America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close, constant, intense, generous, and real, yet fade away in

admin2011-02-28  29

问题     America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close, constant, intense, generous, and real, yet fade away in a short time if circumstances shift. 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 where it left off and are delighted. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us here in our country flower more slowly but then they may become lifelong attachments, with mutual obligations, extending sometimes deeply into both families.
    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at homes, share their holidays, and their home life. We need not fear that we are taking on a lasting obligation and we should not hesitate to accept their hospitality because we cannot reciprocate (回报). Americans will not expect us to do so for they know we are not from home. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality 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 demonstrate a high degree of courtesy if it requires  a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice here in our country where we may be unstintingly (毫不吝惜) generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, win appear at airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guide to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, extend their welcome usually at homes, but truly cannot manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by public transport. And they assume 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.
Which of the following can summarize the feature of American’s friendship?

选项 A、Close but short.
B、Casual but real.
C、Sincere but stingy.
D、Intense but rare.

答案B

解析 这也可以说是该篇文章的主题:美国人会很热情而真挚,但又不会像我们中国人那样不惜时间和精力。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/LhzsFFFM
0

最新回复(0)