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  3. A report consistently brought back by visitors to the U.S. is how friendly, courteous, and helpful most Americans were to them.

A report consistently brought back by visitors to the U.S. is how friendly, courteous, and helpful most Americans were to them.

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问题     A report consistently brought back by visitors to the U.S. is how friendly, courteous, and helpful most Americans were to them. To be fair, this observation is also frequently made of Canada and Canadians, and should best be considered North American. There are, of course, exceptions. Small minded officials, rude waiters, and ill mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the U.S.. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.
    For a long period of time and in many parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break in an otherwise dull existence. Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the families who generally lived distant from one another. Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion, and brought news of the outside world.
    The harsh realities of the frontier also shaped this tradition of hospitality. Someone traveling alone, if hungry, injured, or ill, often had nowhere to turn except to the nearest cabin or settlement. It was not a matter of choice for the traveler or merely a charitable impulse on the part of the settlers. It reflected the harshness of daily life: if you didn’t take in the stranger and take care of him, there was no one else who would, and someday, remember, you might be in the same situation.
    Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in helping the weary traveler. Yet, the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is still very strong in the U.S., especially in the smaller cities and towns away from the busy tourist trails. "I was just traveling through, got talking with this American, and pretty soon he invited me home for dinner—amazing." Such observations reported by visitors to the U.S. are not uncommon, but are not always understood properly. The casual friendliness of many Americans should be interpreted neither as superficial nor as artificial, but as the result of a historically developed cultural tradition.
    As is true of any developed society, in America a complex set of cultural signals, assumptions, and conventions underlies all social interrelationships. And, of course, speaking a language does not necessarily meant that someone understands social and cultural patterns. Visitors who fail to "translate" cultural meanings properly often draw wrong conclusions. For example, when an American uses the word "friend", the cultural implications of the word may be quite different from those it has in the visitor’s language and culture. It takes more than a brief encounter on a bus to distinguish between courteous convention and individual interest. Yet, being friendly is a virtue that many American value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.
In the eyes of visitors from the outside world, ______.
选项 A、rude taxi drivers are rarely seen in the U.S.
B、small minded officials deserve a serious comment
C、Canadians are not so friendly as their neighbors
D、most Americans are ready to offer help
答案D
解析 本题可参照文章第1段第1句。从中可知，去过美国的人回来说，大多数美国人友好、谦恭、乐于助人。据此可知，游客认为大多数美国人对人友好。D项与文章的意思相符。A项不正确，依据是第1段第3句；B项不正确，文中只是说政府官员心胸狭窄、服务员粗鲁无礼以及出租车司机态度恶劣，但并没有说游客认为应该严肃批评他们。C项与文章第1段第2句的意思不符。综上所述，只有D项为正确答案。
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