1 . 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 |
2 . Initial conversations can have a huge impact on how relationships develop over time. People are often stuck in the impressions they think they might have made the minute they finish speaking with someone for the first time: “Did they like me or were they just being polite?” “Were they deep in thought or deeply bored?”
To find out whether these worries are necessary, we have conducted nearly 10 years of research. In our studies, participants in the UK talked with someone they had never met before. Afterward, they were asked how much they liked their conversation partner and how much they believed that their conversation partner liked them. This allowed us to compare how much people believed they were liked to how much they were actually liked.
Time and time again, we found that people left their conversations with negative feelings about the impression they made. That is, people systematically underestimate how much their conversation partners like them and enjoy their company — a false belief we call the “liking gap”.
This bias (偏见) may seem like something that would occur only in initial interactions, but its effects extend far beyond a first impression. Surprisingly, the liking gap can constantly affect a variety of relationships, including interactions with coworkers, long after the initial conversations have taken place. Having a larger liking gap is associated with being less willing to ask workmates for help, less willing to provide workmates with open and honest feedback, and less willing to work on another project together.
There are numerous strategies to minimize your biased feelings. One place to start is shifting your focus of attention. Try to direct your attention to your conversation partner, be genuinely curious about them, ask them more questions, and really listen to their answers. The more you’re zeroed in on the other person, and the less you’re focused on yourself, the better your conversation will be and the less your mind will turn to all the things you think you didn’t do well.
1. Why did the author carry out 10 years of research?A.To dismiss national concerns. | B.To check out a potential bias. |
C.To enhance human communication. | D.To develop harmonious relationships. |
A.Fewer chances of new projects. | B.Underestimation of their ability. |
C.Bad relationships with people around. | D.Low willingness to interact with others. |
A.Restate opinions. | B.Deliver warnings. | C.Give suggestions. | D.Make a summary. |
A.Liking Gap May Influence Work Performances |
B.First Impressions Rely On Initial Conversations |
C.People Probably Like You More Than You Think |
D.How People Like You Matters Less Than You Assume |
3 . How to Deal with a Colleague who Keeps Challenging Your Views
It can be difficult to develop an environment of teamwork when you continually run up against a colleague who challenges your views.
If a co-worker habitually challenges your ideas in a group discussion in a confrontational manner, don’t engage him or get into an argument. Pause for a moment, look the colleague in the eye.
There’s a time and place for everything, including professional disagreements. If a colleague interrupts you or talks over you in an effort to contradict your point or insert (插入) his own opinion, gently remind him that you still have the floor. If the colleague is challenging something you say before you have a chance to address the point, note that as well.
Agree to respect each other.If a particular colleague has a long history of disagreeing with you, you might be able to anticipate his arguments or objections. Prepare rebuttals to address anything your colleague might throw at you.
A.Hold your ground. |
B.Ask for peace-making. |
C.This will help you support your own arguments. |
D.And ask him in a calm voice to repeat what he said. |
E.Here are the ways to deal with colleagues of this kind. |
F.Just find ways to make peace and communicate with your colleague. |
G.The bottom line is, colleagues are not going to agree with each other all the time. |
4 . 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 |
5 . “I’m sorry” are two very important words that play a big part in daily life. You might apologize while squeezing through a crowd or using the last of the printer paper at work. It’s easy to say “I’m sorry”, but true apologies are a different story.
Apologize sincerely. A genuine apology can help repair your relationship, and even your reputation—you’re showing that you can be trusted to do what’s right. But your relationship will remain tense if your apology seems casual.
Apply specific principles. A meaningful apology comes down to the three R’s- regret, responsibility and remedy (补救办法). Firstly, communicate your regret. Show the other person you have recognized your error and can relate to his/her pain. Then take complete responsibility.
Don’t expect immediate forgiveness. Most people hope for immediate forgiveness while apologizing, but that may mean you don’t respect the others’ emotions and all you care about is yourself.
A.Ask for an apology if necessary. |
B.Don’t make excuses or blame the victim. |
C.Say sorry first if both parties are at fault. |
D.So you have to be truly willing to apologize. |
E.You should make sure your words are acceptable. |
F.So give them some time to come out of the pain after your apology. |
G.You may have trouble finding the right way to send meaningful apologies. |
6 . The most popular course at Yale is Psych 157: Psychology and the Good Life, covering the science of happiness and how to apply it. Since its launch in 2018 by Professor Laurie Santos, the course has been taken by a quarter of Yale students and more than 200,000 others in its online version.
When chasing happiness, many of us are trying to be a little gentler with ourselves and assigning a priority to self-care. That’s a sensible strategy, Santos agrees. The trouble is how people understand self-care. We assume that self-care looks like a nice bubble bath - or even selfish pursuits.
Santos isn’t the only scientist insisting that you focus more on kindness to others than kindness to yourself. Research out of Oxford University confirms that even tiny acts of kindness can have significant effects on our happiness.
A.Apparently, we all have a thirst for happiness. |
B.Self-care is the foundation for caring about others. |
C.Finally, to pursue happiness, learn from mistakes. |
D.Getting them down on paper will help us avoid mistakes. |
E.And other studies show small acts of kindness can spread out. |
F.Therefore, we can save the unavoidable pain in life for what’s worthwhile. |
G.But data suggest the right way to treat ourselves would be to do nice things for others. |
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
8 . Kindness May Keep You Healthy
If you are driving in the United States, you may see a common bumper (汽车保险杠) sticker on passing vehicles that reads:
However, being kind is not just emotionally beneficial. Lyubomirsky studied a group of people with the disease Multiple Sclerosis (多发性硬化).
“The basic reason why people are kind,” Oliver Curry, explained, the research director at Kind-lab that is a non-profit organization, “is that we are social animals. Kindness is as much a part of us as our anger, grief or desire.”
A.Perform random acts of kindness |
B.Acts of kindness are very powerful |
C.In other words, we are designed to be kind. |
D.She found that they felt better physically when helping others. |
E.Research shows that doing kind things can make us feel better |
F.He found that being kind makes people feel better emotionally, |
G.Other research has shown that many people prize kindness above other values |
9 . 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 |
10 . 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. |