专四
Cultural norms so completely surround people，so permeate thought and action，that few people ever recognize the assumptions on which their lives and their sanity rest．As one observer put it，if birds were suddenly endowed with scientific curiosity they might examine many things，but the sky itself would be overlooked as a suitable subject；if fish were to become curious about the world，it would never occur to them to begin by investigating water．For birds and fish would take the sky and sea for granted，unaware of their profound influence because they comprise the medium for every fact．Human beings，in a similar way，occupy a symbolic universe governed by codes that are unconsciously acquired and automatically employed．So much so that they rarely notice that the ways they interpret and talk about events are distinctively different from the ways people conduct their affairs in other cultures．
As long as people remain blind to the sources of their meanings，they are imprisoned within them．These cultural frames of reference are no less confining simply because they cannot be seen or touched．Whether it is an individual neurosis that keeps an individual out of contact with his neighbors，or a collective neurosis that separates neighbors of different cultures，both are forms of blindness that limit what call be experienced and what can be learned from others．
It would seem that everywhere people would desire to break out of the boundaries of their own experiential Worlds. Their ability to react sensitively to a wider spectrum of events and peoples requires an overcoming of such cultural parochialism. But，in fact，few attain this broader vision．Some，of course，have little opportunity for wider cultural experience，though this condition should change as the movement of people accelerates．0thers do not try to widen their experience because they prefer the old and familiar，seek from their affairs only further confirmation of the correctness m their own values．Still others recoil from such experiences because they feel it dangerous to probe too deeply Into me personal or cultural unconscious．Exposure may reveal how tenuous and arbitrary many cultural norms are；such exposure might force people to acquire new bases for interpreting events．And even for me many who do seek actively to enlarge the variety of human beings with whom they are capable of communicating there are still difficulties．
Cultural myopia persists not merely because of inertia and habit，but chiefly because it is so difficult to overcome．One acquires a personality and a culture in childhood，long before he is capable of comprehending either of them. To survive，each person masters the perceptual orientations，cognitive biases，and communicative habits of his own culture. But once mastered，objective assessment of these same processes is awkward since the same mechanisms that are being evaluated must be used in making the evaluations．
The examples of birds and fish____________．
A．show that they,t00，have their respective cultures
B．illustrate that human beings are unaware of the cultural codes governing them
C．demonstrate the similarity between man，birds，and fish in their ways of thinking
D．explain humans occupy a symbolic universe as birds and fish occupy the sky and the sea
第二段指出文化参照系禁锢了人们。
第三段指出人们渴望打破原有的经验世界的束缚，但他们又有各种各样的理由不去这样做。
最后一段指出文化短视的持续是由于惯性、习惯以及它难于克服造成的。
B。本题的出题点在类比处(in a similar way)。根据题干信息词birds and fish将答案锁定在文章首段第三、四句。这两句提到，鸟和鱼把天空和大海当作是理所当然的事，并未意识到它们深远的影响，人类也一样，他们存在于一个充斥着文化规范的世界中，这些文化规范是在不知不觉中学得又不假思索地应用的，由此可以推断，鸟和鱼的例子证明了人类也没有意识到自己受制于文化规范的约束，故本题选B。
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A．open-mindedness
B．provincialism
C．superiority
D．discrimination
A．everyone would like to widen their cultural scope if they can
B．childhood is an important stage in comprehending culture
C．provided one’s brought up in a culture，he may be with bias in making cultural evaluations
D．the obstacles to overcoming cultural parochialism lie mainly in people’s habit of thinking
A．People’s visions will be enlarged if only they know that cultural differences exist．
B．Individual and collective neurosis might prevent communications with others．
C．People in different cultures may be governed by the same cultural norms．
D．If cultural norms are something tangible，they won’t be so confining.
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