Unit 6
Text comprehension
I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s purpo of writing.
A.
II. Judge. according to the text, whether the following statements are true or fal.
1. F. Refer to Paragraphs 1.It is true that the flag the narrator hangs draws little attention in Paris, but the reason is not that Parisians or Frenchmen are not interested in flag-hanging in general. Rather, the Independence Day is an occasion special for Americans only and, understandably, the French show little interest in the day or the celebrating flag.
2. T. Refer to Paragraph 2.
3. F. Refer to Paragraph 3. The author’s children have had little chance of learning the hi
story of the U.S. at school, and the parents as native Americans are the only ones who could have taught them about it. This, however, is not true of children in general in France.
4. F. Refer to Paragraph 4. They do not conceal the dark side of the American society but try to keep their children from the follies of the American society like school shootings.
5. T. Refer to Paragraph 9-11.
6. F. Refer to Paragraph 12. Globalization is both beneficial and detrimental. It helps to blur the clear-cut divide between cultures on the one hand but makes children less than fully immerd in a foreign world on the other.
III. Answer the following questions.
1. For one thing, flag-hanging is the only thing he can do in Paris to celebrate the Independence Day, which is part of his national heritage. For another, he intends to u it as a special occasion for teaching his children about the American history and as a remin
der of their native American identity.
2. The children ldom mix languages up becau they have acquired French through the school instructions and English through their family life with English-speaking parents. And they em to know when to u which.
3. Refer to paragraphs 4-8. The benefits of raising children in a foreign culture, as the writer suggests, include acquiring a foreign language and culture and avoiding being expod to the problems of the native culture.
4. It is difficult, according to the author, to make the children understand and identify the virtues of their native culture without living in it. Family instructions are not satisfactorily effective and have to be complemented by other means such as re-entering into the native culture and taking children to historical places.
5. Becau he grew up in a foreign culture and he knows it is quite an issue to know how to rai children in a foreign culture without losing their native identity. He understands that the issue involves the efforts on the part of the parents.
6. Globalization is like a double-edged sword to the growth of children in a foreign culture. On the one hand, it helps to reduce differences between the foreign culture and the native culture, and facilitates the physical and spiritual re-entry into the native culture. On the other hand, it unfortunately makes it more difficult than ever for children to be fully immerd in the foreign culture.
IV. Explain in your own words the following ntences taken form the text.
1. July 4 is one of the times I, as a native American, feel instinctively uneasy about the great gaps in our children’s understanding of their American identity, and thus I am motivated to do something to fill the gaps.
2. And living away from our native country does not matter much.
3. When I lived in France as an expatriated child, the French kids were dresd in the unique French style, thus looking quite different from their counterparts in other countries.
4. Full immersion in a truly foreign world no longer ems possible in Western countries,
and I think this is a deplorable impact of globalization upon the growth of children in a foreign country.
Structural analysis of the text
The author of this text follows a “specific-general” pattern in his discussion, i.e. he first talks about what it means to his children to hang the national flag of their native land in a foreign country on July 4th every year and then express his view on the importance for expatriated people in general to keep their cultural identity, especially when the whole world is undergoing a process of globalization. The specific points can be found in his discussion of the costs and benefits of raising children in a foreign culture in Paragraphs 4-9 while the general conclusion can be found in paragraphs 10-12, especially paragraph 12.
Vocabulary exercis
I. Replace the underlined words in the ntences with appropriate forms of words chon from the text.
1. pursue 2. resonates 3. confronted 4. clichés 5. had suppresd 6. has confirmed
II. Fill in the blank with the appropriate forms of the given words.
1. fluency 2. enrollment 3. accessible 4. obtainable
5. personification 6.enlightened 7.globalization 8. prompting
III . Fill in the blank in each ntence with an appropriate phrasal verb or collocation taken from the text .
1. took pride in 2. was immerd in 3. resonating with 4. had…been expod to 5. in his mind’s eye 6. a glimp of 7.convey…to 8. turned …to
IV. Explain the meaning of the underlined word or phra in each ntence.
1. literature 2. joined 3. motionless 4. more than 5. quickly 6. desires
