首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression which is significant in a culture where schedules a
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression which is significant in a culture where schedules a
admin
2011-01-05
42
问题
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression which is significant in a culture where schedules are important. While it is learned informally, most of us are familiar with how it works in our own culture, even though we cannot state the rules technically. The rules for lead time in other cultures, however, have rarely been analyzed. At the most they are known by experience to those who lived abroad for some time. Yet think how important it is to know how much time is required to prepare people, or for things to come. Sometimes lead time would seem to be very extended. At other times, in the Middle East, any period longer than a week may be too long.
How troublesome differing ways of handling time can be is well illustrated by the case of an American agriculturalist assigned to duty as an attachê of our embassy in a Latin country, After what seemed to him a suitable period he let it be known that he would like to call on the minister who was his counterpart. For various reasons, the suggested time was not suitable; all sorts of cues came back to the effect that the time was not yet ripe to visit the minister. Our friend, however, persisted and forced an appointment, which was reluctantly granted. Arriving a little before the hour (the American respect pattern), he waited. The hour came and passed; five minutes--ten minutes--fifteen minutes. At this point he suggested to the secretary that perhaps the minister did not know he was waiting in the outer office. This gave him the feeling he had done something concrete and also helped to overcome the great anxiety that was stirring inside him. Twenty minutes--twenty-five minutes--thirty minutes--forty-five minutes (the insult period)!
He jumped up and told the secretary that he had been "cooling his heels" in an outer office for forty-five minutes and he was "damned sick and tired" of this type of treatment. This message was relayed to the minister, who said, in effect, "let him cool his heels." The attachê stay in the country was not a happy one.
The principal source of misunderstanding lay in the fact that in the country in question the five-minute delay interval was not significant. Forty-five minutes, on the other hand, instead of being at the tail end of the waiting scale, was just barely at the beginning. To suggest to an American’s secretary that perhaps her boss didn’t know you were there after waiting sixty seconds would seem absurd, as would raising a storm about "cooling your heels" for five minutes. Yet this is precisely the way the minister registered the complaints of the American in his outer office! He felt, as usual, that Americans were being totally unreasonably.
Throughout this unfortunate episode the attach6 was acting according to the way he had been brought up. At home in the United States his response would have been normal ones and his behavior correct. Yet even if he had been told before he left home that this sort of thing would happen, he would have had difficulty not feeling insulted after he had been kept waiting for forty-five minutes. If, on the other hand, he had been taught the details of the local time system just as he should have been taught the local spoken language, it would have been possible for him to adjust himself accordingly.
In that particular Latin American country, letting people wait for 45 minutes is considered ______.
选项
A、unreasonable
B、impolite
C、objectionable
D、quite normal
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/OFVK777K
本试题收录于:
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Itwastheworsttragedyin【C1】________history,sixtimesmoredeadlythantheTitanic.WhentheGermancruiseshipWilhelm
Itwastheworsttragedyin【C1】________history,sixtimesmoredeadlythantheTitanic.WhentheGermancruiseshipWilhelm
Intheearly1800’s,over80percentoftheUnitedStateslaborforcewasengagedinagriculture.Machineryand【C1】________tech
Thinnerisn’talwaysbetter.Anumberofstudieshaveconcludedthatnormal-weightpeopleareinfactathigherriskofsomedis
FormanyyearsitwascommonintheUnitedStatestoassociateChineseAmericanswithrestaurantsandlaundries.Peopledidnot
(1)DanielChivu,afourth-yearCarletonUniversitystudentfromToronto,hadhisleaseinhand.He’dpaidthemonth’srent.And
WhichofthefollowingsentencesisNOTaninvertedsentence?
A、Beingbadlyhitbytheglobalfinancialcrisis.B、Beinglackinginvaluedcustomers.C、Beingimpossibletomakeaprofit.D、Be
(1)InTheArtofChoosing,SheenaIyengar,abusinessprofessoratColumbiaUniversityandaleadingexpertondecisionmaking,
俗话说“民以食为天”。【T1】饮食文化,即围绕着人们日常工作中的食物、饮料及其食用方法所形成的文化现象。(centeron)从半坡村文化遗址中发现,早在五六千年前,中国北方的黄河流域已普遍种植粟这种农作物。同样,在距今7,000年前的河姆渡文化
随机试题
下列关于骨软骨瘤的叙述正确的是
A.免疫电泳B.免疫固定电泳C.交叉免疫电泳D.对流免疫电泳E.火箭免疫电泳将区带电泳和火箭电泳相结合的技术
患者,男,33岁。双手及膝盖烫伤,有大小不等的水疱,剧烈疼痛。该患者的烫伤已伤及皮肤的
道路工程中的路面等级可划分为高级路面、次高级路面、中级路面和低级路面等,其划分的依据有()。【2005年真题】
下列哪项不构成企业的收入()。
个人进行金融投资主要面临( )税收。
非上市债券的风险报酬率主要取决于()。
试从班级授课制的特点出发,论述实行小班化教学的优越性。
如下图所示,连接在HUB上的4台计算机要求划分在2个VLAN中,HUB上连的交换机应采用的VLAN划分方法是
李氏(Lee)化学公司是全球第三大化学公司,年销售额达280亿美元。李氏生产化工产品、塑料和农用产品,并为180个国家的客户提供服务。李氏在世界各地拥有员工56000人。现诚聘秘书1人。工作职责:准备月报及有关文件等日常秘书工作条件:获英语或秘
最新回复
(
0
)