Cross-Cultural Business Blunders 
[A] Many visitors to different countries don't realize how important it is to understand a country's culture. Sometimespeople learn this lesson by making a big cross-cultural blunder, or embarrassing mistake. In business situations, theseblunders can cost a lot of money or end business relationships. 
[B] When companies are trying to sell products, it's very important for them to understand what is important to theirpotential customers, and to understand a bit of their language. For example, one company wanted to sell toothpaste inSoutheast Asia. In their advertisement, they claimed that their toothpaste whitened teeth. They didn't understand thatmany of the local people chewed betel nuts to make their teeth black and that these people thought black teeth wereattractive. In another case, a car company tried to sell a car called "Matador" in a Spanish-speaking country. Thecompany thought that it was a strong name because it means "bullfighter." In Spanish, matador is indeed a noun meaning"bullfighter." But it is also an adjective meaning "killing." Imagine driving around in a car called "Killing"! 
[C] Business meetings with people from another country can be very tricky when you don't understand the other country'sculture. A European businessman had an important meeting with a company in Taiwan. He wanted to bring gifts for thepeople he was meeting with. He thought that something with his company's logo on it would be a nice gift. So he boughtsome very nice pocket knives and had his company's logo printed on them. He didn't know that giving a knife as a giftsymbolizes cutting off a friendship! The Taiwanese businessmen were very offended. But luckily, the Europeanbusinessman was able to repair the relationship with a lot of explanation and apologies. 
[D] It's very easy to make blunders like these people did. But it's also very easy not to. Before you visit a new country,research that country's customs and etiquette (social rules for polite behavior). You can find a lot of information online.Just go to a search engine and type in key words like "cross-cultural etiquette" or "cultural information Taiwan." Byspending a few minutes doing research, you can save yourself a lot of embarrassment and make sure you don'taccidentally offend anyone.
【題組】1. What is the main idea of this reading?
(A) People in Southeast Asia like to chew betel nuts.
(B) It's important to understand people from other cultures before you do business with them.
(C) It's dangerous to understand people from other cultures before you do business with them.
(D) Proper business etiquette in most countries is difficult for foreigners to understand.