Passage 4

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:

Culture shock is an occupational disease (职业病) for people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad.

Culture shock is caused by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. Those signs are as following: when to shake hands and what to say when meet people, when and how to give tips, how to make purchases, when to accept and refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not. These signs, which may be words, gestures, facial expressions, or customs, are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up and as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we accept. All of us depend on hundreds of these signs for our peace of mind and day-to-day efficiency, but we do not carry most at the level of conscious awareness.

Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar signs are removed. No matter how broadminded or full of good will you may be a series of supports have been knocked from under you, followed by a feeling of frustration. When suffering from culture shock people first reject the environment which caused discomfort. The ways of the host country are bad because they make us feel bad. When foreigners in a strange land get together in complain about the host country its people, you can be sure that they are suffering from culture shock.

16. According to the passage, culture shock is .

A. an occupational disease of foreign people B. may lead to very serious symptoms

C. actually not a disease D. incurable

17. According to the passage, culture shock result from .

A. the sudden change of social atmosphere and customs

B. the sudden change of our daily habits

C. the sudden loss of our own signs and symbols

D. the discomfort that we feel when faced with a foreigner

18. 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.

19. According to the passage, how would a person who stays abroad most probably react when he is frustrated by the culture shock?

A. He is most likely to refuse to absorb the strange environment at first.

B. He is really to accept the change and adapt himself to the new environment.

C. Although he takes the culture difference for granted, he still doesn’t know how to do with it.

D. He may begin to hate the people or things around him.

20. The main idea of this passage is that .

A. culture shock is an occupational disease

B. culture shock is caused by the anxiety of living in a strange culture

C. culture shock has peculiar symptoms

D. it is very hard to cope with life in a new setting