To understand how Americans think about things, it is necessary to understand "the point". Americans mention it often: "Let's get right to the point." They will say, "My point is…" "What's the point of all this?"

    The "point" is the idea or piece of information that Americans suppose is, or should be, at the center of people's thinking, writings, and spoken comments. Speakers and writers are supposed to "make their points clear", meaning that they are supposed to say or write clearly the idea or piece of information they wish to express.

    People from many other cultures have different ideas about the point. Africans traditionally tell stories that express the thoughts they have in mind, rather than stating the point clearly. Japanese traditionally speak indirectly, leaving the listener to figure out what the point is. Thus, while an American might say to a friend, "I don't think that coat goes very well with the rest of your outfit," a Japanese might say, "Maybe another coat would look even better than the one you have on." Americans value a person who "gets right to the point". Japanese are likely to consider such a person insensitive if not rude.

    The Chinese and Japanese languages are characterized by vagueness and ambiguity. The precision and directness Americans associate with "the point" cannot be achieved, at least not with any grace, in Chinese and Japanese. Speakers of those languages thus have to learn a new way of reasoning and expressing their ideas if they are going to communicate satisfactorily with Americans.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Growing up in the mountainous Sierra de Penamayor, in Asturias, northen Spain, Aladino Montes had been shooting deer ever since he was a child, but his life as a hunter came to an abrupt end 10 years ago, when he met Bambi, an adorable deer that has remained by his side ever since. Aladino has never shot an animal since.

    53-year-old Aladino recalls driving through the mountains in his little jeep, ten years ago, when he saw a couple of cows being followed by a skinny little deer. Deer don't usually hang out with cows, so he approached the animals for a closer look. That's when he noticed that the deer had several wounds and would have probably died without proper medical care. He put the injured animal in his car and drove back to his house when he nursed it back to health. But instead of running back towards the forests, the deer stayed by Aladino's side. They've been best friends ever since.

    He always loved animals, but his father had taught him to hunt deer as a child. He did it for food, not sports, but ever since he adopted Bambi, he hasn't shot a single animal.

    Aladino's cabin sits at 1,140 meters above sea level, offering tourists a beautiful view of the surrounding mountainside. On clear days, one can see all of central Asturias all the way to Gijon, but most people don't travel to Les Praeres for the view, they come to see Bambi, the friendly deer.

    Sometimes, Bambi will elk straight into the bar in search of Aladino and leave everyone with their mouth open, or even let people pet her. But she's always most comfortable at the side of her rescuer. She's so relaxed around him that she makes other deer feel safe as well.

    February 14th is Valentine's Day! In China, it is only a day for boyfriends and girlfriends. But my teacher and my friends in America told me that Valentine's Day is a public day.

    This was my first Valentine's Day in America. I didn't understand the customs clearly. Maybe I didn't need to send any gifts. I watched others to see what they did, so next time I can understand.

    On that day, when we began the reading class, Mr. Peters gave every student some chocolates and said, “Happy Valentine's Day!” I was very happy. The teacher gave his students gifts and blessings! I never saw that in China. Maybe American teachers are very different. I didn't buy a gift for the teacher, so I owed a gift to the teacher. Anyway, I want to say, “Thank you teacher, and I'm sorry.”

When we had a break, one of my classmates gave me a Pokemon card. It was very funny. I felt we were children. I thought I owed a gift again, but I felt thankful. It was another gift, but it was from my new classmate.

    When we were moving to our grammar class, suddenly I heard someone calling me, “Shelly!” I stopped. Another classmate who had only been in our class one day gave me some chocolates. She said, “These for you and your friends. Have a good day!” I was looking at her leaving and thinking she spoke Arabic. We were in the same class only one day, but now we are friends. That's very good, but I owed a gift again.

    When I came home, my Chinese friend sent some roses and chocolates. I was surprised and happy because I had never received roses in my past life, but I hoped it was the last gift. I didn't want to owe more gifts.

    The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

    He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

    He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets-nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

    At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

    While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said "Ding—Dong-Dong", "Ding—Dong— Dong" again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

    Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you? "

    No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

    Ben said, "Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey?"

    Tom turned suddenly and said, "Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing."

    "Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would."

    Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, "What do you call work?"

    "Why, isn't that work?"

    Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

    "Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer."

    "Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it?

    The brush continued to move.

    "Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

    Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said, "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

    Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.

    "No-no-it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough."

    "No——is that so? Oh come, now——let me just try. Only just a little."

    "Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly …"

    "Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple."

    "Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …"

    "I'll give you all of it."

    Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat——and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

    And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

    He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

    Janet Guthrie and Danica Patrick, first female Indy competitor and winner

    No complaints about woman drivers. Janet Guthrie, an space engineer who was training to be an astronaut, turned to car racing when she was cut from the space program for not having completed her doctors degree. In 1977, Guthrie became the first female Indy 500 competitor. She didn't take the lead, but Danica Patrick did. In 2005 and in 2008, Patrick became the first woman ever to win an Indy Car Series.

    Raymonde de Laroche, first female licensed pilot

    A former actress who'd been born Elise Raymonde Deroche in Paris in 1882, Raymonde de Laroche was inspired to take up flying after seeing the Wright Brothers flight demonstrations in 1907 in France. Though she wasn't the first female pilot, de Laroche was the first woman to earn a pilot's license in 1910.

    Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim across the English Channel

    On August 6. 1926. Gertrude Caroline Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Ederle, who lived to be 98 and died in 2003, was also an Olympic swim champion and five-time world record-holder in five swimming events

    Kathrine Switzer, Nina Kuscik and Joan Benoit, first major female marathoners.

    In 1967, 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon, even though race officials had tried to stop her. Nina Kuscik became the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon, 1972. In 1984, American Joan Benoit became the first winner of the Women's Olympic Marathon, finishing 400 meters ahead of Norway's Grete Waitz.

    Sitting has been called the new smoking for its supposed Public health risks, especially for people with sitting down office jobs. Over the past 15 years or so sitting has been connected with heart disease and diabetes (糖尿病). But is sitting really that risky?

    In our latest study we examined if not only the total amount of sitting, but different types of sitting, were connected with developing type 2 diabetes. We wanted to see if there was any difference among sitting watching TV, sitting at work, or sitting at home but not watching TV.

    We studied sitting habits of 4. 811 middle-aged people, who didn't have diabetes or heart problems at the start of the study. Over the next 13 years, 402 people developed diabetes. Once we considered obesity (AE RF), Physical activity, and other things that may develop type 2 diabetes, neither total sitting time, sitting at work nor sitting at home but not watching TV were connected with developing diabetes. We found only a weak connection with the time spent sitting watching TV and an increased risk of developing diabetes.

    This is different from the results of five older TV studies that showed a stronger connection. But hardly any of the included studies mentioned obesity, a major cause of diabetes.

    For people who are physically inactive, though, the story's different. Two recent studies show the total time spent sitting a day is connected with developing diabetes, but only in people who are physically inactive or both physically inactive and obese.

    That's not the whole story. At least two things determine if sitting is a risk factor in its own right: the type and situation of sitting.

    For example, sitting down at work isn't strongly connected with long-term health risks, Perhaps that's because higher position jobs needs more sitting, and higher socioeconomic (社会经济) position is connected with a lower risk of disease. It's a different case for sitting watching TV, the type of sitting most possibly connected with long-term health risks. People who watch a lot of TV tend to (a) be of lower socioeconomic positions, unemployed, have poorer mental (精神上的) health, eat unhealthy foods and face more unhealthy food advertising.