Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one’s side, or that in Italy and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell. Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying Germany after World War II and marked them GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that “Gift“ means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at least 3 feet or an arm’s length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable. Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world. Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or monuments ; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them. When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives—usually the richer—who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation’s diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters. For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods. But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.

To______the structural imbalances in the budget, and also in the economy the Administration has given its support to a constitutional amendment. relinquish remedy compensate redress

Digging the garden with a spade is a very______task. I am exhausted after such two-hour’s work. industrious manual conscientious laborious

Simon’s letter was in such a casual scrawl, and in such pale ink, that it was ______. vague ambiguous illegible obscure

It didn’t seem to have______to her that once she was addicted to drug smoking, she could hardly give it up. But it did happen. happened took place occurred came about

President Clinton______power when the US economy was slow. presumed consumed resumed assumed

She______for a while and was unable to make a decision, so she asked for my help. flickered glittered faltered blinked

Although the media have paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee’s situations, not the availability of technology, that______a telecommuting arrangement. precipitates reciprocates anticipates apprehends

Different cultures are more prone to______certain illnesses because of the food that is characteristic in these cultures. contract conduct confine conquer

Diana made a lot of effort to persuade her parents into______to her going to the United States to study business administration in MIT. contending contesting contenting consenting

Women have significant advantages over men in space because they need less food and less oxygen and they_____ radiation better. stand up to stand in for stand up for stand in with

Telecommuting—substituting the computer for the trip to the job—has been ______a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work. hailed as drawn out borne out lodged in

It is not enough to observe behavior and______them with physiological events that occur at the same time. correlate comply correspond pertain

They______themselves______the politician because they hoped he would become president one day. At last he did. connected, with combined, with linked, up attached, to

If you are a fan of science fiction, you’ve no doubt encountered the term nanotechnol-ogy. Yet over the past year also, a series of breakthroughs have transformed nanotech from sci-fi fantasy into a real world. Applied science, in the process, inspired huge investments by business, academia, and government. In industries as diverse as health care, computers, chemicals, and aerospace, nanotech is overhauling production techniques, resulting in new and improved products, some of which may already be in your home or workplace. The inspiration for nanotech goes back to a 1959 speech by the late physicist Richard Feynman, then a professor at the California Institute of Technology, titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. “ Four decades later, Chad Mirkin, a Chemistry professor at Northwestern University’s $34 million nanotech center, used a nanoscale device to etch most of Feynman’s speech onto a surface the size of about 10 tobacco smoke particles. What accounts for the sudden acceleration of nanotechnology? A key breakthrough came in 1990, when researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center succeeded in rearranging individual atoms at will. Using a device known as a scanning probe microscope, the team slowly moved 35 atoms to spell the three-letter IBM logo, thus proving Feynman right. The entire Logo was less than three nanometers. Soon, scientists were not only manipulating individual atoms but “spray painting“ with them as well. Using a tool known as a molecular beam epitaxy, scientists have learned to create ultra fine films of specialized crystals, built up one molecular layer at a time. This is the technology used today to build read-head components for computer hard drives. The next stage in the development of nanotechnology borrows a page from nature. Building a supercomputer no bigger than a speck of dust might seem an impossible task, until one realizes that evolution solved such problems more than a billion years ago. Living cells contain all sorts of nanoscale motors made of proteins that perform myriad mechanical and chemical functions, from muscle contraction to photosynthesis. In some instances, such motors may be re-engineered, or imitated, to produce products and processes useful to humans. How are these biologically inspired machines constructed? Often, they construct themselves, manifesting a phenomenon of nature known as self assembly. The macromole-cules of such biological machines have exactly the right shape and chemical binding preferences to ensure that when they combine they will snap together in predesigned ways. For example, the two strands that make up DNA’s double helix match each other exactly, which means that if they are separated in a complex chemical mixture, they are still able to find each other easily.

我们也不应该忘记，广告给我们的钱袋作出了积极的贡献。没有这笔收入来源，报纸、商业电台和电视公司就不能生存。我们花很少的钱就能买到一份日报，或者能够欣赏如此众多的广播节目，完全是由于广告商付了这部分钱。想想看，要是让你付全价，报纸会有多贵!

Some people______in part the defeat of the revolution in France and Germany to the English diplomacy, do you agree? contributed attributed distributed owned

Small children can not______the difference between right and wrong. It is our duty to teach them. appreciate enjoy acknowledge confess

Building this road will______the construction of ten bridges, and then the total cost reaches 1 million US dollars. evolve involve revolve devolve

The school authority______against students’ smoking both in the classrooms and at home. resolved determined banned prohibited

The______meanings of the individual words do not help define all expressions like “Drop in any time. “ literary literature literal literate

According to the author Americans’ cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance will______.

American people ignore cultural differences in other countries because______.

In countries other than their own most Americans______.

The author gives many examples to criticize Americans for their______.

It can be inferred that Americans being approached too closely by Middle Easterners would most probably______.