Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Do you know someone who is exceptionally picky when it comes to the food to eat, the clothes to wear, or the people to date? Choosy people tend to be somewhat overly analytical - they carefully weigh the pros and cons of most decisions. As a result, they tend to take a lot of time 1 (make) up their minds.
Remember Jerry from Seinfeld? He was extremely picky regarding the people he dated. Any physical flaw, 2 small, was Jerry’s reason for rejecting a possible dating partner. I had a friend who was like that. He didn’t like the shape of this girl’s chin, or another 3 ears were “too large for her face.” As a result, he rarely dated anyone.
A waitress told me a story of a particular picky woman. The restaurant had a special salad 4 tons of ingredients. This woman would go down the list of ingredients and say, “I don’t like cucumbers, take that out...take out the cilantro, no tomatoes, etc.” The waitress said that by the time she was done, it was 5 salad of just iceberg lettuce! People who are not picky - the opposite end of the scale - tend to be 6 (impulsive), flexible, and open to experience.
Our research found that some people are only picky in particular areas of their lives - eating, dating, or when 7 (evaluate) goods for purchase, although most were picky in most things. Picky people tend to analyze, and often overanalyze, the choices that they are about to make. Some of them can drive salespersons crazy as they hesitate, evaluate. and hesitate again.
A contractor(承包商), who 8 (remodel) a couple of houses, told me the story of two extreme clients. The first, who was extremely choosy, took forever to decideon bathroom fixtures, appliances, cabinets, and paint. 9 the non-picky one, looked at three similar colors and said, “They’re all ok, you choose.”
While choosy individuals 10 spend long time deciding, being analytical and slowing to act, non-choosy people’s impulsiveness may lead to quick, and unwise decisions. However, the truth is that non-choosy people may also make their quick decisions, and rationalize them to make them fit, even if it wasn’t the best decision in the first place.