西方文化的英语阅读理解文

① 英语短文东西方文化差异

What leads to the cultural difference?
The cultures of the East and the West really distinguish each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate systems on the whole.

The origin of the eastern cultures is mainly from two countries: China and India. Both of the two cultures are gestated by rivers. In China, the mother river is the Yellow River while the Indian one is the Hin River. These two cultures were developed for several thousand years and formed their own styles. Then in Dang Dynasty of China, the Chinese culture graally went overseas to Japan, mixed into the Japanese society and shaped the Japanese culture nowadays. Though a bit different from the Chinese one, it belongs to the same system.

When the two mother rivers gave birth to the eastern culture, another famous culture was brought up on the Mesopotamian Plain ---- the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And these two are well-known as the base of the European culture. Like the Chinese culture, the European one also crossed waters. When the colonists of England settled down in America, their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn't distinguish from the European one a lot.

At the same time, the difference of the language systems adds to the cultural differences. In the East, most languages belong to the pictographic language (see the picture below) while the Western languages are mostly based on the Latin system, for example, the one I’m using to write this paper.

Other factors like human race difference counts as well. But what’s more, e to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and West, the two cultures seldom communicate until recent centuries. So they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference from the other.

Pictographic charactors

Part II How differently do people behave in daily life?
The differences are everywhere. They affect people’s ways of thinking and their views of the world. Even in everyday life, the cultural differences show up from the moment the eyes are opened to the minute the dreams are invited.

In the following, I’ll give some typical example of the differences.

Section 1: Greeting

Greeting is the first step to form a culture, because people begin to communicate with others. The indivials become a community.

How do we Chinese greet each other? Informally, if we meet an friend in the street, we are used to say: “Hi, have you had your meal?” or “Where are you going?”. When it is the case of two gentlemen, they tend to shake hands.

However, in the western countries, the above questions are just questions, not greeting at all. They may think you’re inviting them to dinner if you ask about their meals. Usually, they’ll just give each other a smile or greet with a “Hi.”. They’ll shake hands only in some formal situations. By the way, Westerners can leave a party or meeting halls without a formal conge, nor should they shake hands with every attendee like most of us will do here.

Section 2: Expressing gratitude

Think of the situations below. Your mother is busy in the kitchen. She suddenly asks you to fetch a bowl for her. You do so. What’ll your mother’s response be? Probably she’ll just continue doing the cooking. After a while, the dinner is ready. Your mother hands you your bowl of rice. What’s your response? Probably just begin to eat.

That’s what I want to say. In Chinese families, we rarely say “Thank you” to other family members for receiving help or service. Neither will we say so between good friends. It’s such an unpopular response that if you say it, the counterpart will think you are treating him as a stranger, otherwise you are lacking of intimacy.

But in the West, "thank you" is one of the most frequently used sentences. Teachers will thank a student for answering a question; husbands will thank his wife for making a coffee.

However, as an interesting phenomenon, it’s a custom to say "thank you" in Japan. No matter in family or among friends, Japanese chronically use it all the day. This is probably the aberrance of the culture.

Section 3 Dining

The ways people eat, that is, the table manner, really distinguish a lot. The reason for this is probably because of the different dining tools and menus.

Easterners use chopsticks, or sometimes even grasp rice straightly with hands as Indians do. The thin and long chopsticks cannot be used to cut food, so we usually use our teeth to act as knives. We hold our food, meat or vegetable, with the chopsticks, send them to the mouths, bite off a part of it and remain the other part on the chopsticks. That’s the usual way we eat. We are also used to hold up our bowls when having rice or soup. Japanese hold bowls to have miso soup without spoons. But all these habits are considered rude in the Western countries.

The etiquette in the West requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. Food should be cut by knives to fit into the mouths. Of course your mouth cannot touch the plates or bowls. So the regular process is like this. You cut your steak on the plate with fork and knife, send the meat cube into the mouth with fork and nothing will be returned back but the fork alone.

Section 4 Symbolizing

Symbolization is how people imagine or regard something. It actually reflects the way people think. Here I’ll only discuss some symbolization that frequently appears in daily life.

First is about the colors. We often give each color some meanings, because we feel differently when facing different colors. So people always have preference when choosing colors of clothes, decorations, etc. In the APEC summit held in Shanghai several years ago, in the last day, the presidents from all over the world wore the traditional Chinese Dang suits and took a photo together. The colors of the suits were chosen by themselves freely. However, it’s quite interesting to find that most Easterners chose red while most of the westerners preferred blue. To explain this, it’s easy to realize that what red means is almost opposite in the East and the West. Red means luck, fortune here. We Chinese often use this color to decorate in festivals, such as red lanterns, red Chinese nodes, red bangers. But red stands for blood, revolutions in the West. So the presidents avoided wearing this unlucky color.

Another interesting discovery is about the dragons. In the East, dragons are imagined as something like snake and are flowing in the sky for most of the time. The dragon is said to have the face of the horse, the horns of the deer, the ears of the ox, the body of the snake, the claws of the eagle and squama of the fish. We regard dragon as God and say that we Chinese are the offspring of the dragon. The God of Dragons of the four seas can charge the rainfalls, so we sometimes also call them the God of the water or rain. But in the West, people think dragons as dinosaurs, which can stand on the ground with feet and fly with huge wings. They lay eggs just like dinosaurs. The dragons of the West have the ability to erupt fire, instead of water. The fire can destroy everything so the dragons are not welcomed at all. They even become the symbol of the Devil.

Dragons Imagined by Chinese

Dragon Imagined by the Westerners

Part III What can we do to treat the culture gap?
Now we have seen that there exists such a huge gap between eastern culture and western one. Then what should we do to face this gap in the graally globalizing world?

Firstly, we cannot deny any of the cultures. Every nation has its own characteristics and it’s mainly through its culture that we first begin to know the nation and its characteristics. So we cannot say that this culture or custom is right and that is wrong. Equal respect should be attached to every culture in the world, even to those that are not in existence any more.

Next, we should get to learn how to coordinate the different cultures. We say the world is becoming smaller and smaller. More foreigners come and go everyday. When it is in the same country, the same city, the same neighborhood, the cultural collision is expected to be more serious. So we should try to avoid this happening. One important thing is to get some basic knowledge about the other cultures so as not to misunderstand some actions or habits of the foreigners.

When the above two is done, we can start to communicate. I mean we can take in some strong points from the foreign cultures. Though there doesn’t exist correctness in terms of culture, it does have the terms of more advanced or more suitable for the world nowadays. Of course, we cannot throw away our own culture and accept another one totally. Every culture is a treasure to the history of the Earth, so we should only pick out those we lack to perfect our own.

Different cultures add the most colorful element to the world of 21st century. The cultural gap should not be the obstacle to the civilization of human being. It ought to be the motivation of our going farther.

② 求几篇高中英语阅读理解文章，内容关于介绍某个西方节日，文化或者习俗。

The Dragon Boat Festival ,also called the Duanwu Festival ,is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar.People always eat rice mplings and watch dragon boat races to celebrate it.

The festival is best known for its dragon-boat races,especially in the southern places where there are many rivers and lakes. It's very popular.

The rice mpling is made of glutinous rice,meat and so on. You can eat different kinds of rice mplings.They are very delicious.And Dragon Boat Festival is for Qu Yuan. He is an honest minister who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river.

Overall, the Dragon Boat Festival is very interesting!

③ 关于中西方文化的初中英语阅读理解练习题及答案

In the US, people prefer waiting for a table to sitting with people they don’t know. This means a hostess may not seat a small group until a small table is available, even if a large one is. If you are sitting at a table with people you don’t know, it is impolite to light up a cigarette without asking if it will disturb them.
At American restaurants and coffee shops you are usually served tap water before you order. You may find the bread and butter is free, and if you order coffee, you may get a free refill.
Most cities and towns have no rules about opening and closing time for stores or restaurants, though they usually do make rules for bars. Especially in large cities, stores may be open 24 hours a day.
Serving in restaurants is often large; too large for many people. If you can’t finish your meal but would like to enjoy the food later, ask your waitress or waiter for a “doggie bag”. It may have a picture of a dog on it, but everybody knows you’re taking the food for yourself.
Supper and dinner are both words for the evening meal. Some people have “Sunday dinner”. This is an especially big noon meal.
Tips are not usually added to the check. They are not included in the price of the meal, either. A tip of about 15% is expected and you should leave it on the table when you leave. In some restaurants, a check is brought on a plate and you put your money there. Then the waiter or waitress brings you your change.
1. Which statement is true?
A. American people like sitting with people they don’t know.
B. A hostess always seats a small group at a large table.
C. American people never sit with people they don’t know.
D. American people would not light a cigarette if the people who sit at the same table mind their smoking.
2. What is served before you order?
A. bread B. butter C. coffee D. cold water
3. What do American people always do when servings are too large for them?
A. They take the food home with a doggie bag for their dogs.
B. They leave the food on the table and go away.
C. They take the food home with a doggie bag and enjoy the food later.
D. They ask the waitress or waiter to keep the food for them.
4. Sunday dinner is_______.
A. a dinner in the evening B. A big noon meal
C. a big lunch on Sunday D. A supper on Sunday
这是一篇讲美国人的用餐习俗的阅读。
As you know different countries have different customs. Also there are many gestures showing many meanings in many countries. Here are a few examples of gestures. A fisherman in Britain will show the size of a fish he has caught by holding his two hands, palms(手掌) facing each other, the right distance apart in front of him. But the one from certain part of Africa will measure off the size along his left arm with his right hand. In Britain the gesture to show the number “one” is made by holding up the index finger (the second finger), but in Switzerland it is the thumb—the first finger which is held up. Some people point at objects with finger, others by sticking out the lips. The gesture for “come here” is made in Britain with the index finger, which is held, pointing upwards, at eye level and bent towards the body; in Egypt the hand is held at arm’s length, palm downwards, and the fingers are then bent. The difference between the movements is very important, and the meanings of the same gestures maybe opposite in different countries. It may bring trouble to those not well known with it.
1. This passage is mainly about _______.
A. different people in different countries B. how to understand the gestures in Britain
C. the different gestures D. how to show a gesture in Egypt
2Sometimes difference between the movements in different countries may bring about _______ to you.
A. a good luck B. a new world C. all ill effect D. happiness
3 How will the Africans express if the object’s size is longer than their left arms?
A. Take a string to show it. B. Keep silent.
C. Bring the object to the spot. D. In another way.
4According to the passage we should _______.
A. look before we leap B. pick and choose
C. strike while the iron is hot D. do in Rome as the Romans do

这是篇中西方习俗的。答案就先不给你发了，希望你认真做，等你做完以后可以把你的答案告诉我，我再告诉你正确的。

④ 如何看待西方文化的英语作文

my
eyes
of
western
culture
my
eyes
of
the
western
culture
is
colorful
the
eiffel
tower
in
paris
american
washington
there
are
many
religions
for
example,
islam,
christianity,
buddhism,
etc
american
holiday
that
is
rich
and
colorful
such
as
well
known
valentine's
day,
christmas,
and
many
of
the
festival.
foreign
like
design,
can
always
able
to
design
a
strange
thing
to
attract
people's
eyeballs
what
we
lack
of
is
what
they
are
so
we
all
learn
from
western
culture
this
is
my
eyes
of
western
culture
我眼中的西方文化
我眼中的西方文化是多姿多彩的
巴黎的埃菲尔铁塔
美国的华盛顿
还有许多的宗教
比如，有佛教、伊斯兰教、基督教等
美国的节日那个也是丰富多彩的
例如大家众所周知的情人节啦，圣诞节啦，还有很多的节日。
外国喜欢设计，总是可以能够设计出稀奇古怪的东西来吸引人们的眼球
我们所欠缺的正是他们所擅长的
所以我们要好好的向西方学习文化
这就是我眼中的西方文化..

⑤ 急！！！英语作文“我眼中的西方文化”

The history of western culture and art are derived from religion, since the Renaissance after the change, but although religious (Christian) to its effect is still visible everywhere. After all, has formed thousands of belief atmosphere.
Can't deny that China's artistic culture from religion, like the nhuang mogao grottoes, leshan giant Buddha is deeply influence Buddhism as many as are better, mount wudang Taoism - but this is an effect of distinction by single Christian (western Catholic), while the effect of religion in China for art culture is not single. Another Chinese more, not by the influence from religion, and all kinds of people, such as Confucianism such services, the ruling class will influence, etc. Another sure-to-be-talked-about point in China and the folk spontaneous art culture. 历史上西方的艺术文化均源自宗教，自文艺复兴后虽有所改变，但宗教（基督教）对其产生的影响仍是随处可见。毕竟已经形成了上千年的信仰氛围。
不能否认中国的艺术文化不受宗教的影响，像敦煌莫高窟、乐山大佛等不少都深受佛教影响，武当山等好多都受道教影响——但这就是一种区别：西方受单一基督教（天主教）的影响，而在中国宗教对艺术文化的影响则并非单一的。另外中国更多受的并非来自宗教的影响，还有诸如儒家这样的各种人文思流、统治阶级的意志影响等。另外不得不提的一点在中国还有民间自发的艺术文化形态。

⑥ 求英语短文！关于东西方文化。

在英语教学实践中，文化差异及其对学生带来的干扰主要表现在以下八个方面：

1．称呼语

人教社JEFC教材Book 3 Lesson 14 The man upstairs中，出现过“I’m sorry to trouble you， comrade．”的道歉语。“comrade”是社会主义国家所特有的称呼，在英语国家称呼不知其名的陌生人常用Sir和Madam。如果我们和英语国家的人以comrade相称，他们将会感到莫明其妙。

⑦ 英语介绍西方的文化 急用!

Something I Admire about the Western Culture
Despite the cultural conflicts between the Orient and the Occident,there do exist some admirable ingredients in the Western culture.
First and foremost,the equality between parents and children.The parents are not always superior to their children,and the children do not always need to obey their parents order,that is,they are more like close friends.
Second,the independent personality.Western people have a strong sense of supporting themselves and being independent.They begin earning their pocket money early in their life,even as kids.
Last,Western people do not always assess a person according to his background.If only he can achieve success through personal struggle,he can win status.It's a talent-oriented society,not background-oriented.
All the above mentioned are what I admire in the western culture and what I think we Chinese should learn.