When a Japanese friend of mine first visited Britain and first saw a British map

Whena Japanese friend of mine first visited Britain and first saw a British map ofthe world, he was very upset by what he found. At first the picture seemedfamiliar: in the middle of the map, there were two or three small but long redislands lying between an ocean and a continent. But something was wrong:landmass and ocean had changed places. It wasn’t Japan he was looking at; itwas the British small islands. Japan was out on the edge somewhere.

Untilthat moment all the maps he had known had located(标出位置)Japan in the middle of the picture and hadcolored it red; yet when he got to British, he found that the country in themiddle of the map was Britain and that it, too, was painted red.

Whatmy friend had found was a displacement(移换位置)ofhis country, and, therefore, of himself as well. That is to say, his countrywas not longer in its familiar place and he no longer knew where he stood: hewas “disoriented”.

Oursense of ourselves and our place in the world may not, as my friend’sexperience suggests, come from anything real or actual, for no country is inthe middle of the globe, except as a picture in the mind. A map is only a modelin which we may locate ourselves; it just helps us to feel that we know wherewe are.

1. Whenthe man in this story saw a British map of the world, he found himself________________.

A. uneasy B.comfortable C.disappointed D.encouraged

2. On aBritish map of the world, ________________.

A. Japanis painted red   B.Japan is located in the middle

C. Japanis located at one side    D.Japan does not appear at all

3. “To bedisoriented” means to lose________________.

A. one’sheart   B.control

C. one’sinterest    D.one’s sense of position

4. Nocountry is in the middle of the globe________________.

A. infact   B.in places   C.in maps    D.in pictures

5. Themain idea of this passage is that________________.

A. humanbeings need maps in order to find the middle of the globe

B.Japanese visitors to British find that local maps give them a sense of displacement

C. oursense of location based on familiar maps often helps us to travel from place toplace

D.familiar maps give to those who use them an imaginary but comforting sense oflocation(位置)

试题答案

答案：A;C;D;A;D