这是我准备的参考论据和一些预设论点：引用文本后面就是论点或者说总结陈词。
Unit 7: supernatural
When the Arthur Koestler Chair of Parapsychology was established at the University of Edinburgh, dozens of lecturers and professors from many different universities showed their disgust with comments such as “Next we’ll having a University of Magic,” or “Poor old Arthur. So he finally went mad in the end” or just “What a terrible waste of money.”.
This suggests that the scientific study of the paranormal is a contentious and often disdained field of research.
(阅读材料)According to a reading material from Elearning, Kenny Biddle, an American ghost-hunter, was once mistaken for a Civil-War apparition in Gettysburg; instead of exploiting this misidentification, he immediately exposed the error, renounced(宣布放弃) his earlier beliefs. And he started to teach others that the paranormal is not existent.
This illustrates a Western culture that prizes self-correction and empirical testing.
The Chinese firecrackers used at funerals, the coins placed on the eyes of the dead to pay the fare across the river of forgetfulness, and the widespread habit of burying food, clothes, means of transport, and the pleasures of this life with the dead person, these all served the same purpose – to ensure the dead didn’t come back.
In Siberia, they even took dying people to be buried before they died, leaving them all the best food and their favourite possessions and even horses to make sure they could move on to the other world.
It is a universal custom, practised across the globe, including in China, to facilitate the transition of the souls of the deceased from the world of the living.
(下一段比较特殊，引用已经自成一派，论证超自然的利与弊)
According to the Unit 7 of our textbook, it has been documented that an archaeologist successfully employed spiritualism to predict the location of the Abbey’s remains and their composition. This suggests that the paranormal may have the capacity to effect positive outcomes. In contrast, a pair of men were killed after some guy claimed that a female’s ghost had informed him that they had murdered her. This demonstrates that paranormal phenomena can have detrimental consequences.
万圣节和中元节：
(其他小组的pre) In a group’s presentation on Halloween and Zhongyuan Festival I watched in class, they said both festivals involve giving food to spirits: children hand out candy for fun, while adults place rice and paper money for their ancestors. It reminded me of Unit 7—every culture tries to keep the dead happy so the living can stay safe. The mood is just different: one is bright and playful, the other quiet and respectful.
Unit 8: Intercultural marriage
According to Unit 8 of the textbook, climate and language were both challenges for this intercultural couple; however, they adapted to each other’s climates and used English—the language they both spoke—to communicate. When either became angry or impatient, they switched to their native tongues, which ironically defused(缓和) quarrels.
This suggests that climate, language, and other factors can pose challenges to intercultural couples.
Interviewed in the Unit 8 of our textbook, the couple come from literally the opposite ends of the world, they need to cope with extreme changes in climates, landscape, and culture. However, this couple said that if you meet the right person, just go for it. Culture is not the issue. The person is what counts, not where he or she comes from. In some ways, perhaps because people sometimes expect problems in an intercultural marriage, they are more successful for this very reason; the couple try harder to make it work!
(视频)As show in a video watched in class, a British beauty who married into an Indian family remains deeply in love with her husband despite their cultural differences. She has assimilated into local customs and dress norms, and gets along harmoniously with her mother-in-law.
This shows that even in cross-national marriages, success is attainable as long as both sides put in genuine effort and sincerity.
(额外的一些观点论证): Marriage, cross cultural or otherwise, requires trust, compromise, mutual respect, and love. A cross-cultural marriage will only amplify the flaws of husband and wife, cultural differences, societal challenges and pressures to bear children, but succeeding is all about managing each other’s expectations and maintaining interests in one another’s culture.
Unit14: McDonald’s
Where there was little tradition of business expertise, such as in central Europe or in China in the 1990s, McDonald’s was able to introduce its techniques in an approach similar to that which they had adopted in the U.S. in the 1950s and 60s, and with similar success.
This shows McDonald’s has achieved global success.
According to Unit 14 of our textbook, there have even been sporadic cases of attacks on McDonald’s premises, in France, in Britain, and elsewhere. In one such incident, in France, some local officials condoned the destruction of the McDonald’s restaurant in the town, since it represented, they felt, an attack on France’s great culinary tradition.
And in Britain, McDonald’s was targeted as an example of the negative effects of globalization. In Britain, too, McDonald’s unwisely became involved in what became known as the McLibel case.
This demonstrates McDonald’s has been causing feelings of threat among indigenous people.
According to Unit 14 again, McDonald’s created the RMH charities organization which is a successful charity which raises money to provide healthcare for American children in need.
This proves that McDonald’s has made considerable efforts to promote itself as an organisation that is socially responsible.
According to Unit 14 again, it was claimed that McDonald’s was contributing to the destruction of the planet, by destroying the rainforest which protect us against global warming and help to keep the weather system in balance.
无需总结。
Unit 15: the first Australians
According to Unit 15, as a result of their belief in supernatural beings and myths of creation, the Aborigines had an innate sense of ecological custodianship, and their relationship to nature was one of respect and care.
无需总结。
However, according to Unit 15 again, the first English settlers had little understanding of, or tolerance for, Aboriginal culture. The English considered Australia as “unoccupied” as they believed that the lack of exploitation of the land and its resources was proof that it was not “owned” by the natives.
(This is a paradigmatic instance of cultural supremacy.)
比如我下面想多说一点关于英国殖民者的霸权：
The initial assertion by the English settlers that Australia was “unoccupied” exemplifies the utilisation of cultural supremacy as a justifier for the dispossession of territory. As Unit 15 of our textbook points out, the colonists “had little understanding of, or tolerance for, Aboriginal culture” and therefore equated the absence of European-style farming with the absence of ownership. This deliberate misreading converted the sustainable custodianship of indigenous peoples into a legal vacuum which allowed Britain to annex the territory. By prioritising their own land-use values while disregarding Aboriginal values, the settlers transformed cultural prejudice into political doctrine, establishing the foundation for two centuries of dispossession.
As stated in Unit 15 of the textbook, Aboriginal people continue to engage in legal proceedings in pursuit of their land rights. Despite progress is slow, they are still pursuing political solutions, most notably the landmark Mabo case.
This shows that even slow legal struggles can help Indigenous people win back land and recognition.
这是我为《文化阅读》期末考试准备的论据和一些预设的论点，你觉得考试考到文化，特别是中外文化对比，以及国际性、未来性的展望的时候他会考什么。
以下是考试描述：
•You will be given two short cases to read.
•You will need to write a case analysis for each case
•Each case will have 3 analysis questions.
•You must address at least two of them.
•Your answer to the analysis questions should be supported by making references to the textbook, other reading materials, anything else you’ve learned in class.
•Each case will be based on one of the following units:
•7, 8, 14, or 15
•Two cases, 4 topic possibilities
•You will not know what the topics will be until you see the exam paper.
•Each case analysis should be 250-300 words long.
他很可能是出主流媒体相关的阅读材料来对比，比如人类进步，环保，批判能力，中外的侧重点，优劣，哪个更好，什么最重要。
请你用英文模拟一下各个单元的主题会出什么题目，并且给出标准回答。最好是搜索主流媒体文章，比如China Daily之类的。