Question

Attitudes differed to small errors of grammar and usage, or inappropriateness of vocabulary and idiom, with the native speakers finding such errors a little irksome(令人厌烦的)，though sometimes amusing, while the Chinese panel members paid hardly any attention to such errors as, for example, misuse of phrasal verbs and similar usages: “When I saw the job description, I decided to apply the position.” “I expect to find out a lot of challenge in the job.” “I can deal the emergency situations efficiently.”

Errors of idiom or appropriateness caused more comment, during the post interview discussion, from the native speakers than from the Chinese panel members, on whom the errors were sometimes lost. For example, one candidate, when asked what salary he expected, replied: “I don’t care about it.” The message was clear enough, namely that he was primarily interested in the job, but the formulation of the message was not quite right. Even such ribticklers(笑话)as “I am a well planned person .”and “I would like to expose myself in another field”(both actually heard at interviews) tended to cause lipbiting among the expatriate rather than the Chinese interviewers.

Panels with two Chinese and one expatriate used to be more common, but are becoming less common. The reason is that with more of the interview now being conducted in Chinese, the non Chinese speaker does not know what has already been asked and is liable to repeat in English questions that have already been covered in Chinese. This caused, naturally enough, confusion in the interviewee and can adversely affect the whole interview.

The sensible procedure would seem to be to open the interview in the mother tongue of the candidates, to put them at their ease, then at a later stage turn to English, to test English proficiency. In practice, however, possibly because of the problem mentioned in the previous paragraph when the panel contains a foreigner, it is often the reverse, with a few, fairly standard, opening questions in English, and if these are successfully answered, then the job interview properly gets underway in Cantonese.

One of the worst interview scenarios(方案)is when a foreigner who thinks she/he can speak Cantonese (but does so, in fact, badly) decides to question the interviewee in Cantonese. In other circumstances of a social nature the interviewee would no doubt politely compliment the foreigner on his or her good Cantonese, but in the seriousness of a job interview situation, the Chinese is confused and slightly embarrassed for the foreigner. These forays(初步尝试)into Chinese usually end pretty quickly with one of the Chinese members of the panel rescuing the foreigner and continuing the interview in English.

1.Concerning misuses of phrasal verbs,____.

A．both Chinese and the native speakers of English find them amusing

B．the Chinese interviewers tend to be tolerant

C．the Chinese interviewers and the English native speaker interviewers often have a discussion

D．might sometimes become a laughing stock to the native speakers of English but draw hardly any attention from the Chinese

2.It is implied in the passage that ____.

A．Chinese are generally liable to make mistakes in English grammar and vocabulary usage

B．expatriate interviewers are generally more friendly with interviews

C．braver candidates can often get the upper hand

D．the candidates often deliver an improper message for the use of inappropriate expressions

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The non Chinese speaking interviewer might ask the questions which have already been asked by the Chinese and hence cause confusion.

B．It is more practicable to start an interview with a few fairly standard questions in English before switching to Chinese.

C．The best procedure of an interview would seem to be beginning in Cantonese and then testing English proficiency.

D．The Chinese interviewee often politely compliments the foreign interviewer if he or she speaks cantonese if it is not actually so good in the interview.

4.This passage is mainly concerned with ____.

A．whether language proficiency or work ability counts in job interviews

B．how to avoid awkward situation in a job interview in HongKong

C．the language used in a job interview with both Chinese and expatriate panel members

D．the sensible procedure of getting on with an interview where the Chinese interviewee’s English is to be tested

Answer

1.选D。关于对misuses of phrasal verbs的反应，第一小段论及。第一句便告诉读者中外面试者态度不同。第二小段也提及类似问题，故D项为最佳选项。

2.选A。根据第一、二小段中内容，中国人对于语法词组错误反应迟钝，也常出这类错误。故A为正确选项。B、C、D皆为依据不足的选项。

3.选D。选项A与文中第三段内容相对，选项B与原文第四段第二句相符。选项C与原文第四小段第一句相对。故选D，D与最后一段第二句矛盾。

4.选C。此文主要涉及interviewees使用英语的情况以及interviewers使用语言的问题。故答案为选项C。关键在于将各小段内容综合起来看，不能以偏概全。