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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.
It could be inferred from the last paragraph that______.
选项 A、culture exercises an influence over social interrelationship
B、courteous convention and individual interest are interrelated
C、various virtues manifest themselves exclusively among friends
D、social interrelationships equal the complex set of cultural conventions
答案A
解析 从文章最后一段的内容可知，在美国同任何发达国家一样，文化、信念以及习俗是社会关系的基础；当然，一个人会说一种语言并不意味着他了解该语言所代表的社会和文化模式；那些没有正确“解读”文化含义的游客经常会得出错误的结论；仅凭借在汽车上偶遇时说声“朋友”并不能区分出这是出于礼貌还是个人兴趣；不过，友好待人是许多美国人都看重的美德，他们希望邻居和陌生人也能如此。据此可知，又化、思维方式(文化复合体关系)决定或影响社会相互交往的方式。A项与文章的意思相符；B项与文章最后一段倒数第2句话的意思不符；C项不正确，依据是文章最后一段倒数第一句话；D项与文章的意思明显不符。只有A项为正确答案。
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