跨文化交流初体验

江丽

15歲的卡斯基尼奥在葡萄牙出生、长大，在到美国留学之前，她曾在德国汉堡生活学习。在美国留学期间，她会遇到哪些问题？她又会怎样去解决呢？

Patricia Hansen Casquinho， 15， was born and raised in Portugal， but lived in Hamburg， Germany， before coming to America. Casquinho came to America for various reasons， from wanting to learn more about American culture to sharing more about her own.

“Watching American movies made me come here to experience high school life in America and also share my culture with others. Ive been enjoying it really，” Casquinho said.

As expected for most people， adjusting to a new country was hard for Casquinho. However， with the help of her friends， Casquinho was able to make adjustments and positively look forward to living in America.

Upon staying in America， Casquinho noticed some differences between America and Germany. “Americans are open， friendly and superficial. Theyre open to new cultures. Also， there are different kinds of food and music here. The diversity is pretty great.”

Along with the differences in culture， Casquinho also listed some differences in the school systems， sharing how some concepts that American schools have arent found in German schools. “We dont have classes with diff?erent people from different grades. We dont have SATs or SOLs; we just have final exams. Its very different. We start later and finish earlier. We dont have school sports teams， so theres not a lot of school spirit. We dont have the concept of high school; we just have 5th through 12th grade all in one school.”

Differences aside， Casquinho is enjoying the American high school experiences with the schools endless efforts of getting students involved in sports and clubs in school. As part of her American high school experience， Casquinho has joined some clubs and taken part in activities around the school and hopes to join more.

Casquinho enjoys her experiences in America so far， with some of her favorite experiences being her time at school and some sports games shes attended. Overall， Casquinho hopes shell be able to learn from her time in America to be able to share her experiences with others when she goes back home.

Ⅰ. Answer the following questions according to the text.

1. Whats the purpose of Casquinhos coming to America？

2. Was adjusting to a new country easy or hard for Casquinho？ Who helped her to fit in well？

3. Whats the attitude of Casquinho to her experiences in America？

Ⅱ. Fill in the table below according to the text.

[Differences between America and Germany Cultural differences [] Americans are 1.              ， friendly and superficial. Also， there are different kinds of food and music. School system differences []American schools have classes with different people from different grades， while 2.               schools dont have.

American schools have exams like SATs or SOLs， while German

schools just have 3.               exams.

German schools start later and finish 4.              .

German schools dont have sports teams and are in short of school 5.              .

There isnt the concept of 6.               school in Germany. German schools just have 5th through 12th grade all in one school. ]

Sentence for writing

Upon staying in America， Casquinho noticed some differences between America and Germany.  一在美國住下来，卡斯基尼奥就注意到美国和德国之间的一些不同。

【信息提取】Upon+n./V?ing在句中作状语，意为“一……就……”。

【句式仿写】他一到教室，就意识到他把钥匙落在家里了。