1 . Customer service refers to the way that companies behave towards their customers.
First of all, you need to realize the great value of the customers. It’s they who are the boss, and it, s because of them that you get your pay checks. So do take your customers seriously.
Making customers feel they are important is an excellent way to serve them better.
In addition, there are some other skills which will help you in serving your customers better. For example, once you finish solving the problem for the customers, before ending the call, always remember to ask if there is anything else you can do for them. End the call with a “thank you”. If the customers are angry, let them express their anger completely.
In a word, always remember that if the customers remain happy, you’ll be in business.
| A．Treat customers as individuals. |
| B．Never interrupt or start speaking until they’ve finished. |
| C．You can bring in as many new customers as you want. |
| D．So customer service is important and you should know how to improve it. |
| E．Finding out the needs of the customers is another important customer service tip. |
| F．More companies are finding that their customer service should not be limited to stores. |
| G．It’s the quality of service that determines whether the customer remains with the company. |
2 . Social media does have its shortcomings, and one of those is that it can often seem like everybody is living and winning big — except you.
Someone could have +1000 likes on their pictures or a million views on their videos and still be unhappy.
There are couples that appear happy on social media but behind those photos, they suffer a lot in relationships.
You don’t know what some people go through to come out with the fantastic pictures you envy. The real key players mostly operate behind the scenes but make the most happen. They may look like nobody but they are building their kingdoms while others are getting high on likes and attention. Success is not what is presented on social media.
Be yourself and never give up on yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others. The real champions of social media are those who add value to others, not the ones who show their lifestyle to impress others.
| A．Those ones don’t get documented. |
| B．Some even think it’s a complete show-off. |
| C．Being popular on social media is not everything. |
| D．Self-worth is determined by the number of likes one gets. |
| E．There are couples who post nothing but are in loving relationship. |
| F．It takes tears, sleepless nights, and loads of failure to make it in life. |
| G．You are always flooded with strangers’ images that show the life you long for. |
3 . We often think about relationships on a scale from positive to negative. We are drawn to loving family members, caring classmates and supportive mentors. We do our best to avoid the cruel uncle, the playground bully and the jerk boss.
But the most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones. They’re the ones that are a mix of positive and negative. We often call them frenemies, supposed friends who sometimes help you and sometimes hurt you. But ifs not just friends. It’s the in-laws who volunteer to watch your kids but belittle your parenting. The manager who praises your work but denies you a promotion.
Everyone knows how relationships like that can tie your stomach into a knot. But groundbreaking research led by the psychologists Bert Uchino and Julianne Holt-Lunstad shows that ambivalent (矛盾情绪的) relationships can be damaging to your health — even more than purely negative relationships.
I had assumed that with a neighbor or a colleague, having some positive interactions was better than all negative interactions. But being cheered on by the same person who cuts you down doesn’t reduce the bad feelings; it increases them. And it’s not just in your head: It leaves a trace in your heart and your blood.
Even a single ambivalent interaction can cause harm. In one experiment, people gave impromptu speeches on controversial topics in front of a friend who offered feedback. The researchers had randomly assigned the friend to give ambivalent or negative comments. Receiving mixed feedback caused higher blood pressure than pure criticism. “I would have gone about the topic differently, but you’re doing fine” proved to be more distressing than “I totally disagree with everything you’ve said.”
The evidence that ambivalent relationships can be bad for us is strong, but the reasons can be harder to read — just like the relationships themselves.
The most intuitive reason is that ambivalent relationships are unpredictable. With a clear enemy, you put up a shield when you cross paths. With a frenemy, you never know whether Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde is going to show up. Feeling unsure can disrupt the body’s calming system and activate a fight-or-flight response. It’s unsettling to hope for a hug while also preparing for a likely quarrel.
Another factor is that unpleasant interactions are more painful in an ambivalent relationship. It’s more upsetting to be let down by people you like sometimes than by people you dislike all the time. When someone stabs you in the back, it stings more if he’s been friendly to your face.
1. Which of the following can be counted as a frenemy?| A．Your neighbour’s kid who advises you to study hard but idles away his own time. |
| B．Your classmate who admires your diligence at first, but doubts your intelligence later. |
| C．Your mother’s friend who encourages you to spend more time on homework but less on smart phones. |
| D．Your father’s colleague who proposes you to do a moderate amount of homework while ensuring adequate sleep. |
| A．Ambivalent relationships have a permanent effect on your well-being. |
| B．The common cause for high blood pressure is ambivalent relationship. |
| C．Ambivalent interactions will be more painful if it is done consciously. |
| D．The negative impact of ambivalent interactions is direct and strong. |
| A．devalue | B．appreciate | C．respect | D．abuse |
| A．Some Negative Relationships Are Bad for Your Health |
| B．Your Most Ambivalent Relationships Are the Most Toxic |
| C．The Reasons for Ambivalent Relationships Are Unpredictable |
| D．Some Positive Relationships Are Better than All Negative Ones |
4 . I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled (贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.
War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.
The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬) under her covers, sobbing. Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.
Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”
Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.
1. The author tidied up the room most probably because ________.| A．she was scared by Kate’s anger | B．she hated herself for being so messy |
| C．she wanted to show her care | D．she was asked by Kate to do so |
| A．By analyzing causes. | B．By showing differences. |
| C．By describing a process. | D．By following time order. |
| A．The benefit of being organized. |
| B．The daily routine in a dormitory. |
| C．The effort into developing friendships. |
| D．The sharing of learning to be roommates. |
5 . When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of lonely self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again. It wasn’t until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn’t emerge as a thing on the list at all. This is surprising when you consider the current common emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close interpersonal relationships at work. So much research has been done to explore the way in which collegial ties can help overcome a range of work place-issues affecting productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.
Perhaps my expectations of lunches, watercooler’ gossip and caring, deep and meaningful conversations were a legacy of the last time I was in that kind of office environment-Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without needing to be best mates with the people sitting next to you or form a close bond with them.
In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked-at the concept of “indifferent relationships ”. It’s a simple term that illustrates the fact that relationships at work can reasonably be not close, not important, not sensible and even, dare I say it, disposable or replaceable.
Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted thus far indicates they’ re especially dominant among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over conflict. Indifference is also the preferred option among those who are socially lazy. Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort. For some of us, too much effort, actually.
As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most helpful approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work. But there are nonetheless several proven benefits. One of those is efficiency. Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and yielding (产出).
The other is self-esteem. As human beings, we’re prepared to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-provoking phenomenon. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances more so than close friends. Since the former is most common among those more likely involved in indifferent relationships, their predominance can boost individuals’ sense of self-worth.
Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional neutrality of indifferent relationships has been found to enhance critical evaluation, to strengthen one’s focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information. None of that might be as fun as after-work socializing but, hey, I’ll take it anyway
1. What did the author realize when he re-entered the corporate world?| A．Making hew mends with this workmates was not as easy as he had thought. |
| B．Cultivating positive interpersonal relationships helped him shake off lonely feelings. |
| C．Building close relationships with his colleagues was not as important as he had expected. |
| D．Working in the corporate world requires more interpersonal skills than self-employment. |
| A．They should be cultivated. |
| B．They are actual irrelevant. |
| C．They are vital to corporate culture. |
| D．They should be reasonably intimate. |
| A．They feel uncomfortable when engaging in social interactions. |
| B．They often find themselves in confrontation with their colleagues. |
| C．They lack basic communication skills in dealing with interpersonal issues. |
| D．They are unwilling to make efforts to maintain workplace relationships. |
| A．They provide fun at work. |
| B．They improve work efficiency. |
| C．They help resolve differences. |
| D．They help control emotions. |
6 . For nearly ten years, I have spent my Monday evenings attending rehearsals for my amateur choir(合唱队). Mondays are not my favourite day, and I often arrive in a bad mood, but by the end of the rehearsal, I usually feel energized. The singing does me good. So do the people. With a few exceptions, I would not describe my fellow choir members as close friends. We exchange brief chats, smiles and jokes-—but that is enough for me to come away feeling a little better about the world.
There is no choir practice now, and won’t be for a long time. I miss it. In lockdown, I do not feel short on emotional support, but I do feel short of friendly faces and casual conversations. Another way of putting this is that I miss my “weak ties”.
In 1973, Mark Granovetter, a sociology professor at Stanford University, published a paper entitled “The Strength of Weak Ties”. Until then, scholars had assumed that an individual’s well-being depended mainly on the quality of relationships with close friends and family. Granovetter showed that quantity mattered, too. He categorized a person’s social world as “strong ties” and “weak ties”. His central insight was that for new ideas, weak ties are more important to us than strong ones. As Granovetter pointed out, the people whom we often talk to swim in the same pool of information as we do. We depend on acquaintances whom we see infrequently to bring us news of opportunities.
This was the idea behind the Pixar building, the design of which was overseen by Steve Jobs. The building has a large central hall through which employees from different departments have to pass several times a day. Jobs wanted colleagues to bump into each other and shoot the breeze(闲聊). He believed in the power of these seemingly random conversations to fire up creativity.
Encounters with weak ties can be good for our mental well-being, too. Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex, investigated the extent to which people get happiness from weak-tie relationships. She found that on days when a person had a greater number of casual interactions with weak ties-say, a local barista(咖啡师), a neighbour, a member of yoga class-they experienced more happiness and a greater sense of belonging.
For these reasons, we should continue to find ways to cultivate weak-tie relationships, during lockdown and beyond. Sandstrom adds that we can also engage in more weak-tie-style interactions with our strong ties. The goal is to let others know that you are thinking of them without asking for a great deal of time, energy or attention.
1. What can we learn about the author from the article?| A．She has been a singer from an early age. |
| B．She finds her Mondays quite difficult. |
| C．She barely knows most of her fellow choir members. |
| D．She has trouble maintaining friendships during lockdown. |
| A．have the same concerns | B．avoid conflicts of interests |
| C．see each other too frequently | D．be exposed to similar facts and ideas |
| A．make you feel connected | B．improve your social skills |
| C．put you in a cheerful mood | D．provide you with inspiration |
| A．It’s important to regularly interact with all of our friends. |
| B．It’s difficult to achieve a balance between strong- and weak-tie friendships. |
| C．It’s unnecessary to spend a lot of time strengthening friendship with our strong ties. |
| D．It’s a pity that people have had to shrink their social networks during lockdown. |
In social life, time plays a very important part. In the U.S.A., guests tend to feel that they are not highly regarded if the invitation to a dinner party is sent only three or four days
Gratitude is more than just saying “thank you”. Gratitude is a deeper appreciation for someone or something. Expressing gratitude makes us feel a positive emotion. Over the past thirty years, there
Building relationships and working successfully with different cultural backgrounds can seem like a major challenge. But you can enjoy the rewards, while keeping dissatisfaction to a minimum. The key to making them work is cultural competence. Essentially, cultural competence is defined as the ability to understand and interact effectively with people from different cultures.
Cultural competence is critical for everyone in today’s modern world. Living and working in a culturally diverse environment sometimes comes with differences of opinion and tension. People with strong cultural competence can resolve these issues creatively, even if a solution seems impossible at first. What’s more, thinking and caring about others with different experiences can bring out a sense of understanding. This helps to build trust between each other.
Cultural competence can be improved through training, education, and experience. Here are some simple tips to help you improve your cultural competence.
Assess yourself
The starting point is to understand your own cultural values and world view. Assess the current level of cultural competence in yourself and identify the knowledge, skills and resources that you want to acquire. This can give you an idea of your strengths and weaknesses in the area so that you can improve yourself in future.
Practice good manners
No matter whom you are dealing with, make sure that you are respecting others’ backgrounds, boundaries and customs. Pay close attention to your communication and make sure that you’re speaking to others in a kind and polite way.
Ask questions
When you don’t understand something or want to know why someone has behaved in a certain way, simply ask. Asking questions stops you making unnecessary assumptions, and shows the questions you did not understand to them.
Keep in mind that developing cultural competence is not a one-shot enterprise. It takes time and practice. Whether you are in a classroom or on campus, cultural competence plays an important role in your daily environment. Recognizing and dealing with cultural differences will create a happier setting for everyone.
1. What is cultural competence according to the passage?2. Why is cultural competence important for people in intercultural environment?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
>To improve our cultural competence, we should not only understand our strengths and weaknesses in this area, but also ask questions when we don’t understand others’ behaviors, even if we may speak in an impolite way.
4. Apart from the tips mentioned in the passage, what other way(s) can you think of to develop your cultural competence? (In about 40 words)
10 . An apology can achieve great things for both the givers and the receivers although nobody likes to admit that they were wrong.
An apology is crucial to our physical health. When we acknowledge that we are wrongdoers and express our guilt to others, we will free ourselves from the uncomfortable state. This act feels like a weight on us has been lifted.
Apologizing affects us not just physically, but also mentally.
Of course, the most effective apologies often bring a cost to our dignity, since we have to admit that we are wrong in front of others or many people.
| A．There are agreed-upon ways to express our apology to others. |
| B．It’s a way of showing the price we paid for the wronged action. |
| C．A good apology affects the health of those on the receiving end, too. |
| D．But this can often be minor compared to the benefits of a proper apology. |
| E．This means we should take the blame and not try to justify it or explain it away. |
| F．Apologize for what you did rather than what other people might have thought about it. |
| G．It has the ability to disarm others of their anger and to prevent further misunderstandings. |
