Reading 1/2:
A The world's population has surpassed 7 billion and continues to grow. Across the globe, humans have many differences. These differences can be influenced by factors such as geography, climate, politics, nationality, and many more. Culture is one such aspect that can change the way people behave.
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B.Your culture may influence your clothing, your language, and many aspects of your life. But is culture influential enough to change the way an individual thinks? It has long been believed that people from different cultures would think differently. For example, a young boy from a farm would talk about cows while a boy from New York would talk about cars. If two young children from different countries are asked about their thoughts about a painting, they would answer differently because of their cultural backgrounds.
C.In recent years, there has been new research that changed this long-held belief: However, this new research is not the first to explore the idea that culture can change the way we think.Earlier research has provided valuable insight into the question. One of the earlier research projects was carried out in the Soviet Union. This project was designed to find out whether culture could affect people's way of thought processing. The research focused on how living environment and nationality might influence how people think. The experiment led by Bessett aimed to question such awareness of cognitive processes. Bessett conducted several versions of the experiment to test different cognitive processes.
One experiment led by Bessett and Masuku showed an animated video picturing a big fish swimming among smaller fish and other sea creatures. Subjects were asked to describe the
scene. The Japanese participants tended to focus on the aquatic background, such as the plants and color of the water, as well as the relationship between the big and small fish. American
participants tended to focus on the individual fishes, mainly the larger, more unique looking fish. The experiment suggested that members of Eastern cultures focus more on the overall
picture, while members of Western culture focus more on the individuals.
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E.In another experiment performed by Bessett and Choi, the subjects were presented with some very convincing evidence for a position. Both the Korean and the American showed strong support. And after they were given some evidence opposing the position, the Korean started to modify or decrease their support. However, the American began to give more support to the former argument. This project suggested that in Korean culture, support to arguments is based on context. Ideas and conclusions are changeable and flexible, so an individual may be more
willing to change his or her mind. For Americans, they were less willing to change their original conclusion.
F Bessett and Ara devised an experiment to test the thought processing of both oriental and occidental worlds. The test subject was given an argument "All animals with furs hibernate.Rabbits have fur. Therefore, rabbits hibernate". People from the eastern world questioned the argument as not being logical, because in their knowledge some furry animals just don't hibernate. But the American think the statement is right. They assume the logic deduction is based on a correct argument; thus the conclusion is right since the logic is right.
1) What point is the writer making in paragraph D?A. People from Western cultures tend to focus more on the big picture while people from Eastern cultures tend to focus more on the individuals.
ABCD Western people are less open-minded.
Eastern people are more conservative.D. Different cultures will have a big effect on the description of the same scene.
2) What kind of cohesive device in the following sentence?
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