation. C:The Regulation of Time. D:Time and Culture.

Directions: There are five reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by four questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose one best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Passage One

A good synonym for "origin" is ______.

A:people B:future C:beginning D:culture

Facial expressions carry meanings that are partly determined by culture. For example, many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do, so teachers in the United States sometimes have trouble knowing whether their Japanese students understand and enjoy their lessons.
Another example is the smile. As a common facial expression, it may show affection, convey politeness, or disguise(掩饰)true feelings. But in different cultures. smiles have different meanings. Many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even a suspicious behavior. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places, for American culture a smile is typically an expression of pleasure. Therefore some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover emotional pain or embarrassment. Vietnamese people may tell the sad story of how they had to leave their country but end the story with a smile.

The best title for this passage is（　）

A:Russian Culture B:American Culture C:Facial Functions D:Facial Expressions and Culture

Ⅳ. Reading Comprehension Directions: There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose one best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on ANSWER SHEET I. Passage One Americans and Arabs are different in their space habits. Arabs prefer close contact. Dr. Hall has explained that the Arabs belong to a touch culture and in conversation, they always envelop the other person. They hold his hand, look into his eyes, and bathe him in their breath. Dr. Hall’s interest in man’s use of space developed in the early nineteen fifties when he was Director of the Point Four training program at the Foreign Service Institute. In talking with Americans who had lived overseas, he found that many of them had been highly uncomfortable because of culture differences. Such discomfort is usually referred to as culture shock. The problem is that, relatively speaking, Americans live in a noncontact culture. Partly, this is a product of our puritan heritage ( 清教徒文化遗产). Dr. Hall points out that we spend years teaching our children not to crowd in and lean on us. And in situations where we ourselves are forced to stand close to another person on crowded subways, for example, we turn our eyes away, and if actual body contact is involved, tense the muscles on the contact side. Most of us feel very strongly that this is the only proper way to behave.

It is true that （）

A:a noncontact culture is usually referred to as culture shock B:there is evidence that Americans belong to a touch culture C:there is evidence that Arabs share a noncontact culture D:our use of space is influenced by our cultures