Cultural awareness is now as required an attitude in cross-cultural communication as is, say, time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges.

【翻译】文化意识是跨文化交际中所需的一种态度，就像约会时的时间意识或社会交往中的礼节一样。

1. say 是插入语，意思是“比方说；比如说”，为了理解句子，将其删掉，两个逗号自然去掉。

Cultural awareness is now as required an attitude in cross-cultural communication as is time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges.

2. 句子虽长，其实是一个 as...as...比较结构。参与比较的两个成分是：

Cultural awareness 和 time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges

3. 由于 as 从句中的主语 time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges 太长，把系动词 is 提前构成倒装句。这个 is 与主句的 is 对应，都是系动词。当然放在句末也可，甚至不用都行：

（1）Cultural awareness is now as required an attitude in cross-cultural communication as is time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges.

（2）Cultural awareness is now as required an attitude in cross-cultural communication as time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges is.

（3）Cultural awareness is now as required an attitude in cross-cultural communication as time-consciousness in keeping appointment or politeness in social exchanges.