Passage 1 prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" ?xml:namespace> Culture is one of the most challenging elements of the international marketplace. This system of learned behavior patterns characteristic of the members of a given society is constantly shaped by a set of dynamic variables: language, religion, values and attitudes, manners and customs, aesthetics, technology, education, and social institutions.To cope with this system, an international manager needs both factual and interpretive knowledge of culture. To some extent, the factual knowledge can be learned; its interpretation comes only through experience. The most complicated problems in dealing with the cultural environment stem from the fact that one cannot learn culture—one has to live it. Two schools of thought exist in the business world on how to deal with cultural diversity. One is that business is business the world around, following the model of Pepsi and McDonald’s. In some cases, globalization is a fact of life; however, cultural differences are still far from converging. The other school proposes that companies must tailor business approaches to individual cultures. Setting up policies and procedures in each country has been compared to an organ transplant; the critical question centers around acceptance or rejection. The major challenge to the international manager is to make sure that rejection is not a result of cultural myopia or even blindness. Fortune examined the international performance of a dozen large companies that earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas. The internationally successful companies all share an important quality: patience. They have not rushed into situations but rather built their operations carefully by following the most basic business principles. These principles are to know your adversary, know your audience, and know your customer. 1. According to the passage, which of the following is true? A. All international managers can learn culture. B. Business diversity is not necessary. C. Views differ on how to treat culture in business world. D. Most people do not know foreign culture well. 2. According to the author, the model of Pepsi . A. is in line with the theories of the school advocating the business is business the world around B. is different from the model of McDonald’s C. shows the reverse of globalization D. has converged cultural differences 3. The two schools of thought . A. both propose that companies should tailor business approaches to individual cultures B. both advocate that different policies be set up in different countries C. admit the existence of cultural diversity in business world D. Both A and B 4. This article is supposed to be most useful for those . A. who are interested in researching the topic of cultural diversity B. who have connections to more than one type of culture C. who want to travel abroad D. who want to run business on International Scale 5. According to Fortune, successful international companies . A. earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas B. all have the quality of patience C. will follow the overseas local cultures D. adopt the policy of internationalization Passage 2 When one looks back upon the fifteen hundred years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of significant truths. The history of our language has always been a history of constant change—at times a slow, almost imperceptible change, at other times a violent collision between two languages. Our language has always been a living growing organism, it has never been static. Another significant truth that emerges from such a study is that language at all times has been the possession not of one class or group but of many. At one extreme it has been the property of the common, ignorant folk, who have used it in the daily business of their living, much as they have used their animals or the kitchen pots and pans. At the other extreme it has been the treasure of those who have respected it as an instrument and a sign of civilization, and who have struggled by writing it down to give it some permanence, order, dignity, and if possible, a little beauty. As we consider our changing language, we should note here two developments that are of special and immediate importance to us. One is that since the time of the Anglo-Saxons there has been an almost complete reversal of the different devices for showing the relationship of words in a sentence. Anglo-Saxon (old English) was a language of many inflections. Modern English has few inflections. We must now depend largely on word order and function words to convey the meanings that the older language did by means of changes in the forms of words. Function words, you should understand, are words such as prepositions, conjunctions, and a few others that are used primarily to show relationships among other words. A few inflections, however, have survived. And when some word inflections come into conflict with word order, there may be trouble for the users of the language, as we shall see later when we turn our attention to such maters as WHO or WHOM and ME or I. The second fact we must consider is that as language itself changes, our attitudes toward language forms change also. The eighteenth century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write. 6 .In contrast to the earlier linguists, modern linguists tend to . A. attempt to continue the standardization of the language B. evaluate language practices in terms of current speech rather than standards or proper patterns C. be more concerned about the improvement of the language than its analysis or history D. be more aware of the rules of the language usage 7 .Choose the appropriate meaning for the word “inflection” used in line 4 of paragraph 2. A. Changes in the forms of words. B. Changes in sentence structures. C. Changes in spelling rules. D. Words that have similar meanings. 8 .Which of the following statements is not mentioned in the passage? A. It is generally believed that the year 1500 can be set as the beginning of the modern English language. B. Some other languages had great influence on the English language at some stages of its development. C. The English language has been and still in a state of relatively constant change. D. Many classes or groups have contributed to the development of the English language. 9 . The author of these paragraphs is probably a(an) . A. historian B. philosopher C. anthropologist D. linguist 10 .Which of the following can be best used as the title of the passage? A. The history of the English language. B. Our changing attitude towards the English language. C. Our changing language. D. Some characteristics of modern English.