College Reading Worksheet for “American Values and Customs”
Spring Quarter 2016
Instructor: Richard Alishio
Directions: Use the article on American values to complete the following information. The lines
go in order from beginning to end.
1. People who grow up in a particular culture share
_______________________________________
2. The most important thing to know about Americans is their
________________________________________________________________.
3. They are not trained to see themselves as
________________________________________________________________________
________________.
4. What is a good summary of the “Orange Julius” passage? Write it here. Use no more
than 5 sentences:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
5. How do foreigners react to this story?
________________________________________________________________________
____________.
6. She is getting her son ready for
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________.
7. Read this again:
In the United States. . . very few children are raised to believe that their
personal destiny is to serve their family, their country, their God [as is the
practice in some other countries]. Generally children [in the United States]
are given the feeling that they can set their own aims and occupation
in life, according to their inclinations. We're raising them to be rugged
individualists.
How is this similar to or different from how children are raised in your country? Use specific
examples to explain. Write your notes for your explanation here:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
8. Americans are trained to conceive of themselves
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
____________________.
9. When they encounter a person from abroad who seems to them excessively concerned
with the opinions of parents, with following traditions, or with fulfilling obligations to
others,
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
10. For Americans, the idea of individual freedom has
______________________________________________________________________.
11. Americans see as heroes those individuals who
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________.
12. Americans admire people who
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
13. Individualistic Americans naturally
________________________________________________________________________
_______.
14. People who are competing with others are essentially alone,
________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________.
15. Also closely associated with the value they place on individualism,
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________.
16. Although they sometimes violate the ideal in their daily lives, particularly in matters
of interracial relationships and sometimes relationships among people from different social
classes,
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________.
17. What is distinctive about the American outlook on the matter of equality are
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
18. People from societies where general behavior is more formal than it is in America are
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________.
19. Americans are generally less concerned about
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__.
20. "If you want to be an American," says cross-cultural trainer L. Robert Kohls,
________________________________________________________________________
_________________.
21. Americans are generally impatient with people they see
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________.
22. One of the more difficult things many foreign businessmen and students must adjust to
in the United States
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________.
23. More generally, Americans like action. They do indeed believe it is important to devote
significant energy to their jobs or to other daily responsibilities. Beyond that, they tend
to believe they should be doing something most of the time. They are usually not
content, as people from many countries are, to sit for hours and talk with other people.
They get restless and impatient. They believe they
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________.
24. Americans, as we've said before,
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
25. The word assertive is
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
______.
26. Americans are not taught, as people in many Asian countries are,
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_____________.