C

I left my hometown in London last year and now I have enjoyed working in this small city in China. Learning a foreign language opens you up to the culture and history of a country. So in order to know more about China, I started to learn Chinese.

But at times, I found myself in funny situations. When I greeted strangers in China, they began to talk a lot and very fast. They asked me questions about everything. But all I could do was to look at them with a blank face. I had no idea what they were talking about. Were they just being kind, funny or impolite? Many people want to make friends with me. But I am a bit upset when I find out the reason why they need a foreign friend. They say they want to practice their English. I don’t need friends like this. I like friends to share my feelings and ideas with.

However, the more Chinese I learn, the more similarities I find it has with English. In English, thick-skinned is to describe a person who doesn’t care for criticism (批评). I was surprised to find that houlianpi in Chinese means the same. And both languages share some common idioms (习语). For example, “look on with folded arms” means xiushoupangguan, and “burn the boats” is similar to pofuchenzhou.

I’m still on my journey to learn Chinese. I believe that sometimes you have the most fun on a journey.

( )29. The writer comes from 　　　　.

A. the UK B. the USA

C. Australia D. Canada

( )30. The underlined word “similarities” means “　　　　” in Chinese.

A. 相似点 B. 不同点

C. 规律性 D. 重要性

( )31. A thick-skinned person may 　　　　.

A. be very strong and seldom fall ill

B. like to criticize others for their mistakes

C. talk a lot and speak fast

D. feel OK when he’s criticized

D

We all know that the British people love their manners (礼仪). They are part of their national identity (特性), as well as having fish and chips and complaining about the weather. Recently I read online that they said “sorry” up to eight times a day.

After some research I have not been able to find any specific reasons why they are like this. I suppose, for centuries, manners, including how they behave at table and talk to other people have been one of the differences between the lower and upper classes and those manners show their social classes. Britain has traditionally been a quite conservative (保守的) country. There are many articles suggesting that their seemingly polite attitude of always saying “please” and “thank you” is quite false (错误的) because it is impossible for a person to always feel that he or she wants to thank someone or say “please”.

Maybe it is for this reason that people are going one of two ways: they are too polite and hold back their feelings or they are not polite at all and express their true feelings directly. Some British people are tired of pretending that they are always happy and having to please others. But sometimes because they feel they have to be polite, they are prevented from saying what they truly think.

( )32. What don’t the British people often do?

A. Eat fish and chips.

B. Have no quite good manners.

C. Be polite to others.

D. Talk about the weather.

( )33. What do the British people say up to eight times every day?

A. Hello. B. Thank you.

C. I don’t know. D. Sorry.

( )34. What does the writer think are the reasons why the British people are so polite?

① The upper classes should have good manners.

② They have learned much about politeness at school.

③ They like to hold back their true feelings.

④ They are not honest at all.

A. ①② B. ③④ C. ①③ D. ②④

( )35. What does the underlined word “pretending” mean in Chinese?

A. 打算 B. 假装 C. 想象 D. 体验