You are a new manager at the American branch of your German firm in Chicago. With a few minutes to spare between meetings, you go to get a quick cup of coffee. "Hey, David, how are you?" one of the senior partners at the firm asks you. "Good, thank you, Dr. Greer," you reply. You've really been wanting to make a connection with the senior leadership at the firm, and this seems like a great opportunity. But as you start to think of something to say, your American colleague breaks in to steal your spotlight. "So Arnold", your colleague says to your boss, in such a casual manner that it makes your German soul cringe , "So what's your Super bowl prediction? I mean, you're a Niners fan, right?" The conversation moves on, and you walk silently back to your desk with your coffee. You know how important small talk is in the U. S. , and you feel jealous of people who can do it well. There's nothing small about the role that small talk plays in American professional culture. People from other countries are often surprised at how important small talk is in the U. S. and how naturally and comfortably people seem to do it--with peers,men,women,and even with superiors. You can be the most technically skilled worker in the world, but your ability to progress in your job in the United States is highly dependent on your ability to build and maintain positive relationships with people at work. And guess what skill is critical for building and maintaining these relationships? Small talk. What can you do if you are from another culture and want to learn to use small talk in the U. S. to build relationships and establish trust? Work hard to hone your own version of American-style small talk. Watch how others do it. You don't have to mimic what they do; in fact, that would likely backfire because people would see you as inauthentic. But if you can develop your own personal version, that can go a long way toward making you feel comfortable. What makes people from other countries surprised in American professional culture? A) The role small talk plays in work settings. B) American workers' attitude towards superiors. C) The special meaning of small talk. D) American workers' ability to make progress.
A
The average temperature around the world is rising. People living in the US Midwest might find this fact hard to believe, though. Two new studies show that in America's heartland, summers are now cooler and wetter than they were in years past. The scientists suggest that the change in the Midwest climate may have happened because of farming. The first study was led by David Changnon, a climatologist at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. A climatologist studies the climate of an area, which includes measuring rainfall, temperature and wind. Climatologists want to know how these factors have changed in the past, and how they'll change in the future. Changnon and his team studied temperature records from Chicago and 13 other sites in the Midwest. "These two changes--lower temperatures and more rainfall--may be connected by humidity," Changnon says. Humidity is the measure of how much moisture is in the air. Humid air, which contains a lot of moisture, takes longer to heat up than dry air. So where did the extra _ in the air come from? Changnon points to farms in the region. As plants grow, they pull moisture from the ground and release it into the air. And among plants, soybean and corn plants release a lot of moisture. Midwestern farms now plant more soybeans and corn than in the past, with 97 percent of farmland today planted with these two crops. He also notes that the plants are planted closer together now than they used to be, so there are more plants per acre than in the past. The second study was led by famous scientists from the US. The researchers studied a vast area of the United States that stretches from South DaKota to Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. They found that in 1930, farmers in that region irrigated only about 1.8 million acres of farmland, an amount roughly half the size of Connecticut. In 1980, however, farmers irrigated nearly 15 million acres--more land than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. According to the passage, which factors will you refer to if you want to study the climate of an area? A) Sunlight and rainfall. B) Rainfall and longitude. C) Rainfall and altitude. D) Rainfall and wind.
D
Q: My mother celebrates her 90th birthday today. She has asked me to keep it a secret and tell people she is only 89. For some reason she seems to think this sounds better. We really have our share of disagreements, but on this one I stand firm: I think 90 sounds pretty fantastic. My mother says she never thought she would live this long. She was weak and had two near fatal illnesses under the age of 12. And then there was the fear of cancer. Her mother died of breast cancer when my mother was just 17, at a time when there was no such thing as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When I was 17 years old, I was worried that my life would parallel hers. I never shared my fears. Instead I would lie awake at night in my bed with the yellow and orange flowered bedspread she had made for me, counting how much time we had left together. What I didn't know until years later was that she had had the same fear. She told me how she would write away for every piece of information she could find on how to prevent the fatal disease until my father made her stop. He told her she had to relax and stop worrying so much. She was going to be OK. He was right. And one October, many years into the future, we would celebrate her 90th birthday. My mother is the reason I live the life I do. Her fierceness and independence was how I learned to walk the path I have chosen. She was always a forward thinker, reading up on what's new and willing to try something different. She taught me kindness and to look out for those less fortunate than us. When Dad died far too young, my mother was the one who sat me down the afternoon after the funeral and told me life would go on, and that as hard as it was to imagine, I would be happy again. She helped me to understand that death was a part of life we could never escape and we must learn to accept it. Our roles have changed in recent years. She turns to me for help now. She asks me what to do. She is the one to call me when she is worried or concerned or needs help with something. I am the one who... The author's mother never thought she could live a long life because of . A) her bad temper B) her unhealthy diet C) her unhappy family D) her poor health and her mother's death
A: D
Q: When you're lying on the white sands of the Mexican Rivera, thestresses of the world seem a million miles away. Hey, stop! This is no vacation--you have to finish something. Here lies the problem for travel writer and foodcritic Edie Jarolim. "I always loved traveling and always liked to eat, but it never occurred to me that I could make money doing both of those things," Jarolim said. Now you can read her travel advice everywhere--- inArts and Antiques, inBrides, or in one of her three books,The Complete Idiot Travel Guide to Mexican Beach Resorts. Her job in travel writing began some eight years ago. After getting a PhD in English in Canada, she took a test for Frommer's travel guides, passed it, and got the job. After working at Frommer's, Jarolim worked for a while at Rough Guides in London, then Fodor's where she fell so in love with a description of the Southwest of the U.S. that she moved there. Now as a travel writer, she spends one-third of her year on the road. The rest of the time is spent completing her tasks and writing reviews of restaurants at home in Tucson, Arizona. As adventurous as the job sounds, the hard part is fact-checking all the information. Sure, it's great to write about a tourist attraction, but you'd better get the local museum hours correct or you could really ruin someone's vacation. What would be the best title for the text? A) Adventures in Travel Writing B) Working as a Food Critic C) Travel Guides on the Market D) Vacationing for a Living
A: D