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

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

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问题      A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US 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 US. 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 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 US, 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 US 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 mean 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 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 Americans value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.
Which of the following is the author most likely to agree to?
选项 A、Because of the small-minded officials, rude waiters, it is hard for us to think Americans are friendly.
B、If some American families were not dull, they would not be friendly to the strangers.
C、The citizens from the large cities are not friendly to strangers.
D、The cultural tradition fostered the hospitality of Americans.
答案D
解析 本题考查主题思想。综观全篇可以看出，作者力图表达的思想是美国人对来访客人十分友好，并指出造成这种好客的真正原因是文化传统。因此，选项D 为正确答案。尽管选项A 中的small-minded official和rude Walter在美国屡见不鲜，但它不是主流(选项 A 错)。虽在文章中提到美国人由于生活枯燥，对来访者很友好 (参看第二段)，但这并不意味着美国人生活不枯燥就对来访者不友好 (选项B 错)。同样，文章中说，在美国尤其是在小城镇，美国人特别好客(参看第四段)，这并不意味着大城市的人就不好客(选项 C 错)。
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