TheAllAmericansSlurp

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1、The All-American Slurp by Lensey Namioka People in different places have different lifestyles and eating habits. Ignorance of the differences may sometimeslead to cultural shocks. Read the following story and see how the author feels towards her own culture and that of the West even over trivial mat

2、ters such as table manners. The first time our family was invited out to dinner in America, we disgraced ourselves while eating celery. We had immigrated to this country from China, and during our early days here we had a hard time with American table manners. In China we never ate celery raw, or an

3、y other kind of vegetable raw. We always had to disinfect the vegetables in boiling water first. When we were presented with our first relish tray, the raw celery caught us unprepared. We had been invited to dinner by our neighbors, the Gleasons.After arriving at the house, we shook hands with our h

4、osts and packed ourselves into a sofa. As our family of four sat stiffly in a row, my younger brother and I stole glances at our parents for a clue as to what to do next. Mrs. Gleason offered the relish tray to mother. The tray looked pretty, with its tiny red radishes, curly sticks of carrots, and

5、long, slender stalks of pale green celery. Do try some of the celery, Mrs. Lin, she said. Its from a local farmer, and its sweet. Mother picked up one of the green stalks, and Father followed suit.Then I picked up a stalk, and my brother did too. So there we sat, each with a stalk of celery in our r

6、ight hand. Mrs. Gleason kept smiling. Would you like to try some of the dip, Mrs. Lin? Its my own recipe: sour cream and onion flakes, with a dash of Tabasco sauce. Most Chinese dont care for dairy products, and in those days I wasnt even ready to drink fresh milk. Sour cream sounded perfectly revol

7、ting. Our family shook our head in unison. Mrs. Gleason went off with the relish tray to the other guests, and we carefully watched to see what they did. Everyone seems to eat the raw vegetables quiet happily. Mother took a bite of her celery. Crunch. Its not bad! she whispered. Father took a bite o

8、f his celery. Crunch. Yes, it is good, he said, looking surprised. I took a bite, and then my brother. Crunch, crunch. It was more than good; it was delicious. Raw celery has a slight a sparkle, a zingy taste that you dont get in cooked celery. When Mrs. Gleason came around with the relish tray, we

9、each took another stalk of celery, except my brother.He took two. There was only one problem: long strings ran through the length of the stalk, and they got caught in my teeth. When I help my mother in the kitchen, I always pull the strings out before slicing celery. I pulled the strings out of my s

10、talk. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip. My brother followed suit. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. To my left, my parents were taking care of their own stalks. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. Suddenly I realized that there was dead silence except for our zipping. Looking up, I saw that the eyes of everyone in the room were on

11、 our family. Mr. and Mrs. Gleason, their daughter Meg, who was my friend, and their n eighbors the Badelsthey were all stari ng at us as we busily pulled the stri ngs of our celery. That wasnt the end of it. Mrs. Gleason announced that dinner was served and invited us to the dining table. It was lav

12、ishly covered with platters of food, but we couldnt see any chairs around the table. So we helpfully carried over some dining chairs and sat down. All the other guests just stood there. Mrs. Gleason bent down and whispered to us, This is a buffet dinner. You help yourselves to some food and eat it i

13、n the living room. Our family beat a retreat back to the sofa as if chased by enemy soldiers. For the rest of the evening, too mortified to go back to the dining table, I nursed a bit of potato salad on my plate. Next day Meg and I got on the school bus together. I wasnt sure how she would feel abou

14、t me after the spectacle our family made at the party. But she was just the same as usual, and the only reference she made to the party was, Hope you and your folks got enough to eat last night. You certainly didnt take very much. Mom never tries to figure out how much food to prepare. She just puts

15、 everything on the table and hopes for the best. I began to relax. The Gleasons dinner party wasnt so different from a Chinese meal after all. My mother also puts everything on the table and hopes for the best. Meg was the first friend I had made after we came to America. I eventually got acquainted

16、 with a few other kids in school, but Meg was still the only real friend I had. My brother didnt have any problems making friends. He spent all his time with some boys who were teaching him baseball, and in no time he could speak English much faster than I couldnot better, but faster. I worried more

17、 about making mistakes, and I spoke carefully, making sure I could say everything right before opening my mouth. At least I had a better accent than my parents, who never really got rid of their Chinese accent, even years later. My parents had both studied English in school before coming to America,

18、 but what they had studied was mostly written English, not spoken. Fathers approach to English was a scientific one. Since Chinese verbs have no tense, he was fascinated by the way English verbs changed form according to whether they were in the present, past imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future,

19、or future perfect tense. He was always making diagrams of verbs and their inflections, and he looked for opportunities to show off his mastery of the pluperfect and future perfect tenses, his two favorites. I shall have finished my project by Monday, he would say smugly. Mothers approach was to memo

20、rize lists of polite phrases that would cover all possible social situations. She was constantly muttering things like Im fine, thank you. And you? Once she accidentally steppedon someones foot, and hurriedly blurted, Oh, thats quite all right! Embarrassed by her slip, she resolved to do better next

21、 time. So when someone stepped on her foot, she cried, Youre welcome! In our own different ways , we made progress in learning English. The day came when my parents announced that they wanted to give a dinner party. We had invited Chinese friends to eat with us before, but this dinner was going to b

22、e different. In addition, we were going to invite the Gleasons. Gee, I can hardly wait to have dinner at your house, Meg said to me. I just love Chinese food. That was a relief. Mother was a good cook, but I wasnt sure if people who ate sour cream would also eat chicken gizzards stewed in soy sauce.

23、 Mother decided not to take a chance with chicken gizzards. Since we had western guests, she set the table with large dinner plates, which we never used in Chinese meals. In fact we didnt use individual plates at all, but picked up food from the platters in the middle of the table and brought it dir

24、ectly to our rice bowls. Following the practice of Chinese-American restaurants, Mother also placed large serving spoons on the platters. The dinner started well. Mrs. Gleason exclaimed at the beautifully arranged dishes of food: the colorful candied fruit in the sweet-and-sour pork dish, the noodle

25、-thin shreds of chicken meat stir-fried with tiny peas, and the glistening pink prawns in a ginger sauce. At first I was too busy enjoying my food to notice how the guests were doing. But soon I remembered my duties. Sometimes guests were too polite to help themselves and you had to serve them with

26、more food. I glanced at Meg, to see if she needed more food, and my eyes nearly popped out at the sight of her plate. It was piled with food: the sweet-and-sour meat pushed right against the chicken shreds, and the chicken sauce ran into the prawns. She had been taking food from a second dish before

27、 she finished eating her helping from the first! Horrified, I turned to look at Mr. Gleason. He was chasing a pea around his plate. Several times he got it to the edge, but when he tried to pick it up with his chopsticks, it rolled back toward the center of the plate again. Finally he put down his c

28、hopsticks and picked up the pea with his fingers. He really did! A grown man! All of us, our family and the Chinese guests, stopped eating to watch the activities of the Gleasons. I wanted to giggle. Then I caught my mothers eyes on me. She frowned and shook her head slightly, and I understood the m

29、essage: the Gleasons were not used to Chinese ways, and they were just coping the best they could. For some reason I thought of celery strings. When the main courses were finished, Mother brought out a platter of fruit. I hope you werent expecting a sweet dessert, she said. Since the Chinese dont ea

30、t dessert, I didnt think to prepare any. Oh, I couldnt possibly eat dessert! cried Mrs. Gleason. Im simply stuffed! Meg had different ideas. When the table was cleared, she announced that she and I were going for a walk. I dont know about you, but I feel like dessert, she told me, when we were outsi

31、de. Come on, theres a Dairy Queen down the street. I could use a big chocolate milkshake! Although I didnt really want anything more to eat, I insisted on paying for the milkshakes. After all I was still hostess. Meg got her large chocolate milkshake and I had a small one. Even so, she was finishing

32、 hers while I was only half done. Toward the end she pulled hard on her straws and went shloop, shloop. Do you always slurp when you eat a milkshake? I asked, before I could stop myself. Meg grinned. Sure. All Americans slurp. (1,685 words) A. Determining the main idea. Choose the best answer. Do no

33、t refer to the text. The main idea of the article is that _ . (a) a girl attends a dinner at an American home and then invites the Americans to dine at her own home (b) a girl comes to America and finds great difficulties in adapting herself to a new life style (c) a girl finds that table manners of

34、 her own culture and those of the USA are basically the same (d) A girl experiences differences in table manners between her own culture and that of the West B. Comprehending the text. Choose the best answer. 1. During their early days in America the girl and her family had a hard time with _ . (a)

35、eating celery (b) getting along with the local Americans (c) American table manners (d) money problems 2. After arriving at the house of the Gleasons for dinner, the children of the Chinese family seemed to _. (a) be very much surprised (b) feel quite uneasy (c) know what to do (d) get glances from

36、their parents as instructions 3. The girl and her family were offered raw celery and they found that _ . (a) it was not as good as cooked celery (b) it tasted delicious if it had strings in the stalks (c) it was also delicious though strings in the stalks were a problem (d) it was delicious if strin

37、gs and the stalks were eaten together 4. All those present looked at the girl and her family because the latter _ . (a) were newcomers (b) had table manners different from theirs (c) ate too much celery (d) were regarded as having bad table manners 5. A buffet dinner means a dinner at which _ . (a)

38、raw vegetables were served (b) people sat around the table eating together (c) there was no dining table and guests had to eat standing (d) diners helped themselves to food and didnt sit around a dinner table to eat 6. As far as English language learning is concerned, which of the following is NOT t

39、rue? (a) The boy soon could speak English faster than his sister (b) The girl had a better accent than her parents. (c) The father was very much interested in English grammar. (d) The mother knew what to say in different social situations. 7. At the dinner given by the girls family, she was surprise

40、d to find that _ . (a) Meg was uneasy and needed urging to eat more food (b) Meg only took food from a second dish (c) Meg had helped herself to a lot of food (d) Meg didnt know what to eat 8. At the dinner give n by the girls family, Mr. Gleas on was see n _ . (a) chas ing a pea around his plate fo

41、r fun (b) pick ing up peas with his fin gers (c) frowning at the food (d) shak ing his head slightly C. Un dersta nding vocabulary. Choose the correct defi niti on accord ing to the con text. 1. The first time our family was invited out to dinner in America, we disgraced ourselves while eating celer

42、y. (a)humiliated (b) brought shame on (c) behaved (d) felt un comfortable 2. Mother picked up one of the gree n stalks, and Fathollowed suit. (a) did the same (b) went into the room (c) went after her (d) had to go 3. Sour cream soun ded perfectlyevolting. (a) disgusting (b) unthinkable (c) welcome

43、(d) strange 4. Our family shook our headsin unison. (a) with satisfact ion (b) very formally (c) in disagreeme nt (d) at the same time 5. It was lavishly covered with platters of food, but we could nt see any chairs around the table. (a) excessively (b) pleasa ntly (c) beautifully (d) en tirely 6. O

44、ur family beat a retreat back to the sofa as if chased by enemy soldiers. (a) withdrew hurriedly (b) became frighte ned and went (c) found our way (d) made haste 7. For the rest of the evening, too mortified to go back to the dining table, I nursed a bit of potato salad on my plate. (a) humiliated (

45、b) scared (c) hungry (d) pleased 8. I was nt sure how she would feel about me after thepectacleour family made at the party. (a) unu sual modesty (b) funny appeara nee (c) polite behavior (d) abno rmal behavior 9. I eve ntually got acqua in ted with a few other kids in school, but Meg was still the

46、only real frie nd I had. (a) had met socially with (b) knew well (c) had found (d) had quarreled with 10. She wasconstantly mutteri ng thi ngs like Im fine, tha nk you. And you? (a) quietly (b) dilige ntly (c) repeatedly (d) politely 11. Horrified , I turned to look at Mrs. Gleason. (a) Shocked greatly (b) Amused greatly (c) Caught un prepared (d) Alarmed at once 12. Oh, I could nt possibly eat dessert! cried Mrs. Gleaso n. Im simplystuffed! (a) un able to eat more (b) wishi ng to have more (c) not willi ng to eat that (d) too full with food