Recognizing the Summary: For the following paragraphs, choose the summary you think is best. Sociolinguistics is concerned with the ethnography of speaking, that is, with cultural and subcultural patterns of speech variation in different social contexts. The sociolinguist might ask, for example, what kinds of things one talks about in casual conversations with a stranger. A foreigner may know English vocabulary and grammar well but may not know that one typically chats with a stranger about the weather or where one comes from, and not about what one ate that day or how much money one earns. A foreigner may be familiar with much of the culture of a North American city, but if that person divulges the real state of his or her health and feelings to the first person who says, “How are you?” he or she has much to learn about “small talk” in North American English. Similarly, North Americans tend to get confused in societies where greetings are quite different from ours. People in some other societies may ask a greeting, “Where are you going?” or “What are you cooking?” Some Americans may think such questions are rude; others may try to answer in excruciating detail, not realizing that only vague answers are expected, just as we don’t really expect a detailed answer when we ask people “How are you?” (qtd. from Judith Resnick & Lanny Lester, Text & Thought , pp. 194-195)
举一反三
- Which one in the following is NOT mentioned by Lucky to create your own thoughts in English? A: think about what you like to talk about B: write down some questions people might ask you and your answers C: think deeply for a long time
- Which one of the following may not be a symptom of culture shock() A: You don"t know how to express your gratitude. B: You don"t know how to greet other people. C: You suddenly forget what a word means. D: You don"t understand why a foreigner shrugs.
- 翻译To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
- 中国大学MOOC:"B: Think about the situations where we are likely to hear the question: “Why don’t you close the door?” Choose one right answer from the given ones.Situation 1: One of the speaker’s friends always leaves the door open when he comes into the room. The speaker wants to know the reason so he says this to his friend.";
- By the way, how is your ____ of accountancy The interviewer may ask you about it.