1 . How many times have you found yourself in conversations with friends, family members or loved ones and discovered that you had completely tuned out to what they were saying? How much of our attention are we truly giving to the people who are supposed to be important to us?
According to research cited by Wright State University, while most people believe they are good listeners who don’t need to improve their listening skills, the average person only listens at about 25 percent efficiency.
So why aren’t we better listeners? As a society, we may be growing more narcissistic (自我陶醉的). A 2007 study found a rise in self-centeredness and narcissism among college students. If we, as a culture, are becoming more self-centered, how can we, as individuals, work to become more caring and compassionate communicators?
We can begin by changing our attitudes toward conversations. As Stephen R. Covey wrote in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand but to reply.” A dialogue is an opportunity to learn, to see things from a new perspective, to open your eyes to new information and possibilities. Yet, too often we engage in conversation as if it’s a debate. We speak to hear our own voices — our own pre-existing opinions. In doing so, we tend to space out when spoken to. We wait, perhaps even patiently or politely, for the other person to finish, so we can say something we feel is of value.
Playwright Wilson Mizner said, “A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while, he knows something.” Listening doesn’t just expand our knowledge on an intellectual level; it enables us to have a more personal, in-depth understanding of our closest friends. Relationships are truly enriched by an equal back-and-forth exchange in communication. When these dynamics become more one-sided, we tend to lose interest and create distance in our friendships, with less trust established, less honesty exchanged.
Thankfully, we can all improve our listening skills. Maybe we aren’t as good a listener as we believe. Do we tend to focus too much on ourselves — both in positive and negative ways? Do we get distracted by an inner coach, rather than living in the moment and really engaging in what’s being said? As we learn to quiet that inner voice in our minds, we can start to open ourselves up to others, becoming better listeners, thinkers, lovers and friends.
1. What is the author’s purpose in showing the social phenomena in Paragraph 1?A.To show most people are confident about their listening skills. |
B.To express his concerns about people’s lack of attention when talking. |
C.To introduce the fact that people have low efficiency of listening in life. |
D.To provide some information about how people behave in conversation. |
A.To prove college students have become more self-cenfered and narcissistic over time. |
B.To show the belief in people’s listening skills is outdated and needs to be updated. |
C.To provide an example of how society’s narcissism affects personal relationships. |
D.To support the argument that society is becoming more self-centered and narcissistic. |
A.People should listen to learn and see things from a new perspective. |
B.A good listener is popular but does not necessarily know everything. |
C.Most people listen with the intention to understand, not to reply. |
D.We should speak to hear our own voices and pre-existing opinions. |
A.Become focused. | B.Feel confused. |
C.Be absent-minded. | D.Remain anxious. |
A.The Decline of Listening in Modern Society |
B.Improving Listening Skills for Better Relationships |
C.The Impact of Narcissism on Social Communication |
D.Why We Should Listen More and Speak Less |
2 . In Favour of Simple Writing
Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in
People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of
Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to
Keeping messages to a
Syntax (句法) and
If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as
A.conveying | B.understanding | C.crafting | D.sending |
A.care | B.quantity | C.simplicity | D.technology |
A.reader | B.poster | C.learner | D.writer |
A.structures | B.principles | C.aims | D.alternatives |
A.remove | B.ignore | C.reconsider | D.interpret |
A.conveyed | B.translated | C.tested | D.shaped |
A.lowered | B.affected | C.doubled | D.maintained |
A.basic | B.positive | C.definite | D.single |
A.Recording | B.Reducing | C.Counting | D.Estimating |
A.in comparison | B.after all | C.for instance | D.in particular |
A.word-choice | B.pattern-design | C.target-setting | D.platform-selection |
A.difficult | B.suitable | C.challenging | D.common |
A.carefully | B.often | C.politely | D.quickly |
A.outcomes | B.points | C.figures | D.benefits |
A.received | B.written | C.read | D.answered |
3 . Feeling like what you do is worthwhile is arguably a significant key to a happy life. But what this means is different for each person. These strategies can help you find your purpose so you can begin living a more meaningful life.
Donate time, money, or talent
Listen to feedback (反馈)
It can be hard to recognize the things you feel passionate about sometimes. After all, the things you love to do may have become so ingrained (固化) in your life that you don’t realize how important they are.
Start conversations with new people
It’s easy to surf social media while you’re alone on the subway. Resist that urge.
Are you regularly sharing articles about climate change? Are there pictures of you engaging in a particular activity over and over, such as gardening or performing? Consider the conversations you enjoy holding with people the most when you’re meeting face to face. Do you like talking about history? Or do you prefer sharing the latest money-saving tips you discovered?
A.Explore your interests |
B.Otherwise, it may drag you down |
C.Spread sunshine to people through your smile |
D.Instead, take the time to talk to the people around you |
E.You can develop helpful habits in your search for purpose |
F.The things you enjoy sharing may reveal your purpose in life |
G.Fortunately, other people might be able to give you some insights |
4 . African grey parrots help their peers complete tasks despite no immediate benefit to themselves, researchers have found in the first study to show that birds display such apparently “selfless” behaviour.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, Brucks and colleagues report how they tested African grey parrots in a task that involved the birds passing a token, in the form of a metal ring, through a hole in their section to a neighbouring bird of the same species. This token could then be passed by the second bird to a human, via another hole, who would exchange it for a piece of nut.
The team found African grey parrots helped their neighbours by passing tokens to their neighbour when a human held out their hand, allowing the second bird to drop it through-the hole and receive a tasty treat.
The same behaviour was seen when the roles of the birds were reversed (颠倒). The more tokens a bird had previously given, the more they received in return.
However, the team stress previously the birds did not know that their favour would be rewarded, suggesting it is something of a “selfless” act.
The team say it may be due to African grey parrots gathering in huge flocks at night but splitting into smaller groups during the day to forage(觅食). Brucks said such behaviour is thought to require strong social cognitive abilities, adding that being helpful might help the birds gain a good reputation with their peers, making it more likely that they would team up for foraging and other tasks.
Dr Manon Schweinfurth, an expert in animal behaviour, said evidence of reciprocal (互惠的) behaviour in African grey parrots is quite interesting. “It has been thought that it is so cognitively demanding that only humans can show it. But we now get more and more evidence from other animals that they are able to show reciprocity,” she said.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?A.The methods of observation. | B.The comparison of the species. |
C.One feeding behaviour of parrots. | D.One example of Brucks’ experiments. |
A.A strong survival instinct. | B.A desire for food. |
C.The need for social cognitive abilities. | D.Curiosity towards other species. |
A.Only African grey parrots are capable of exhibiting reciprocal behavior. |
B.Reciprocal behavior is the only demonstration of cognitive abilities. |
C.Other animals may possess similar social cognitive abilities to African grey parrots. |
D.The reciprocal behavior of African grey parrots is learned through experience. |
A.Unclear. | B.Admiring. | C.Indifferent. | D.Surprised. |
5 . Many people changed residences and are eager to get familiar with their new neighbors. Here’s a quick refresher on making the most of neighborhood relationships.
Begin at the beginning. Building good neighborly relationships starts when you or someone else moves into the area. If a new neighbor moves in, be proactive (主动的) and welcome them to the neighborhood.
Be inclusive. If you are hosting a large party, consider extending invitations to your neighbors. During the holiday season, remember the people next door with a card, a homemade goodie, or an offer of assistance. Give without expectations.
Allow people to be human.
Accept it. If you have tried your best to resolve a conflict without success, let it go. Sadly, some people won’t like you whatever you do. And you aren’t going to enjoy some people.
A.Maintain your space |
B.Be the first to stop by and say hello |
C.It’s easier to accept it and move on |
D.Everyone has a bad day now and then |
E.Take steps to ensure it won’t happen again |
F.Let others know you are thinking of them |
G.Some neighbors are more easygoing than others |
6 . How do people respond when you have a talk with them? Maybe they brush your emotions aside or never listen to you.
Use confident body language. This type of body language can increase your self-respect and help you earn people’s respect. Confident body language can include good eye contact and appropriate postures (姿势). Keep your eyes forward instead of down.
Improve your listening skills. Good listeners often come across as sympathetic and caring, which are admirable qualities. A skilled listener can make others feel valued and appreciated.
Avoid oversharing. It’s common to talk too much and start rambling (瞎扯) when you get nervous or want to make a good impression. But to gain others’ respect, you can’t ramble or talk too much about yourself.
A.Keep calm and your anger in check. |
B.There’s no need to fill every silence. |
C.Therefore, he may be respected in return. |
D.Try to make your message as clear as possible. |
E.You might feel that you just don’t matter to others. |
F.Don’t leave your arms crossed or hands in your pockets. |
G.Instead, you need to slow down and find some common ground. |
A.She avoids most of her neighbours. |
B.She likes to make friends with everyone. |
C.Most of the neighbours are unfriendly. |
D.Some neighbours are hard to deal with. |
The ingredients of love
In modern times, finding love seems more central to people’s lives. Then, researchers wonder, can love, a highly valued emotional state, be created?
To help determine the ingredients of attraction, one research paired 164 college classmates and had them talk for 3, 6 or 10 minutes to get a sense of each other’s individuality. Then students were asked to predict what kind of relationship they might build with their partners. After nine weeks, they reported what happened. Reports showed their initial judgments often held true. All these students seemed to distinguish at an early stage who would best fit into their lives.
Scientists have also turned to nonhumans to increase understanding of attraction. Many animals give off pheromones — natural chemicals that can be detected by, and then can produce a response in, other animals of the same species. Pheromones can signal that an animal is either ready to fight or is feeling open to partnerships. In contrast, humans do not seem to be as gifted as other animals at detecting such chemicals. Smell, however, does seem to play a part in human attraction. Although we may not be aware of chemicals like pheromones consciously, we give and receive loads of information through smell in every interaction with other people.
Being fond of someone seems to have a number of factors, including seeing something we find attractive. Researchers had people judge faces for attractiveness. The participants had 0.013 seconds to view each face, yet somehow they generally considered the images the same as people who had more time to study the same faces. The way we assess attractiveness seems to be somewhat automatic. When shown an attractive face and then words with good or bad associations, people responded to positive words faster after viewing an attractive face. Seeing something attractive seems to cause happy thinking.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . Around the globe, about 1 in 4 adults says they’re lonely. And the consequences of long-term social disconnection can be everything from an increased risk of heart attacks to dementia (痴呆). The following offers a road map to make connections.
Be curious. It’s easier to connect with people if you have shared interests or experiences, so start paying attention to what’s in your mind. What motivates you? What excites you?
Make something. When experts advise making something, people will say, “Well, I’m not Picasso. I don’t know how to do a fancy painting. ” Of course, you’re not!
Find a group that matches your interests. Whether it’s volunteering fora cause or playing frisbee (飞盘), try to find others who share your interests. There’s even an online group that has a quirky shared interest: a fascination with brown bears in Alaska, which led to Fat Bear Week. In interactions with others, you can begin to reveal yourself and share the unique things that matter to you.
Other people’s loneliness matters too.
A.Pour out your hard feelings. |
B.Loneliness can be infectious. |
C.Take a risk by having conversations. |
D.You should tolerate the risk of being lonely. |
E.But the opportunities for creative expression are endless. |
F.Knowing yourself can be a first step to bonding with others. |
G.Then, other people recognize that and share their story in return. |
10 . Picking up after your dog is interesting, but it must be done. Most dog owners understand the importance of picking up their dogs’ waste, so it can be especially frustrating to see dog owners that obviously refuse to perform this duty.
Ask them directly. Talking to another dog owner about picking up their dogs’ waste can be uncomfortable. However, asking the owner directly to pick up after their dog will often work to fix the problem.
Use a friendly tone. Although you are probably fed up and mad at a dog owner that isn’t cleaning up after their dog, approach them in a friendly manner. Yelling at them may make them defensive and angry.
Give them a reason. It’s possible this person doesn’t realize how their neglect in picking up after their dog is negatively affecting those around them.
A.Be honest |
B.Raise some dogs |
C.If you want to help them to sweep their waste |
D.And they will likely do more harm than good, too |
E.When you ask them to pick up their dogs’ waste |
F.There are many reasons people don’t pick up after their dogs |
G.Figuring out how to convince these owners to change their ways can be difficult |