TEXT B

Your first culture shock came after you left your home country and you needed to adjust to the United States, It is now important to learn cultural information about your company, so that you will fit in and perform successfully. The people who make up this environment have their own customs, habits and expectations of each new employee. Gathering information that is formal (policy) and informal (traditions) will help you learn the professional norms and become fully accepted.

Policies are corporate documents describing procedures, rules, and standards that guide decision making and conduct. They are similar to official laws that govern a country. Some sources of such written company information include the annual report, product or service brochures, technical and procedural manual, employee directory and the company newsletter. Organizational traditions are usually unwritten hut common practices that have evolved over time. They set the tone and philosophy of the particular corporation, just as the customs of a country do. The best way to learn such information is to observe and talk with others such as your supervisor and co-workers.

You can supplement ideas from formal introductory materials given you earlier. Explore with fellow employees those behaviors that may be tolerated but frowned upon. Ask your supervisor for feedback to avoid typical traps that could cause your co-workers to reject you as a professional. Keep this guide nearby, and refer to it often in private. Reviewing formal company procedures, handouts, written notes, ideas, comments from bosses and colleagues, together with materials in this handbook, will help you make a more healthy cultural adjustment.

85. What is the purpose to learn cultural information?

A. To know the U. S. A. better.

B. To work better in the new environment.

C. To make more money.

D. To improve one's English.

86. According to the passage, ___________ is not the policy's function.

A. describing procedures, rules and standards

B. governing a country

C. helping to guide decision making and conduct

D. writing down the company's information

87. ____________ is the best way to learn the organizational traditions.

A. To read the policies

B. To study the philosophy

C. To study a country's customs

D. To observe and communicate with the colleagues and boss.

88. How to make a more healthy cultural adjustment?

A. Read this passage often.

B. Discuss the organizational culture with your colleagues.

C. Gather and review the formal and informal information in the corporation.

D. Ask your boss for help.

89. The passage is written to ___________.

A. help readers to understand the organization's culture

B. explain the culture shock

C. analyze the policies and traditions

D. help readers to work better with their supervisor and co-workers

TEXT C

       “White hostility toward African Americans, and the resulting discrimination, have been fueled by a sense of threat. During slavery, many working-class whites, encouraged by slaveholders, feared the release of large numbers of blacks into the labor market and society in general. When northern industries used African Americans as strikebreakers in the first decades of this century, white workers feared the loss of their jobs. Today, many white Americans fear “black violence”. Moreover, specific fears about the “costs” of welfare as well as the "taking" of jobs through affirmative action have added to the fear of black violence.

These fears have translated into negative stereotypes of African Americans as a people who are prone to crime and violence, unwilling to work, and a drain on the white taxpayer through their welfare dependency. In turn, these stereotypes have been used to justify informal discrimination, to prevent the help to the urban poor, to be negligent in enforcing laws or policies prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers, and most important, to hesitate in making a serious effort at job creation for African Americans. The result is that African Americans’ share of valued resources has not increased much over the last two decades, even as formal discrimination has been greatly lessened. This fact is used to further the negative belief that African Americans have "not taken advantage of their equal opportunities."

90. According to the passage, how did the northern industries make use of African Americans in 1900s?

A. Sent them to ask the strikers to go back to work.

B. Made them work very hard.

C. Employed them to threaten the white strikers.

D. Released them into the labor market.

91. What is the ill influence of these negative stereotypes?

A. Giving help to the poor black.

B. Justifying informal discrimination.

C. Enforcing laws prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers.

D. Creating opportunities of employment for the black.

92.   What can be inferred from "a drain on the white taxpayer" about the African Americans?

A. They are unwilling to work.

B. They never pay tax.

C. They lack security.

D. Their welfare depends on the white's tax.

93. The author wrote the passage to tell us__________.

A. African Americans pose a threat to the whites in employment

B. African Americans are dependent on the tax paid by the whites

C. African Americans are discriminated against because they are often on strike

D. the sense of threat intensifies the white's hospitality and discrimination against the African Americans

TEXT D

“People thought of themselves as having rights from companies,” said Hoshua Freeman, a labor historian at Columbia University. That sense of entitlement grew even stronger in the early decades after World War II and collective bargaining became the arena for arguing out wages, pensions, health insurance, vacations, hours and job security.

That system is disappearing today. Career-long attachments to one employer, a notion born in the 1920's, are no longer the .norm. The new class-consciousness makes less distinction between workers and managers. Rights are relative, at best. An increasingly conservative electorate has reduced government's role in regulating the economy. Unions have lost influence and membership.

What people do is try to cope, by themselves, said Ms. Skelly, of DYG. Self-employment is one solution, DYG's polls show, and that is a rising trend. "They try, on the job, to hide any weakness in their performance," she said. “They work longer hours and take work home, without letting the boss know, to give the impression that they can do difficult tasks quickly. There is nothing like, ‘we are all in this together.’ There is too much competition. People talk of their weakness to friends and spouses, but not to coworkers.”

And many Americans feel in their hearts that the unemployment might be justified. “There is a sense among people that we are inefficient and bloated,” Ms. Skelly said. “And until they feel that is no longer true, they are reluctant to criticize the forces that are cutting out the fat and the inefficiencies.”

94. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that ___________.

A. people do not enjoy their rights nowadays

B. people are more likely to change their jobs than they were in the 1920's

C. workers and managers share the same rights today

D. nowadays, people refuse to take part in the Union

95.   According to Ms Skelly, which of the following is true?

A. People like to work overtime.

B. People want to work at home.

C. People want to impress the boss with their capability and efficiency.

D. People need help from their families, for they cannot cope with difficult problems themselves.

96. People hide their weakness from___________.

A. their parents    B. their wives or husbands

C. their friends    D. their colleagues

97. The main idea of the passage is___________.

A. people thought of themselves as having rights from companies

B. people's sense of entitlement is not as strong as it used to be

C. people work at home

D. people regard unemployment as usual

 

TEXT E

You may not have thought of it just this way, but the letter you write is part of you, and expression of your personality. Therefore to write letters that are mere patterns of form is to present a colorless personality.

Letters, by their very nature, are too individual to be standardized. A letter may be absolutely perfect according to the standards of good taste and good form; but unless it also expresses something of the writer's personality, it is not a good letter.

In other words, don't be satisfied to write letters that are just correct and nothing more. Try to write letters that are correct for you... letters that are warm and alive with reflections of your own personality.

And if this sounds like a platitude (陈词滥调), stop for a moment and think back over your recent correspondence. What was the most interesting letter you received? Was it a letter anyone could have written? Or was it a letter that instantly “came alive” as you read it—that brought the personality of the sender right into the room with you. as though you were face to face, listening instead of reading?

The fault with too many letters, today as in the past—the reason so many letters are dull and lifeless, and often fail to accomplish the purpose for which they are written is simply this: They sound exactly like the letters everyone else writes. They are neither exciting to receive nor stimulating to read.

98. What does the author mean by saying “the letter you write is part of you”?

A. Writing letters plays an important part in your life.

B. When you write letters, you should be careful about what to write.

C. People can see your personality from the letters you write.

D. You should write good letters.

99. What does the author want to explain in the fourth paragraph?

A. A good letter presents one's personality.

B. His opinion is a platitude.

C. Letter-writing is interesting.

D. Talking face to face is a better way to communicate than writing letters.

100. The best title for the passage is___________.

A. Letter Writing                                       B. Personality in Letter Writing

C. To Write Interesting Letters                         D. To Write Correct Letters