新编跨文化交际英语教程参考答案.doc

Unit 1
Communication Across Cultures

Reading I
Intercultural Communication：An Introduction
Comprehension questions
1. Is it still often the case that “everyone‟s quick to blame the alien” in the contemporary world?
This is still powerful in today‘s social and political rhetoric. For instance, it is not uncommon in
today‘s society to hear people say that most, if not all, of the social and economic problems are caused by minorities and immigrants.

2. What‟s the difference between today‟s intercultural contact and that of any time in the past?
Today‘s intercultural encounters are far more numerous and of greater importance than in any time in history.

3. What have made intercultural contact a very common phenomenon in our life today?
New technology, in the form of transportation and communication systems, has accelerated intercultural contact; innovative communication systems have encouraged and facilitated cultural interaction; globalization of the economy has brought people together; changes in immigration patterns have also contributed to intercultural encounter.

4. How do you understand the sentence “culture is everything and everywhere”?
Culture supplies us with the answers to questions about what the world looks like and how we live and communicate within that world. Culture teaches us how to behave in our life from the instant of birth. It is omnipresent.

5. What are the major elements that directly influence our perception and communication?
The three major socio-cultural elements that directly influence perception and communication are cultural values, worldview (religion), and social organizations (family and state).

6. What does one‟s family teach him or her while he or she grows up in it?
The family teaches the child what the world looks like and his or her place in that world.

7. Why is it impossible to separate our use of language from our culture?
Because language is not only a form of preserving culture but also a means of sharing culture.
Language is an organized, generally agreed-upon, learned symbol system that is used to represent
the experiences within a cultural community.

8. What are the nonverbal behaviors that people can attach meaning to?
People can attach meaning to nonverbal behaviors such as gestures, postures, facial expressions, eye contact and gaze, touch, etc.

9. How can a free, culturally diverse society exist?
A free, culturally diverse society can exist only if diversity is permitted to flourish without prejudice and discrimination, both of which harm all members of the society.
Reading II
The Challenge of Globalization
Comprehension questions
1. Why does the author say that our understanding of the world has changed?
Many things, such as political changes and technological advances, have changed the world
very rapidly. In the past most human beings were born, lived, and died within a limited geographical
area, never encountering people of other cultural backgrounds. Such an existence, however, no
longer prevails in the world. Thus, all people are faced with the challenge of understanding this
changed and still fast changing world in which we live.

2. What a “global village” is like?
As our world shrinks and its inhabitants become interdependent, people from remote cultures
increasingly come into contact on a daily basis. In a ―global village‖, members of once isolated
groups of people have to communicate with members of other cultural groups. Those people may
live thousands of miles away or right next door to each other.

3. What is considered as the major driving force of the post-1945 globalization?
Technology, particularly telecommunications and computers are considered to be the major driving force.

4. What does the author mean by saying that “the „global‟ may be more local than the „local‟”?
The increasing global mobility of people and the impact of new electronic media on human
communications make the world seem smaller. We may communicate more with people of other
countries than with our neighbors, and we may be more informed of the international events than of
the local events. In this sense, “the‘ global’may be more local than the ‘local’”

5. Why is it important for businesspeople to know diverse cultures in the world?
Effective communication may be the most important competitive advantage that firms have to
meet diverse customer needs on a global basis. Succeeding in the global market today requires the
ability to communicate sensitively with people from other cultures, a sensitivity that is based on an
understanding of cross-cultural differences.

6. What are the serious problems that countries throughout the world are confronted with?
Countries throughout the world are confronted with serious problems such as volatile
international economy, shrinking resources, mounting environmental contamination, and epidemics
that know no boundaries.

7. What implications can we draw from the case of Michael Fay?
This case shows that in a world of international interdependence, the ability to understand and
communicate effectively with people from other cultures takes on extreme urgency. If we are
unaware of the significant role culture plays in communication, we may place the blame for
communication failure on people of other cultures.

8. What attitudes are favored by the author towards globalization?
Globalization, for better or for worse, has changed the world greatly. Whether we like it or not,
globalization is all but unstoppable. It is already here to stay. It is both a fact and an opportunity. The
challenges are not insurmountable. Solutions exist, and are waiting to be identified and implemented.
From a globalistic point of view, there is hope and faith in humanity.

Case Study
Case 1
In this case, there seemed to be problems in communicating with people of different cultures in
spite of the efforts made to achieve understanding.
We should know that in Egypt as in many cultures, the human relationship is valued so highly
that it is not expressed in an objective and impersonal way. While Americans certainly value human
relationships, they are more likely to speak of them in less personal, more objective terms. In this
case, Richard‘s mistake might be that he chose to praise the food itself rather than the total evening,
for which the food was simply the setting or excuse. For his host and hostess it was as if he had
attended an art exhibit and complimented the artist by saying, What beautiful frames your pictures
are in.
In Japan the situation may be more complicated. Japanese people value order and harmony
among persons in a group, and that the organization itself－be it a family or a vast corporation－is
more valued than the characteristics of any particular member. In contrast, Americans stress
individuality as a value and are apt to assert individual differences when they seem justifiably in
conflict with the goals or values of the group. In this case: Richard‘s mistake was in making great
efforts to defend himself. Let the others assume that the errors were not intentional, but it is not right
to defend yourself, even when your unstated intent is to assist the group by warning others of similar
mistakes. A simple apology and acceptance of the blame would have been appropriate. But for poor
Richard to have merely apologized would have seemed to him to be subservient, unmanly.
When it comes to England, we expect fewer problems between Americans and Englishmen
than between Americans and almost any other group. In this case we might look beyond the gesture
of taking sugar or cream to the values expressed in this gesture: for Americans, ―Help yourself; for
the English counterpart, ―Be my guest. American and English people equally enjoy entertaining and
being entertained but they differ somewhat in the value of the distinction. Typically, the ideal guest
at an American party is one who ―makes himself at home, even to the point of answering the door
or fixing his own drink. For persons in many other societies, including at least this hypothetical
English host, such guest behavior is presumptuous or rude.

Case 2
A common cultural misunderstanding in classes involves conflicts between what is said to be
direct communication style and indirect communication style. In American culture, people tend to
say what is on their minds and to mean what they say. Therefore, students in class are expected to
ask questions when they need clarification. Mexican culture shares this preference of style with
American culture in some situations, and that‘s why the students from Mexico readily adopted the
techniques of asking questions in class. However, Korean people generally prefer indirect
communication style, and therefore they tend to not say what is on their minds and to rely more on
implications and inference, so as to be polite and respectful and avoid losing face through any
improper verbal behavior. As is mentioned in the case, to many Koreans, numerous questions would
show a disrespect for the teacher, and would also reflect that the student has not studied hard enough.

Case 3
The conflict here is a difference in cultural values and beliefs. In the beginning, Mary didn‘t
realize that her Dominican sister saw her as a member of the family, literally. In the Dominican view,
family possessions are shared by everyone of the family. Luz was acting as most Dominican sisters
would do in borrowing without asking every time. Once Mary understood that there was a different
way of looking at this, she would become more accepting. However, she might still experience the
same frustration when this happened again. She had to find ways to cope with her own emotional
cultural reaction as well as her practical problem (the batteries running out).

Case 4
It might be simply a question of different rhythms. Americans have one rhythm in their personal
and family relations, in their friendliness and their charities. People from other cultures have
different rhythms. The American rhythm is fast. It is characterized by a rapid acceptance of others.
However, it is seldom that Americans engage themselves entirely in a friendship. Their friendships
are warm, but casual, and specialized. For example, you have a neighbor who drops by in the
morning for coffee. You see her frequently, but you never invite her for dinner --- not because you
don‘t think she could handle a fork and a knife, but because you have seen her that morning.
Therefore, you reserve your more formal invitation to dinner for someone who lives in a more
distant part of the city and whom you would not see unless you extended an invitation for a special
occasion. Now, if the first friend moves away and the second one moves nearby, you are likely to
reverse this --- see the second friend in the mornings for informal coffee meetings, and the first one
you will invite more formally to dinner.
Americans are, in other words, guided very often by their own convenience. They tend to make
friends easily, and they don‘t feel it necessary to go to a great amount of trouble to see friends often
when it becomes inconvenient to do so, and usually no one is hurt. But in similar circumstances
people from many other cultures would be hurt very deeply.

Unit 2
Culture and Communication
Reading I
What Is Culture
Comprehension questions
1. Which of the definitions given above do you prefer? Why?
Some may prefer a short definition, such as the one given by E. Sapir or R. Benedict, for it is
highly generalized and easy to remember. Some may prefer a longer one, such as Edward T. Hall‘s
definition of culture, because it provides us with a more comprehensive understanding of culture and
points out the all-pervasive impact of culture on human life in different dimensions.

2．What have you learned from those definitions about culture?
Many things can be learned from those definitions, for each definition, though not without its
limitations, tells us something very important about culture or certain aspect(s) of culture.

3. Do you agree that our lower needs always have to be satisfied before we can try to satisfy the
higher needs?
Even though this is generally the case, there will still be some exceptions. Sometimes people
might prefer to satisfy higher needs, for instance, esteem needs, before their lower needs, such as
certain physiological needs or safety needs are satisfied.

4. What examples can you give about how people of different cultures achieve the same ends by
taking different roads?
For example, everyone has to eat in order to live and this is universally true. However, to satisfy
this basic need, people of various cultures may do it in very different ways: what to eat and how to
eat it vary from culture to culture.

5. What behaviors of ours are born with and what are learned in the cultural environment?
Instinctive behaviors are behaviors that we are born with and ways of doing things in daily life,
such as ways of eating, drinking, dressing, finding shelter, making friends, marrying, and dealing
with death are learned in the cultural environment.

6. What other cultural differences do you know in the way people do things in their everyday life?
We can also find cultural differences in ways of bringing up children, treating the elderly,
greeting each other, saving and spending money, and many other things people do in everyday life.

7. In what ways are the Chinese eating habits different from those of the English-speaking countries?
We Chinese may enjoy something that is not usually considered as edible by the
English-speaking people. Generally we prefer to have things hot and lay much emphasis on tastes.
We tend to share things with each other when we are eating with others.

Reading II
Elements of Communication
Comprehension questions
1. What are the aspects of context mentioned above?
One aspect of context is the physical setting, including location, time, light, temperature,
distance between communicators, and any seating arrangements. A second aspect of context is
historical. A third aspect of context is psychological. A fourth aspect of context is culture.

2. In what ways would your posture, manner of speaking or attire change if you move from one
physical setting to another, for example, from your home to a park, to a classroom, to a restaurant,
to a funeral house, etc?
One‘s posture, manner of speaking or attire change from being casual to formal gradually from
home to a park, to a classroom, to a restaurant, to a funeral house, etc, according to different
formalness and seriousness of these situations.

3. How do people acquire communication norms in their life?
People acquire communi