Question

Last year I lived in Chile for half a year as an exchange student with the American Field Service. Compared to most visitors, I didn’t travel much. I lived with a Chilean family and had the responsibilities of any Chilean teenager. I went to school every day, in uniform. I had good days and bad days and days that I didn’t understand.

Chuquicamata, my host community, is a mining camp in the Atacama Desert. There is no disco, no shopping center, no museum or beach. Driveways must be watered daily to keep the dust down.

When I arrived here, I was scared. It was so different from the urban middle-class America I was accustomed to. There were lost dogs on the streets, and a constant cloud of brick-colored dust came from the mine. There was no downtown, few smoothly paved（用磚石鋪的）streets, and little to do for amusement. The people worked extremely hard. Rain was a rare phenomenon; earthquakes and windstorms were frequent.

I had studied Spanish for two and a half years and was always one of the best students in my class. But in my first week in Chile I was barely able to communicate and desperate for one person to whom I could explain my shock. I couldn’t speak the thoughts in my head --- and there were so many.

Most exchange students experience this like me. Culture shock presents itself in everything from increased aggression toward the people to lack of appetite or weight gain and depression. I was required to overcome all difficulties. Being an exchange student is not easy.

As time passed, everything changed. I began to forget words in English and to dream in Spanish and love Chilean food. I got used to not depending on expensive things for fun. Fun in Chuquicamata was being with people. And I took math, physics, chemistry, biology, Spanish, art, and philosophy --- for which I received half a credit in global studies. Somehow my high school couldn’t figure out a way to relate my experience to its curriculum.

But the sacrifices were nothing compared to the gain. I learned how to accept as well as to succeed in another culture. I now know the world is my community and have a much deeper understanding of both myself and others.

1.The author went to Chile last year with the purpose of ______.

A．paying a visit to Chile as a tourist

B．working as a volunteer of the American Field Service

C．studying Chilean culture as a college student

D．experiencing Chilean life as an exchange student

2.On arriving in Chile, the author felt frightened because ______.

A．he couldn’t get used to working so hard as Chileans did

B．he did not know how to get along with local people because of the culture gap

C．its living conditions were much worse than what he was familiar with

D．his life was threatened by earthquakes and windstorms

3.During the first week in Chile the author ______.

A．could hardly communicate with people

B．found one person to explain his shock

C．couldn’t express his thoughts in English

D．couldn’t overcome his great depression

4.According to the text, the author most probably thinks that his life in Chile was ______.

A．wonderful but tiring B．hard but meaningful

C．difficult and terrible D．boring and disappointing

5.What can we learn from the passage?

A．Most Chileans are not friendly to foreigners.

B．Exchange students always fail to succeed in another culture.

C．The author benefits greatly from the experience in Chile.

D．The official languages of Chile are Spanish and English.

Answer 1