Read the passage and answer the questions about it below.

Cross-Cultural Miscue
Several years ago while walking to class with an arm-load of books, Gary Ferraro, met a group of five
students who were also on their way to class. Four of the students were local, born and raised in North Carolina, while the fifth was a foreign student from Nigeria. Upon meeting, they all greeted one another and proceeded to walk together to class. Almost immediately the Nigerian student turned to him and asked if he could carry his load of books. Professor Ferraro refused, but the young man insisted, so he relented. As soon as he handed over the books, he noticed that the Nigerian student was receiving some “funny looks” from the North Carolina students. It became immediately apparent to him that they were witnessing a classic example of cross-cultural misunderstanding.
When they arrived in class, Professor Ferraro decided to see if this incident could provide them with
some insight into the nature of cross-cultural miscommunication. After describing the incident to the
class, he asked the four students from North Carolina to share with us what was behind those negative “nonverbal” looks they were giving their classmate from Nigeria when he took the load of books. As predicted, all four of the students thought that the Nigerian had offered to carry the teacher’s books in an effort to curry favor with the professor and perhaps get a higher grade in the course than he might deserve. The four U.S. students were clearly put off by what they considered to be a blatant attempt to “suck up” to the professor.
Hearing this explanation, the Nigerian student was shocked that his gesture was so thoroughly
misunderstood. He then explained that he offered to carry Professor Ferraro’s books out of a deep sense of respect for his high status as a college professor. Professors in Nigeria enjoy much higher social status
than do their counterparts in the United States. It would be considered demeaning for a Nigerian professor to engage in any form of manual labor, including carrying a heavy load of books. The somewhat startled Nigerian student went on to say that he offered to carry Professor Ferraro’s books, so he would not “lose face” by engaging in physical labor. Clearly the status system in Nigeria is appreciably different from that found in the United States

What hasty generalization did the four students from North Carolina make about the student from
Nigeria in paragraph 2?


They believed any student who offered to carry the teacher’s books was “sucking up” to the teacher for
a better grade.

Language Arts & World Languages

You might also like to view...

The topic sentence can never be the last sentence of a paragraph

a) True b) False

Language Arts & World Languages

¿Por qué no fueron?Juana wants to know why some of her friends didn't come to her birthday party. Rewrite the answers of her friends, changing the verbs from present tense to the preterite. Mis padres vienen a visitarme.

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Language Arts & World Languages

Vocabulario Esmeralda Santiago  ¿Qué sabes sobre esta escritora puertorriqueña? Lee el siguiente párrafo y llena los espacios en blanco con una opción apropiada de la lista. No todas las opciones se usan. 

consiguióapoyabanaciódominandoesperanzaextrañabase trasladósueñopertenecíarealizóéxitoadaptándoseretotierra natalLa escritora Esmeralda Santiago (1) ___________________________ en Puerto Rico en 1948. Cuando tenía trece años, su familia (2) ___________________________ a Nueva York. Al principio Esmeralda (3) ___________________________ mucho su (4) __________________________ pero poco a poco fue (5) __________________________el inglés y (6) ___________________________  a la vida norteamericana. Se puede decir que (7) ___________________________  el  (8) ___________________________ americano: de inmigrante pobre a escritora de (9) ___________________________. Su libro Cuando era puertorriqueña (10) ___________________________ un lugar entre los primeros en la lista de best sellers.(4) Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Language Arts & World Languages

Which one of the following sentences is true?

a) A comma splice cannot be corrected. b) A comma splice is not an error. c) A comma splice can be corrected by removing the comma. d) A comma splice can be corrected by replacing the comma with a semicolon.

Language Arts & World Languages