Although I started learning English during my college years, when I entered the States, I only understood two English words “Yes” and “No”. We learned many grammar rules but we could not make the language connections to the real English world. Language frustration worries almost all first generation immigrants. For example, I got a letter from a Chinese-American who has lived in the States for a long time and has a good IT job saying “My 11-year-old girl writes quite well, but as her parents, we could not even read her article.”In addition, my Chinese-American professor friend has difficulty reading a novel. Improving our English skills has become a long journey for all of us. Honestly, if I have a chance, I really want to reach out to everyone in the world who has had a similar experience: learning a second language in adulthood. I wish I could encourage them to speak out about the culture shock, frustration they felt about the differences between West and East.
I have mainly focused on my English writing since 2008 after I found “Literacy Volunteers”, an organization that specially focuses on helping immigrants improve their English. I decided to challenge myself, writing a story like an American. I saw many wonderful Americans there. As soon as I met my teacher Alice, I asked her to be my private language tutor and have taken Tims English class. Every week Alice and I have worked on my English essays sentence by sentence.
To observe the culture differences between West and East, occasionally, I posted a few of my English essays online. I mentioned previously about American culture; when people read the same article or even face the same situation, American and Chinese act very differently. In my viewpoint, these differences make America the strongest country in the world. I know you have the right to express your own opinions, but accusing others without proof is not acceptable.
1. The purpose of the passage is .
A. to show how hard a Chinese-American lives in America
B. to share her experience of improving her English
C. to imply grammar rules are not important
D. to warn Chinese-Americans of English
2. The underlined word “frustration” in the first paragraph means .
A. failure and setbacks
B. words and problems
C. understanding and progress
D. slang and idioms
3. If the author had a good master of English, .
A. she would open a school for Chinese-Americans
B. she would like to hears the differences spoken out
C. she could lend a hand to the children for learning
D. she might earn some money by giving advice
4. In the passage, “Literacy Volunteers” is .
A. only intended to help the Chinese-Americans
B. an organization which is set up to make a profit
C. of great use to people like the author
D. a school showing how to enjoy literature
5. From the last paragraph we can learn that .
A. Americans and Chinese are of the same idea about something
B. culture shock only exists between Chinese and Americans
C. accusing others freely can be acceptable in America
D. culture differences have great influence on the people