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THE QUALITIES WE PRIZE IN OUR CHILDREN
results on the question of the priorities parents around the world have when raising their children. While the survey showed that some virtues are universally prized, interesting regional and national trends emerge wrhen parents are asked to rate the importance of various qualities they wish to instil in their children.
Parents around the world seem to agree that good manners, a sense of responsibility and
respect for others are important qualities to teach their children. But while West Europeans give all three qualities more or less equal importance, East Europeans and North Americans rate a sense of responsibility as by far the most important, and relegate respect for others to fourth place. Interestingly, a sense of imagination ranked the lowest priority worldwide, although West Europeans gave the quality of flexible thinking twice the importance any other group did. The Italians stress the virtue of cultivating their youngsters' imagination more than most others surveyed, with the exception of Switzerland. The supposedly staid Swiss prize imaginative youth. Etiquette-minded Belgians, Spaniards and Greeks placed the highest premium on politeness, while the Danes and Swedes put good manners lowest on the list. The newly-capitalist Eastern bloc countries also rated good manners as relatively unimportant, perhaps because they are being confronted with commercial competition for the first time. Together with the Swiss and the Turks, on the other hand, they prized the ability to communicate with others.
The virtues of tolerance and respect for others were most highly regarded in Scandinavia, France, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain. This was not the case in Greece and the former Eastern bloc nations, which rated these as being of lesser importance. Germans, Austrians and Swedes esteem personal independence, but the industrious French hold the quality of conscientiousness at work more dear than any other European nationals. The responses in the industrialized nations of Sweden and Britain showed, perhaps bewilderingly, that nationals of those countries gave little importance to conscientiousness at work. Polite Belgians answered that for them, obedience is among their paramount values; this sentiment is shared to a lesser degree by the British, Greeks and Irish. The Italians, according to their questionnaires, ranked this very low. When rearing their children, the Greeks, Turks and Irish are alone in their emphasis on instilling strong religious beliefs. One of the primary difficulties the researchers faced was translating the questions as perfectly as possible in order not to distort the result. "Imagination", for example, can be translated into Dutch as "conceited-ness''; perhaps this explains why the Dutch appeared to give imagination a low priority.
Also, some qualities are so ingrained in certain cultures that they are taken for granted, while others are given great emphasis because thev are felt to be lacking in a particular society
1. The survey shows that .....
A. some values are general and others vary. B. no patterns emerged.
C. different nations contradict each other. D. there are no clear results.
2. For the North Americans, a sense of responsibility is ....
A. more important than it is for East Europeans. B. more important than respect for others.
C. as important as it is for West Europeans. D. as important as respect for others.
3. A sense of imagination is .....
A. most important to the Italians. B. most important to the Swiss.
C. important to all except the Swiss. D. equally important to the Italians and the Swiss.
4. Politeness is less important in the Eastern bloc because ....
A. they enjoy confrontation. B. they are competitive people.
C. they are still getting used to capitalism. D. they are relatively uncommunicative.
5. "They" (underlined) in paragraph 4 refers to....
A. commercial competitors. B. the Swiss and Turks.
C. good manners. D. Eastern bloc countries.
6. Although their societies are industrialized, the British and Swedes....
A. are not conscious of it. B. are bewildered by industry.
C. do not think hard work important. D. do not think their nationality important.
7. The research was difficult because .....
A. the researchers made so many mistakes. B. the results were distorted.
C. no one knew how to translate certain words. D. it had to be conducted in so many languages.
WORLD POPULATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
In addition, the average person uses more energy and natural resources than the average person one hundred years ago, meaning that the rates of consumption are actually much higher than just the increase in population would imply. For example, it took the world 125 years to use the first one trillion barrels of oil. The next trillion barrels will be used in less than 30 years, which is almost 5 times as fast, not three.
All of these activities: food production, energy usage, and the use of natural resources, contribute to climate change in some way. The greater amounts of oil and other fuels burned to create energy release chemicals which add to global warming. In order to produce more food farmers cut down trees to gain more land for their fields. In addition, we cut down trees to build the houses needed for a larger population. Those trees are an essential part of controlling global warming. These are just two examples of the impacts that the growing population has on global warming; others are too numerous to mention.
In addition to a growing population, the world also has a population that desires a higher standard of living than in the past, and a higher standard of living requires the use of even more natural resources. A look at one country will provide a clear example of this fact. China is the world's most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people. Currently, the standard of living for most of those people is far below that of people in first world nations. Therefore, the average Chinese citizen uses far fever natural resources and less energy than the average citizen of the US or Japan. But China is growing in power, and more of its citizens are beginning to expect a first world lifestyle. If every Chinese person attains a first world lifestyle, the amount of energy and natural resources needed in the world will double, even if the standard of living in every other nation on Earth remains the same as it is today.
1. The word "pace" in the passage is closest in meaning to…. .
A. growth B. speed C. problem D. pollution
2. The word "consumption" in the passage is closest in meaning to….
A. development B. usage C. population D. increase
3. According to the passage, how does food production contribute to global warming?
A. Producing more food leads to growth in the world population.
B. Food production uses many chemicals which add to global warming.
C. Food production requires that the forests be cleared to create farmland.
D. Food production decreases the ability of the air to release heat.
4. Why does the author mention the rate at which oil is being used paragraph 1?
A. To illustrate that we are using resources faster than the speec at which the population is growing.
B. To suggest that most of the problems of global warming are associated with our rapid use of oil.
C. To suggest that our oil is likely to run out sometime in the next thirty years.
D. To contrast the differences in lifestyle between people giving 100 years ago and people living today.
5. The word others in the passage refers to…. .
A. problems of global warming in the modern world
B. examples of the environmental consequences of population growth
C. ways in which our usage of oil will effect the world climate
D. the reasons why trees are essential in controlling global warming
6. According to the passage, how does the standard of living affect global warming?
A. Higher standards of living are better for the environment.
B. First world nations create less population than developing nations.
C. The use of natural resources is directly related to the standard of living.
D. High standards of living lead to increases in world population.
7. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence (in bold) in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
A. If China becomes a first world nation and all other nations keep their current standard of living, the usage of energy and natural resources will double.
B. If China doubles its usage of natural resources, its will attain a better standard of living, but other nations will have to remain as they are today.
C. Even if the standard of living in every other nation on Earth re mains as its is today, China will still try to attain a first world standard of living.
D. When China attains a first world lifestyle, the amount of energy and natural resources used by other nations to keep their cur rent standard of living will double.
8. Why does the author discuss China, Japan, and the United States?
A. To compare the standards of their citizens
B. To explain why China will not be able to become a first world nation
C. To better illustrate the effects of an increase in standards of living
D. To explain why the world's use of energy will need to double soon
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