Para. 14

Los Angeles is Fusion Central, where cultures mix and morph. Take Tom Sloper and mah-jongg. Tom is a computer geek who is also a mah-jongg fanatic. This being America, he has found a way to marry these two passions and sell the result. He has designed a software program, Shanghai: Dynasty, that enables you to play mah-jongg on the Internet. This ancient Chinese game involves both strategy and luck, and it is still played all over Asia in small rooms that are full of smoke and the ceaseless click of the chunky plastic tiles and the fierce concentration of the players. It is also played by rich society women at country clubs in Beverly Hills and in apartments on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But Tom, 50, was playing it at his desk in Los Angeles one evening in the silence of a nearly empty office building.

Q1: Why does the author bring in Tom Sloper and mah-jongg?

A1: The author uses Tom Sloper and mah-jongg as an example to illustrate fusion. It is a typical example because it is a fusion of computers, a Western high technology, and mah-jongg, a traditional Chinese game — a fusion of East and West, of technology and entertainment. In short, a fusion of things previously unrelated.

Q2: What is the grammatical function of “this being America”?

A2: It is an independent element, playing the role of an adverbial clause of cause. It can be changed into “Since this is America”.

Q3: Why does the author mention small rooms in Asia and country clubs in Beverly Hills?

A3: The author here uses two rhetorical devices: contrast and antonomasia. The small rooms in Asia stand for lower-middle-class people in Asia while the country clubs in Beverly Hills stand for rich people in the United States. A country club admits only members of the club. It is expensive and exclusive. The author here contrasts a number of things: Asia vs. the U.S., Lower-middle-class people vs. rich, upper-class people, men vs. society women.

Q4: What does “full of smoke” indicate?

A4: It shows two things: (a) most probably, the players are men; (b) they smoke while playing so the room is stuffy and suffocating. Such a scene can be seen in films produced in Hong Kong, Taiwan or the mainland of China. It may also imply that the players are not well educated..

Q5: Why does the author write “a nearly empty”?

A5: Because it is night almost all the office workers have gone home.

Para. 15

Actually, he only appeared to be alone. His glowing computer screen showed a game already in progress with several habitual partners: “Blue Whale”, a man from Germany; Russ from Ohio; and Freddy, a Chinese-American who lives in Minnesota. Tom played effortlessly as we talked.

Q1: Why does the author say he only “appeared” to be alone?

A1: Tom was alone in the office building but he was playing a game with three other people in three different places. In that sense, he was not alone.

Para. 16

“I’ve learned about 11 different styles of mah-jongg,” he told me with that detached friendliness of those whose true connection is with machines. “There are a couple of different ways of playing it in America. We usually play Chinese mah-jongg.”

Q1: What is the meaning of “ ... with that detached friendliness of those whose true connection is with machines”?

A1: He told me in a friendly way but this friendliness lacks emotion because his interest is in the computer, in those people who are connected with him through the Internet.

Para. 17-18

I watched the little tiles, like cards, bounce around the screen. As Tom played, he and his partners conversed by typing short comments to each other.

Does he ever play with real people? “Oh yeah,” Tom replied. “Once a week at the office in the evening, and Thursday at lunch.” A new name appeared on the screen. “There’s Fred’s mother. Can’t be, they’re in Vegas. Oh, it must be his sister. TJ’s online too, she’s the one from Wales—a real night owl. She’s getting married soon, and she lives with her fiancé, and sometimes he gets up and says ‘Get off that damn computer!’”

Q1: Why does the author write everything Tom said?

A1: She write everyone’s detail in order to show us how well connected between Tom and his online friends.

Para. 19

Tom played on into the night. At least it was night where I was. He, an American playing a Chinese game with people in Germany, Wales, Ohio, and Minnesota, was up in the cybersphere far above the level of time zones. It is a realm populated by individuals he’s never met who may be more real to him than the people who live next door.

Q1: How does Tom play mah-jongg on the screen?

A1: He uses a computer and the tiles bounce around the screen. His partners are people in Germany and Wales as well as in Ohio and Minnesota. He also carries on conversations with the players by typing short comments to them. He knows his partners well although he has never met them personally.

Para. 20

If it seems that life in the West has become a fast-forward blur, consider China. In just 20 years, since market forces were unleashed by economic reforms begun in 1978, life for many urban Chinese has changed drastically. A recent survey of 12 major cities showed that 97 percent of the respondents had televisions, and 88 percent had refrigerators and washing machines. Another study revealed that farmers are eating 48 percent more meat each year and 400 percent more fruit. The Cosmopolitan, plunging necklines and all, is read by 260, 000 Chinese women every month.

Q1: What role does the first sentence play?

A1: It serves as a transition.

Para. 21

I went to Shanghai to see how the cultural trends show up in the largest city in the world’s most populous nation. It is also a city that has long been open to the West. General Motors, for example, set up its first Buick sales outlet in Shanghai in 1929; today GM has invested 1.5 billion dollars in a new plant there, the biggest Sino-American venture in China.

Q1: Why does the author go to Shanghai to investigate?

A1: Because on the one hand Shanghai is the largest city in China, on the other, it has long been open to the West.

Para. 22

Once a city of elegant villas and imposing office buildings, Shanghai is currently ripping itself to ribbons. In a decade scores of gleaming new skyscrapers have shot up to crowd and jostle the skyline, cramp the narrow winding streets, and choke the parks and open spaces with their sheer soaring presence. Traffic crawls, even on the new multilane overpasses. But on the streets the women are dressed in bright colors, and many carry several shopping bags, especially on the Nanjing Road, which is lined with boutiques and malls. In its first two weeks of business the Gucci Store took in a surprising $100, 000.

Q1: What is New Shanghai like under the author’s pen?

A1: (a) Shanghai has ripped itself to ribbons. This is the general description of Shanghai today. While Shanghai’s buildings in the past were elegant and imposing now Shanghai has torn itself into shreds and the result could not have been satisfactory or good.

(b) Everywhere there are soaring skyscrapers. Skyscraper is a word used to show that the building is very high, made of steel and glass, without style or taste. As a result, when you look out, you can only see these tall buildings one after another and the vision is lost — “to crowd and jostle the skyline”.

(c) Shanghai’s roads are narrow. Now with tall buildings on the two sides of narrow and winding streets, you can imagine how suffocating you will feel.

to cramp: to confine; restrain

(d) The few parks and open spaces are surrounded by tall buildings so the word “choke” is used to bring out the feeling.

(e) The traffic is also crowded so the word “crawl” is used together with “multilane overpasses” to show even on the most modern roads, traffic is still very slow.

(f) So the conclusion is: Modernization does not bring beauty and convenience to the people in Shanghai. The high-rises spoil the original beauty of Shanghai. It shows a kind of nostalgic feeling on the part of the author and her reservations about the way Shanghai is being modernized.

Q2: What is implied in the statement of “Many carry several shopping bags.”?

A2: It implies that the purchasing power of people in Shanghai is high.

Women dressed in bright colors, carrying several shopping bags on the Nanjing Road, a shopping center in downtown Shanghai, is a sign of economic prosperity.

Para. 23

“Maybe young women today don’t know what it was like,” says Wu Ying, editor-in-chief of the Chinese edition of the French fashion magazine Elle. “But ten years ago I wouldn’t have imagined myself wearing this blouse. ?It was red, with white polka dots. “When people bought clothes, they thought ‘How long will it last?’ A housewife knew that most of the monthly salary would be spent on food, and now it’s just a small part, so she can think about what to wear or where to travel. And now with refrigerators, we don’t have to buy food every day.”

Q1: What is the main idea of Paragraph 23?

A1: This paragraph tells of changes in the life of ordinary people — changes in the amount of money spent on food, on clothes and in money spent on new items, such as travel.

A recent poll (in 2001) in Beijing shows that the amount of money spent on food makes up only 39.18% of the total family expenditure, as compared with 49.92% five years ago. Clothing makes up 10.01% as compared with 13.55% five years ago. A rising percentage goes to education and health care, a total of 13.64% as compared with 7.79% five years ago.

Para. 24

As for the cultural dislocation this might bring: “People in Shanghai don’t see it as a problem,” said a young German businessman. “The Chinese are very good at dealing with ambiguity. It’s accepted—‘It’s very different, but it’s OK, so. so what?’”

Q1: Why do you think the author raises cultural dislocation here?

A1: This has something to do with the title: goods move, ideas move and cultures change. As a result of economic development, more foreign goods and enterprises have come into China or Shanghai to be more exact. With the development of economy, the life of the people has been improved and people’s attitude towards life has also changed. This might cause cultural dislocation.

Q2: What is people’s attitude towards possible cultural dislocation?

A2: People do not consider the invasion of foreign goods and change in life that goes with it as a problem. They accept such change and do not feel alarmed.

Para. 25

Potential: This is largely a Western concept. Set aside the Gucci Store and skyscrapers, and it’s clear that the truly great leap forward here is at the level of ideas. To really grasp this, I had only to witness the local performance of Shakespeare5s Macbeth by the Hiu Kok Drama Association from Macau.

Q1: Why is it a Western concept?

A1: Potential is a concept used in physics or electricity which are subjects first studied in the West.

Para. 26-27

There we were at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, some 30 professors and students of literature and drama from all over China and I, on folding chairs around a space not unlike half of a basketball court. “I’m not going to be much help,” murmured Zhang Fang, my interpreter. I don’t understand the Cantonese language, and most of these people don’t either.”

I thought I knew what to watch for, but the only characters I recognized were the three witches. Otherwise the small group spent most of an hour running in circles, leaping, and threatening to beat each other with long sticks. The lighting was heavy on shadows, with frequent flashes. Language wasn't a problem, as the actors mainly snarled and shrieked. Then they turned their backs to the audience and a few shouted something in Cantonese. The lights went out, and for a moment the only sound in the darkness was the whining of an expensive camera on auto-rewind.

Q1: What does the “lighting” really mean?

A1: It means the art, practice, or manner of using and arranging lights on a stage.

Para. 28

This is China? It could have been a college campus anywhere in the West. Until recently such a performance was unthinkable. It strained imagination that this could be the same country where a generation ago the three most desired luxury items were wristwatches, bicycles, and sewing machines.

Q1: Why does the author use “This is China?” at the beginning?

A1: She put a question mark at the end of a statement in order to attract readers’ interests and stress her argument.