阅读理解。
Huihua, a Chinese girl, and Mary, an American student who was studying Chinese in China, were on their
way to a bookstore. As they got to the bookstore, they saw a young man walking down the stairs. In his hurry,
he missed the last two steps, and fell to the ground. He tried hard to get back to his feet while people around
him laughed. Luckily, he seemed to be OK.
Mary was worried. She found Huihua smiling a little and was not comfortable about it. "Tell me, Huihua,
how could people laugh when someone felllike that? Do they care at all? Shouldn't they go up and ask the
young man whether he was hurt?"
"They knew he wasn't hurt too much." Huihua said.
"But I still don't understand. A fall is a fall. In my culture, people would do anything but laugh!"
Chinese Perspective (观点)
This is an example in which the Chinese and the westemers explain a smile differently. Very often, the
Chinese people would also laugh or make a joke to ease the embarrassment (缓解尴尬) when they are caught
in the embarrassing situation. However, if someone gets hurt seriously, it will not be a laughing matter any
more. People will help him instead.
North American Perspective A westemer would explain laughter in such a situation as a sign of either
insensitivity (不关心) or, worse, pleasure that the person falling had hurt himself because that person was
disliked. A westemer's reaction would have been to rush over, help the person up, and to ask him," Are you
OK'?" If a westemer fell, he, like a Chinese person, might probably make a joke out of the incident (事件)
if he was not hurt. If two close friends are walking together, and one trips but clearly isn't hurt, a common
joke is to say "Have a nice trip". However, this joke would be made only between two people who knew each
other well.
1. Did Huihua help the young man after he fell down in the bookstore?
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2. How did Mary feel about Huihua's attitude towards the young man?
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3. In a westemer's opinion, what does the laughter in an embarrassing situation show?
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4. What does the underlined word "trip" mean?
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5. What is the main idea of the passage?
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