1 . When communicating with others, we often focus on what we should say.
Focus fully on the speaker. You can’t listen in an active way if you’re constantly checking your phone.
Display your interest in what’s being said by using body language. Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting.
Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns by saying something like, “you think that’s bad, let me tell you what happened to me.”
| A．Try to set aside judgement. |
| B．Be aware of individual differences. |
| C．It will make you feel more self-confident. |
| D．Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. |
| E．Encourage the speaker to continue with “yes”or “uh huh”. |
| F．Thinking about something else also implies you are not an active listener. |
| G．However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. |
| A．Husband and wife. | B．Co-workers. | C．Salesman and customer. |
| A. eating B. late C. ducks D. carefully E. before F. vegetables G. sorry H. words I. planted J. shouted |
Mrs. Brown had a small garden behind her house, and in the spring she
But early the next morning, her son ran into the kitchen and
Mrs. Brown ran out, but it was too
Then a few days
Shyness is avoiding human contact, often because of a feeling of not being as good as others and fear of taking risks. Shyness is a force
On the basis of research that he
Shyness makes it difficult
New research published by a team of psychologists at the University of Missouri-Columbia suggests that our own happiness
The researchers offer a good
But it is not just financial generosity that has the power to increase our happiness. Simply adopting an attitude that puts others' happiness above our own has
6 . If you have some free time to socialize, do you prefer to spend it with your best friend or partner, or with a larger group of people?
A new study investigated what group size people actually look for and encounter in everyday life. The scientists asked more than 4, 000 people from the U. S. and the Netherlands to report the size of their social groups for a wide variety of activities. For eight different activities (going to a bar, chatting at work, chatting off work, having dinner, going on a holiday, going to a movie theatre, working on a project, playing sports), people reported a group size of two more often than they reported larger group sizes. Interestingly, for about half of these activities, women reported a group size of two significantly more often than men did, suggesting that women prefer a social group size of two even more than men do.
The researchers also used a research technique called real—time experience—sampling in the second part of the study. 274 volunteers were asked seven times a day to report the last social situation they had experienced. The results were clear. Two was the most common group size with 52. 6 percent. Thus, this part of the study also suggested that two is the most common group size in social interactions.
So why do people prefer spending their time with one other person compared to spending their time with larger groups? Researchers explained that in general, social interactions with just one other person allow for more control of the situation, especially when it comes to reciprocity ( 互助). When we interact with just one other person, one's choices directly affect the other person and only that person. Thus, it is easy to distinguish whether there is mutual cooperation (for example, both people take turns paying for dinner) or whether someone acts selfishly (for example, one person never pays the bill). In larger groups, the situation gets much more complicated.
1. What is the new study mainly about?| A．What social group size people prefer. |
| B．Whom people like to spend time with. |
| C．Which activities people choose to kill time. |
| D．How people make friends in social activities. |
| A．To collect the latest data. |
| B．To make their activities last longer. |
| C．To know the variety of their activities. |
| D．To prove the result of the former study. |
| A．The closer relationship. | B．The limited choices. |
| C．The sense of control. | D．The selfish intention. |
| A．Advanced technology. | B．Social psychology. |
| C．Entertainment. | D．Health. |
7 . An act of kindness doesn't have to be a grand gesture. Even those small acts of kindness can make a difference in someone's day. That was just the case for Amie Mickey when she
Amie started to do this several years ago. At first, she wondered if people would
Stories like Amie's really
| A．tore up | B．picked up | C．fixed up | D．put up |
| A．watch | B．overlook | C．notice | D．neglect |
| A．attention | B．strangers | C．confusion | D．trouble |
| A．running | B．driving | C．walking | D．riding |
| A．voices | B．hats | C．shoulders | D．thumbs |
| A．count | B．share | C．value | D．matter |
| A．frightened | B．frustrated | C．embarrassed | D．disappointed |
| A．parking | B．speed | C．incident | D．event |
| A．approached | B．blocked | C．repaired | D．cleaned |
| A．important | B．special | C．typical | D．skeptical |
| A．happened | B．occurred | C．managed | D．offered |
| A．shock | B．inspire | C．delight | D．satisfy |
| A．feelings | B．thoughts | C．spirits | D．minds |
| A．work | B．exercise | C．conduct | D．behave |
| A．reliable | B．subjective | C．positive | D．brief |
8 . How to Level up Your Self-Control
By definition, self-control is the ability to do something that benefits your long-term goals, instead of something that might satisfy your immediate desires.
Angela Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, says allocating resources between your present self and future self is an ongoing struggle. For example, exhibiting self-control over spending time on video games and social media, two of the most common temptations（诱惑）of the current era, means battling against age-old mechanisms in your brain.
If you're willing to look deeply into your tendencies and weak points, you can recognize the handful of problems that you need to work on.
The problem of looking at your cell phone too often, say, can be solved by putting it on mute or, better yet, sticking it in your bag until lunch.
Finally, Duckworth advises laying a foundation of self-control that you can build of in the future.
| A．One place to start would be the office |
| B．What problems do you need to work on |
| C．We've all experienced unproductive workdays |
| D．But for many of us, short-term satisfactions are irresistible |
| E．Why is exercising proper self-control so tricky for some, and how to do better |
| F．If you can resist resigning you may achieve more on your overall self-control |
| G．Removing the temptation from sight is key to ensuring you're faithful to your mission |
9 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.
Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t
even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease(润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. ＂Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,＂ he explains. ＂The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.＂
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction(互动) with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. ＂It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,＂ says Dunn. ＂But interactions with peripheral(边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also.＂
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. ＂Small talk is the basis of good manners,＂ he says.
1. What phenomenon is described in the first paragraph?| A．Addiction to smartphones. |
| B．Inappropriate behaviours in public places. |
| C．Absence of communication between strangers. |
| D．Impatience with slow service. |
| A．Showing good manners. | B．Relating to other people. |
| C．Focusing on a topic. | D．Making business deals. |
| A．It improves family relationships. | B．It raises people’s confidence. |
| C．It matters as much as a formal talk. | D．It makes people feel good. |
| A．Conversation Counts | B．Ways of Making Small Talk |
| C．Benefits of Small Talk | D．Uncomfortable Silence |
10 . It’s well-known by all the people to greet friends with a smile and a wave.
Recently, scientists have dealt with these questions. They found that when a person is staring at your face, he might not believe what he sees if your body doesn’t match the feeling that your face shows.
When talking about emotions conveyed by facial expressions and body language, most scientists suspected that the face was more important. To test if this was true, psychologists from the Netherlands and Boston showed people a number of pictures of isolated faces and isolated bodies that showed anger or fear,
An angry face had low eyebrows and tight lips. A frightened face had high eyebrow and a slightly open mouth,
These results told the researchers that mixed messages can confuse people. Even when people
pay attention to the face, body language surely influences the emotion they read.
| A．Studying such mixed messages is nothing new for scientists. |
| B．So, your body language is important for telling people your feelings. |
| C．Scientists feel new to study the mixed message that puzzles people, |
| D．An angry body had arms back and shoulders at an angle, as if ready to fight. |
| E．Body language can sometimes be misunderstood in different culture backgrounds. |
| F．They also showed pictures where angry or scared faces were paired with angry or scared bodies. |
| G．When doing this, your face and body work together to show your friends that you are happy to see them. |
