Every country has its own culture.

Even though each country uses doors, doors may have   50   functions and purposes which lead to   51   differences.

When I first came to America, I noticed that a public building had two different   52   and they had distinct functions. You have to push the door with the word “ PUSH ” to go out of the building and to pull the door with the word “PULL” to   53   the building. This was new to me, because we use the    　　　54   door in South Korea. For quite a few times I failed to go out of a shopping centre and was embarrassed.

The way of using school bus doors was also   55   to me. I used to take the school bus to school. The school decided that when the driver opened both the front and back door. Students who were getting off the bus should get off first, and students who were getting on should get on   56   in South Korea. We do not need to wait for people to  57  . One morning I hurried to the bus, and when the bus doors opened, I  58  tried to get on the school bus through the front door. All the students around looked at me. I was totally   59  , and my face went red.

A. different             B. important     C. practical             D. unusual

A. national               B. embarrassing          C. amazing             D. cultural

A. exits                 B. entrances             C. signs                D. doors

A. enter                 B. leave         C. open                D. close

A. main                      B. same           C. front                D. back

A. annoying             B. hard           C. satisfying            D. strange

A. sooner                 B. later                 C. faster                 D. earlier

A. get on                     B. get off          C. get up                   D. get up

A. politely                B. patiently      C. unconsciously        D. slowly

A. embarrassed       B. annoyed        C. unsatisfied           D. excited

The twentieth century has witnessed an enormous worldwide political, economic and cultural________.

A．transplant B．transformation 　 C．transportation 　　　 D．translation

Before India gained independence (獨立), a few young men from the villages wanted to free India from the foreign rule; they wanted the British to quit India. They needed material wealth to    the British out of India, so they started collecting    in the Indian villages.

One day, they got encouraged to collect     things as well. They went from door to door carrying a huge bag, which gradually was    with money and gifts. As they went, a one-legged beggar kept    them. The young men did not mind.

At the    of the day, they entered a house to see    they had collected. The beggar also wanted to enter, but since he was not a member of the group, they did not    him in. The beggar said to them: “I walked such a    distance right behind you. You want freedom; I also want freedom. India is not only your motherland. It is also my motherland.”

  , the young men got mad and told the beggar to go away. Then one of the men felt    for him, so they decided to  him the things they had collected.    the beggar was looking at the gifts in their bag, most of them were showing no    for him. Then suddenly the beggar opened up the bag that he had been carrying. It    a few coins and some rice. He threw all the contents into their bag at once.

At the    of this, immediately all the members of the revolutionary group started dropping    of gratitude (感激), because he had    all that he had to their cause. On that day, they had gone to visit so many rich families, who had given them next to ; but this beggar had given them everything that he had! They were deeply    by the beggar’s contribution.

A. drive                   B. grow                 C. help                  D. pick

A. food               B. money                     C. papers               D. seeds

A. military                 B. material            C. mysterious         D. cultural

A. tired               B. satisfied            C. filled                D. covered

A. following             B. cheating            C. calling                     D. beating

A. beginning              B. end                   C. front                 D. middle

A. how               B. what                 C. where               D. when

A. stop                     B. drop                 C. allow                D. promise

A. short                   B. near                  C. long                  D. little

A. At last                 B. At first              C. At a time           D. In that case

A. necessary            B. patient                     C. thankful            D. sorry

A. trouble                B. serve                 C. show                 D. excite

A. Since                 B. While               C. If                            D. Although

A. interest                     B. courage             C. respect                     D. disappointment

A. included             B. consisted           C. held                  D. contained

A. thought                B. sight                 C. sound                D. moment

A. laughter               B. difference          C. truth                 D. tears

A. taken                   B. given                C. wasted                     D. lost

A. something            B. nothing             C. everything         D. anything

A. moved                 B. removed            C. excited              D. surprised

They can be seen more frequently than ever before on college campuses, wearing thick-rimmed glasses while listening to indie(獨立的) music. One might find them playing unusual musical instruments, shopping at second-hand stores or expressing themselves in other unique ways. They call themselves hipsters. Being “hip” used to mean following the latest fashion. But gradually the word has evolved into a synonym for “cool”.

Hipsters value independent thinking, progressive politics, an appreciation of creativity and intelligence. Hipsters take pains and pride in not being mainstream. However, their culture has become quite trendy. This irony is central to their culture and offers an interesting paradox.

“I do take things in the mainstream with a grain of salt,” says Ben Polson, a college student at Brown University in the US. Polson describes himself as a hipster and says he often questions what determines popularity, especially regarding music.When lesser-known bands become popular they often lose their former fan base in exchange for a new one. There is a famous hipster saying that goes: I used to like that band before it got popular.

According to Polson, bands’ music changes when they go mainstream. They become “l(fā)ess experimental, doing things just to save popularity and fans. The original elements that we were drawn to slowly dwindle for the sake of popularity.”

Many young adults have started to view hipsters’ outlook as cool and are adopting their counterculture mindset (心態(tài))themselves. This has led to specialized brands, stores and music for the hipster position. Ironically, some such stores, including clothing labels Urban Outfitters and American Apparel, have gained mainstream popularity. This has seemingly diluted(沖淡) the anti-mainstream culture.

“A lot of people that are self-defined hipsters aren’t really hipsters, they’re just trying to conform to the non-conformist(不墨守成規(guī)者) to seem cooler,” says Amanda Leopold, a college student from Oberlin College, US. Although Leopold has many unconventional tastes and seems quite individualist, she refuses to classify herself as a hipster.

There is a conflict among hipsters about the very definition of the label. To some, to be a hipster is to be free from cultural constraints. To others, it means wearing a certain style and listening to a specific style of music. The former constantly strives for uniqueness, while the latter strives not to be mainstream.

And yet, the movement is gaining mainstream popularity. “It’s kind of the trend these days; everyone wants to be hip so no one’s hip,” says Leopold. “There have been hipsters since the seventies. It’s only become popular recently.”

Hipsters reject materialism and laugh at mainstream culture. But are they really beyond material comforts? Do they have any ideas of their own if they despise mainstream so much?

Christy Wampole, an associate professor of literature at Princeton University, US, is not so sure. She says the hipster is a contradiction in himself and an easy target of mockery(嘲弄). Writing in The New York Times, Wampole paints a less appreciative picture of a typical hipster.

“The hipster is a scholar of social forms, a student of cool. He studies continuously, searching for what has yet to be found by the mainstream. He is a walking citation(例證); his clothes refer to much more than themselves. He tries to negotiate the age-old problem of individuality, not with concepts, but with material things.”

1.From the passage we can know that hipsters are ____________________________.

A．a(chǎn) group of people who are self-denied

B．a(chǎn) group of students who are good at musical instruments

C．people who follow the latest trends and fashions

D．people who pay no attention to material things

2.The underlined word dwindle in the fourth paragraph may probably mean______________.

A．enlarge           B．delete            C．disappear         D．decrease

3.Leopold refuses to classify herself as a hipster because_______________________.

A．she doesn’t like her own unconventional tastes

B．there are too many specialized brands, stores and music for the hipster position

C．she thinks that a lot of people that are self-defined hipsters aren’t really hipsters

D．the hipsters’ culture has become quite trendy

4.When Leopold said “It’s kind of the trend these days; everyone wants to be hip so no one’s hip”, we can see that she felt a bit ______________.

A．happy            B．disappointed       C．excited           D．content

5.The passage mainly tells us ________________________.

A．the difficult situation of hipsters            B．the trend of fashion

C．the changes of the society                 D．the culture of hipsters