2012年12月大学英语四级考试阅读提高训练12
There has been a lot of unfair and biased criticism of families who welcome foreign students into their homes. I should like to tell you of my own personal experiences, which are not so different from my neighbors’ experience, I might add.
A host family is sent students by school or college and their homes are regularly inspected by the accommodation staff. If a home is below the required standard, the family is removed from the school’s accommodation list. Apart from this, the host family is obliged to follow certain rules, as laid down by the school.
The problem is that the host family cannot inspect students or refuse to accept the ones who look dirty, unreliable or noisy. And they don’t seem to follow any rules at all in their behavior to the host family. We are often treated like servants or hotel staff, which is rude and bad manners.
The fee paid to a host family only just covers the actual cost of providing meals etc. A hostess is lucky to make more than a pound or two "profit" on each student. One has to remember that she has to wash their clothes, allow them to have hot baths, pay for their lighting and the heating in their bedrooms, and cope with damage to furniture, bedding and carpets. 外语学习网
Another thing is that most of them do not want to be part of the family. They prefer to be out with other students causing annoyance to local residents in the town center. They remain in their bedrooms all morning and afternoon if they can, resting before the evening so that they can go out until the early hours of the morning.
Bedrooms like pigsties(猪圈). Food, empty bottles and waste paper all go under the bed. When taken to task the reply is invariably that they don’t understand or that the school has told them they may do as they wish.
Not only that, but we have to put up with their complaints about the food, the weather and even our TV programs. It’s time foreign students were taught to be polite and to behave properly, as well as how to speak English!
1. The author’s attitude towards foreign students as mentioned in the passage is ____.
A) critical
B) questioning
C) approving
D) objective
2. By "biased" (Line1, Para.1) the author means ____.
A) supreme
B) partial
C) preferable
D) prejudiced
3. Which of the following is mentioned in the second paragraph?
A) The accommodation standard is set up by the staff of a hotel
B) A host family usually has no alternative but to accept the student assigned
C) A student is sometimes treated rudely, like a servant
D) A host family may reject any student candidate who looks undesirable
4. The passage tell us ____.
A) foreign students keep good terms with their hostesses
B) foreign students come to stay with their host families to learn English
C) a hostess does not make much profit because she has to buy new furniture
D) the local TV programs are very popular among foreign students
5. The main purpose of the author in writing this passage is ____.
A) to criticize foreign students for not sharing housework with their hostesses
B) to suggest that a new accommodation standard be laid down
C) to complain about the irresponsibility of foreign students
D) to give an account of his personal experiences with foreign students
