Reading Comprehension
Directions: Read the following passage. Choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D for each question.

     Time talks. It speaks more plainly than words. Time communicates in many ways. Consider the different parts of the day, for example. The time of the day when something is done can give a special meaning to the event. Factory managers in the United States fully realize the importance of an announcement made during the middle of the morning or afternoon that takes everyone away from his work. Whenever they want to make an important announcement, they ask, “When shall we let them know?”
     In social life, time plays a very important part. In the United States, guests tend to feel they are not highly regarded if the invitation to a dinner party is extended only three or four days before the party date. But this is perhaps not true in some other countries. There it may be considered foolish to make an appointment too far in advance because plans which are made for a date more than a week away tend to be forgotten.
     The meanings of time differ in different parts of the world. Thus, misunderstandings arise between people from cultures that treat time differently. Promptness is valued highly in American life. For example, no one would think of keeping a business associate waiting for an hour. It would be too impolite. When equals meet, a person who is five minutes late is expected to make a short apology. If he is less than five minutes late, he will say a few words of explanation, though perhaps he will not complete the sentence.
     In the western world, particularly in the United States, people tend to think of time as something fixed in nature, something from which one cannot escape. As a rule, Americans think of time as a road stretching into the future, along which one progresses. The road has many sections which are to be kept separate — “one thing at a time”. People who cannot plan events are not highly regarded. The American idea of the future is limited, however. It is the foreseeable future, not the future of the South Asian, which may involve centuries. Someone has said of the South Asian idea of time. “Time is like a museum with endless halls and rooms. You, the viewer, are walking through the museum in the dark, holding a light to each scene as you pass it. God is in charge of the museum, and only He knows all that is in it. One lifetime represents one room.”
     Since time has such different meanings in different cultures, communication is often difficult. We will understand each other a little better if we can keep this fact in mind.