Question

　　There are two elements in life that Americans do save carefully: time and labor. Americans are“slaves to nothing but the clock”, it has been said. Time is treated as if it were an almost tangible（看得到的）entity. In their language, there are words associated with it: time can be budgeted（预算）, saved, wasted, stolen, killed, and cut. Americans also charge for time. It is a precious commodity (product) to them. Many people have a rather acute sense of the shortness of each lifetime. Once the sands have run out of a person's hourglass, they cannot be matter of patience. In the American system of values, patience is not a high priority. Many of them have what might be called “a short fuse”They begin to splutter（快速地说话）and move restlessly about if they feel time is slipping away without some return——be this in terms of pleasure, work value or rest.

　　Normally Americans do not assess （评定）their visitors in relaxed surroundings over prolonged small talk; much less do they take out for dinner, while they develop a pre-business sense of trust and rapport（和睦关系）. Rapport to most of them is less important than performance. They seek out credentials（证明文件）of past performance rather than evaluating a business colleague through social manners. Since they generally assess and probe professionally rather than socially, they start talking business very quickly.

　　Most Americans live in time segments（parts）by engagement calendars. These calendars may be divided into intervals as short as fifteen minutes. They often “give” a person two or three (or more) segments of their calendar, but in the business world they almost always have other appointments following “hard on the heels of” whatever they are doing. Time is therefore always ticking in their inner ear.

(1) Which of the following is true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Americans value time so mush that they use the hourglass to count their time.

B．In the Americans' eyes, patience is of less importance than performance.

C．Americans are likely to prolong the talk in business.

D．Americans usually save time as much as possible to work.

(2) Time is so important in American values that___________.

[　　]

A．they even ask for money if you waste their time

B．they may become very impatient if they get nothing whatsoever in return for their time

C．they did not take their visitors out for din net

D．they seldom develop a rapport with their business colleagues

(3) What does the author mean by “a short fuse”(Para.2)?

[　　]

A．An impatient person who quickly gets impatient.

B．Person who likes to splutter.

C．A person who is very mean about his time.

D．A thing that is used to light a fire.

(4) In the last paragraph, the underlined phrase “on the heels of”means __________.

[　　]

A．being controlled by

B．behaving excitedly

C．time-controlled

D．close behind

Answer 1

答案：B;B;B;B
解析：

(1) 推理判断题，可用逻辑推断法来解。由原文第二段In the American system of values，patience is not a high priority. 和第三段Rapport to most of them is less important than performance. 可知，美国人不重视耐心但重视表现，由此不难推出答案。 (2) 推理判断题，可用逻辑推断法来解。由原文第二段They Begin to splutter and move restlessly about if they feel time is slipping away with out some return…可以推出答案。 (3) 推理判断题，可用逻辑推断法来解。认真阅读分析第二段内容可知，They begin to splutter and move restlessly about if they feel time is slipping away without some return——be this in terms of pleasure，work value or rest．为a short fuse的解释，可见该词含义为急脾气的人 (4) 语境词义判断题，可用语境词义推断法来解。heels的意思是“脚后跟”总有约会在脚后跟上就表示“紧跟着”。