Lessons in the Lost Art of Listening
When was the last time you listened to someone? And when was the last time someone really listened to you? I once asked people what it meant to be a good listener. The typical response was a blank stare.
Of course, technology plays a role. People find phone calls interrupting them, preferring text or wordless emoji. Besides, schools and colleges rarely offer classes or activities that teach careful listening. You can join clubs to perfect your public speaking. but who attempts to achieve excellence in listening? The loud unpleasant mixture of sounds of modern life also stops us from listening.
Generally, listening goes beyond simply hearing what people say. It also involves paying attention to how they say it and what they do while they are saying it, in what context, and how what they say is related to you. It’s not about merely holding your peace while someone else holds forth. Quite the opposite. A lot of listening has to do with how you respond — the degree to which you facilitate the clear expression of another person’s thoughts and, in the process, have a clear mind of your own.
Good listeners ask good questions. They engage in exploring the topic, not to divert attention. There are curious questions like “Wouldn’t you agree..” or “Don’t you think..” These questions have strong tendencies. They will greatly influence the other person to change his or her view. And you’d better stay away from some personal questions like “What do you do for a living?” or “What part of town do you live in?” Just try to find out what excites people. Ask about the last movie they saw or for the story behind a piece of jewelry they’re wearing. Also good are expansive questions, such as, “If you could spend a month, where would you go?” Research indicates that when people who don’t know each other well ask each other this type of question, they feel more connected than if they spend time together achieving a task.
Because our brain can think a lot faster than people can talk, be careful with the tendency to take mental side trips when you are listening. Smart people’s attention is easily taken away by their own runaway thoughts. They may also assume they already know what the other person is going to say.
The reward of good listening will certainly be more interesting conversations. Researchers have found that attentive listeners receive more information from speakers, even when they don’t ask any questions. We are, each of us, the sum of what we attend to in life. The gentle voice of a mother and the criticism of a boss both ultimately form and shape us. And to listen poorly, selectively or not at all limits your understanding of the world and prevents you from becoming the best you can be.
1. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?.| A．Why the art of listening gets lost by itself. |
| B．Why effective methods are used in listening. |
| C．How people make themselves well understood. |
| D．How people can reclaim the lost art of listening. |
| A．Avoid being absent-minded. |
| B．Come up with curious questions. |
| C．Focus on the speaker’s personal information. |
| D．Try to find common interests with the speaker. |
| A．Listening and speaking deserve equal attention. |
| B．Good listeners maximize the benefits for themselves. |
| C．Bad listening ultimately contributes to people’s failure. |
| D．Listeners’ clear mind facilitates speakers’ expression of thoughts. |
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【推荐1】The exact location from where Vincent van Gogh is likely to have painted his final masterpiece, perhaps just hours before his death, has been determined with the help of a postcard.
The scene in Tree Roots, a painting of trunks (树干）and roots growing on a hillside, was first spotted on a card dating from 1900 to 1910 by Van der Veen, the scientific director of the Institute Van Gogh. Following a comparative study of the painting, the postcard and the current condition of the hillside, researchers concluded that it was highly possible that the place where Van Gogh made his final brushstrokes had been unearthed.
The main trunk in the painting has survived the 130 years since the Dutch master’s death. It has long been believed that Van Gogh had been working on Tree Roots shortly before he took his own life with a shot to the chest. Andries Bonger, the brother-in-law of Van Gough's brother Theo, had described in a letter how the “morning before his death” Van Gogh had “painted a forest scene, full of sun and life” Van der Veen said, t4The sunlight painted by Van Gogh suggests that the last brushstrokes were painted towards the end of the afternoon.”
Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, said the spot, some 150 meters from the hotel where Van Gogh had stayed the last 70 days of his life, would likely have been passed on a number of occasions by him. “The scene on the postcard shows very clear similarities to the shape of the roots on Van Gogh’s painting,” he said. “He must often have passed by the location when going to the fields behind the castle of Auvers, where he painted several times during the last week of his life and where he would take his own life.”
1. What is Tree Roots?| A．A trunk. |
| B．A hillside. |
| C．A drawing. |
| D．A postcard. |
| A．He had a close relationship with his brother. |
| B．What he drew in his paintings all came from real life. |
| C．He was working on his artwork shortly before killing himself. |
| D．He was so sick in his last days that he spent all the time in a hotel. |
| A．In the fields. | B．In a local hotel. |
| C．In the castle of Auvers. | D．In the scene on the postcard. |
| A．To remember a famous painter. Van Gogh. |
| B．To introduce Van Gogh's life and his works. |
| C．To describe the influence of Van Gogh in art. |
| D．To tell the place in Van Gogh’s last painting. |
【推荐2】Call of the Wild
“According to Tibetan legend, the day the world’s first ray of sunlight struck Mount Kailash in Ngari Prefecture of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, was the day the first yak (牦牛)was born. Kailash’s ridges are the yak’s backs. Yaks are the herd of the mountain god.” The narration is accompanied by shots of picturesque (优美的) plateaus and snow-capped mountains, taking viewers right into the vast wilderness of Tibet.
This is the opening scene of the documentary The Land of Spirits. It tells the tale of four “holy” animals-the wild yak, white dolphin, Asian elephant and Amur tiger. They were used as totems (图腾) in ancient times but today, they are the species that best reflect the region’s ecological status.
Principal director Zeng Hairuo set out to document the relationship between humans and these animals. But why are they “holy”? In ancient times, human power alone was not strong enough to accomplish big things and so huge wild animals were honored as gods; but with the development of modernization, mankind began to disappoint nature.
The film illustrates the land through the creatures living on it; it’s also not a purely animal-focused story because it contains the interaction between these creatures, ancient people and contemporary people as well as presents the prehistory of the land and the source of local culture through the stories of animals and humans alike. “We want to help rebuild mankind’s reverence (敬畏) for life, for animals, and restore our ability to communicate with nature, ” Zeng said.
“This is the difference between Eastern and Western thinking,” Zeng said. “The Western documentary style prefers more sub-disciplines and a subdivision of research.” Zeng brings the audience a typical Chinese way of recording the scene: nature and humanity as one, in other words, one story mixing animals, mankind and nature.
As far as Zeng is concerned, one cannot mention these four animals without bringing in the human factor. Observing these animals is like looking in a mirror for humans, which makes this documentary stand out from many other nature documentaries, he said.
1. Why does the documentary feature four remarkable animals?| A．To serve as totems. |
| B．To promote the modernization. |
| C．To represent the local ecosystem. |
| D．To reflect the human-animal conflict. |
| A．It shows the native culture. |
| B．It describes the animals in Tibet. |
| C．It tells the life of the people there. |
| D．It motivates man’s respect for nature. |
| A．The technique-based style. |
| B．The human-centered theme. |
| C．The picturesque scenes. |
| D．The wisdom of harmony. |
| A．Instructive. | B．Appealing. |
| C．Entertaining. | D．Persuasive. |
【推荐3】Do you have a summer firefly (萤火虫) memory? I have many. I knew it was finally summer when I would be outside playing after dinner and those little flying lights appeared. I imagined each light was a fairy with long hair. But fireflies are disappearing. While the exact reason isn't known, several factors are suspected: habitat (栖息地) loss, light pollution and harmful chemicals.
As the human population continues to grow, more and more wild habitats will be developed for our use. The more we destroy forest land, the fewer fireflies there will be--- unless we start living in some totally different ways.
Another part of the problem is light pollution. Both female and male fireflies use their glowing lights to communicate with one another to find mates. Research has shown that lights — both streetlights or lights from a house, and temporary, like car headlights — make it harder for fireflies to communicate. If mom and dad fireflies can’t find each other to mate (交配) because they're thrown off by car headlights, young fireflies never get created.
White firefly number will continue to decline in some places, in others they're becoming an attraction. In China, firefly pupae (蛹) were brought into some special parks. One of the first of these parks, in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, opened in 2015. The response was so positive that the park planned to open annually.
Kids who grow up without fireflies will never know what they're missing. The little lovely bugs are a magical addition to the landscape, but once they die out, they will exist only in the memories of older people. If you'd like to keep fireflies around in real life, you can help create firefly habitats in and around your own home.
1. What might cause the number of fireflies to decrease?| A．The effect of air pollution. |
| B．The loss of natural habitats. |
| C．The growth of population. |
| D．The over-use of chemicais. |
| A．likely to get lost | B．find mates easily |
| C．lose sight temporarily | D．unable to produce young |
| A．How to keep fireflies around. |
| B．How chemicals harm fireflies. |
| C．How to stop fireflies' habitat loss. |
| D．How fireflies struggle to live on. |
【推荐1】How to Be a Successful Team Leader?
Every well-organized team needs to have an outstanding leader with specific skills. Sometimes the leader’s abilities can come to affect the whole team. Although you students are still young, it’s never too early to cultivate leadership skills.
A team consists of both leaders and followers.
What’s more, a successful and charming leader ought to be able to handle interpersonal relationships well. They should be honest, fair, objective and impartial（公正的）when it comes to both rewards and punishments.
It’s a well-known fact that, whatever field you wish to work in, leadership skills are necessary for anyone who desires to have a successful career.
| A．These kinds of leaders are trustworthy. |
| B．Followers, are different from leaders, though |
| C．Leaders still-need someone to guide them along the way. |
| D．So it’s never too early to train yourselves as promising future leaders. |
| E．Neither side can exist and work effectively without the other. |
| F．Otherwise the followers will lose their confidence and things will not be done well. |
| G．To be a leader you should take the initiative in connecting with your followers. |
【推荐2】Some people make you feel comfortable when they are around. You spend an hour with them and feel you are already close friends. They are always good talkers.
Here are several skills that good talkers have in common. If you follow the skills, they’ll help you put people at their ease, and make friends with them quickly.
First of all, good talkers ask questions. Almost anyone, no matter how shy he is, will answer a question. One well-known businesswoman says, “At business lunches, I always ask people what they did that morning.
Real listening at least means some things. If someone sticks to one topic, you can take it as a fact that he’s really interested in it. Real listening also means not just listening to words, but to tones of voice.
Finally, good talkers know well how to “say goodbye”. If you’re saying goodbye, you may give him a firm handshake and say, “I’ve really enjoyed meeting you.”
| A．You can become a popular person. |
| B．Common as the question is, it will get things going. |
| C．Don’t be afraid to say so if you want to see that person again. |
| D．You’d better change the subject if the voice sounds dull. |
| E．It’s polite to listen to others with a smile. |
| F．And how he answers will let you know how far you can go. |
| G．These people have something in common. |
【推荐3】Communication is possibly one of the most important business skills. Good communication makes you more popular.
Listen. Most of us are terrible listeners. Instead of truly listening to what the person is saying, we interrupt, prepare our reply, or think we already know what the speaker is going to say next.
Pay attention to body language. Body language can tell you just as much as what a person says, if not more.
Respect the person you’re trying to communicate with and use the method he/she accepts more easily.
Consider your tone (语气). The problem with email and social media is that it can be difficult to determine the tone.
| A．Try to avoid being too serious. |
| B．You may mean something as a joke. |
| C．Consider communication preference. |
| D．Watch carefully how they act when they talk. |
| E．See how others reply to your communication. |
| F．Yet many of us haven’t been trained in how to communicate with others. |
| G．It’s impossible to understand what someone needs if we don’t pay our full attention to what he is saying. |
